I’m surrounded by stacks of comics. I’ve read most of them. Okay, maybe half of them. I still add to the piles every week. I don’t technically collect comics either. I just buy what I like. This usually means I pick up anywhere from one to three issues a week. I purchase trades here and there, especially when they’re on sale at conventions. I couldn’t imagine having a pull list that dumped five or more issues onto my shelf every week. I’m already buried.

To keep my sanity and fulfill my organizing desire, I’ve finally started to alphabetize my comics. They used to go into a messy stack. Poor, sad comics. I realized I had to create some sort of system. Sometimes I needed to go back to previous issues for a refresher or to look at a particular panel. The easiest solution would have been to get a short box from the comic book store, but I didn’t really have anywhere to put it. Instead, I got cardboard (read: cheap) magazine holders from Ikea. They are plain white, but it’s easy to give them a more appealing aesthetic.

Gather some glue (nothing too thick), a paintbrush that you don’t love, and back issues of comics that you also aren’t attached to. I always go through the $0.25 boxes at conventions to find comic books for crafting purposes. Cut up the comics and glue the images to your magazine holders. You can theme each holder by publisher or heroes or villains. My approach is to mix everything up, and not surprisingly, the holders are mostly covered in Star Wars images. After the glue dries, put the holders on a shelf and add your comics. I just alphabetize my single issues by title. If your collection is too big to even think about this method of storage, well – I envy you.