He’s getting the stitches out today, by the way.
I didn’t mention this earlier, because I wasn’t sure if Employee Aaron wanted me to say anything about it…but he’s finally come back to work, and after checking with him, I’ll go ahead and clue you all in. Late last week, while driving to work, Aaron was run off the road by another driver (who, by the way, didn’t bother stopping). Aaron’s car was totaled, with both air bags deploying, and Aaron himself took a nasty knock to the head which required stitches. From his phone call to me minutes after the accident: “Yeah, uh, I was told that I hit the rear view mirror with my head.” If you gotta be told that, chances are you’ve been knocked for a pretty good loop.
Anyway, after taking a couple of days off to recover, Aaron is more or less good as new, save for the seven metal stitches embedded in his scalp. At the very least, he doesn’t appear any goofier than usual. But he’s in good spirits, and he’s otherwise in about Fine to Very Fine condition, with some light cover scuffing and minor wear at the staples, so we’re all thankful for that. And special thanks to former employee Kid Chris for filling in for Aaron while he recovered.
Pal Dorian bought Aaron some “Get Well Soon” gifts, including a hat with which Aaron may, quote, “cover his hideous disfigurement.” Actually, it’s quite the snappy hat. It makes Aaron look like Andy Capp.
Unfortunately, Aaron forgot to e-mail me the photos of his stitching that he took with his cell phone camera, so I’ll have to gross you all out later.
EDIT: Here is a picture of Employee Aaron’s frowny face just prior to getting the staples removed:
And here is a shot of the staples themselves…no blood, but may not be for the squeamish or people who hate slightly blurry photos.
In other news:
- Virgin Comics has shut down its New York offices, though perhaps there’s a chance for some form of revival in the Los Angeles area. Now, this company never sold incredibly well for us, but it had a small following at our store and we always managed to move a few copies of each title.
Ah, well. They didn’t publish anything I was particularly interested in, but Virgin generally had good production values and published an attractive product…and its always a shame when a few of my customers find themselves suddenly without some of the comics they enjoyed reading. I always worry about the impact of publishing failures like this, making my customers more cautious about investing their time, money, and interest in new titles from new publishers.
- Yesterday was Jack Kirby’s birthday. He would have been 91 years old.
Tom Spurgeon assembled an epic sampling of the King’s work, which is certainly worth your attention. And former Kirby cohort Mark Evanier says this in his tribute to the man’s birthday:
“…If you had his phone number — and everyone did — you could call up, talk to him and maybe even get an invite to drop by the house for coffee.”
Not an exaggeration. Kirby lived out his later years in Thousand Oaks, which is just over the hill from where I’m at…well, okay, it’s about a half hour drive, but still, pretty close. And more than a couple of times I’ve flipped open the phone book, looked at the listing for “KIRBY Jack” and looked at that phone number.
I never called that number, but I’ve heard stories at the store from folks who did…who chatted with him on the phone, or even got to visit him at his house. I never felt comfortable enough to do either of those things…but I did at least get to meet Kirby at a local convention, shake his hand, and chat with him and his wife Roz for a minute or two.
“Shake his hand.” I say that like I just shook the hand of a mere mortal, of just any ordinary person.
I got to shake the hand that created and drew Captain America, the Hulk, Darkseid and the New Gods, Galactus and the Silver Surfer, Iron Man, Captain Victory, the Boy Commandos, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Challengers of the Unknown, Devil Dinosaur, the Demon, the Fighting Fetus, and countless others. (And I’m not kidding about the Fighting Fetus…you can read my support of that character at the link.)
The hand that drew the first romance comic book. The hand that drew Popeye in some of the original Fleischer cartoons.
I got to shake that hand. In my memory, I see myself suddenly becoming enveloped in the Kirby Krackle upon contact. Obviously that didn’t happen, but it should have.
Happy birthday, Jack.
