What A Saturday

Well, it all started easily enough. My journey to a new comic shop. With the kids gone and B not going to work. We had a more than reasonable start. I didn't have a list of comics to get, but more on that later.

Now, onto the shop. Which we arrived at pretty close to the opening I think. The outside looks fairly... comic book shoppy. In fact it had me a bit dismissive at first. Kind of a "get the boxes and leave" attitude which I was having. And you go in, and that all evaporates, and you are taken aback a bit. By the counter art lines the walls. Which is always neat to see sketches and such. I think there was even an original Terry Moore 'Strangers in Paradise' sketch, if not, someone was very good at aping his style. Now on the left side of the store bookcase line the walls... filled with trades. I was not really looking for trades so I merely scanned that quickly. I am assuming it followed the same pattern as his new released singles (more on that further down). Then you move along and in the center of this trades collection (all spined out by the way, very bookstore) is a shelf full of kids comics. Mary Jane, some Disney, Jubilee, I was v. tempted by the whole display. But managed to pull myself away. And then you look to the right, and the store is putting their own drawer boxes to good use, and you can just feel the space that product gave to the store. No more tables lined with boxes underneath and on top... nope you want a comic you just pull the drawer open and file through. And according to B it is insanely alphabetised.

Then you make a U turn in the store... which was a bit tight. But I underestimated it. And you see the action figures. And on the right wall was all the new releases. And what a display, not light shining down from the heavens, but just the attention to detail. First you had Marvel alphabetical order (beauty) I picked up Ghost Rider, Sensational Spider-Man, and DD what if (which I forgot until I left the store that I had already). Not too bad, but here is where the real genius comes in... as you move along next up are the indies... I picked up Local #4, Flying Friar, and Toupydoops (which I had heard so many good things about). And man did they have indies... wowza. And they kept things like alot of older products up. I was only sad that they did not have Snakewoman. After all that you hit DC issues. There in lies the genius... you kind of have to see those indies.

And they welcome people who might be behind on the series by keeping previous issues right behind the recent ones, I am a huge fan of that. The icing on the cake, I found DD #27 for 5 bucks. The missing issue in my collection of Vol.2. I think we freaked the guy out a bit in a good way. Here came two people off the street. Never seen us before and we walk out with $80 worth of stuff. And I wish I could go again. It is probably the best store I have been to... a love for comics and the meticulous attention required to keep a great store.

Is that all you ask? Did the day end there? Not hardly. B wanted to go to a mall in the city. So, I agreed... she wanted to get a dress for some pictures. As luck would have it, we got there during a mall wide sale. So I got two ten dollar shirts. And we did alot of wandering... dress shopping is grueling. But I was in pretty good spirits. And it was not long before we hit a bookstore, an oasis, as it were. Now, even I thought I was pretty comic booked out. So it was just supposed to be a break for me... I was tired of women staring at me like I was the wheelchair perv. But, I got in and found more than I bargained for... the Vertigo First Offenses trade... 5 bucks I would be a fool to pass it up. Then if B had not taken so long, I would not have also gotten the Essential Marvel Handbook. *sigh*

After that, we finally headed home. What a day, eh?