Thursday, July 13, 2006

Go US Mail System! Go!

Well, the resurrection of Superheroes, etc. goes relatively slow, mainly because, well, heh, I have the shingles.

That's right. I am suffering from a medical condition that makes me sound like I should have roofers working on me. I looked it up on Wikipedia, hoping that I could find a more technical term, because "shingles" just sounds so damn dirty, and guess what the medical term is? Herpes zoster. HERPES zoster. Much better. It sounds like something you catch from having sex with a priest (and I could've sworn Father O'Reilly was using protection).

From what I've read and heard, I don't have it so bad. My mother said my grandfather caught it once, that he had a rash under his belly, and that it was so bad that it looked like someone tied a rope around his waist.

I've got a few blisters behind my ear and behind my neck, thankfully hidden under my hair. For the past few days I've suffered from a good deal of throbbing pain, not excruciating but too annoying to concentrate on reading and writing. I'm still working, but it's been tough. I've got some anti-virals and pain meds, and I'm already feeling a little better.

My girlfriend is going away for the weekend and I'll have a few days off work, so I'm hoping to do nothing but eat, sleep, read, and relieve myself (emphasis on sleep) until Monday. Since I've watched every damn DVD in my apartment, I'm hoping the mail system will work a little faster than normal. I made a couple of trades at Sequential Swap, and I'm hoping the books reach me by the weekend so I have something to pass the time. In total, I've got 9 books on their way from two different swappers:

Captain America: Winter Soldier, Vol. 1
Conan, Vol. 2: The God in the Bowl & Other Stories
Hulk/Wolverine: Six Hours
Justice League: A New Beginning
Planet of the Capes
Quantum & Woody: The Director's Cut
(the trades of Q&W have proven damn hard to track down, in fact I almost hope I don't like it too much, because otherwise I'll want to track down the other three)
Twisted Toyfare Theatre, Vol. 4
Twisted Toyfare Theatre, Vol. 6
Young Gods and Friends


If I don't get them, and I'm feeling well enough, I may begin the first major project I want to do for the blog: reviewing every single volume of Lone Wolf and Cub.

4 comments:

Glenn Ingersoll said...

I got shingles a few years ago. I was told it was the chickenpox virus that's been lying dormant. I got it when I was as stressed out as I've been in my life, trying to keep a customer service dept for a small publisher going while training an assistant was doing a shitty job (thus we had to set aside time for training & I had to redo nearly everything she did on her own). When I got a fever and a burny-itchy rash on my side/back near my hip I went to the doctor and he asked me if I was in a lot of pain. ... Uh. No? Should I be?

Sounds like you're taking the same treatment as I did. Get that rest!

I brought home from my mother's house boxes of comics. You mentioned a site for trading collections of floppies once, didn't you? With all the reprints the resale value of the great bulk of my comics is too small to bother with but the thought of throwing them out gives me conniptions. I remember when I was a kid adults telling me, Oh yeah, I had a big collection of comics growing up, but when I went off to college my mom threw them away.

Mick Martin said...

Yeah, I plan to get as much rest as possible. Right now, I'm okay to work, but I've talked to my boss and told him if it gets any worse I'm going to take time off. I haven't taken a sick day in two years, so if I need to, it shouldn't be a problem.

I wonder if stress was a factor when I got it. I've been pretty stressed out too. I got an unpleasant surprise about a month ago when I found out my financial aid was tapped out (and I still have a year to go).

Well, the swap site I go it is Sequential Swap, and that's for trading trade paperback and hardcover collections. There's a link to it in my post.

There's another site, and this might be what you were talking about. If you go to webuycomics.com, they offer a bunch of different options for selling your comics. You CAN sell them all your comics in one big bunch, but only if at least 1/3 of your collection is made up of comics published before 1980. They also have an extensive want list that you can go through, but if your collection's really big it can be very time-consuming.

Go here:

http://www.webuycomics.com

The different Sell/Trade options are highlighted in red. You can sell them for credit too, if you want. That's what I've been doing. I don't have enough pre-1980 comics to sell them off to them in one big bunch. So, I separated all my pre-1980 comics from the rest, I go through their want list, and sell them only the 1980-present comics for credit and use the credit to get tpbs and HCs. The goal is to eventually whittle down my post-1980 stuff so I can eventually sell the rest of them in one big bunch.

Glenn Ingersoll said...

Thanks! The bulk of my collection is probably mid-80s. I'll copy this for reference. Happy healing!

K.Fox, Jr. said...

Relieving yourself? Relieving yourself? I'd ask, but I don't think I even want to know. Ditto, 'happy healing!'