sloangods's Comic Book Blogs

So tonight I was logging a bunch of recent purchases from TFAW.  I am finally getting around to unboxing stuff I got during their Black Friday sale (it was only 6 weeks ago, give me a break!), and I come across a few things out of the ordinary.  

I was shorted like 5 books.  Just cheapie nick & dent TPBs, but about $15 worth if you consider s/h.  I wonder what response I'll get about getting a credit, 30 days after receivng the order.  The other 80% of my order showed up fine.

More curious to me however, was a Conan TPB/floppie military special I received.  I had no idea they made special package deals like this.  It reminds me of the 3 for $1 comics that would come polybagged at TG&Y when I was a kid.  Always a good idea to market comics via different avenues.

I've been buying comics at LCS for about 35 years now.  It seems like in Las Vegas, comics shops are thriving, and that makes me happy.  When I was a kid and lived in Northern California, I think there was only one in the entire (densely populated) county.  

The only shop I could get to without driving 25 miles was run by an Italian man who never seemed to really like comics.  He only saw it as a business I believe.  He never talked about books, characters, artists, etc.  There was never anybody in his stores most times, and I wondered how he stayed in business.  He even had 2 locations at one time.  To my 8-years-young eyes, it just seemed like he had the greatest job in the world, and it brought him no joy.

Later on when I could travel, I found shops in Berkeley, Oakland, SF and the peninsula.  Most of them were either combo bookstore/comic shop, or college-type with a more mature slant.  I only found two they I really enjoyed: a touristy-shop at Pier 39, which seemed to have an awesome back issue selection, and high prices; and a hole in the wall in Burlingame that was run by a guy who always seemed to be on the brink of financial ruin.