DEAR DIARY, DAY ONE! Maggie Thompson’s Comic-Con 2013 Diary, Day One! Here’s the thing: My usual Toucan blog consists of what I hope is thoughtful (or—what the heck—flippant) commentary on a theme. A diary (or, at least, my diary) is different. I may have thoughts, but I haven’t analyzed those thoughts, run them through at […]

IT’S A GREAT TIME TO BE A FAN! Maggie’s World 006: Fanning Yourself As I have explained at great length on my website, the saying “It is a proud and lonely thing to be a fan” originated with Robert Bloch (best known as the author of Psycho). When he coined that expression (in 1956), it was a time […]

MAGGIE’S TIPS FOR ATTENDING COMIC-CON 2013! Maggie’s World 007: Avoid Hyperventilating! Oh, golly! It’s HOW many days till Comic-Con? Right about now, many people I know are beginning to panic about the what, where, and how of Comic-Con. It is natural, because the more you know about Comic-Con the longer the list gets of delicious possibilities. […]

WORKING WITH YOUR COLLECTION Maggie’s World 005: You Have an Indexed Collection. Now What? It’s one thing to have an inventory of what you’ve collected. It’s quite another to take care of your collection. Collection care can involve bagging, boarding, boxing—and even more. Bagging Some challenges are easier to deal with today than they were […]

ARE YOU AN ACCUMULATOR OR A COLLECTOR? Maggie’s World 004: Accumulating and Collecting A collection. “The difference between an accumulation and a collection is an index.” That’s what Don, my late husband, used to say. Given that we were both avid collectors, especially of magazines and anthologies, our files slowly but inevitably grew with the 3” […]

MAGGIE’S THOUGHTS ON WONDERCON ANAHEIM! Maggie’s World 003: Plus You Get . . . For the month of March on Toucan, we’ve asked all of our regular contributors to talk about conventions in general and WonderCon Anaheim in particular. Each Toucan Tuesday, our monthly columnists will offer their own advice and thoughts about attending conventions. We begin […]