There was just something in the air at the shop yesterday. Usually, the Wednesday rush is over by the time I get there, but I stopped by early, and… well… wow.
Family hour: A father, mother, and their young son came into the store. They were looking for information on Yu-Gi-Oh cards, which immediately made me grumpy, because even a brief glimpse at the cartoon can send me into a rage. It’s the most incomprehensible thing I’ve ever seen, and it’s about as exciting as listening to someone read the instruction manual that comes with tax preparation software. Anyway, every geek has his or her limits, and the staff couldn’t help. So, the father went on to ask if the shop carried any “adult anime.” (He wasn’t going all Tipper Gore on the shop. He seemed like a connoisseur of Japornimation.) Before I could process that shift, I was distracted by the mother sternly telling her son that, no, he could not have a Shrek comic book. Lady, you’ll buy your kid Yu-Gi-Oh, but not Shrek? What’s that about?
Moving on: I overheard another customer asking the owner if he thought there would be a price spike on Superman back issues in response to the recent death of Christopher Reeve. I was immediately reminded of the grave robbers’ song from Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol.
Forgiveness: Okay, so the clerk I asked about ordering Scott Pilgrim totally forgot, so I had to ask again. (Don’t tell Christopher Butcher.) He redeemed himself through his recent work on the window display, which has comics, manga, action figures, DVDs, etc. Most importantly, the display features an Iron Man action figure fitted with a big, honking afro. The clerk took one of those foam balls, distressed it, painted it black, and plopped it on Iron Man’s head, and I absolutely crave that action figure. For those of you who’ve wondered, Iron Man can really rock an afro. I think Marvel should immediately come up with a fifth week event where Marvel super-heroes wake up with giant afros. I would buy so many copies.
Cutting the cord: I had planned to buy New X-Men and Noble Causes, but I just couldn’t. I flipped through both and felt tired. New X-Men is too crowded for any of the characters to be really interesting. I opened Noble Causes to a close-up of Gaia’s face, and I realized that I can’t take the book seriously as long as the characters look like something out of Time Squad. (And I love Time Squad, don’t get me wrong.)