Thursday, February 11, 2021

Holiday Comics Review Part 1 Intro

 Which is really late.  It took a while for me to read everything.  I’ll get back to Elvis in a couple of days here.  I received a late Christmas gift at work and needed to buy a couple of gifts quick on Christmas Eve.  And here I was so happy to have finished my Christmas shopping.  (Insert workplace etiquette tip here.  If you’re expecting a return gift, please don’t hand out gifts at the next-to-last moment.)  In any case, I’d a received a thoughtful gift (a case of the cream soda-my favorite) and I liked the two people involved, so I needed to do something.

 

Unfortunately, my work hours on the Eve were going to preclude a timely gifting.  I hate going to work on Christmas Eve.  While we only have to work a half day, for me, this means coming in during the day and working by myself.  Yeah, I work by myself all the time at night, but somehow, under these circumstances, I actually feel lonely.  It’s the only time I do. 

 

I was determined to make the best of it this time.  I went over to Subway for Cold Cut sandwich, literally the only safe option on their menu, but really I went so I could go to the PQ Treats next door.  I wanted to try their seasonal “Grinch-flavored” Frozen Tornado (like a Blizzard).  I missed seeing it available when I was there last week and had to correct that oversight.  Okay, a happy dinner was set.

 

I made my way to work in the afternoon, well ahead of when I planned to clock in.  Security on the building wasn’t armed, but the place was empty.  All the lights were on up front, which made it feel very deserted.  (I also had to turn all the lights off.  There’s over 20 at least.)  I put dinner in the fridge and freezer and went back out to walk over to the nearby Downtown Mall in the brisk cold winter air. 

 

I planned on going to Coas Bookstore and Zia Comics.  I thought the bookstore was my best bet for a pair of gifts.  Their websites were ambiguous about whether they were actually open.  Regrettably, by late afternoon, the bookstore had closed, but those hardcore comics fans had stayed open till the last minute.  Now all I had to do was find two gifts for girls at a comic book store.

 

There’s a bunch of figurines there, but neither were anime or superhero fans that I knew of.  One of the girls was easy.  I just needed something with a unicorn.  A My Little Pony comic was close enough.  The other was a Yankees fan.  This would have been tougher, but I remembered there was a spinner rack of biography comics where I got that Elvis trade.  Thankfully, there was an Alex Rodriguez bio comic with him in a Yankees uniform on the cover.    

 


I flipped through them back at work.  I won’t speak to the quality of either of these comics, other than to say that the Pony one looked cute and the A-Rod one looked a bit like an amateur production.  I made a quick scan of the above page.  I can relate no context to it; it just cracked me up.  I put them on their respective recipients’ desks, where they were happily received on Monday morning.  Mission accomplished.

 

Okay, while I was there I did some me-shopping too.  I was looking for the King-Size Conan that had been solicited for this week.  At $7, I wasn’t surprised to find copies still on the rack.  I also picked up a Fables #1 reprint.  Everything had gone well. 

 

As I walked to the register, I noticed a bunch of comic book long boxes on tables in the game room across the lobby.  (Sadly, this room hasn’t been much used this year.)  There was a sign on them which read, “$1 apiece or 50 cents apiece if you buy 10 or more.”  It was a cross between advertising and a challenge.  I made a left pivot before reaching the register and attacked the dollar boxes. 

 

There were about 12 boxes as I recall, and they were stuffed full.  Only because I had plenty of time before starting work did I consider going through all of them.  The store didn’t seem ready to close anyway.  I made a quick flip through all of them, but I was thorough.  Unfortunately for the shop, most the comics were fairly recently issues that they’d overstocked on.  There was one particular recent comic that was in the front of the front of every box.  Nothing was in any particular order, as you’d expect in the bargain bin.  I’m not sure how long I spent going through them, probably more than a half hour. 

 

I didn’t set a goal of getting ten comics, but with that many comics there, it would have been surprising if I didn’t.  When I finally got to the register, I had four new comics and 11 from the bin.  It was all a pretty eclectic mix.  I got back to work and started on my dinner.  I’d worked up an appetite walking and frantically combing through the long boxes.  There was surprisingly plenty going on live on Twitch and Youtube for entertainment while I ate and skimmed through comics.  (Looking back, apparently I mostly watched FrivvyFox on Twitch.) 

 

When I started work, it went smoothly and I was able to get home earlier than I usually do.  What a great day!  I pulled a couple of surprisingly appropriate last-minute gifts out of my butt.  Got a filling, if nothing special, meal.  (“The Grinch,” by the way, was green pistachio flavored with almond shavings.  It was pretty good.)  And, I got a bunch of comics for myself.  Then I started reading them.  We’ll cover that next.

 

(Sorry, this was a bit of an indulgence, but I did want to record having at least one pleasant day in 2020, even if it was just me by myself.)


Part 2

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