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§ November 7th, 2007 § Filed under lunchtime update Comments Off on Mike’s New Comics Day Lunchtime Update 3004.
1. Today’s sales: everybody wants the Heroes hardcover. Nobody wants the Dark Tower hardcover.
2. If you ever thought I was kinda sketchy…well, here’s proof.
3. We were shorted several items in our Diamond shipment this week, including the new non-Gerber Howard the Duck. I don’t think I’ll miss it.
4. “Mike, you’re not serious about playing Arlo Guthrie’s album Alice’s Restaurant at the shop every day ’til Thanksgiving?” “Yes…yes, I am.”
5. And this week’s winner of the “Whoops, Forgot to Put A Price on The Cover” is Witchblade #111! Take a bow, Witchblade #111! Whoa, don’t bend over too far, you’ll pop out.
5a. NO, “NO PRICE” DOESN’T MEAN IT’S FREE, YOU BASTARDS.
6. Why do we have an “Essence of Buffy the Vampire Slayer” statue? Where did it come from? Why is it here? What shadowy motivations drove us to order it? Is it actually a special order for a customer or (gulp) did our finger slip when entering the orders?
7. Hey, Diamond, where did our case of McFarlane Dragons (AKA “the McFarlane figures that still sell”) go?
7a. Speaking of McFarlane figures, I imagine that all the pieces from the Twisted X-Mas set that had the misfortune of not being the “Mrs. Claus” figure will be available at extremely reduced prices very shortly.
8. Best comic this week: Groo: Hell on Earth #1. Instead of buying one of each cover of Astonishing X-Men, just buy one ASM and buy a Groo, too. God will smile upon you for doing so.
§ October 24th, 2007 § Filed under lunchtime update Comments Off on Mike’s New Comics Day Lunchtime Update 3003.
1. Good Lord, 23 boxes from Diamond this morning? And none of them “cheater” boxes (like the entire Diamond box for just, say, the Comic Shop News flyers). Oy. We’d better sell some comics this week.
2. Dear customer: please try to let your scent of marijuana dissipate slightly before coming to our store. I don’t need the contact high. Thank you.
3. Right at opening time, a huge U-Haul truck parked right in front of our store, blocking all visibility of our shop from the street. It didn’t stay long, and bonus: when it pulled away it broke off that long low-hanging branch from the tree out front.
4. Is anyone buying that Gene Simmons’ Dominatrix comic? Our customers just kinda point and laugh at it.
5. BUYER’S NOTE: There’s a page of Fred Hembeck in the new What If: Planet Hulk comic.
6. FIRE FOLLOW-UP: The skies are sunny locally, but the air is still ashy…we’re keeping the doors closed for the time being. Employee Aaron notes that the evacuation notice out where he lives (Fillmore) has been canceled, though as of last night he can still see flames over the hills near his house.
7. CUSTOMER: “Do you have this comic? I’ve been looking for this comic forever, and I’ve asked you for this comic before, but you guys never have it. Do you have it? Have you even heard of it? I really want this comic.”
ME: “Oh, you mean –” (whips comic out of back issue bin) “– this comic?”
CUSTOMER: “Yes! That’s it! That’s the one I’ve been looking for!”
ME: “Okay…should I keep it at the register for you?”
CUSTOMER: “Oh, no, I’m not going to buy it today.”
§ October 10th, 2007 § Filed under lunchtime update Comments Off on Mike’s New Comics Day Lunchtime Update 3002.
1. I never, ever want to see another zombie cover as long as I live. DARN YOU, MARVEL COMICS!
2. Employee Aaron: “So, when is Simon Dark going to meet Batman?
Me: “Oh, man, is this another ‘evil mime’ comic?”
3. Tom Spurgeon interviews Larry Marder…more Tales of the Beanworld is forthcoming!
And I had no idea Mr. Marder had a weblog. How’d I miss that?
§ October 3rd, 2007 § Filed under lunchtime update Comments Off on Mike’s New Comics Day Lunchtime Update 3001.
Employee Jeff: “Hey, why do you always make yourself out to be so great on your site?”
Me: “What do you mean?”
Employee Jeff: “You always rewrite our conversations to make yourself look good and make Aaron and me look stupid.”
Me: “No, I don’t! I paraphrase and/or edit for clarity, so that the point or the joke gets across more clearly, but I don’t purposefully do it to make you guys look bad.”
Employee Jeff: “Yeah you do!”
Me: “Nuh-uh! I do not!” “Why, young Jeff, you, Aaron and I are all part of the great comics retailing world, and by including you in my retailing tales, you participate in the education and entertainment of thousands of readers! You are no clown, no fool, no object of japes and insults, but rather a starring player in my attempts to provide vital information to the masses.”
Employee Jeff: “What a load of crap.” “Why, oh great and wise Mike, suddenly I see the light! Your beacon of wisdom has brought me forth from the fog of ignorance! How ever could I have doubted you?”
Employee Aaron: “DUH, what? I don’t get it.”
§ September 26th, 2007 § Filed under lunchtime update Comments Off on Mike’s New Comics Day Lunchtime Update 3000.
- As we’re breaking down the new comic order this morning:
Employee Jeff (taking the Tarots out of the box): “Hey, Mike, why does Chris Sims read this? Is it just to make fun of it?”
Me: “Yeah, pretty much.”
Employee Aaron: “Same with the Anita Blake comics…and he still got a quote onto that collection!”
Employee Jeff: “Did you ever get any quotes onto collections, Mike?”
Me: “I got onto the back cover of Proof of Concept….”
Employee Jeff: “How about Dorian?”
Me: “He got a quote on Banana Sunday, and he made it into a Previews ad for Dorothy, I think. Oh, and I got a mention in that one Previews ad.”
Employee Aaron: “That’s it?”
Me: “Yeah…I’m no reviewer, but I’ve said plenty of good things about lots of comics. Where are my pull quotes?”
Employee Jeff: “What you need to do is pick a comic nobody likes, and say lots of good things about it, so they have to come to you for quotes.”
Me: “Then where are my pull quotes on All Star Batman and Robin?”
- Speaking of All Star Batman…I had a customer talk to me about a store he was at not long ago, where the owner apparently hates All Star Batman. And, apparently, ASB didn’t sell well for them.
We love ASB, and it sells great for us. But I’m sure that’s just a coincidence.
- Apparently Diamond was having some problems this week with shipments…we were shorted our full order of whatever the latest Annihilation tie-in was supposed to be (and got that same number we were shorted in extra copies of Justice League). When I called it in, the rep let on that there were shortages of all kinds all over the place…and apparently I was lucky I was only missing the one book.
Also, and some of you folks what sell the funnybooks may want to take note of this, about half of our copies of the latest issue of Superman Confidential had torn covers, and some were even missing chunks out of the cover. Maybe we just got a bad batch, but you may want to take a closer look at your copies.
- So am I missing something, or does that new Marvel Universe release with the big ol’ Marvel Zombies logo on the front cover only actually have three pages of Marvel Zombies content?
- After a brief discussion of Watership Down (where I had to explain why I referred to Employee Aaron as “Fiver”):
Employee Aaron: “Wow, Mike, you’ve inspired me to read Watership Down! You’re contributing to my…liter…ocity?”
Me: (lowers head, shakes it in shame)
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