A = A, but A ≠ Mr. Dan Kelly's
Curse you, Lord Gore!
I'm not a materialistic person, and I've been known to dispose of possessions on a whim and without looking back. Still, there are one or two things I dumped or sold over the years or gave away that I wish I hadn't. Most were comics-related. I continue to kick myself in the ass for selling the first volume of a German-published series of reprints of Robert Crumb's sketchbooks I picked up for $20 in the mid-80s. I let a friend borrow my Russ Cochran reprint of the complete EC Comics Haunt of Fear (hardcover with slipcover case), and never saw it again (I also suspect he helped himself to my copy of Floyd Farland: Citizen of the Future, Chris Ware's first-ever comic book). Then we have the two Ditko collections, the first volume of which is pictured above. I've been chasing this bastard on eBay for months, but I'm always outbid at the last moment (and no, I'm not willing to bid 100 kabillion dollars just to get it. I always get what I want and at a reasonable price because I'm willing to wait).
The Ditko Collection was put out by Fantagraphics in the 1980s. The creation of Steve Ditko-co-creator of Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, the Creeper, the Question, and others-Mr. A is a virtuous pain in the ass who beats the shit out of bad guys while uttering long-winded speeches that would shame Antonin Scalia and twitterpate Ayn Rand's icy heart. Uncompromising is the word most often used to describe Mr. A and Ditko's personal Objectivist philosophy that the guilty must be punished no matter who gets hurt. It's an easily digested philosophy if you close your eyes to social issues, extenuating circumstances, class differences, the rule of law, and the fact that if Mr. A gets it wrong just once and whacks an innocent person, it all flies to flinders. Of course, Mr. A is never wrong. It's easy to be infallible when your creator is your world's God.