Wednesday, February 25, 2004

"I just keep stuff": This is only vaguely comic-related, but I'll link to it anyway because I liked these quotes from science fiction writer (and former comic collector) Octavia Butler in a Q&A with The Africana:

The Africana: "What is it that fascinates you about books?"

Butler: "My big problem is my mother gave me this gene — there must be a gene for it, or several perhaps. It's the pack rat gene, you know, where you just don't throw things out. I haven't thrown books out since I was a kid. I gave some books away when I was a little girl. My mother said I could give some to the Salvation Army. I gave some to a friend, and her brothers and sisters tore them bits. That was the last time I gave books away in large amounts. I just keep stuff. I still have books from childhood."

The Africana: "That's a blessing."

Butler: "It comforts me. I imagine when I'm dead someone will have a huge yard sale or estate sale and I don't care! Some of them are worth something. Even my comic books — I have first editions of this and that, the first issue of the Fantastic Four. I used to collect them, not in the way that people collect things now. I didn't put them in plastic bags and never touch them. I read them and they looked pretty bad, some of them. But they're still worth something just because they are what they are."