As I was collecting my thoughts for this, the final installment of the many inspirations for “The Collector”, I realized there was one inspiration from my childhood that had completely slipped my mind. In fact, I never would have remembered it if I hadn’t chanced to pick up a copy of Creepy: The Classic Years this past week. There, at the very end of that wonderful anthology, I found a story that I had much admired as a youngster and that had obviously left a lasting impression.

I’m talking about “Collector’s Edition” by Archie Goodwin and Steve Ditko from Creepy #10.

Upon rereading this story, I was shocked by the number of similarities between my story and this one. “Collector’s Edition” also centers on collectors of rare books, this time books on the occult. Like my story, it focuses on a couple of rather unsavory characters who get a little too caught up in their past-time and –how shall I say it– come to a terminal conflict. The ending is quite different, but the spirit is the same: people who let their obsessions take over their lives–and perhaps end them.

If you haven’t read “Collector’s Edition”, I urge you to hunt it down and read it. It contains probably the finest art Steve Ditko ever produced (for the uninitiated, Ditko was the creator, along with Stan Lee, of Spider-Man). And Goodwin’s story is –as is only appropriate for the anthology in which it appeared– very, very Creepy!

My final inspiration for “The Collector” was the great Al Feldstein, legendary writer, editor, and artist for EC comics. I’d been reading the fabulous Foul Play: The Art and Artists of the Notorious 1950′s EC Comics! –along with a lot of reprints of the original EC comics themselves– around the time I learned about the Church and Crippen comic book collections. The story of their discoveries got me to wondering what Feldstein, master of shock and horror that he was, might make of it all. And that was enough to get the ball rolling.

Thus, all these influences came together, and before I knew what was happening, out came the story for “The Collector”. In the end, it’s an homage to Church, Rozanski, Crippen, Goodwin, Ditko, and Feldstein, with, I hope, a little of me thrown in for good measure.

So there you have it. Inspiration, conception, and birth, all in three soapboxes.

See you next Monday for the exciting conclusion of “The Collector”!

Ex animo!