This and That

A couple of different topics to talk about today, mostly because, since my candidate lost the First Annual* Exfanding Your Horizons Fake Election this past week, I haven't been in the mood to speak to anyone. All I have to say now is...

SLAPPY MCINTRYE '08!!!!

*ahem*

Now, then. Some of you may remember my previous (and whiny!) posts about Diamond Comics Distributors and how they were, essentially, messing things up badly for my local comics shop.

Well, things have gotten better since then. So much better, in fact, that last week, when I walked into my LCS, I had four weeks' (four! weeks!) worth of comics and graphic novels waiting for me.

Which doesn't sound like such a bad thing, right?

Well, not so much. See, like most comics fans, I know what's gonna come out each week and I know exactly how much I'm gonna spend at the shop before I even get there. And while $100 worth of comics and such spread out over the course of four or five weeks isn't bad...$100 worth of comics spread out over the course of four or five minutes...is.

Pretty bad, I mean.

And I think there were several other customers who felt the same way. Now, full disclosure here, I ended up buying all of the books, and spending well over a hundred bucks, but there were others who didn't. And, really, who can blame them? But, by leaving stuff at the shop, who gets the short end of the stick?

Well, the fan/consumer because he or she likely had to put something back. And, well, the retailer because the fan/consumer will likely have to put something back.

And this is the cyclic effect of Diamond's inability to get books--books that are ordered two months in advance by retailers, mind you--out to said retailers.

In any case, it looks like the problems (whatever the heck they may have been) are close to being resolved, and my LCS is back on a normal Wednesday to Wednesday schedule.

So, on to the next...

I just wanted to mention the fact that, despite my being a pretty uninformed DC reader (i.e., I really don't know the minutiae of the DC Universe, and to be blunt, I have no idea who most of the characters running around in their current event books are).

That said, though, I find myself really enjoying Final Crisis and many of its related tie-ins. I commend the DC writers (Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, etc.) and artists (JG Jones, Shane Davis, etc.) for their work.

I honestly never thought I'd be into this event, but I have to admit, I am really digging it. Granted, there are several moments in almost every issue where I pull a "yeah-buh-wha?" but the story itself is intriguing and dark and ominous, and I just don't know how (if?) the good guys are going to win.

And that's good story.

Anyway, enjoy the weekend everyone--and thanks to all of you for checking out our humble little blog. As I write this, I noticed that we reached the 1,000 hit mark (wee-hee!) so thanks to everyone for trying it out, and hopefully you'll stick around for a while!


* editor's note: totally not annual