Poll: Bends, folds and other comic crimes

If you were to walk through any room in my home and poke around a little bit, it's practically guaranteed that you would find a comic book floating around.

There are literally comics all over my house; hidden in drawers, stacked on shelves and teetering in piles in bathroom cabinets. And except for what I consider concessions to re-readability more than a fanboyish urge for everlasting preservation — not putting them where they can get wet or where one of the cats can get to them — I don't really take very good care of my comics.

Once upon a time I used to bag and board 'em all before stowing them in a longbox, being careful to make sure they were packed well enough to stand up straight but not so tight that they couldn't "breathe." But now longboxes are mostly a way to contain comic-creep. Somewhere along the way the bags-and-boards became just bags, and now my comics run wild and naked like little free-range chickens.

I've always been more of a reader than a collector, but I know this is probably horrifying to some of you out there. And I won't lie — the books tend to get dinged. Sometimes they get outright donged. I feel a little guilty about it sometimes, but I get over it pretty quick. It's always in in the back of my mind that my monthlies will get replaced by trades eventually, and besides, I've got fond memories of reading and treasuring old comics that were worn tissue-thin by being read over and over again. Buying a comic just to hermetically seal it in a plastic slab seems criminal.

Of course if you bend and fold the spine back, I will kill you. Kill you dead.

But that's just me — how do you store your comics? Bags and boards? Slabs? Climate-controlled room or in a steadily curving pile in the magazine rack? Answer the survey, why don'cha, and remember to leave your comments!