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Author Topic: Just bought my first comic from a comic shop today...  (Read 15156 times)
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Permanus
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« Reply #16 on: January 20, 2006, 05:29:00 PM »

Sometimes second-hand bookshops have a small cardboard box in a corner with some old comics in it, and if you're lucky you can hit the jackpot, since the shop owners usually don't know what they are.

I attracted some strange looks that way, buying an Iris Murdoch novel, a few books of poetry, and -- gold! -- a whole stack of 1970s Kamandis.
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« Reply #17 on: January 20, 2006, 07:51:50 PM »

Quote from: "Nightwing"
   Well, to back up a moment, I'm not saying it isn't fun to get in touch with your inner geek and have a long chat with a shop owner about some esoteric element of pop culture. But even that creates a sort of "members only atmosphere" that can be off-putting to kids just getting into the hobby, or parents who already think comics are for nuts, anyway.


Do bars ever worry that the world will start to run low on alcoholics?

Then why should comic book stores worry about getting kids in? Oh, they will get in, no doubt about that. As long as there is a kid that is attracted to the abnormal, who reads FANGORIA magazine, who just got into Heinlein because of Megadeth lyrics, who spends the evenings watching zombie movies while drinking Mountan Dew, all comic book stores have to do is sit and wait.

Quote from: "Nightwing"
The one thing a comic shop...or any bookstore...does offer is the magic of browsing. Some of the most treasured books in my library are things I stumbled across in some out-of-the-way bookstore on one trip or other, usually books I didn't even know existed but now can't live without. The internet is great for finding what you want and getting it cheap, but you're a lot less likely to make discoveries that way, and for me, no subject is so interesting as the one I'll discover tomorrow.


The most amazing ones are the personal collections of old collectors. It was this way that I started to discover genius WEIRD TALES writer Jack Williamson; his GOLDEN BLOOD, which to my knowledge was in paperback ONCE since the 1930s.

Everybody's got a discount bin story; that's how I discovered Bill Mantlo's MICRONAUTS.
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« Reply #18 on: January 20, 2006, 09:04:27 PM »

Quote
Do bars ever worry that the world will start to run low on alcoholics?

Then why should comic book stores worry about getting kids in? Oh, they will get in, no doubt about that. As long as there is a kid that is attracted to the abnormal, who reads FANGORIA magazine, who just got into Heinlein because of Megadeth lyrics, who spends the evenings watching zombie movies while drinking Mountan Dew, all comic book stores have to do is sit and wait.


Wow, that's an optimistic viewpoint!

Well, one detail I left out about all the stores in my area.  In all my visits, I have seen a "customer" under the age of 20 exactly ONCE that I can remember.  It was a little girl who was whining desperately to leave while her hippie parents browsed the back issues.

In 1998 I took my 10-year-old brother-in-law to Mid-Ohio Con and he was the only kid anyone saw all day.  The writers and artists were so excited to see a youngster, they gave him sketches and comics and autographs for free.  Even Adam West waived his signing fee and gave Tommy a picture.  Tommy, needless to say, had a blast.  But only then did it occur to me I hadn't seen a kid at a convention before, and to date I haven't again.

That's all anecdotal, of course, and hardly a scientific sampling of the ages of comic fans.  But from my own experience, the industry has a great deal to worry about once the current crop of aging fanboys starts to die off.
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« Reply #19 on: January 21, 2006, 12:35:26 AM »

Quote from: "nightwing"
Even Adam West waived his signing fee and gave Tommy a picture.


That is sad that Adam West charges people for his signature (even if the money goes to charity).

The Toronto cons I've been to lately (with the exception of TCAF which is an entirely different animal --it's a festival of comics --no dealers!) have had kids.  Come to think of it, even TCAF had lots of kids (families even), in part because of the giiant scholastic books tent with Jeff Smith and several superhero and manga types.

That said, most comic shops are horrible places.  I grew up with them and can navigate them but I also now see them with adult eyes.  As long as they just want to sell the latest DC or Marvel crap like Infinite Crisis to kids and lifelong superhero fans/collectors, they shouldn't change a thing.

Even the worst stores now stock manga and anime and new blood eventually trickles in but the net and mainstream bookstores will eventually bury them.

I saw the new A.S.S. (I love that acronym) today but did not buy it.  The cover was pretty.  I wonder if it will be included in the trade?

Nightwing: those reject garbage bronze age books make up most of my collection!  I don't think I own anything anywhere near "near mint" or even still in a comic book bag.  I have bunches of those comics boxes, though.
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« Reply #20 on: January 21, 2006, 01:45:48 AM »

I got to thinking about it after my last post, and I was wrong; I have seen other kids in the comic shops.  But it took some thinking to remember them.

In one shop, two boys wandered around for a while as the shop owner tried to point them, and their mom, to something suitable.  Finally, feeling bad I guess, she dug up a stack of Bronze Age Marvels someone had brought in as trades and gave them to the kids for free, with their mom's permission.  I forget what she said exactly but it was something that acknowledged the last comic suitable for kids came out around the time of Ms. Pac-Man!

Another shop hosts weekend tournaments for Magic: The Gathering (or did, anyway...is that game still around?).  I never saw the kids get up from a game to go look at comics, but that doesn't mean they didn't (clearly its what the owner was hoping for!).

Still another shop is careful to stay on top of the latest kid fad and stocks lots of toys, so there must be kids in there at some point and I just miss them.  Whether they buy comics too I couldn't tell you.

Quote
Nightwing: those reject garbage bronze age books make up most of my collection! I don't think I own anything anywhere near "near mint" or even still in a comic book bag. I have bunches of those comics boxes, though.


Yes, but knowing they're dog-eared reading copies I'm sure you wouldn't poly-bag them and try to unload them at "Very Fine" prices, would you?

Funny, I always thought I was positively anal about my comics...I went to great pains to pick good-condition copies and read them very carefully before putting them away.  But now when I look at them I realize most collectors would probably rate them VG at best, more likely just Good.

But they were loved, and that's what counts.
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« Reply #21 on: January 21, 2006, 03:19:11 AM »

Pardon me while I wipe the tear from my eye... Cheesy

Good gawd, fanboys rule the comics world, and I have less confidence than ever in the medium...
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« Reply #22 on: January 22, 2006, 11:06:48 AM »

Quote from: "nightwing"
Quote
Nightwing: those reject garbage bronze age books make up most of my collection! I don't think I own anything anywhere near "near mint" or even still in a comic book bag. I have bunches of those comics boxes, though.


Yes, but knowing they're dog-eared reading copies I'm sure you wouldn't poly-bag them and try to unload them at "Very Fine" prices, would you?

Funny, I always thought I was positively anal about my comics...I went to great pains to pick good-condition copies and read them very carefully before putting them away.  But now when I look at them I realize most collectors would probably rate them VG at best, more likely just Good.

But they were loved, and that's what counts.


I too am crying.  Long live Wimbledon Green!  I mean Nightwing.

I have ahard time polybagging anything --what if I want to read it?  No, on the few occasions when I've actually sold old comics, I stress that I don't know anything about the fine art of grading and let the actual conditon (or very good scans) do the talking.  The alternative is to slap a price on with no grade and start a conversation.  Serious "condition" collectors are too anal.  I love reading boards like the one at CGC where people talk about the differences between 9.8 and 9.7 (ie, perfect and perfect).
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« Reply #23 on: January 22, 2006, 09:31:04 PM »

Quote from: "nightwing"

In one shop, two boys wandered around for a while as the shop owner tried to point them, and their mom, to something suitable.  Finally, feeling bad I guess, she dug up a stack of Bronze Age Marvels someone had brought in as trades and gave them to the kids for free, with their mom's permission.  I forget what she said exactly but it was something that acknowledged the last comic suitable for kids came out around the time of Ms. Pac-Man!


It's strange to me that comic shops do not advertise to kids. DC has a whole line of comics for kids, and if I were a shop owner I would want kids to be begging their moms to bring them to my store.

DC could even use a 5-second blip at the end of their cartoons and TV shows to advertise these comics...yet they don't. Wouldn't people who watch Teen Titans be more likely to want the Teen Titans comics?
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