All Fun Must Come To An End Sometime

The year was 1982. I had been a comic collector for years but had been to very few comic book conventions at that time. A small con was being held not far from my home in Ky at the Drawbridge Inn. I went with my friends Chuck and Mike. While there we ran into my cousin Steve. Now it was fun to be attending such a thing with 3 men who I was very close to. But amongst all of the fun I learned something that day.

You see it was close to my birthday. Chuck and I had become fans of the Pacific Comics publication called Starslayer. It was created by Mike Grell who wrote and drew the stories. For those of you who don't know the story it is about a time-displaced Celtic warrior named Torin MacQuillon. He was taken seconds before he may have died. I say may have as in the first issue it was said that according to history he just disappeared. Now he was traveling through space in the far future. It was near impossible to take him back as it may change the time line. Anyway, I didn't catch on till halfway through the first 6 issues. So I was always looking for the first 3. By this time I had 5 of the 6. However, I was missing the first issue.

Later that day Chuck came up to me and gave me the first issue of Starslayer and told me Happy Birthday. He found it at the convention and bought it as a gift. I was very happy and quickly read it when I got home. However, since the series was originally conceived as a mini-series it now meant that I had the entire series. My happiness turned to sadness when I suddenly realized that my fun was now over. I was enjoying the hunt for this series. Each time I found an issue I felt like I had discovered buried treasure. I treasure this memory and thank my friend Chuck again for getting it for me if he is reading this site. However, I will always remember the lesson that half the fun of collecting anything is the search.

I know the series was continued eventually at First Comics. While it ran for over 30 issues and even had a successful spin-off with Grimjack, it wasn't as much fun anymore so I only bought the first 6 issues. Part of the reason it wasn't fun anymore is I could easily keep up with it each month. The thrill of the hunt was gone.