I am delicately resting my chin on the edges of several backing boards…no comics were harmed.
Photo taken by Employee Aaron’s wife Kempo late last Tuesday night, after I’d finished breaking down the comic order and pulling for the comic savers. I was one pooped funnybook peddler.
About that sign: this pic was taken from behind the counter, and employees kept stacking stuff that wasn’t tired comic shop managers on top of those back issue boxes. Of course, the sign has been torn a time or two, almost solely by me as I keep moving boxes around from the other side of the counter and forgetting that sign is taped up there. And when I posed for that pic, I forgot the sign had come loose again…but it matched pretty much how I felt, so I let it be.
I shared this image with pal Andrew earlier today, and he sent this back to me:
Yeah, that’s about right.
Also, in the upper left side of the photo, right there next to the doorway?
I know, it’s hard to see…but that’s totally a Scarlet Spider cut-out that I’ve had posted on the store wall since whenever that Scarlet Spider business was originally happening. In fact, there was a store move in the middle of that period of time…it was on the wall in the old store, I took it down when we moved, and I put it up in the new store. …Because it makes me laugh, that’s why.
Using an employee photo that portrays a weary and hard-workin’ comic shop manager is in reality a clever ruse to show off that brilliant, mid-40’s full head of hair. Vanity, thy name is Sterling!
Amazing how distinguished-looking an exhausted Mike Sterling can be. Between his “these nerds are making me grey” silvery locks, and his expressive, yet taciturn ghoteed lips rest “world-weary, Red-Lantern Blood witnessing” come-hither, bedroom eyes.
He fills this very straight, heterosexual man with feelings of peaceful trust and a desire to give hard-earned monies.
That business aside…
That Scarlet Spider cut-out may have been from the short-lived promotional machine that was the “TOWER OF POWER”.
That was an official Marvel comics spinner rack that was hawked to shoppes back in the 90’s.
The Tower was a sturdy cardboard and plastic construct that came with a subscription to several quarterly graphic add-ons which would help announce and highlight whichever titles / events were to be released in that quarter.
The shoppe I was working for back then had no interest, as they had several beautiful, oversized racks among their displays, so they let me purchase it personally and so I received all the subscription graphics as well.
Did your establishment have the TOWER OF POWER, Mike?
Or could it be that the very presence of Mike Sterling is all the Towering Power that his shoppe requires… or can handle?
For anyone interested, I blogged about it in great length in one of my very first blog posts.
http://tinyurl.com/3dsogkj
~P~
PTOR
Yer a funny-lookin’ funnybook-sellin’ feller, Mike. ;)
You’re so very handsome….Hey, wait a second! There’s a chin indentation on the top of this comic!…Oh, never mind I did that, carry on with your handsomeness.
I’m looking at my copies of Lois Lane for chin imprints.
You look like Garfield in that photo, Mike!
One is surprised you’re not wearing an Alcatraz Ascot.
Please take better care of yourself,Mike.I have quietly been following you for years.Now that Swampy has returned to the DCU I’ll be relying on you more than ever to keep me informed on his appearances and cameos.Every time you feel ill,I get nervous.Get more sleep and eat your Greens.Seriously though,thanks for all your help,buddy.
You remain the most handsome comics blogger on the internet.
Which sounds a bit like a back-handed compliment, now that I think of it…
I wish my LCS had a sign like that. Unfortunately everything is piled on top of each other no end…which is why I don’t go to that store much.