snap judgments

So, I’m back to work; nt full time just yet, but I got a head full of projects and promotions and tons of excitement for getting behind the ol’ register again.  On the whole, it’s been exactly what I’ve needed and the support been just super.

But I love lunch.

Just love it.  Work an eight-hour shift, you get that nice juicy hour break right in the middle of the day to just kick back and relax… with comics.  And food!  All days should have a one hour break of food and comics, but right in the middle of your shift nit’s just a little slice of heaven.  Look through the stacks, try and remember that one comic a customer had been looking fr and look into it yourself, maybe grab a trade that has a tidbit of info from the comic you last read, kick back in the back of the store (if you’re so lucky) and enjoy the recharge of batteries.

Don’t get any food on those issues though, or else you just bought yourself some new books.

I actually started out my blog from my lunch break at work, all those many years ago.  Taking aside the preview books for that week (man, I miss those), writing up a few sentences on them inbetween bites of an egg salad sandwich, those first impressions would later get written up at home.  Reading comics at lunch I think cools the brain down enough to really think about what you’re reading but not enough to make you brilliant.  Brilliant comes latewr, after digestion, lunch and comics just gets you that first taste.

Me, I’m a creature of habit and work at a store conviently located right next to a snazzy litle restaurant.  I have a booth, I have my books and I have a cherry coke to toast the first half of my working day.  I like reading indy stuff while refueling, the shock and strangeness of a new story or art style taken with a stout and familiar meal.    Today, it’s Johnny Hiro on rec from the ISB and the long lean art syle and the quirky tale being told goes well with some steak and cheese.  It’s kind of Seth Fishery and Stuart Immoneny and while I’m not big on the black-and-white ‘autobiography’, putting a giant lizard atacking your New York apartment to get at your girlfriend whose mother used to be a member of what looks like Voltron… yeah.  I could totally read the Hell out of that.

My lunch has gone well.  I am full of tasty food, I’ve just jammed through a few pages of a graphic novel that kept my attention through said tasty foods and now I have a little more ammo when I go back to my shift to recommend a new book to those who might dig it too.

Just all part of the plan.

Okay, the quick quick version:   Yours Truly’s been out of the comic loop for a few months.

And I swear, no matter how much I read, the more I have to wonder what I’m missing.

Sure, there’s the problem of a large fire making the 25 long boxes I had nothing more than dust in the wind (and hoo boy, I’ll get to that later) and the issue of having Marvel crescendo their Big Event while I was coming out of a medical coma, but there’s this … hole.  This hole where I think there should be an ending, some sort of cookie or just an answer for a plotline that’s been running since Avengers Disassembled.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the great finale to Secret Invasion was ‘Skrulls are defeated’ and that Norman Osborn is in charge of SHIELD?  Oh and he has a League of Evil.  Just like that?

Like it or not, Civil War spoiled me.  The  issue was straight-forward (Registration Act, y/n), resolution was clear (Registration Act wins) and the results far reaching (those who don’t sign up are illegal).   Easy?  Yeah.  Followed through to a ‘t’?  Not really, but you can sell that story idea and explain it to new readers and old readers can complain but have some clear things to complain about.

Secret Invasion has a clear motive: alien invasion.  This sells itself.  Clear bad guy, clear good guy plus a little moral philosophy about why they’re invading.  This can end one of two ways: alien rule or aliens go home.  But really, reading the last issue… it wasn’t about that.  It was a great big narrative leading to Norman Osborn shooting the Skrull Queen and that’s where the story ends.  That’s the ‘Cap Gives Up’ moment and you can’t even call it a victory, can you?  Hey, not like I’m saying Cap Takes Ball, Goes Home was all that great a victory, but at least it had something to do with the story it was trying to tell.

It’s the Initiative with an actual real Bad Guy in charge rather than Iron Man paraded as one depending on who’s writing.  It feels like we’ve done this before.  The situation remains the same.  It happened with World War Hulk, but I always get the feeling that Marvel’s sort of ‘over’ the Incredible Hulk.  The Green Goliath can come to New York City, threaten to throw it into the ocean and the ramifications are sort of swept under the rug.  No one speaks of what the Illuminati did (well, at least the Pet Avengers seem to be on the case of the Infinity Gems), despite a five-issue miniseries highlighting it.

Here, people are still a little shaken up by the Invasion, but the battle in New York is something that tied up traffic.  The big message of ‘He Loves You’ has its fifteen moments of fame and Norman Osborn is the new guy that’s totally threatening .  Maybe when they finally bring him down, we’ll be distracted by another shiny object and maybe the Watchers will have been playing out our heroes like chess pieces for yet another story arc and banner title.  Your guess is as good as mine.

Phoenix Rises

Watch this space.

So things have been rather quiet in the world of snappy judgments over here as with the middle of August hitting, we’re starting to hit that all important crucial time in comic shopdom known as ‘they’re starting to go back to school’.

Now, i won’t lie and say that even a good portion of our customers are kids, but I will say that a lot of them are college-aged or just hitting that particular bracket and sadly, people are moving, resettling into a new apartment or getting that one last trip out of their system or worse… cancelling their comic pull list.

But never fear, I also happen to live in a high density tourist area and August is your last chance to get that thrill in.  So, my store’s been shoring up the ‘big’ online store, passing around the business cards and prepping for that big signing in October.  Sales have been pretty good, up from last year and we’re hoping this will aid us throught he dead zone that is September.

So I’m gonna do some catch up.

But I promise it was after hours on my own time.

You see, back a couple years ago, I was getting in trouble for reading too many comic blogs on work time. I’ll admit it, I was an idiot (but this did lead me to shout gleefully at the esteemed Graeme McMillan at my first WonderCon, “HEY YOUR BLOG ALMOST GOT ME FIRED!”, which explains why I don’t do any interviews), but at that time, I had a deep desire to know. What were people taking about? What was ‘good’? What was ‘bad’? Any scoops or special insider info that could make me a more competent comic clerk? And not just know, but be heard too; as a chick working at a comic shop, it was easy to get shut out of geekly discussions and have to fume at the counter by myself. My poor husband has heard many fueled rants and glowing praise for people he’d never even heard of, let alone care to. Reading the infamous Fanboy Rampage not only gave me a way to seeing venting clear on the screen and know that I was not alone, but … Goddamn, woman! Don’t take yourself so seriously! Look at these yahoos!

Fanboy Rampage, Dave’s Long Box, Beaucoup Kevin and Mike Sterling’s Progressive Ruin gave me the start, the foundation of what an online community could look like, the good and the bad.  So, after getting chewed out at the workplace, I got back to business, saved up a little cash, and stuck out on my own.

Because we are not alone. No one agrees on anything. We are all a beautiful multitude of fans each with our own little part to play in how comics are received in the modern age. Over time, my links grew, I laughed, I cried, I got Peter David angry at me.. but I can’t say I rampaged.

Well, until now.

It’s so silly, but I want to frame this article (despite my name being spelled wrong; Hewlett is a lovely name!). Instead, I pass quietly into my third year of comic blogging, not so often, not so loud, but apparently passionately.

Which is what this is all about for me. There’s not a day that goes by, no matter what the situation at the store, be it Pokémon tournament, break-in, boss on the warpath or slow sales that I do not turn that key in the door to open the store with some amount of pride. Just some little glee that, “HA HA I’M IN A COMIC SHOP ALL BY MYSELF I WANT TO RUN THROUGH THE AISLES!!” I really do love my job (I should considering how much I get paid) and I really do love my site.

Thanks.

Little buggy trouble here at Snap Judgments, please bear with.

So!

Big changes are still afoot, so I’ll just start with the top of the list and work my way down:

1. Got Married!  Yes, after 10 lovely years with my college sweetheart, we finally did the respectable thing and got married.  It was a lovely event, supervillain free and ended with a honeymoon in Vegas where I finally got to go to my own personal Promise Land, the Star Trek Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton.  I’ll talk more on this because, let’s face it, I think in comics and there’s a few memorable ideas regarding weddings in our funny pages.
2. Changed the look of the website!  Right before the Wedding Hullabaloo, I thought a new look might spice things up around here but I’m not sure I’m feeling this layout.  Expect more change.
3. Reviews!  Yeah, remember those?  I have a lot to say on why it’s harder and harder to pick up the major titles with any real interest, most likely all said a little later on tonight.  But suffice it to say, I think Spidey’s Brand New Day might just have a bigger impact on things than even the House of Ideas expects.

Stay Tuned!

I mean it!  Change is coming to this site!

But in the meantime, enjoy Metro Entertainment‘s sexy new layout. 

Well, not but an hour after I posted my last here at Snap Judgments, I manged to contract the throat cold that one of our customers had been sporting for the last couple weeks. My sinuses exploded, I lost my voice, started up a little fever and the manager sent me home, making sure i didn’t infect anyone else with my deadly motaba virus. But, before I left, i grabbed some of the best cold and flu remedy around: my pull comics from the last couple weeks plus the new Women of Marvel 2 trade out that very day. If I was out sick, I was going to enjoy it.

While waiting for a ride back home (as in my sorry state I could barely breathe, let alone get myself home), I deposited myself at the local coffee shop and waited for pick-up. When relief arrived, I gathered my things to go and found myself missing… my comics.

Other things I had on me: my keys; my wallet; my laptop computer, two mp3 players (one for music, one for file storage) and a very snazzy looking computer bag. And yet, the only thing missing was a nondescript brown paper bag containing one trade and a dozen or so floppies.

I searched the place, asked around, talked to the guys are the shop and came to the conclusion that someone had stolen my comics.

Now, I’m no Jeph Loeb here, but I think I went through all five stage of grief regarding my lost books by now and can finally move on to the healing:

1. Denial
   There was no way someone stole my comic books. Who would steal cmic books when I had a perfectly good laptop with me? No, no, no… I had to have misplaced them and soon, I’d be going through the Women of Marvel 2 at a happy and chagrinned clip, right? I must have left them at the store! They must be still on me! Maybe I didn’t buy any in the first place! I mean, stealing comics?
2. Anger
   I couldn’t believe I was so stupid as to get my books that day of all days. It was all the guy at the register’s fault! He gave me a magazine sized bag rather than a comic sized one and my perceptions were all thrown off! What kind of lousy good for nothing creep steals comics!(Also, I fought Wolverine.)
3. Bargaining
   I buy too many books! That’s the problem. If I just didn’t by so many books, this wouldn’t be such an issue. I’ll cut down. I’ll go through my pull and just get what I need, and then maybe I’ll find my books as some sort of karmic retribution. I wonder if I could offer a reward?
4. Despair
   WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!! I MISS MY BOOOOKS! I wanted to read those! I don’t even know which ones I got! My review copy of New Avengers was in there and now I’m going to have to BUY IT! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!(Also, Spider-Man cried with me in the rain. In a graveyard. While wearing all black. Listening to Morrissey.)
5. Acceptance
   Welp. They’re gone. No one’s seen them, no one’s going to come to the store and try to sell them so I can leap over the counter and plant a boot in their face. I just lost my comics. Maybe they’ll go to a good home. Maybe the thief will share them with a younger sibling and something good might come out of this. After all, I have good taste in comics. Maybe someone will read and enjoy them and spark something new. I’ll just have to piece together what I bought and see if I can’t read something at the store. They’ll trade the Green Lantern Sinestro Corps and I’ll be able to get the whole story in one go instead of all this second printing hunting.

I miss them, but they’re gone and like Iron Man watching “Cap’s Body” sink beneath the frozen water, I know I only have myself to blame.

Sorry about the lack of preview reviews; UPS stiffed us again with the magical mighty envelope of power that fuels my Marvel enthusiasm so I find myself a little floundering.  I should be picking up some of my pull (maybe people might be curious about the books I deign to pay money for) and oh yeah.  The latest New Avengers came out.

It’s time for All You Need to Know.  Well, not time now as I have to eat lunch and then throw myself back at a bevy of Diamond boxes and  ensure that you, the customer, are getting your books with a smile and a thumbs up, but expect some words after work.

‘Cause man, this issue is pretty schizophrenic, the more I think of it.  Oh, New Avengers, I had so much hope for you…