So I’m visiting my folks this weekend, which is nice but not especially riveting, and I’m taking the opportunity to hunt down some different comic shops in the area. And if any of you were looking for the most byzantine organizational system for trade paperbacks and OGNs, you may rest now, for I have completed your quest.
Instead of a big shelf unit of trades and OGNs, there’s one long shelf that winds through the entire shop, past back issues and racks of pamphlets. It’s like one of those urban legend snakes that takes up residence in a crawlspace and grows so big that it winds all the way through a house. And it’s ordered like Previews… DC, Marvel, Image, Dark Horse, and “the rest.” Sometimes, “the rest” is ordered alphabetically by publisher. Sometimes, not so much. And, to be honest, “the rest” (which is what I was most eager to look through) ended up fitting comfortably in the same amount of space consumed by their selection of Ultimate Spider-Man trades.
So that was disorienting. I couldn’t really let myself consider their manga selection too carefully, because it seemed to be concentrated into two categories. First, manga that has managed to make a crossover impression with comic book readers (i.e. Planetes). Second, panties-and-smackdowns manga. So that part seems to be a work in progress.
Fortunately, there was a Barnes and Noble nearby where I could grab the first volume of Buddha by Osamu Tezuka, which comes in a gorgeous hardcover package. (I know that’s not really here or there, and Tezuka would be classic wrapped in a gr0cery bag, but it seems much more sensible to give the high-end packaging treatment to work like Buddha than, say, Ultimates.)
Unrelated to comics, I love Turner Classic Movies. The cable provider back home doesn’t carry it, much to my bitter regret, so I always end up watching hours and hours when I visit the folks. (Thanks for nothing, and fix your name, American Movie Classics, because it’s a big, fat lie.) I know if I had TCM at home, I’d never again be able to say “there’s nothing on TV.” Sigh.