The comics gold turns out to be, rather, the "art" comics I bought during the angsty, idealistic period of post-college-dropout drift. Comics I had no intention whatsoever of profiting from. Other than to rip off their ideas for my own supposed Staggering Works of Artistic Genius.
If I'm to believe the prices on Amazon, it's possible to sell early comics by Chris Ware, Ivan Brunetti, and a few lesser lights for obscene amounts of money (relative to what I paid for them new.) As an "unknown" seller I might have a hard go of it though, that's the one potential blot in my otherwise perfect ink line of hope.
If only my former self had ditched those silly art-hero illusions and coldly calculated that some obscure 90s cartoonists would be the belles of the ball in 10 to 15 years. And that their early work would soon be desperately sought by collectors who spurned them when the World had not yet wrapped them in the swaddling of its esteem. I could have cleaned out the old Optic Nerve store of every last "Jimmy Corrigan Issue Six" on the racks, while the mass of unseeing Birminghamsters blithely passed them by.
Of course most of what I have has lost value from its cover price. It's not even worth the hassle of Amazon, what with shipping and handling, that I can see. I don't know how some people apparently make money on there listing stuff for a few bucks. A subject for another Cartoonist's iNkwell, perhaps.
I also have some really terrible junk to get rid of. Look for it at the next meeting --- it's terrible, but it's free.
