29.01.2010 - 3:17 p.m.

While perusing amazon for 'things i might like to buy' i trawled through the list of 2000ad publications. I love 2000ad and have done ever since i was a small teenager, the time when there were only three tv channels and they were a bit shit, i could always rely on 2000ad for top quality artistry (which is the reason most of us still buy comics) and engaging and humourous storylines as a counterpoint to the saccharin noise emanating from radio 1's daytime schedule and the nastiness that was 80's fashion, the comics provided some escapism into places best only visited.

Upon finding some appropriate titles i purchased the cheapest of the selection to tide me over until i've got more cash to get the rest. Still having little actual wurk to occupy me in reality i travelled to wikipedia to check out the background and timelines on some characters, i then went followed a series of weblinks to some fan pages of interest, among these were examples of cover art from nearly every 2000ad publication. As i scrolled through the list it became very apparent that i'd not only seen these images before but had actually bought the books (graphic novels (ok, comics)), this led to the next pressing question, where are they now, and why haven't i seen them in fifteen years ?

Upon checking with my brother who confirmed he has not got them (which i already sort of guessed but wanted him to say unambigously) this means that they are either in our loft in a box (which i think they're not because i know the providence of all materials in our loft) or they remain still, mouldering, at my parents house. I rescued a load of Judge Dredd compilations from them last year which were dumped in the garage and i know that there were no other publications in the same location, which leaves two other outcomes - 1) they're still in a corner of the house, hidden, or 2) they've been chucked in the past never to be seen again.

I think that throwing books of in the bin or on a fire is a crime against all that is good and decent, books of all kinds should be treasured even if they are old and tatty, when i thought about finding these 'lost' novels in a dark corner i got the same happy feeling one would get on re-finding a lost childhood stuffed toy, a nice fuzzy happiness. Sadly i think the chance of find them intact is slight tending towards infinitessimal [sigh]

I saw a book related joke that you will either get and think funny (or at the least, amusing), or you won't understand at all, i don't believe there's much leeway in between, it goes like :

- I finished today, after fifteen years, a labour of love, my very first book.

- i can't believe how hungry that caterpillar was.

boom boom

I laughed anyway.

The fact remains that if i can't find these lost novels they'll have to be bought all over again, now they've been remembered they can't be forgotten again, except you can't buy them in the original formats, they've all been reprinted since, i'll no doubt discover that originals are very fetching high prices on ebay as collectables.

Looks like another visit home is in order to settle this one, this time bearing my investigatin' head, peerin' eyes and diggin' arms.