Monday, October 6, 2008

Comics & More...

(Not-So-Subliminal plug for my buddy Chris's comic shop)

I am now a comic book geek, in addition to all my other geek cred. Yesterday, My buddy, Chris at Comic's & More (11 1/2 Mile Rd. & John R) had his 1-year anniversary celebration for his loyal club members, which I am proudly a part of. One full year of owning the store and he's starting to make some good headway. He opened for 5 hours with some special deals for club members only to make some room for new inventory.

Unfortunately, this didn't benefit me much. The good deals were for folks who had cleaned out their "box". He will gladly set aside issues for folks who can't afford (or carry) the mountain of material they find while they browse his tiny shop, and my box is fairly packed. I did get a nice chance to chat with him and check out his new ride (a classic mustard brown '74 GM Pimpmobile with under 40K miles he found for about $700 - score).

I started out with a modest box of early Bronze Age Action Comics I got for a quarter a piece at Dave's Comics back in the early 90's. A couple have appreciated in value (I have a Supergirl #1 I'm secretly proud of), but most are in mediocre shape and more for nostalgia purposes. Now, however, thanks largely to Chris, I have 2 medium archival boxes filled to capacity of Batman, Captain America, Star Treks of all kinds, Astoniching X-Men, Ambush Bug, Booster Gold, Earth X and even a mid-70's Spiderman featuring the cast of Saturday Night Live. I've even gone so far as to special order a copy of the new Greatest American hero comic, autographed by William Katt.

God help me, I'm hooked.

I spend most of my lunch break in the break room, thumbing through my newest acquisitions over a sandwich and cheese curls (being careful not to smudge the pages, of course). Today, I have a pile of vintage Star Trek, a brand new Star Trek: Mirror Image, and the newest Batman & Captain Americas to get through. I'd wish for more money to buy out my box, but that wouldn't help. I'd simply fill it again, spending within my limits and dreaming beyond them. My eyes are bigger than my storage boxes.

Sonya finally got her car back from Canada, after dropping the kids with their grandparents for the weekend and heading out with her brother. 2 days and a plethora of amusing anecdotes and frustrating tales later, we're finally a 2-car family again...thank God. While she was gone, I managed to spend the afternoon cleaning the house a bit and re-recording a learning track for my Nevada quartet that was about 3 weeks overdue. Productivity - score.

Yesterday was supposed to be Courtney's 5th birthday party for her friends. 7-9 kids were invited, but no one RSVPed. I ran to the Meijer at Great Lakes Crossing for some last-minute needs and to to pick up mom-in-law and the kids. We got there at 2pm, the supposed start time. By 2:10 (10 past the start time) we started to worry. By 3pm all that had come by were 2 of Courtney's friends from around the block, and they were only able to stay for about 20 minutes. We may attempt this agin, giving a bit more notice and calling for confirmations. Courtney took it well, having fun on the new swingset anyway and decorating her own tiara.

After returning from my run to the comic store, we gave up on the party and went for lunch with Leigh, mom-in-law, Sonya, and the kids at a local family diner. We had a fun afternoon, despite the bomb of a party.

That's about it for now.

Coming up next: Barbershop Convention Blues and Tina Fey-7 Weeks ain't enough, and yet it is.

1 comment:

Musical Daddy said...

Comics are g00d things... join us...

one of us...

one of us...

one of us...