In which Mike tries to find his center.
Okay, I just slightly lost my temper about things yesterday, even though pal Dorian told me I wasn’t nearly harsh enough in my dealings with armchair comics-retailing quarterbacks. But, I’m gonna try to let it go, if only because I can say the same thing over and over so many times that even I get sick of it, much less you, the reader.
I’m just trying to get across the fact that we order things as best as we can with the information given, and that we can’t order things by guessing, somehow, that mainstream media coverage on the day of release is going to drive hordes of non-comic fans into stores seeking the book. That’s a fluke event that can’t be predicted or depended upon.
Most of you get that…I just wish the few that don’t would as well.
Er, not doing a very good job letting go, am I?
To cleanse the palate, have a couple of panels taken totally out of context from Just Married #107 (Sept. 1975):
It’s funnier if you have a dirty mind, like, oh, say, pal Tom.
Speaking of funny (which I’m not, as you’ll recall), the latest installment of Benjamin Birdie and Kevin Church’s webcomic, The Rack, was inspired by an exchange between me and former employee Kid Chris from a few months back. Kevin thanked me for the idea, so I thought that now the strip has been unleashed upon the world, I’d relate said exchange.
First, read the strip. No, really, go read it. I’ll be here when you’re done.
Hmmm hm hm…hmmm hmmm…oh, hi! Okay, here’s the very, very brief conversation Kid Chris and I had:
KID CHRIS: “Mike, you need a new window painting for the store.”
ME: “Like what?”
KID CHRIS: “How about a Civil War painting? You could have Iron Man leading Luke Cage to his prison cell in handcuffs.”
ME: “I’M NOT PUTTING A BLACK MAN IN CHAINS IN THE WINDOW.”
Yeah, for some reason, I thought that painting could be construed as offensive.
I do still need a new window painting, though. Maybe a big picture of Captain America trying to sell a case of Turok #1s.
Sorry, that just slipped out.
Oh, hey, via Metafilter comes this overview of the only good post-Grant Morrison issue of Doom Patrol‘s second series. Well, “good” as in “it’s not good in the traditional sense, but it’s a hoot.” (And perhaps that’s not entirely fair calling this the only “good” issue, since I’ve been told that things pick up a bit in the later Ted McKeever-illustrated issues.)
At the store on Saturday, employee Jeff and I were talking about, for some reason, the possible existence of a Harry Potter role playing game, which brought up the possibility of the horror of a live action Harry Potter role playing game, which brought me to a piece of merchandise I don’t think I’ve seen yet for the Harry Potter-verse.
A talking Sorting Hat (sound at link).
There are plenty of wearable Sorting Hat replicas that I’ve found with the Google. But what I’m talking about is a Sorting Hat that includes a voice chip with randomized soundbytes that play when the hat is worn, announcing which house the wearer belongs to, that sort of thing. And maybe some simple animatronics to make the hat move around and its mouth open and close.
Okay, it’s kind of dopey, and just a little creepy, but I’m totally surprised such a thing doesn’t yet exist (or if it does, I haven’t found it…let me know if I missed something).
THIS ISN’T ME: Swamp Thing on the Myspace.
“Who I’d like to meet:
Nice, ecologically minded people. No one associated with Arcane and his sinister un-men. Friends of John Constantine are o.k.”[…]
“Swamp Thing’s Interests
“General: Conferring with the parliament of trees, reconstituting my physical form in different parts of the world, spending time with my lover Abigail, thwarting my arch-nemesis Anton Arcane, eating psychedelic tubers that grow out of my back.
“Music: The plaintive cries of bayou birds, Creedence”
Dude, I don’t think Swamp Thing eats his own tubers. You know, even as I typed that, I couldn’t believe what I was writing. Look what you’ve done to me, Internet.
