Fun in the comics shop.

I'm on a little trip that I don't have to worry about luggage on a plane, so I've been able to have a little fun.

My local comics shop (the one that might still exist, I haven't seen it open since covid) is not great. Their main focus is buying and selling gold and silver, manipulating the outcomes of such things (changing weight units so it rounds in their favor and such), and comics be darned. The only comics they get in are either hyper-mainstream that are guaranteed to sell out, and those are limited, and preorders. Don't get me wrong, I understand business is business, but at times I feel when I'm in there, overhearing him on the phone, that he is more interested in 'playing business' than running it as he made it out to be... but I digress.

Anyway, my main introduction to Elfquest was through that comic shop back in it's hay-day, when I could spend hours rummaging through the 4 or 3 for a buck comics looking for interesting things. Found Jink! and have been hooked ever since. I seem to remember seeing a few EQ comics on the rack back when I was little, but as my interest was purely Star Trek with the occasional Superman thrown in, I missed out.

I'd acquired a decent library of EQ in the 90s, and loved to delve into the bins, watching a small part of my money blow away as a stack of comic books grew inch by inch. That's been a while ago, though, and the last I saw the bins they had been reduced to a couple of hundred comics that no one wants from the era when anything would get at least a miniseries, no matter how dry and uninteresting it was. (and would come in 'super mega collectors, limited edition, four different covers collect them all, X of 10,000 copies, etc), and that was over a decade ago. He's got prices on the categorized and sealed comics, that start out at about $3 and go up to (years since printed * 25% * original cover price * (1 / printed issue number) + original cover price, result rounded up to the near dollar and add 0.25 cents, if I am reading it right. I'm being semi silly, but it does seem like the prices go up annually across the board, and now, if they have it, an EQ comic from the 90s that's sorted and wrapped, and not spray painted like the bin ones, is running $8-15 on up, depending on how low the issue number is. I tried getting some old Key comics for my kids to read a few years back, but it seemed as though I'd be better off finding it online and printing it off for them to destroy than to spend what they were asking and let them destroy a 50 year old comic book. Anyway...

To my surprise (and to the point), I was pointed to a comic shop a few days ago, and it felt like home again going in. The staff was cheerful, passionate, and helpful, and had everything clean, updated (as in, no dingy yellowed paint on the walls and no flooring that was as questionable if it would hold you up as it was whether it was supposed to be concrete or outdoor carpeting, like at home). They actually had 50 cent and $1.00 comic bins with wrapped, carded, flat comics that had not been painted, and a large room full of easily-navigated collectible comics, a small assortment of digest and graphic novels, CCG cards, including pokemon and Magic (from where I'm from, there's no way to get ahold of a booster pack of Pokemon... I think someone is stealing the shipments en-route! X )

I don't know how many hours I spent rummaging through bin after bin of comic books, remembering old series I was trying to complete or check out, finding stuff I'd never seen, ...I felt like a kid again. Delightful experience that I'm still smiling from.

In the end I spent more than I intended, but have a stack of comics to take home to share with the kids, and another stack to hoard in my own collection (the aforementioned stack I had was lent out and not returned, so I was starting from scratch in 2005 when they started printing the dark horse graphic novel digests. Can't find them all, but had all of those at one point.)

Some highlights:
New Blood 5, 7, 8
two issues of Elflord (aircel)
KotBW 5, 6, 7, 8
Elfquest 16
iron man, howard the duck, fat albert,
3 Richie Rich digests
and one of those joke-a-page old line drawing books that used to be everywhere.

Anyway, it was fun. I was even sleep deprived at the time, which added a bit to the nostalgic feel of it, as I spent most of those years on very little sleep. Now I wish I didn't have to drive or fly for hours to find more down the road. As it is, that shop doesn't have a single Elf-Quest issue left. Not that they had many, but they are all now mine. bwhahahAHAHAHAH!!!!

Yes, I'm still tired. No, I'm not going to apologize for it. I am, however, going to finish my time-to-myself and eat some cold, greasy pizza and read comic books until I fall asleep. heh heh. Difference now as an adult is I can have a drink along side my pizza and comics.

There's this huge flea-market in Hot Springs that had a used comic shop for very good prices. About a dollar per comic and he'd throw one in for free if you bought a dozen. I reckon, he's still around just haven't been there in a few years. I have been finding comics I've wanted for years on Amazon and I've come to the conclusion that webcomics just don't have the same quality as print comics from certain ages. And then, I come across a Barry Blair or Rob Liefeld and remember why the 90's were a Dark Age for comics.

I'm still ordering floppies from TFAW so I can get certain covers I want. I don't think there are even any more shops around except the one anime-focused one.

But when it comes to older series, I'm totally for Comixology. It's a lot easier to find than hunting old issues (looking at you 90's Image) and shows the publisher there's still interest, so maybe they'll dig more out of the archives.

I've been super SUPER digging Stray Dogs (NOT the manga, the Image comic) and Batman: Urban Legends. It's been a while since I've been this excited to get new issues of anything. I'm also muchly enjoying Silver Coin.