In which I go on too long about newsletters to no good end; also, assorted topics to educate and amaze.
An excerpt from a comic store newsletter from a more innocent time…well, from early 1984:
Okay, “innocent” considering a couple of the items involve characters dying or getting crippled, that is. Ah, the cheerful naiveté of a world that did not yet know the terrifying presence of the Kitty Pryde and Wolverine mini-series.
I should note that I was looking forward to that Superboy/Supergirl combo comic, but a little something called Crisis on Infinite Earths seemed to put the kibosh on those plans.
I really enjoyed receiving these newsletters from this (now long-defunct) shop…it’s not that I didn’t have other sources for funnybook news in those days, but I liked the personal, local, not-quite-so-polished feel of these homemade mailings. It was something I tried to emulate in our own store’s brief flirtation with mailed newsletters, a number of years ago.
Come to think of it…I don’t even know if I have copies of our own store’s newsletters. I’m sure I must, but I just don’t know where they’re stashed at the moment. I have moved a couple of times in the interim, so I’m sure they’re just sitting in a box somewhere that I haven’t yet got around to unpacking.
Anyway, our newsletters were four pages long, with the fourth page being the outside of the mailing when it was folded for distribution. On the side not used for address information, we would usually put a store coupon.
The first installment was put together by former coworker Moondance and myself, and I did the following issues pretty much on my own, and I was usually pretty good for one or two horribly-obvious-but-always-missed-during-proofreading typos per issue. I’m still good for a typo or three per blog post, so the tradition continues.
As for actual content…we would have a long-ish article on the first page, covering whatever store-related topic I felt like gabbing about. One article explained why we weren’t able to give you the answer you wanted when you asked “how much will my comics be worth in the future?” (The headline of that one read “HOW MUCH WILL BE THIS BE WORTH,” so yay for Typo Mike!) Another issue ballyhooed the debut of our swanky new website…not yet even at our own domain name, but as a subdomain of our internet provider (i.e. “thisispis3yearsawayfromvanishingovernight.net/~comicsvideodeli”).
The interior articles were comic news tidbits (like the excerpt of that other store’s newsletter, above), a Recommended Reading feature (yes, I recommended things other than Swamp Thing), a Q&A section with questions from our customers (I remember one submitted question was from “Rob Halford” — pretty sure it wasn’t the same one), and there was usually another article in each issue that would round things out, but darn if I can remember what they were now. You’d think for the amount of time I’d put into these things, they’d stick in my mind a little better. Ah, well. Should I ever turn up a copy of our newsletter, I’ll scan ‘n’ post some highlights, if there are any.
…
Well, that was more than I was planning on writing on that topic. Thanks for slogging through it, if you did.
In other news:
- Inspired, at least in part, by John’s recent essay, as well as many other reported incidents, Girl-Wonder.org has announced the formation of the Convention Anti-Harassment Project. Of note: this entry in the FAQ.
- I noticed that we had two or three copies of the new Vertigo title Air with duplicated pages. You might want to check your copy (if you bought one) or your racked copies (if you’re a store) in case this was a widespread problem.
- Bitterandrew – master of the sarcastic take-down.
- Pal Dorian told me about this a few days ago, and I thought he was kidding.
In the “things I never expected to see on DVD” department, Quark is now on DVD. Honestly, I’m speechless. But I don’t need to talk to post one of these:
If you need more info about this show…and how could you not…here’s a fan site.
