The updates will continue until morale improves.

filed under Categories eyeball, low content mode 5 Comments

So the surgery that was scheduled for Wednesday has been postponed, which is in fact good news. There are two procedures to treat the problem in my eye, one of which I had a preference for over the other. Now, I had a complication in the eye upon which the surgery was going to occur, and if I hadn’t responded well to the new medication, we would have had to rushed into the surgery and done the procedure I did not want. However, since the medicine is doing the trick, we can wait for that eye to calm down a bit and then do the procedure I do want.

Phew. Anyway, while that medication is helping one issue, it does have the side effect of making me lethargic and a little wobbly, which is not ideal. But it’s only for a bit, so I’ll be fine.

I’m still taking it easy on this site for the time being, but I’ll still do some short form yapping on Bluesky, such as Tuesday’s thread on my feelings about “professionally graded” comics written in celebration of my somehow acquiring 5,000 followers on that site.

Now, a surgery is still in my future, there’s no getting around that. I won’t know when for sure until probably my next appointment, but I suspect it’ll be within the the next couple of weeks. I’ll keep you posted. With posts. Here on my posting site.

Thanks for reading as always, and I’ll be back soon.

Still on a break.

filed under Categories eyeball, low content mode, this week's comics 7 Comments

…Especially since I’m on a new medication that’s really throwing me for a loop. Still don’t know if the surgery is happening this week for sure or not, but supposedly my early Monday morning appointment will finally nail down what we’re doing. Probably shouldn’t use the word “nail” in association with eye surgery.

Anyway, you should pick up the new Supergirl #1, coming out this week, and if you haven’t got your copy yet, Blood and Thunder #1, the sci-fi action book from last week, is a good one to check out.

I hope everyone is doing okay out there, and with any luck I’ll be back to proper blogging here soon. Thanks for reading, pals.

An update.

filed under Categories eyeball, low content mode 16 Comments

Hello everyone! I’m just popping in here for a moment to let you know that I’ll be doing Medical Stuff for the next week or so, which currently entails some early morning doctor visits and, with any luck, another eyeball surgery on Wednesday. I say “with any luck” because some complications have arisen that may delay the procedure…I’ll know tomorrow if things will still be on schedule.

As such, content may be slowed down a bit over the next few days, so I ask your patience as I deal with real world shenanigans. I promise you, I’d rather be writing about comics.

Thanks for reading, pals, and I’ll be back to normal operations (so to speak) and the Final ’90s Countdown very soon!

The Final ’90s Countdown: Part Seven.

filed under Categories final '90s countdown 16 Comments

“Harlequin” in Dark Horse Presents #48-#51 (Dark Horse Comics 1991)

Okay, this is stretching the boundaries of what I’m doing with this little survey here. While my intention was to cover only actual comic book series, I guess there was nothing in the rules that says a dog can’t play basketball story that ran as part of an anthology can’t be nominated as a favorite ’90s comic.

This story, by Stephan Csutoras and Stefano Gaudiano, wasn’t one I was familiar with, even though I’ve had these issues at some point, since I read Frank Miller’s Sin City entries around this period. So, with the assistance of a certain little stuffed bull, I was able to track down this story and give it a read so that I can at least discuss it somewhat.

Ultimately, it’s a gritty rejiggering of the commedia dell’arte subgenre of the Harlequinade, in which our main character, the Harlequin his own self, is in search of the body of his deceased lover Columbine. It reminded me somewhat of James O’Barr’s The Crow, peeled down to its thematic basis. Scratchy, moody artwork, shifting perspectives and perceived realities, with one interesting fourth wall-breaking moment where the characters take a peek at the story’s script. It’s a moody piece overall, told in a somewhat obfuscatory manner but not in a bad way, and I can see why this would be compelling to the right reader. It wasn’t entirely for me, but I get its appeal.

Free Comic Book Day 2025, starring Amy’s Amazing Shirt.

filed under Categories free comic book day 12 Comments


Well, I survived another Free Comic Book Day, more or less, making this the…geez, I don’t know how many there have been since it started. It launched in 2002, there was one year during the beginning of COVID where it didn’t really happen as such, and it’s 2025 now. Someone good at math can probably figure it out…I think it’s about 215 of them by now? At any rate, I’ve done ’em all, and plan to keep doing them as long as 1) FCBD remains a thing, and 2) my old bones can continue to do it.

Anyway, this year was The Most Financially Successful One yet, given the associated in-store sales I always have along with the giveaways. It’s been a general uphill trend along these lines since I’ve opened, with only one year showing a slight decline from the previous years (not counting the COVID year, of course).

It’s one of the ways I can put a specific measurement on how well my FCBD events do, since I’m not really in a position to do exact headcounts of attendees or anything. Number of comics given away can be another less precise measurement, but I upped my orders quite a bit this time, and included several of Image’s dollar reprints of various Spawn titles, Astro City, Lady Mechanika, and so on. Here’s a look at some of the tables I had out in front of the shop…you can see another just past the graffitied mailbox:


It was apparent that I gave away a LOT of comics, but still had some leftovers, which is fine; I have a box in the shop to give them away to any folks unable to make it day of. And I have some deals in place with local schools to take on some of the excess stock.

In terms of which FCBD book seemed to be the most popular, it looks like the Fantastic Four/X-Men book was the tops:


…while DC’s kid book preview for the Wonder Woman-adjacent Kanga-U didn’t seem to grab a lot of attention, for whatever reason:


…and I did have a large number of kids pass through, so who knows? Just one of those things. I’m sure I’ll give away plenty of them from the leftovers box.

Helping along the day’s success was special guest, comics writer Amy Chase, as pictured here with her close personal friend X-O Manowar:


Whenever I have a guest for a signing, which admittedly isn’t often, I’m always afraid that the poor person will just sit there being ignored while people just pass ’em on by. Not this time…FCBD is of course the highest-trafficked day at my shop, and Amy had no shortage of attention from fans young and somewhat-less young buying her stuff and getting signatures. Which of course made me happy and relieved.

Oh, and did I get a signed comic for myself? You bet I did:


Speaking of relief, I worry, every single time before the event gets underway, whether I’m going to have any kind of turnout, whether my sales are going to do well, that sort of thing. The “sales” bit became even more of a worry when, after the inception of COVID, I started putting the free comic tables outside. “People will just grab the free comics and take off, nobody will come inside to buy anything!”

And as usual, I’m a big ol’ worrywart for nuthin’, as the line started to gather around 10:30 AM, and looked like this just moments after the event began:


The inside of store looked a lot like this for several hours:


As is typical, the first half of the day is the busiest, with things leveling off afterwards though still remaining reasonably busy.

So all in all, another great Free Comic Book Day, and even though even as I write this I remain a little achy and sore, I look forward to doing it again. I know there’s some question as to what will happen to FCBD with the Diamond bankruptcy/sale, but I believe it’ll continue on, in one form or another. Even if I have to do it on my own, I’ll find a way. “Hey everyone, come by for your free copies of Turok Dinosaur Hunter #1!”

Special thanks to my dad, my girlfriend Nora, pal Dorian, and former boss Ralph for helping keep the craziness under some kind of control. And thanks again to Amy for bringing her charm to the shop as well!

And real big thanks for this nice note a very young lady gave me during the festivities:


You’re very welcome.

The answers to those questions may be found elsewhere on this site.

filed under Categories free comic book day, retailing 3 Comments

So some local high schoolers contacted me about doing a little filming in my store for their film class, which brought up the question “why didn’t my high school have a film class?” I mean, probably because you can film things on your phone now, versus having to carve a movie into rock frame by frame back when I a teen.

Anyway, they were good kids, held a brief interview with me (asking questions like “why did you decide to sell comics?” and “what’s changed in comics since you started in this business?”), and they even bought a small handful of funnybooks. It was bit of a fun diversion on a day where I needed a little distraction.

• • •

One final reminder:


Free Comic Book Day has come ’round again, and hie yourself hither to your local comicks shoppe and get yourself some fistfuls of free books. Retailers have to pay for the freebies, so if they’re having an associated sale (and they really should be), buy a thing or two if you can to help them out!

Most of all, have fun and spend the day enjoying comics!

• • •

So long, Butch.

Yes, that’s a Firesign Theater reference.

filed under Categories eyeball, free comic book day, from the vast Mikester comic archives 12 Comments

Hiya pals…current plans are to resume the Final ’90s Countdown posts next week, given that the next entry required a little more research. I have that research in hand now, so the next entry in the series is imminent.

Plus, I had some other things to discuss this week, and a little news that may affect this site briefly, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

First off, check this out:


Yes, your eyes don’t deceive you, that is indeed an actual copy of Guts #2 from 1982. I had posted a pic of this on Bluesky that I found in an eBay listing, lamenting that I couldn’t buy it at the moment but I at least had this pic. Enter longtime online pal Katie, who purchased the item and sent it my way! That was a very generous and unexpected thing for her to do, and she has my most sincere thanks!

So who am Guts #2, anyway? It is a very small press comics publication primarily by Steve Lafler, with short bits by other creators. It’s entirely on newsprint, no slick covers, and it’s honestly the first one of these I’ve ever seen.

Now I have seen Guts #3, as I detailed my acquisition of same a couple of years back. That item turned out to be readily available via Last Gasp’s mail order warehouse, at least at the time, at a ridiculously low price. (And I just checked, and it appears to still be available.) Now all I need to find is #1, similarly all-newsprint, and I’ll finally have all the Guts I need.

• • •

Oh, right, you know about this, right?


That’s this Saturday, friends! I’ve written a boatload of material on the event in the past, and only occasionally got pushback from people who were wrong. Anyway, I’ll do what I always do, give away as many comics as I can, be a good host to our special guest for the day, and try to have a good time.

And finally, I want to let you folks know that, unfortunately, my eyeballs have to go under the knife once again. Due to complications arising from previous issues, my right eye requires surgery, which will be happening in short order. I don’t have a date for that yet, but obviously things will be disrupted here on the site briefly for the procedure itself and recovery time. Once I have more info, I’ll let you folks know.

Okay, that’s all the news that’s fit to blog, so I’ll chat with you again soon enough. Thanks for reading, pals.

I mean, the worst that could happen is that the entire comic industry dies.

filed under Categories retailing 2 Comments

EDIT: Things change fast in Comicstown, as here’s breaking news about Dimaond’s status…and it’s not good.

So I’m 1) feeling a little under the weather, and 2) have a medical thing in the morning, so I’ll try to keep it (relatively) short today. I’ll get back to the Final ’90s Countdown in short order, honest.

Anyway, I’d somehow missed that Alliance, the company that had put in the winning bid to acquire Diamond Comics Distributors, and then went to court when Diamond tried to sell to the second-highest bidder, has now backed out of the deal. Not sure of the reason, though I’ve seen speculation here and there, none of which is my guess that they saw the giant mound of Funko Pops on which Diamond is sitting.

Now, like the article says, the company may go to the next bidders, if they’re still interested, but who knows at this point. I do get asked a lot if Diamond’s travails are causing any issues with my shop, and honestly, as time wears on and I get less and less dependent on Diamond for product as companies depart for greener pastures, the answer is…no, not especially.

Not to say that Diamond doesn’t have stuff, still. I mean, Dynamite Entertainment is still hanging on to them for dear life, plus plenty of other indie publishers. And they carry merch like action figures and tchotchkes not available at the other distributors. Plus, while I can get most of my comic supplies from Lunar, at lower shipping costs, my customers (and me as well) prefer the thicker-walled comic boxes still available through Diamond.

But I’ve noticed having a delayed shipment from Diamond is no longer the huge pain in the rear it used to be, when, oh, nearly all my comics came from them. The news of a delayed shipment now generally elicits a small shrug. I’d rather have it all out for New Comics Day, but it hardly impacts my income and the books’ sales if they arrive late. Even Dynamite and the indie books will still sell fine if my Wednesday crowd doesn’t seem ’em ’til the following week.

So, in short, I am curious as to what happens with Diamond, but I don’t feel like my livelihood depends on their survival…especially with the attrition of publishers they’re seeing. I’d miss some of their product lines and services, which I’m sure would show up elsewhere. And that is all jumping the gun anyway, since they’re not dead yet. I do wonder what changes will be in store once another company takes control, but at least I can watch and not worry overmuch about how those changes could impact me…I mean, so long as they keep the indie comics they have left comin’, which is the big potential loss, of course.

The Final ’90s Countdown: Part Six.

filed under Categories final '90s countdown 10 Comments

Continuing on with the single-voters in the Final ’90s Countdown poll….

Finder (Lightspeed Press, 1996-2005)

Now I remember Finder as being a popular book with the indie comics cognoscenti (comicsnocenti?). It had relatively strong sales for us at the previous place of employment, and its many wonderful and strange covers always caught my eye and stood out on the rack.

And of course, it’s yet another title I haven’t read, either through lack of time, or lack of money in that “Working for The Man” stage of my life, before I became The Man and opened my own shop. And of course now I definitely don’t have the time. Or money.

But anyway, I’ve seen creator Carla Speed McNeil’s work often enough to know I enjoy their artstyle…a clean, confident cartooning line that’s immensely appealing and again, like other books before and after on this Final ’90s Countdown list, make me feel like a real dummy for not reading their primary work of Finder before.

The book itself, from what I’ve gathered from researching AKA Googling, takes place in a future Earth where technologically-advanced domed population centers are surrounded by aboriginal tribes trying to survive in a desolated world. The initial focus is on an aboriginal detective named Jaeger, who recurs throughout the series and its many storylines as either a main or supporting character. (If you want to Read More About It by someone who’s actually read the comic, this seems like a good essay on the topic.)

The series was self-published by McNeil for 38 issues, before they moved to a webcomic format in 2005. Unfortunately, the webcomic, and even the Lightspeed Press page, appear to be gone (or taken over by squatters). If the webcomics are availahle somewhere I’m not seeing, please let me know. There was also a serialized story in Dark Horse Presents.

It appears all the Finder stories, including the webcomics and the DHP story, have been reprinted in paperback form, either in 11 single volumes, each containing one multi-issue story. The first two volumes are in fact parts one and two of a single story, which have also been reprinted together in a smaller book with some expanded material.

Speaking of Dark Horse, they’re the company that’s maining the print form of Finder, which as of their most recent printings, collection the series as follows: the first 8 paperbacks are reprinted in The Finder Library volumes 1 and 2. The remaining three stories are each reprinted in their own individual volume. Availability to comic shops appears spotty at the moment, with only one book offered in any of my distributors’ listings. I do know these are highly regarded works, so with any luck they’ll be around again in short order.

• • •

An HTML error in my previous post make a point I was making unclear in the last paragraph. The line was supposed to be “…is a virtue for the Metamorpho comic.” The title was dropped out. Sorry about that.

Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

filed under Categories this week's comics 15 Comments

SPOILERS for some new-this-week comics.


The mini continues to be a delight, with Al Ewing scripting it in a psuedo-1960s trying-too-hard-to-be-hip-and-with-it but in a knowing and funny way that is entertaining and not “cheugy,” to use a new slang term I just learned the other day. Steve Lieber’s art tells everything in a thankfully clear and concise manner, something that’s not easy with a book that’s throwing as much wackiness at you on every page.

One note: for someone who’s had his share of eyeball troubles over the last few years, there are repeated examples of eye injury to which I perhaps had a more visceral reaction than most. Not that the fella receiving said injuries didn’t have them coming, natch.

Another note: I knew this Metamorpho series was released in part as synergy with his appearance in the coming Superman movie. However, there is even more synergy than I expected with that film which pops up in this new issue. An unusual mix of characters, and a retconned origin, maybe, for our favorite Fab Freak? It’s a wild ride and well worth reading, with or without its need to cross-promote with a film.


Speaking of an unusual mix of characters, some folks just turn up out of nowhere in the back half of this new issue of Green Lantern, which piques my interest after a handful of perfectly competent but not necessarily outstanding issues. Which isn’t a ding, by the way…I read and enjoyed them just fine, each issue providing exactly One Standard Unit of Green Lantern Comics and that’s what I want when I pick up a Green Lantern comic.

The thing about the Green Lantern franchise is that it’s come a long way from “dude with a magical science ring that fights crime,” usually based on Earth but with the occasional special story in space, with maybe some other Green Lanterns showing up once in a while. Now it’s a premise that’s sort of…about itself, I suppose, stories about the Green Lantern organization and related Corps and dealing with the aftermath of previous internal Corps conflicts from issues, and series, past. Sometimes I just want our GL Hal Jordan beatin’ up the bad guys without having to worry about…the Sad Lantern or whatever’s going on in the book now.

Yes, I know, You Can’t Go Home Again, and my nostalgia for the Green Lantern I read in the early ’80s is coloring my opinion here. And in fairness, a lot of this new series is Hal-centric, and the new Green Lantern Corps title will hopefully pull away a lot of that other stuff and simplify this book.

This makes it sound like I don’t like the other GL stuff, with the entire army of Lanterns and all the space shenanigans and whatnot, but honestly, I do. But I don’t want that to be all GL is. It all gets to be a little navel-gazing-y and too much, sometimes.

Okay, back to what I was saying at the start. Green Lantern, Hal, is apparently going to Hell…I mean, like, literally, entering through a portal and everything. And with him is Zauriel, who is, as you recall, a straight-up angel from Heaven who was in the Justice League for a bit, because Grant Morrison. And also there is the Phantom Stranger, whom I don’t think Hal has met outside any Justice League appearances, I think. Wait, did the Stranger show up during any of those Hal-as-Spectre comics? Anyway, it was weird for these two to suddenly be there, but I’ve gone from “yeah, this comic’s okay” to “you now have my interest,” especially with the person Hal immediately runs into. I’m really anticipating a new issue of Green Lantern for the first time in a while.


The comic is full of edgy, and sometimes gross humor, and it’s trying really hard to be irreverent and in the style of the TV show. It only sort of half-succeeds, even with whatever nominal involvement James Gunn his own self has with this comic. It’s entertaining enough and has its moments, such as the dialogue exchange of “You killed him!”/”He started it!” which did get a good chuckle out of me. However, it suffers in comparison to the previous Peacemaker series scripted by Kyle Starks, if only because we all suffer in comparison to Kyle Starks, whose witty and quirky dialogue and unique ideas left huge shoes to fill.

All that said, I do like this new series, and it’s probably not fair to be all “but it’s not like what it was in the past!” which is also the problem I was having with Green Lantern above…and yet, with a slight shift in perspective, is a virtue for the Metamorpho comic. At least I’m not the World’s Biggest Peacemaker Fan, dating back from the Charlton Comics days, penning angry letters to DC every week to protest how they’ve made his favorite hero a complete goofball.