Weekend contrasts

Sunday at the Comic Zone is my favorite day of the week.

The store is more laid back. I usually listen to “my” music – jazz, or folk, or sometimes classical – as I work on entering Wednesday’s order into our inventory system.

Today was no exception.

And yet, as I write this, I am remembering yesterday, when the store was bustling! One of the reasons for all of the activity yesterday is because we sponsored the Dungeons & Dragons RPG yesterday. I really enjoy the days when we have D&D in the store. I can feel the creative energies flowing as the stories unfold.

I guess I can safely say that I enjoy both the quiet days as well as the busy days. Let’s face it. I just love this store!

Witchblade Annual #1

Witchblade Annual #1
Top Cow Productions/Image Comics
Writer: Jay Faerber
Pencils: Eric Basaluda
$3.99

It seems funny to me that a comic that’s been running for over 10 years is just having its first Annual issue, but I suppose that’s a product of Annuals falling out of favor in the late 90s and early 2000s.

So, I’ve always had a passing interest in Witchblade, and I’ve read the first dozen or so issues, but that’s about it. I know the basics – super-hot Sara Pezzini is this generation’s chosen bearer of the mystical artifact known as the Witchblade (and when the Withblade activates, Sara goes from being super-hot to almost super-naked). The New York Detective uses the Witchblade to help her solve supernatural cases, and gets her into trouble because there are other people who want to wield the Witchblade for themselves.

I also know that Witchblade is the only superhero comic series with a female lead to run for over 100 issues, with the exception of Wonder Woman and She-Hulk (and I think Catwoman has had about 100 issues total, over various series), which is both impressive and sad. Sad, because that says something about the mindsets of comic readers, and impressive because its one of very few series in 70 years of Superhero comics to have that distinction.

So, without a clearly-defined jumping on point in the series, I thought I’d check out the annual. And, really, it wasn’t bad. Armed with just the knowledge that I’ve given in this review, the lead story totally makes sense, and is easy to follow. Beautiful young women are having short-term amnesiac attacks, and during those periods are committing crimes and murders. Sara Pezzini and her partner do some detective work (imagine that!) and relate all the women to the same plastic surgeon. They question him, and he claims innocence. But after some incongruities in the doctor’s story, the detectives realize he’s not exactly what he claims, and visit his house. And what they find isn’t, well, typical…

Jay Faerber tells a basic, straightforward, one-shot superhero story, told outside the confines of the regular Witchblade title. The artwork from Eric Basaluda has solid storytelling, and his beautiful women are actually beautiful.

I dig it. It’s not ground-breaking by any means, but if this is the quality that Witchblade has been experiencing over the last 10 years, then I totally understand why it’s lasted as long as it has. I might just need to start checking out the regular series, after this…

Un-Wednesday

Andy has been so busy today!

We didn’t get new comics today due to Memorial Day, so we will get them in tomorrow.

However, one of our regular customers called and Andy talked on the phone with him for close to an hour. Now he’s talking with a customer in the store – and has been for over an hour! Wow! They are having a great conversation about comic book history. I can tell he loves his job. It’s heartwarming.

Avery just got back from mailing out our first eBay order. Here’s hoping it’s the first of many.

Star Wars Day

Today was Star Wars Day at Comic Zone.

We had a nice display of various Star Wars items, and Avery and I dressed in costume. We didn’t have the crowd that I had hoped for, but we had folks in the store most of the day, so it was fun nonetheless.

Here are some pictures:

This is Avery and I: The Emperor vs a Jedi

Here’s another one of the two of us.

This is Andy with two Ultra Sabers

This one is Avery in his Jedi costume

This is me in my Emperor robe Heheh, they kept telling me that I had to look mean, but every time I tried, I’d crack up laughing. Guess I am not a very good bad guy….

Here’s another attempt at being mean. LOLOL!

Star Wars Day Press Release

PRESS RELEASE

Scottsdale, AZ. May 23, 2009. Comic Zone of Scottsdale, AZ will be celebrating STAR WARS DAY on May 25, 2009.

Monday, May 25, 2009 is the 32nd anniversary of the release of the first Star Wars movie, and so to celebrate that momentous occasion, Comic Zone will be featuring all things Star Wars. In addition to displaying our Star Wars comic books, we will have Star Wars memorabilia and paraphernalia for sale. We will be showing Star Wars animation clips throughout the day on our big-screen TV. Anyone who dresses up in a Star Wars costume will receive 15% off whatever they buy.

Come on by and may the force be with you!

Comic Zone is the best and only comic book store in Scottsdale, Arizona, conveniently located at 5909 N. Granite Reef Road, Scottsdale, AZ 85250, just off the 101. Take McDonald Drive to the third traffic light (Granite Reef Road). Comic Zone is on the west side of the Basha’s parking lot, facing Granite Reef Road just two doors down from Casella’s Deli.

The store features ever-changing and ongoing sales, regular video game tournaments, Magic the Gathering tournaments, and Dungeons and Dragons role playing games. Come on by. You will like what you find.

Website: http://www.comiczoneaz.com.
Phone: 480-483-2685

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Scottsdale C of C

This morning, I dragged myself out of bed at 6 am so that I could attend the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce’s event – Networking with Purpose.

About 75 of us Scottsdale business owners gathered at Corts Furniture Rental and we sat six to a seating arrangement, each of us having 2 minutes to share a bit about our company. Then we switched and did the same thing, and then we switched again!

It was great. We all got to talk to about 24 unique people, and then there was time to talk further at the end.

I made some great connections, and hopefully some new friends of Comic Zone.

I invited them all to our 6th month anniversary party on June 6th.

Current and Upcoming Events

Today was (Re-) OPENING DAY for Basha’s Supermarket! The store is beautiful! In honor of having Basha’s back, we gave out coupons for the Basha’s Bash – allowing holders 10% off $20 or more. These coupons are good until the end of this month. We have already had a few folks take advantage of that!

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This Saturday, May 23rd, we are hosting TWO video games:

At 3:00 pm, Super Mario Brothers 3
At 6:00 pm, Call of Duty 4 (360)

Come on by for the fun!
We now have sodas and snacks available for sale.

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On Monday, May 25th, Memorial Day, is also STAR WARS DAY!

We will have displays of Star Wars merchandise, as well as a few people dressing up, and we will be looping Star Wars movies and cartoons in our gaming area all day. We may even have some rare fan films.

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We are just beginning plans for our 6 month anniversary party on June 6th. Stay tuned for more details.

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In the meantime, we will be selling all back issues for 50% off starting June 1st until the anniversary party, in celebration of achieving the impossible, and being open for 6 months as a brand new business in this economy. Go us!

X-Men: Forever Alpha

X-Men Forever Alpha
Writers: Chris Claremont & Jim Lee
Pencils: Jim Lee
Inks: Scott Williams
Marvel Comics
$4.99

So, for the uninitiated, X-Men: Forever will be a mini-series from Marvel, with the premise of “If Chris Claremont didn’t get booted off the X-Books in 1991, leaving Jim Lee to take over as writer for the next year starting with issue #4, these are the stories that would have been told.” It’s an interesting concept, although it’s been 18 years since Lee took over for Claremont. I suppose it’s better to do it almost two decades later than it would’ve been to have split realities for the X-Men at any point at time.

I question the intelligence of this, though. Essentially, this is a “What if Earth was different?” story, where Marvel aren’t just telling new stories in their universe, they’re essentially playing with real reality. If this is an isolated incident, then that’s fine. But I’m a bit fearful of where the X-Franchise goes after this experiment, and I wonder where the line is drawn for these alternate universe stories? For example, let’s suppose Stan Lee decided he was going to do Fantastic Four: Forever, and just tell FF stories from when he and Jack Kirby stopped working on the book, at issue #104? FF is at issue 566, this month. That means 462 issues of Fantastic Four just didn’t happen in this split world. And then the fanboys get to argue over which reality is better; Is the regular Marvel Earth-616 the way that things should’ve gone? Or should we go with the Forever realities?

On top of that, I wonder what Marvel are thinking by doing a story that didn’t happen? The majority of people this will appeal to are people who were reading X-Men back in 1991, which, again, was 18 years ago. There’s an entire generation of readers that wasn’t even alive when that happened, and now we get a big reboot from back then? They won’t have read the stories that this is supposed to be continuing, will they have?

Ah, enter X-Men: Forever Alpha. In case you haven’t read X-Men #1 (which is hard to believe, considering it sold 11 million copies or whatever), #2, or #3 from 1991, XMFA reprints those three issues! It also includes a back-up story that apparently bridges the gap between X-Men #3 and XMF #1. So, for five bucks, you get reprints of comics from 18 years ago, plus 8 or so pages of new material.

I suppose that’s not a bad deal, all things considered. It’s kind of like a mini TPB, really.

X-Men: Forever seems like it’s going to be for completists, or for X-Men fans who stopped reading (Ex-X-Fans?) when Jim Lee took over. But if you’re going to check it out, this is definitely a good item to pick up and get yourself re-acquainted with the late 80s/early 90s team. Or just dig through your back issue bins and read these again. ‘Cause those eight pages in the back aren’t really that important.

Or you could buy both covers, to re-create the poster found inside the fold-out cover of X-Men #1.

Building our Presence

Avery just mentioned to me that we have had three calls in the past two days from people who want to sell us comic books.

We are not really buying comic books from others at this point, unless they are deeply discounted, although in certain situations, we may be able to work out a consignment deal.

But, as he pointed out, the fact that people are calling us means we are becoming more known!

I love that!!!

Dead Gear’s CD Release Party

We just had the CD Release Party for Dead Gear. Here is a picture of JenX playing:

And here is D! Zunk:

What a blast! They make good music.

We will be having the CDs for sale in our store.