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§ June 12th, 2008 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on "INSERT ANOTHER ‘MIKE’S CLOSET’ REFERENCE HERE."
Well, I haven’t felt much like talking about comics over the last day or two, hence the paperback book stuff from yesterday. If you don’t mind (and even if you do, I’m going to do it anyway), I’ll respond to some of the comments left:
- Martin noted the original Star Wars novelization, famously ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster. I still have my original copy of this, though I can’t remember if I got it prior to the film’s release or shortly thereafter. It is something like a fourth printing, if memory serves.
The last time I looked at it, it seemed to me that some of the more expository bits of it seemed to mesh up fairly well with the new info revealed in the prequel movies…or at least some of the elements referred to in the book felt a little more fleshed out. Well, not that Foster introduced Gungans or anything.
- T. Hodler mentions the original E.T. novelization by William Kotzwinkle, which, as T. says, was quite good. (And, as an amusing footnote, the book prominently features the M&M candies, which were replaced by Reese’s Pieces in the film when M&Ms’ manufacturer decided against having their product in the film.)
I seem to remember liking Kotzwinkle’s novel sequel, The Book of the Green Planet, well enough, as we get to see more of the world E.T. came from, and the repercussions for his actions on Earth. But then, I liked the Atari game, too, so judge my opinion accordingly.
Kotzwinkle does has a light, breezy style the makes the story go down easily and entertainingly, and after reading his novelization and sequel, I sought out his other novels and short story collections, all of which were quite good. The Fan Man
is likely his most famous non-extraterrestrial book.
More on Kotzwinkle later.
- Bill makes me feel old by saying he wasn’t sure if his parents would let him see the first Tim Burton Batman movie if it had a R rating, but luckily he had the novelization. I’m pretty sure I had it to…I think I still do, though I didn’t notice it during my recent paperback survey of the house. I wasn’t immune to the rampant Bat-fever sweeping our great nation at the time.
Bill also mentions ordering books through the grade school order forms they’d periodically gave out to students. I remember doing this myself…there were two different companies we’d order from, and I remember preferring one over the other because one of them would take a lot longer to deliver. Hey, when you’re 8 years old, 4 to 6 weeks is a proportionately bigger chunk of your total lifespan thus far. A month is like an eternity, man.
I know I ordered a boatload of books through these services. The only two specific movie adaptations I remember ordering were Unidentified Flying Oddball (Disney’s sci-fi knock-off of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court) and The Cat from Outer Space. I’ve seen neither of these films, though after seeing the cast for The Cat from Outer Space (Sandy Duncan? Harry Morgan? Roddy McDowall? Alan Young? Hans freakin’ Conried? McLean Stevenson? Two M*A*S*H colonels? Well, one lieutenant colonel, anyway), I may have to reconsier.
- Monty informs me that there exists a Grease novelization that incorporates the songs’ lyrics in character dialogue, and now I must own this. That’s just pure nuttiness.
Monty, and others, also mentioned Alan Dean Foster’s Alien novelization, including info and scenes not found in the film (at least, not the original version of it). This was particularly fascinating for a young Mikester who loved this movie (and still does!), as there was a whole lot left vague or unexplained, and any additional droplet of information was greatly welcomed.
This just popped into my head, and when I have more time I’ll Google around for more info, but I seem to remember that there were two different versions of Foster’s novelization being marketed…one for the general adult audience, and one for the junior high/high school market (presumably with the dirty words cut out). Is this just a crazed fever dream of mine, or can anyone confirm?
- Bobh brings up the Elliot S! Maggin Superman novels, which featured Christopher Reeve Superman covers, contained photos from the films inside…but weren’t adaptations of the films. Not that I minded…the books are great.
Bobh (along with Mike McG) also had Superman III, which is an adaptation of the film, and was written by the previously mentioned William Kotzwinkle. It wasn’t a bad adaptation, as I recall…slapsticky, but then, so was the film. I do still own my copy, which I had scanned and posted when Richard Pryor passed on.
- Customer Rob brings up the novels based on the Infocom games (as does “Just Some Guy”) and notes that they weren’t especially good. (Though Previously-Mentioned Monty defends the George Alec Effinger Zork novel). I did buy one of these…they were packaged under covers that resembled the Infocom packaging of the time, and as a big ol’ Infocom fan, that was enough for me to try one.
Well, that didn’t go so well, as I couldn’t get more than a chapter or two into it. I can’t remember which one it was, unfortunately. Finding out that Effinger wrote one makes me want to look into these books again.
- Bill Reed shamefully admits ownership of the Superman IV novelization, which I’m jealous of, though I know full well I shouldn’t be. How many Atomic Men show up in the book, Bill? Did this novelization contain the deleted scenes?
- Angin owns the Total Recall novel, by Piers Anthony. Yeah, I got it, too…another hand-me-down from the folks. It’s…okay, for what it is, providing some additional background for the events in the film. But read Philip K. Dick’s “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” instead.
- Both K26dp and Sarah talk about the novels based on V, the show with the rat-eating reptillian aliens and Robert Englund as the friendly alien named Willy. I read some of these novels myself…a couple of them were notable for focusing on characters and teams not on the show who were also fighting aliens.
- “The Thing” brings up “sequel novels,” which provide more adventures with characters from the films, like, to use his example, the multiple Indiana Jones books. I didn’t read those, but I did try to read the Star Wars equivalent, which started with Han Solo at Star’s End by Brian Daley. I just couldn’t get into it at the time (1979…I was 10), and I think I made another attempt or two later and still found it a chore. Ah, well. I know some people really like these. Maybe I’ll try again at some point. (There was also a Lando Calrissian series that I never saw at the time, because otherwise I’d totally own ’em now.)
He also blasts my mind with the knowledge that there exists a Carnosaur novel.
What a world, what a world.
For reading all that, have a link to the weirdest film I had a novelization of.
In other news:
- Sorry for the late update yesterday…there was another Blogger FTP outage preventing my updating of the site. Ah well.
And while I’m blogging about blogging, I should note that if you use the online RSS feed readers Bloglines and Google Reader, you should finally be able to see the images in the feeds. I’m working on adding more readers to the “allowed” list, so please be patient. (And if you do use feeds, even after I get the images working, please still click over here once in a while and click on the ads and buy things through my Amazon links, and look at the weekly new sidebar icon/title banner, too.)
- Happy birthday to the cocreator of Swamp Thing and Wolverine, Len Wein!
I do have a library in the house, with overflowing bookshelves. Primarily, though, the books tend to be hardcovers or comic strip collections or graphic novels. I have yet to put out my collection of plain ol’ standard issue paperback novels, as I need to build some special shelving for them and I just haven’t done it yet. In the meantime, they languish, alone and afraid in the dark, packed away in boxes and stored in the upstairs closet of horror and lament.
On Monday, when I was goin’ through some of the boxes stored away in that closet, I went through the book boxes as well, and pulled out a few items of some minor interest.
First is this, a first printing of the initial installment of the long-running Wild Cards shared universe superhero saga (published in…well, it’s copyrighted “January 1987,” but I’m pretty sure it was out in late ’86):
Boy, my copy of this is in crappy shape. I read the thing tons of times. And I have a preference for this particular cover style…later volumes (and later printings) would use Tim Truman covers, among others, which is fine. I just liked the…peculiarity of the original images. (You can decide for yourself with this
Wild Cards cover gallery.)
By the way, my main purpose for pulling this out of the box is to lend it to Employee Aaron, who’s been jonesing to read this series but has been having trouble getting his hands on the first volume, and who will also face dire consequences should anything happen to my book while it’s in his possession.
I also had a thing for movie novelizations, which is…weird, admittedly, but for several years I actively sought them out, even for films I hadn’t seen and even had no intention of seeing.
Like I said, weird.
I did see this film, on a double-bill with The Goonies, no less (and the novelization for which I also had, ’til I gave it to pal Corey…no relation to any Corey that may have been in the film):
This adaptation was written by George Gipe, who also wrote the adaptations for
Gremlins and
Back to the Future) (which, ahem, I also own, sadly enough). Just on a whim, I thought I’d look up Mr. Gipe on the interweb, and see what else he may have done…
…and, whoa, turns out he died in ’86, from complications from a bee sting. Wow, that came as a surprise. That’s too bad. Mr. Gipe also worked on a couple of Steve Martin movies, and wrote the novelization for Melvin and Howard.
Now here’s a novelization I’ve mentioned on the site once or twice before, but I don’t think I’ve whipped out a scan of the cover for you. It is the one, the only, the astounding Howard the Duck movie adaptation:
“FROM GEORGE LUCAS, CREATOR OF STAR WARS AND RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK” proudly reads the cover blurb.
I had a habit of saving bookstore receipts and using them as bookmarks…and it turns out the receipt for this book was still in it, 22 years later. So, here you go, proof someone spent CASH MONEY on this novel:
Exact change, even. Yeah, I was one of
those kids.
Other novelizations I have or had: Buckaroo Banzai (liked it much better than the movie…but still sold it for an obscene amount of money on the eBay), Tron (I think I didn’t see the movie for years after I’d read the book…I’ve yet to watch the film straight through from beginning to end, in fact), Raiders of the Lost Ark (mentioned before on the site that this book had “variant foil covers” — really just different colors of covers you could choose from), The Black Hole (boy, I was fascinated with this film, even though it’s crap…well, except for the kick-ass robots), all the Star Trek and Star Wars films (I think it was Return of the Jedi where they actually spelled out all of R2D2’s tweets and whistles: “‘ArooopTWEETwheeee!’ exclaimed Artoo”), the first three Halloween movies (hand-me-downs from the parents…apparently there’s a book for the fourth film, too)…
…and, of course, novelizations for the first Swamp Thing movie (written by Len Wein) and the second, Return of the Swamp Thing, written by Peter David (who included several characters named after assorted Swamp Thing artists and writers).
Any particular novelizations you folks out there have a fondness for? (Or can’t believe you own…I’d like to hear that, too!)
(Updated 6/2017)
§ June 10th, 2008 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on "IT CAME…FROM MIKE STERLING’S CLOSET!"
So I was rooting through some boxes in one of the closets yesterday afternoon, and came across a few items that I thought might be of interest to some of you out there in internet-land.
I found not only the copy of Legends that I received as free gift for that customer survey I filled out (as mentioned here and here), but I found a letter from DC Comics mailed to me nearly two months prior to the comic’s arrival. (Yes, both the comic and the letter were still in their respective postmarked envelopes, which is how I know the dates.)
Here is the letter, mailed July 7th, 1986:
I don’t remember that the survey specifically said we’d receive a copy of
Crisis II (hey, it
was 22 years ago), but I suppose it must have, if DC felt the need to let us know that the title of the freebie had changed.
You might be able to just barely make out a shadow near the DC logo at the top of the letter. If you were to hold it up to the light, the image of Aquaman printed on the back would come through, making him look as if he’s swimming over the logo. Here’s a shot of the back of the page:
In case you were wondering, my free issue of
Legends was mailed on August 25th, 1986. Only cost $0.56 to ship from New York to California, first class. Ah, those were the days.
Other items I found in Mike’s closet…OF DOOM were a couple of comic book related stickers, like this Marshal Law promo:
The lettering and image are actually silver on the sticker…they come out sorta bluish here.
I also found this dramatic Batman: Year One sticker:
Comic book companies don’t use promo stickers enough anymore, in my opinion.
Also in that particular box was my stash of punk rock stickers. And I thought I’d had more examples of local band stickers by the Hernandez Brothers, but all I could find was this one by Jaime:
I imagine that address is no good anymore, so I wouldn’t write ’em there. But here’s the band’s
Myspace page (NOTE: autoplaying music).
Not comics, but I found a couple of my Activision patches (along with accompanying letters of congratulations). I’m still a proud member of the Save the Chicken Foundation, thank you. If you’re too young to know what that means, here’s your explanation.
Activision patches. Punk rock stickers. Letters from DC Comics. Don’t I throw anything away?
§ June 9th, 2008 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on Don’t make fun of the crazy Hulk theory.
So anyway, I was going to do this whole thing about Iron Man #178, the “Assistant Editors’ Month” ish. For those of you who don’t remember, “Assistant Editors’ Month” was when the assistant editors got to do a little of the crazy-go-nuts things on their titles, while the regular guys or gals in charge were away at a convention. Like, say, pitting the Aunt May/Franklin Richards team against Galactus, for example. Always kinda liked that one.
But the Iron Man one is probably my favorite of the bunch. The lead story follows a group of kids who dress up as the Avengers and protect their neighborhood from crime. However, their close emulation of their idols causes a problem when the real Iron Man leaves the team, and it’s decided that the kid-Avengers must also cast out their Iron Man.
Like I said, I was going to do a whole big illustrated review of the thing, but Prettyfakes beat me to it, and made pretty much all the same points I was going to make. (Plus, bonus discussion of the Assistant Editors’ Month ish of Captain America!)
So go read that overview. And I really wish we had more of this kid team…I seem to remember them only appearing once or twice. If I’m wrong, set me straight. I love this story.
I will post one pic, because the little girl who’s the team’s Hulk analogue:
..she could
totally beat the tar out of any of the other kids. I know the folks at Prettyfakes say she wasn’t really trying with her costume, but, honestly, does she look like she
needs to?
The Vision costume makes me laugh, too. That kid is so serious.
In other news, if I may use the term loosely:
- I haven’t Googled this up to see how widespread this theory is, but former employee Corey thinks the Red Hulk is, in fact, Betty Ross, the allegedly-deceased wife of Bruce Banner. I like that idea. Who says this particular transformation into the Hulk wouldn’t, er, “do away” with, or disguise, certain gender-specific characteristics?
In other words…if true, we’ve had a Marvel comic starring a topless woman for several issues. Eat it, Comics Code*!
…
Yeah, I know it’s a crazy idea. But it would explain the motivation behind the Red Hulk’s killing of the Abomination (who had “killed” Betty in the first place).
Don’t look at me like that.
- Speaking of the Hulk, we’ve got a movie opening at the end of the week. Once again, I’ve noticed no extra interest in Hulk comics from customers in our lead-up to the film, like with the Iron Man movie. When Iron Man came out, it was so remarkably well received some of the excitement did leak over and drive some comic sales, at least briefly. I don’t know that this new Hulk flick will do the same, since general reaction to the trailers from my customers seems to be “well…it might be okay.”
But if there is some spill-over from the film, and there is some increased interest in the comics, we’re in a good position. Two Hulk specials, with a third on the way this week, featuring half new Hulk stories and half reprints, plus that recently launched Red Hulk series, which ain’t half-bad. Granted, the Red Hulk looks different from the movie Hulk, but the premise is simple enough to briefly explain, and the first three issues are in plentiful supply, with several reprintings. Plus Iron Man has been popping up in this series, which may not hurt.
And we’ve got paperbacks for World War Hulk and Planet Hulk, and, er…Skaar, Son of Hulk is coming out this week, but we may be getting a little astray from the familiar Hulk formula at that point, which could be a hard sell to any theoretical movie-driven customers.
At any rate, we’re better off that we were with that last Hulk film, where the big promotional comics push was a 25-cent issue of Incredible Hulk that featured exactly one panel with the title character…and even then, only a glimpse of his arm. Hey, I liked Bruce Jones’ run on the Hulk, which mainly kept Hulk “off-screen.” I thought that was an interesting take. But boy, that sure wasn’t what customers wanted who were looking for Hulk comics around the release of that film. That was bad timing.
- Who wants free, downloadable PDFs of Rick Veitch comics? Sure, you all do! Well, Mr. Veitch has been linking to some science education comics he’s been contributing to over the last few years, and I wanted to share those links with you. The comic at this link features work by Veitch, along with Josh Neufeld, Mark Evanier, and Tom Yeates, and the comic here (in the Teen Guide) has Veitch over an Evanier script.
- I finally got around to watching the Stephen King film adaptation The Mist, starring Thomas Jane, and it’s actually quite good. There is one scene when some members of the character risk the monster-inhabited mist outside their safe haven of the grocery store to get medicine from the pharmacy next door. Once inside, they pass by a comic book rack:
Pretty happenin’ pharmacy to have a rack full of Hellboy, The Goon, and Conan. Dark Horse Comics must have nailed down that pharmacy-distribution deal…good for them. By the way, Thomas Jane’s character had promised his kid a comic book, and grabs a Hellboy off the rack, to reveal a copy of Bad Planet beneath. Hey, how’d that Image Comic get in there? Oh, well, Bad Planet is a co-creation of Thomas Jane, that’s how.
My eyes always go straight for the comic rack whenever I see one in a movie or TV show. I’m still bothered** by the anachronisms in Drugstore Cowboy. Zell Sworddancer, on a ’70s comic rack? C’mon.
* Yes, I know Marvel doesn’t submit books to the Comics Code Authority any more.
** Actually, I’m not really bothered that much.
§ June 8th, 2008 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on Yet another brief Sunday update.
So over the last month or so, we’ve had a couple of people trying to sell their unopened packages of Series One Spawn figures, including multiples of this guy:
I remember when we first saw these Spawn figures back in ’94, and thinking “WOW! Look at the detail on these things! These look fan
tastic!”
Bit different now, looking back at them after nearly a decade and a half of action figure design evolution. Those old Spawn figures look pretty primitive to my eyes, relatively speaking.
In other news, as it were:
- Pal Tom the Cartoonist informs me that my comment regarding the possibly apocryphal nature of the story of the Kubert Art School ‘zines being used as toilet paper was incorrect. He assures me that he and his fellow impoverished students did indeed use pages from those magazines for the gentle cleaning of their stinky parts. You think you know what “suffering for one’s art” entails, but, really, you don’t.
- Sold out at the shop: Trinity, that Marvel Spotlight with the googly-eyed Skrulls, H.P. Lovecraft’s Haunt of Fear. Nearly sold out: the latest Spawn. Not nearly sold out: Invincible Iron Man #2 – I think the bloom may be off that comics retail rose, or just about, now that the customers’ excitement over the movie is no longer guiding purchasing decisions at the shop. I’m expecting an equally brief bump in demand for Hulk comics around the next week or so.
- “Wonder Woman actress finds body on river in D.C.” There’s a headline I wasn’t prepared to read.
§ June 7th, 2008 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on "The Wolverine newsletter provides you with the inside scoop on the ‘ol canuckle head’ himself…."
[x] Since you’re already publishing two monthly X-Men books at this point as it is, just go ahead and make a weekly title out of them. You know you want to.
[x] Yes, but not in the same places they were before.
[x] It should be undone, made “never was,” in the worst way you could possibly imagine. Maybe even Mephisto can be involved.
[x] Pikers! I’d like to see at least THREE monthly Wolverine titles by, oh, say, 2008.
[x] He was a hero? Man, the ’90s are weird.
[x] Only if it does not conflict with my 54-chapter Rogue/Gambit marriage fanfic. In fact, I’d be willing to let you adapt my stories into comic form.
BONUS:
Please tell me one of you took this survey and received a copy of the results.
And for those of you intrigued by the idea of a Wolverine newsletter, like I know I am, here’s a blow-up of a tiny scan that accompanied this survey:
CLICK TO MAKE WOLVIERAd says the newsletter was quarterly…does anyone know if it made it past a year? It was produced by the mail order firm American Entertainment, so I’m guessing that it was an even mix of actual editorial content and ads for stuff you can buy from the company. If anyone knows better, set me straight.
§ June 6th, 2008 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on I believe I may have found a new motto for this website.
“I don’t need a jetpack — all I need is
hate.” If those aren’t words to live by….
Actually, I’ve been poking through a bunch of Punisher 2099 comics as they’ve been getting processed for the bargain bins…and they’re kinda darkly funny. I mostly dismissed the 2099 line as something I wasn’t interested in at the time they originally were released. I sampled the first issues of each of the initial series and not one came even close to grabbing me. But now that I look at Punisher 2099, years after the fact…it was co-created and written by Pat Mills, the co-creator of one of the greatest anti-superhero comics ever published. (EDIT: New link…sorry, that other link was working last night, honest.) It’s just…so over the top with its grittiness and the lead’s hardboiledness and just plain craziness. I was chatting about this with internet pal and professional G4 TV watcher Chris Sims about this very topic, and he sent me a link to this image one of his readers sent him. In it, the Punisher is asked how old he is, and he responds with “thirty-six…caliber!” which is both insane and wonderful.
So I may have to reconsider Punisher 2099, and give a look to the other Pat Mills (and Tony Skinner) issues of the series. I’m intrigued, at any rate.
Also, in the letters page for this issue, mention is made of a coloring choice that I’d noticed in another Marvel title as well:
Okay, if you’re gonna claim you’re a “bad dude,” I’d like to see some documentation to that effect. But that’s not what I want to talk about. I first noticed the “black blood” phenomenon when
Groo the Wanderer made the transition from PC Comics to Marvel/Epic (yes, with a pitstop at Eclipse Comics along the way), and the sprays and pools of red blood we used to see in Groo’s earlier adventures were now suddenly colored black. I don’t know if they were absolutely consistent about it, but I certainly remember noticing it at the time.
I’m sure it’s all Comics Code Authority-enforced, and it’s no big whoop. Or as Employee Aaron said: “They’re all comic book characters; of course they’d bleed black ink” — who can argue logic like that? Not me, brother.
One more thing from this ish of Punisher 2099: the Circulation Statement:
Boy, weren’t the early-to-mid-1990s a fun time? Some awfully big numbers there (yes…including the returns; by and large, those
returns were higher in number than the print runs of many titles today).
images from Punisher 2099 (Jan 1994) by Pat Mills, Tony Skiller, Art Nichols & John Nyberg
§ June 5th, 2008 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on Don’t irritate me.
Well, it was another pretty busy Wednesday, with a boatload of funnybooks and a parade of customers, and me cracking the whip on employees Aaron and Jeff to ensure that NO FUN was being had, lest we offend the thin-skinned with our lack of professionalism. It was NO FUN DAY: “EMPLOYEE-BOT JEFF-1000 IS PROGRAMMED TO PROVIDE COMICS TO THE HU-MANS. PLEASE CONSUME AND ENJOY.”
Received was our reorder of the mighty Hembeck Omnibus, frightening the lily-hearted and the weak-willed with its enormous girth, and yet nearly selling through by the end of the day anyway.
The first installment of DC’s newest weekly comic Trinity is out, and it’s interesting, amusing, clever…so the online comic fans are likely complaining about it. “Oh no, ‘quality’ — we hate that!” But it’s a nice beginning for what looks like a fun Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman adventure. And the back-up, featuring Jack Kirby’s verison of Morgaine Le Fey, is, if anything, better than the lead. Certainly intriguing, making for some above-average superheroing.
Ultimate Origins #1 – No, I didn’t buy this…don’t really care about Ultimate-anything, anymore…but it does seem like the Ultimate books are a lot thinner now for some reason. Not less pages, but, like, thinner paper stock. Is it just me?
Thor: Search for Odin – reprints issues 7 and 8 of the current Thor series. Not sure why we ordered it…though I suppose we’ll sell at least one or two to the completists, so that’s reason enough to get some. Were enough stores out of 7 and 8 that a reprinting was necessary?
Grimm Fairy Tales #27 – I’m never quite sure what to make of this comic, but darned if it doesn’t sell reasonably well. Near as I can tell, it’s about large-breasted women who reenact classic fairy tales, more or less. No wonder it sells well, I guess.
From the cover of Marvel Spotlight: Secret Invasion:
I believe it was Employee Jeff who pointed out that he misses this type of Skrull, with the goo-goo-googly eyes.
EDIT: Okay, it was actually Employee Aaron. Hell, I don’t know, all these employees begin to look alike after a while.
A THING THAT SURPRISED ME: Tom Strong Volume 6 showing up this week. I’d totally forgotten it was coming, or that ABC still had more comics to collect. EDIT: It’s a softcover version of a hardcover from a couple of years ago. Probably should have noted that.
If you all are still looking for a prestige format version of The Killing Joke, there’s one in the Killing Joke action figure set, complete with Joker in Hawaiian shirt. The comic has the green lettering on the cover…which the first printing had. I know these aren’t first printings, but maybe someone who bought the set can identify what printing it is, and whether the letters are embossed (didn’t look like it to me).
Robin/Spoiler Special – Okay, will this make all those Spoiler fans happy, finally? (Yeah, I already know the answer.)
American Splendor Season Two #3 – And now, my favorite cover of the week. If Harvey hosted a TV talk show, that’d be his logo.
Scream Queen #1 – A little…bloodier than I expect from Boom! Studios, but, still, what was I expecting, right? Flipping through it felt like I was watching one of those cheap ’80s slasher films that cropped up in Halloween‘s wake…and I mean that in a good way.
We never seem to order enough of the Fables trade paperbacks (of which volume #10 was out this week). We keep bumping the orders up, we keep selling out.
Haunt of Horror: Lovecraft #1 – Richard Corben? Illustrating H.P. Lovecraft stories? Sure, count me in.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Raising Cain #2 – Wow, we’re down to ordering two copies of this for the store. Surely these must sell somewhere.
Star Wars Omnibus: Droids Vol. 1 – The Droids comics and trades were always the poorest sellers out of the Star Wars books, at least for us. Even the SW newspaper strip reprint comics outsold it. Kinda curious if we’ll have any bites on the Droid comics in this new format.
Jonah Hex #32 – Gorgeous art by Jordi Bernet…really one of the best looking titles on the stands. The writing’s pretty good, too…it’s no Hex, but what is?
Legion of Super-Heroes: 1050 Years in the Future TP – Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the teen superteam with a bunch of stories I already own in Archives or in the original format. But it looks like a reasonable overview of various points in the Legion’s history, so if you’re looking for a sampler, here you go. It includes issue #300 of Legion of Super-Heroes, which is a blast.
Golden Age Sheena Queen of the Jungle – Okay, this actually came out a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to mention its inclusion of pre-Code and post-Code versions of the same Sheena story, showing how a comic was rescripted to be more kid-safe and mother-approved. Though I doubt Mother would want Little Billy leering at Sheena’s shapely gams, regardless of how tame the dialogue was.
Anyway, I love these post/pre-Code comparisons. I think one or two popped up in the late and greatly lamented Tales Too Terrible to Tell as well. I’d dig a full book of these, I think.
§ June 4th, 2008 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on The one time I really got a customer angry…
…was when I asked “Hello, sir…is there anything you’re looking for?”
His response: “LOOK I JUST WALKED IN THE DOOR AND YOU’RE IMMEDIATELY ON MY BACK…WHAT’S WITH YOU PEOPLE?”
This was after he’d entered the store, looked around a bit, and began peering into the glass case.
I know I told that story before, but just thought it bore retelling.
By the way: yes, I know that nobody wants to shop at a store where the employees have taken the Kevin Smith and/or High Fidelity model to heart and treat their customers as the audience for their “funny” performances. That’s fine. I fully understand that.
That’s not what this is, but that’s how people are reacting to it. And really, they shouldn’t.
It’s clearly not typical behavior. It’s clearly a situation unusual enough that Kevin thought it might make a humorous story for his website, and wrote it up as such. It’s an example of a customer catching, for a brief moment, Kevin and his pal Heather with their professional guard down. It’s also an example of Kevin stopping the behavior and gettin’ to work. And, by the way, making a sale and establishing a relationship with said customer.
Sometimes I’ve been caught off-guard at the store…it happens. I have been doing this for a long time. And when I had my library job before that…I saw fellow employees get caught off-guard there as well. As I said in Kevin’s comments…people aren’t robots. Shit does indeed happen. And if it does, you go “Whoops, sorry,” get your shit together, and help the customer out, or whatever. Yeah, I know one should probably keep up their professional demeanor all the time, but it slips, sometimes. We’re only human.
No, it shouldn’t happen. But sometimes, it does. Maybe only for a split second. But the point is that this isn’t consistent behavior. Mistakes happen.
And let’s take Kevin’s particular example. I would have found it amusing and a little cute had I been the customer. Had they kept it up instead of actually addressing my questions, then yes, I would have been a bit put out. But they stopped what they were doing almost immediately, and helped the customer.
Doesn’t seem like a big deal to me. But then, I seem to have a surfeit of common sense and a sense of perspective, which almost always puts me in conflict with certain folks on the internet. And, by the way, that store’s owner doesn’t think it’s a big deal, either. If what Kevin and Heather did was really that big of an issue, really that big of a turn-off…well, you must have a remarkably problem-free life, is all I can figure.
So, yes, misbehaving employees can be a problem for a store. Persistent goofing around can be a turn off for the customer.
Kevin’s story isn’t an example of this. Folks need to pick their targets a little more carefully if you’re going to go after comic shops with bad customer service. Like this kind of store…I didn’t make any of that shit up, friends. A little friendly arm-punching ain’t a patch on some of the fuckwittery I’ve experienced in some shops.
But then, maybe this is all just a bunch of “nerd posturing.” After all, I’ve only been doing this for twenty years…what the hell do I know?
§ June 4th, 2008 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on An incomplete list of silly and completely unprofessional things we’ve done at the store over its 28 year history.
- Played Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” 28 1/2 consecutive times, keeping track on a posted piece of paper
- In-store Tetris competitions
- Made up half-baked musical numbers on the spot (“The Leprechaun Punisher” – “Priority Mail – The Musical” – “Mike Racer”)
- RUBBER BAND GUN FIGHT!
- Used a megaphone to announce special deals at our “Midnight Madness” sales
- Used a megaphone for pretty much any other reason we could think of
- Displayed Crack Comics and Speed Comics together in the glass case (well, I thought it was funny)
- Recounted, in excruciating detail, our Trade Wars 2002 adventures
- Set fire to a comic out in the parking lot (don’t remember which comic…oh, okay, it was West Coast Avengers)
- Picked up another employee and twirled him around in the air, making him scream like a girl
- Read Kitty Pryde’s dialogue from the Kitty Pryde & Wolverine mini-series in a gravelly voice (a la The Venture Brothers‘ Doctor Girlfriend)
- Learned a lot about gay porn (thanks, Dorian…I think)
- Put up a promo poster for Jonni Thunder AKA Thunderbolt up by the register with other new promo posters, some 20 years after the series was over
- Debated, at length, the DC Universe timeline, and how the presence of the Teen Titans screws it all up
- Got a wandering balloon-sculpture expert to make us all kinds of cool balloon-sculpture-type stuff (sword, hat, etc.)
- Had conversations entirely in tough-guy gangster-type voices with former employee Corey
- Played “Makin’ Bacon” by the Pork Dukes on the store stereo (trust me, that’s entirely inappropriate)
- Had a “Suit and Tie Day” (ironic, no?)
- Wore this
- Mom jokes. Lots of them
- Stood on the roof, wearing no pants (may be apocryphal)
- Hired Kid Chris
- “Mike’s Super Disco Party Dance-Off!”
- Occasionally brandished The Peacemaker in a friendly-yet-threatening manner (The Peacemaker: wooden baseball bat with a peace sign scratched into the handle)
- Knowingly and willingly sold copies of Youngblood to customers
- Played the circle game
- Kept around a ziplocked bag filled with former employee Rob’s lengthy shorn locks
- Did impressions of Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street
- Allowed myself to be one of the objects of a county-wide scavenger hunt
- Gathered material for weblogs
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