Blustery Day

And I am slowly drifting into the afternoon..

Cant tell if its going to rain outside or not. I'll have to bring the book table in if it does. Today just feels like its moving slow- like sluggish veins, like a heat wave, like the last hour of class when I was a kid. Its not like I feel like Ive survived a weekend drunken binge or something.. although I do feel tired.. its more the tiredness that comes from just needing some time. Time to just stop, and reset, and breathe. I'm not blaming this on the extra work I did this weekend, more on my habit these days of filling in all the cracks, all my times between work, with time with friends. Its almost like I cant say no, I feel compelled now that Im working two jobs alot, to give them time too. Its more just that I cant say no. And I get lonely. Its hard to balance loneliness with being drained by people, I guess? Who knows. I'm going to take tomorrow after work at westside off, and just try an unwind. But I'm still either hanging with tanner an lauren again or goin an watching Top Gear with steve an drew an jack. I cant say no..

Ugh.I should.

Its a slow drift today. Its getting darker outside, kinda overcast.

Im glad subway is so close, I can grab a sandwich for lunch on my way from the parking garage. It gets me through the day without my hunger-induced weirdness. Saturday was hard- no breakfast, no lunch, and had to run to the church in time for service without dinner. I was a wreck. So I'm intentionally fixing that, so I can be normal throughout my day. Saturday was weird- would have grabbed a sandwich but they'd set up the parade route an I was worried about getting stuck across the street from the store I needed to open. Lame. Especially when the parade itself didn't show for a while, I totally could have made it.

I need to bring in some new music. There's only so much that works in the comic shop- motivating enough for me, background enough to not be distracting, happy enough to be welcoming when people come in. Really I just keep falling back on Band of Horses, my Wintersleep/Iron & Wine mix cd, and recently Manual and Ulrich Schnauss. And the Mendelssohn concertos cd I have. There's gotta be other stuff though..
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I definitely love Barry. I know his daughter too but Barry and a few other customers, when they come in, they are just these encyclopedic fonts of knowledge.. from music, to comics, to writers.. its just amazing to talk to them. Sometimes I know what they're talking about even. Its been fun to be able to talk to Barry about new stuff I'm reading though, customers like him make me want to expand my knowledge of these worlds more. And I really appreciate his suggestion. They've been really good so far.

I still think with comics though, with graphic novels, everyone's tastes vary so much, no suggestion can truly be as rewarding as the ones you discover on your own. Jack recommended We3, and Beasts of Burden, because he knows I love animal characters.. but they're dark and messed up and twisted, even though they're amazing achievements.. it just wasn't something I could enjoy. Lots of people have steered me towards things that I could see liking if I were a different person than me, just a shade off.. but I guess I'm going to stay true to myself. I tried liking Arkham Asylum: Serious House on Serious Earth.. because I know it was so ridiculously formative to comics two decades ago, and I am in love with McKeans art. I love it for its art, but the story is just hard. We3 was hard. Harsh, hard to swallow, thought-provoking for sure, but there just was no light in it. I don't think I read comics to find darkness. I think I read comics to find hope, and heroes, and coming out of darkness. Maybe people read for different reasons, those I think are reasons I do, and it shapes what I internalize and take home and hold up as good work. Morrison's Joe The Barbarian grabbed me like that. Its already something I'm in love with, 4 issues in. The character of Chakk just is exactly what i hope to find in comics. And the premise is amazing. The new S.H.I.E.L.D. comic threw me the same way.. gorgeous art, amazing location and setup. I don't think other people will see the same thing, but it looks like it will be worth my time. It made me break out my old copy of Red Star and I fell in love with that all over again.

Hellcyon seems promising too. Haven't done my research but I think the artist is the same guy who did Star Wars: Tag & Bink, and its a sci-fi dark horse title that looks like its going in a good direction. It looks mainly ground based though- Im still hoping for a mor space based combat title.. giant ships, stuff like that. The Ender's Game adaptations have so far been good, just not enough of that! Give me space and lots of it
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Oh good lord. Just had two extremely A.D.D. maybe 12yr olds in who genuinely believed I could provide them with manuals on killing vampires. Because they 'really needed to know how'. They only had 3 bucks, and we were out of the Zombie Survival Guide or the Combat Manual. Too bad. But frustrating when they're so freakin ADD they cant even concentrate on me when I am tryin to tell them how much the stuff in the store really costs.. where are these kids parents? Do they just roam downtown or something? Gonna get hit by a car with the way their brains were workin.. I sold them an issue of Astounding Wolfman an hoped that would satisfy them. Holy hell.

Its gettin pretty windy out.. might have to pull the book table in early..

Crazy afternoon

Leonardo Da Vinci needs to be in more comics. Seriously.

worn out today. Don't know why.. Tryin not to be frustrated by customers.. and its the little things really. Like the lady who brought up a used book and when I quoted her 3 bucks as the price, that was somehow too expensive for her? I'd heard her talking to her husband about how she was just gonna read it and throw it away.. that it was a "popcorn book".. I don't get some people. Its like an afternoon of sighs.

Broken action figure, returned.

I keep expecting my phone to ring with my boss at the church askin me where I am. Im off of the saturday schedule now that I work sundays 730am-830pm, which is why I picked up saturdays at Pegasus.. but after the craziness of easter I just expect him to be thinking Im on call all the time like last weekend. 4:30 an no call yet. Seems to be ok so far..

I can't account for taste, really. A customer has a box full of collected Usagi Yojimbo, and Im thinkin 'cool.. cool anthro title, love the art, I bet this guy has taste and probably likes stuff I do..' and then goes an grabs a bunch of other titles that severely dissapointed me.. I don't know. People are human. Red blooded american and everything. Whatever. Just kinda weird sometimes..

Jack said I had to find SHIELD when I came in.. the instant I started reading it, it felt way familiar, and it took some research to realize the author/illstrator Hickman was also the guy who did the TopCow Pilot Season promo comic The Core- which didn't make the cut in 08' to become a regular series.. that issue floored me though, I totally voted for it like crazy. And he did Pax Romana. And Nightly News. So I'm all behind this comic.. if just on who's helming it alone.. but the story is amazing, to tie SHIELDs lineage back through Gallileo, Da Vinci, Imhotep.. its pretty ridiculously epic. I hope Dunc stocks alot, I feel like its gonna take off like crazy. And I'm glad I was pointed towards it, I wouldn't have seen it otherwise. It will be interesting to see how something that feels so otherworldly links itself solidly with established Marvel canon..

Also, Kingdom of Heaven isn't good listening in the comic shop. Some soundtracks just dont work. I'm exhausting alot of my old cd collection workin here.. back to Blue Man Group I guess.

One customer thanked me for having innocuous bags for putting comics and purchases in.. the last comic shop he'd gone to walked people out with bright pikachu bags that were worse than the embarrassment of just bein seen with the loose comics. I had to laugh at that. Dunc, plus points for cheap and stealthy, but we could so try harder to make this more awkward for those people still on the fence about likin comics. We can make it way worse! Get workin on that

Books. And Wonder and things of worth.. to just a few it seems

I just saw Dunc got a copy of Brian Jaques' Redwall novel The Taggerung since I worked last. Its the UK version, which is smaller and has an entirely different and cooler piece of artwork on the cover- The colors are warmer and more saturated.. the otter and fox on the cover aren't nearly as mean and angry as the american covers seem to need be by design.. the characters are more friendly looking. I just picked it up and couldn't get over how much that whole series came back to me. I loved them when I was a kid. I'm still a kid.. I felt such a huge affection for it in that moment.. I don't know what that makes me. I cant help it. Besides it is one of the few of the series where an otter is the main character, so that added to it. And it was sitting on the shelf next to Justmans Phantom Tollbooth, another book I loved as a kid. I felt they were appropriate, sitting on the shelf next to one another. Both books that founded my love of animal characters, and allegories, and fantasy worlds that don't have to be dark and evil and hard. I don't know, there's an innocence to them, that I think I'm still chasing in my adult life.

I posted something to this effect on Facebook, and my other boss gave me crap about it in her comment. She called it an epic fail to let my inner geek show through so much.. I didnt even feel I was geeking out. I was just talking about things that make me feel like a kid again.. I think we all deserve to have that