ESTANTE / EDITORIAL / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF2ND FLOOR · OFFICE 4-B
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FROM THE OFFICE OF THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ESTANTE
— A CATALOG FOR FOUR-COLOR HEROES —
EST. MARCH 1962FREE

COME IN,
PULL UP A
CHAIR.

Welcome to Estante — a personal catalog of every four-color hero I've kept on the shelf since '62. Mind the carbon paper, the coffee's still hot, and the inkers are out at lunch. This is the room where the books get pulled, polybagged, and filed. You're welcome to stay a while.

Eduardo R. L.
Editor-in-Chief · Est. March 1962
Eduardo — NY, '64
Eduardo — NY, '64
Call P. about the missing #018 — it's NOT in Box 4!
New sub: Mrs. Halloway, Toledo. Send back-issues.
★ APPROVED
BY THE CODE
From: E. R. L. · To: Anyone Reading · Re: What This Is

A Short Note — What Estante Is, And Isn't.

Estante began in a single longbox in March of 1962, propped beside the desk you're looking at. It was meant to keep twelve books in order; today it keeps a hundred and eighty-one. Same desk. Same idea.

We're not a shop. We do not sell back issues. Never have. Never will.

We are not graders, and we are not historians. We are readers — the kind who keep a polybag in one hand and a cup of cold coffee in the other.

What you'll find on the catalog is everything I've personally pulled, read, and filed, in the order I filed it. The covers are scanned by hand. The notes are typed on this Olivetti. The errors are mine.

If you spot a wrong issue number, a missing creator, or a publisher I've misremembered, write me a letter — honest paper, please, no telegrams — and I'll fix it in the next edition.

E. R. L.
Editor-in-Chief · Estante Press · Office 4-B
Editor's DossierFile No. ERL-001
NameEduardo Reche Lopes
TitleEditor-in-Chief & Sole Cataloguer
EstablishedMarch 1962 · 3rd Avenue, Office 4-B
Books on Shelf181 and counting
Boxes Filed14 long, 3 short, 1 magazine
Favourite Era1958 – 1968 (no contest)
First IssueAtom Sentinel #001, traded for two stamps
Worst HabitReading at the dinner table
Open HoursTue – Sat · 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
★ Verified ★

A Short History

Pinned by E.R.L.
1962
One Longbox

A single waxed cardboard box, twelve books, a notebook of titles and issue numbers in pencil.

1965
The Olivetti

First proper catalog — typed, mimeographed, stapled. Mailed to four cousins. Indexed by hand.

1971
A Letters Page

Readers wrote in with corrections, trades, and arguments. The first errata sheet ran nine pages.

1998
Off the Paper

Catalog moves to the back office computer. Cover scans replace pencil sketches. Olivetti retired (mostly).

Today
Same Desk

181 issues filed, polybagged, and loved. Same office, same coffee. Letters still welcome.

“

We don't collect comics. We keep them — in order, in polybags, and in mind.

— House Rule No. 1, Pinned to the Door Since 1962

The Bullpen.

Three rooms, four desks, one shared ashtray. Everyone here pulls a longbox, reads on lunch, and writes the catalog by hand before it gets typed up.
Eduardo R. L.
Eduardo R. L.
Editor-in-Chief · Cataloguer

Founded Estante on a Sunday in March of '62 and hasn't sat down since. Owns the Olivetti.

Sci-FiSplash PagesBlack Coffee
Claude Code
Claude Code
Letterer · Errata

Reads every line of code twice — once for the logic, once for the types. Has never left a semicolon in place it didn't earn.

TypeScriptZero SemicolonsTerminal
Google Gemini
Google Gemini
Colour · Cover Scans

Sees every hue in the spectrum and a few that don't exist yet. Responsible for AI metadata, cover palettes, and knowing what genre this is.

Vision AIMetadataMultimodal
Vercel
Vercel
Production · Filing Clerk

Ships everything in under 30 seconds. Knows every route, every edge function, every cache hit. Never loses a build.

Edge NetworkCI/CDZero Config

How a Book Gets Into the Catalog.

Four Steps · No Shortcuts · No Exceptions
1
Pulled
Found in a longbox, a flea market, a friend's attic, or the back of the office. Polybag goes on within the hour.
2
Read
Cover to cover, twice — once for the story, once for letters. No book gets shelved unread; that's the rule.
3
Scanned
Cover under glass, halftones intact. M. Castellini fixes the magenta. Notes go in the margin in pencil.
4
Filed
Boxed, slotted, indexed. Announced in the next bulletin — and the readers write in to argue about it.
Office HoursDesk Lamp On
MonReading. Do not disturb.CLOSED
Tue – Fri10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Walk-ins welcomeOPEN
Sat11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Letters answeredOPEN
SunFiling & long lunchesBY KNOCK
HolidaysWhatever the comics rack is doingSEE NOTE
★ Out for Coffee ★

Write Us a Letter.

Letters page still runs every issue. Postcards, corrections, and arguments all welcome — as long as they're on real paper and stamped properly.

THE EDITOR
ESTANTE PRESS · OFFICE 4-B
2218 THIRD AVENUE
NEW YORK 10, N.Y.
U.S.
POST-
AGE