Scattershot Sterling Strikes Again.
I think “Plastic Man in Disguise” is a good paint scheme for a room:
Okay, I know it’s not an exact match, but I swear, that’s the first thing I thought when I saw that.
(from this episode of Deserving Design with Vern Yip)
Alas, it was not a Black Friday weekend for us, as once again in our area all the shoppers went to the malls and the big box stores, and there no love for the small businesses. Luckily we had a good eBay week to make up for it, but really, bleah.
Going by the past couple of years, once we actually get into December things will improve, but for Black Friday, it’s mostly a case of all of our clientele risking life and limb at the shopping centers, or, even more likely, wisely staying home and saving themselves the headache.
Why you shouldn’t work for Mike, One:
Employee (and film student) Jeff: “I ordered my $3000 camera through Amazon.”
Me: “You did? Did you use the Amazon.com link on my site?”
Employee Jeff: “Er…no.”
Me: “What!? Why not?”
Employee Jeff: “Um…I forgot?”
Me: “You dick!”
I actually came across this in a comic the other day and thought “hey, that’d go nice with my Fearless Fosdick post,” but I see Booksteve beat me to it: a Fearless Fosdick ad for Wildroot Cream Oil.
Dear DC Comics:
You know, you got people all excited about your Green Lantern “Sinestro Corps” series, even folks who normally won’t have anything to do with any comic book that doesn’t have an “X” in the title. People are really interested in what’s going to happen next. The one-shot tie-ins are selling well. The second and third printings are selling well. I even had someone ask “hey, is that comic where Ion fights Superman Prime out yet?” Yes, someone actually asked for an Ion comic. Yeah, I know it’s a different Ion, but still, that’s like a Christmas miracle a month early.
So please, for the love of God, get Green Lantern #25 out sometime soon. I have people asking me for this every day. They’ve been asking me for the last few weeks…it’s only about three weeks late, sure, but it’d sure be nice to have it on our shelves soon.
I mean, c’mon, delaying a crossover event thing like this…who do you think you are? Marvel?
Love, Mike
In the “reordering out of spite” department…we’d apparently sold out of Will Eisner’s The Plot, so I put in a reorder for it through Diamond’s online system yesterday. Should have it in again soon.
Gee, why would I do that if it wasn’t worth my time? Oh, wait, it is.
Yeah, I know…”Bitter, party of one.”
Just thinking: take, for example, Shazam! #1 from the early ’70s. That was a much anticipated comic, which attracted “investors” who bought multiple copies. As these things usually go, the prices on Shazam! didn’t go anywhere, so for decades afterward they occupied quarter bins.
Eventually, it turned out that, after the majority of Shazam! comics had spent years being used and abused in said bins, that there weren’t a whole lot of mint copies left. And, suddenly, coupled with general interest from collectors in the ’70s market, the few mint (or near mint) Shazam! #1s still around finally acquired some value.
Now, I was thinking about the collections we tend to see nowadays. Lots of folks coming by with big bags of funnybooks that “are really old” and “had been sitting in the garage/closet/car trunk” for a while, which invariably turn out to be landfill funnies from the late ’80s/early ’90s. And, invariably, are never in anything approaching mint condition.
That got me to thinking…maybe what happened to Shazam #1 will also happen to ’90s books! Perhaps enough copies of Shaman’s Tears #1 will end up being destroyed and worn that unslabbed mint copies will become rare and expensive!
Alas, the print runs on ’90s books were so high that, even assuming only 10% remained mint, that’d still likely leave more than enough for any potential collectors desperate to fill their Brigade collections. Ah, well.
I’ll see my unslabbed Shadowhawk II #1 at $75 bucks someday…someday.
Why you shouldn’t work for Mike, Two:
Carla (visiting our shop last week): “Hey, aren’t you employee Aaron?”
Employee Aaron: “Yes I am!”
Carla: “Wow, you’re a lot smarter than I expected.”
Employee Aaron: “Thanks!”
