Free Comic Book Day Bonanza! (Now with Added Adventure!)
What a day.
Free Comic Book Day!
Got to the city a bit late (must kerb afternoon AIM chats a bit...), but still got there in time for a few comics left!
At the first store, which was practically an underground shoebox, they had a few "Limit of 2!" signs, which was fair enough. Hardly a million titles to take.
Although, I took my time long enough for the guy to say "Ah, what the hell, go for your life!" and tell us we could take as many as liked!
Naturally, I didn't cram all of them into a giant SWAG bag, just took a few that looked good.
Since there was still 40 mins until closing with other stores, I headed for the other store participating, in an awkward location, and found that hardly any had moved from the place. Score!
Again, I resisted taking all of the titles, just the ones I hadn't managed to find, like Justice League, Bongo (Simpsons e.t.c), X-Men and the rest.
(Oh, and to make people go "Ooooooooohhh!", the store also has an old painting done and signed by Bob Kane!)
Lengthy chat with the guy who ran the place lead to a rather horrid chat about the likelyhood of making it big in comics being akin to acting.
To summarize:
Keep the day job, because unless a big name sweeps you up, you'll make buggerall.
The biggest guy from my city? Does Lost In Space comics with Bill Mumy. Not bad, I guess...
Grabbed a train home, which an old electronic sign pointed me to as being my train.
A couple spotted my collection of comics, asked if a con was on. Cue lengthy fun chat about Cons, F.C.B.D, Free-To-Air Sci-Fi massacring, and so on.
And then I find that it's NOT my train.
Insert expletive here. Several times. In various forms.
I was TWO HOURS from home.
Waiting at the nearest larger station, i.e: one with better security...or so I was told...cameras and a broken emergency phone button do not a good train station make.
How do I know about the button? A klaxxon was sounding out from a big name store. No cops. No rent a cops.
I waited for the bullets firing into the air to finalize the image my brain saw.
A gal I was chatting to and joking about the scary suburban scenario with summed it up nicely:
"Welcome to Elizabeth!"
Took the train back to the city, chatting with the gal, Kelly, about movies, her Air Force job and the like to kill the time. Funnily officers can't say where they're stationed if they're in the Middle East. Wierd, but not unexpected.
(An amusing side note was that I met her while I was stuck near Islington, after watching and listening to Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy for days now.)
Finally got back to the city, said goodbye to Kelly, and made a beeline for the tickets window, luckily Kelly's friendly chatter had calmed my anger down a bit. I was more Bruce Banner than Hulk about the problems with the trains.
Apparently they're switching over to LCD screen systems, and the old systems were wonky. They HAD people go in to each train yelling "Got the right train? This is for X station, not for Y station!".
"Looks like you slipped through the net." The ticket window guy remarked.
Lucky me. At least I saw the scenic route.
To finish up, read a few comics on the way home (hell, with a stash of 12, got plenty to read!), and when my paper bag landed on the deck, spilling all over the place, I got a joking "Good thing it wasn't porn!" from the opposite seats as I gathered the comics up, which I laughed and agreed to.
Home three hours after the shops shut, hungry as hell, ate, sat and now typing away.
What a hell of a day.
Free Comic Book Day!
Got to the city a bit late (must kerb afternoon AIM chats a bit...), but still got there in time for a few comics left!
At the first store, which was practically an underground shoebox, they had a few "Limit of 2!" signs, which was fair enough. Hardly a million titles to take.
Although, I took my time long enough for the guy to say "Ah, what the hell, go for your life!" and tell us we could take as many as liked!
Naturally, I didn't cram all of them into a giant SWAG bag, just took a few that looked good.
Since there was still 40 mins until closing with other stores, I headed for the other store participating, in an awkward location, and found that hardly any had moved from the place. Score!
Again, I resisted taking all of the titles, just the ones I hadn't managed to find, like Justice League, Bongo (Simpsons e.t.c), X-Men and the rest.
(Oh, and to make people go "Ooooooooohhh!", the store also has an old painting done and signed by Bob Kane!)
Lengthy chat with the guy who ran the place lead to a rather horrid chat about the likelyhood of making it big in comics being akin to acting.
To summarize:
Keep the day job, because unless a big name sweeps you up, you'll make buggerall.
The biggest guy from my city? Does Lost In Space comics with Bill Mumy. Not bad, I guess...
Grabbed a train home, which an old electronic sign pointed me to as being my train.
A couple spotted my collection of comics, asked if a con was on. Cue lengthy fun chat about Cons, F.C.B.D, Free-To-Air Sci-Fi massacring, and so on.
And then I find that it's NOT my train.
Insert expletive here. Several times. In various forms.
I was TWO HOURS from home.
Waiting at the nearest larger station, i.e: one with better security...or so I was told...cameras and a broken emergency phone button do not a good train station make.
How do I know about the button? A klaxxon was sounding out from a big name store. No cops. No rent a cops.
I waited for the bullets firing into the air to finalize the image my brain saw.
A gal I was chatting to and joking about the scary suburban scenario with summed it up nicely:
"Welcome to Elizabeth!"
Took the train back to the city, chatting with the gal, Kelly, about movies, her Air Force job and the like to kill the time. Funnily officers can't say where they're stationed if they're in the Middle East. Wierd, but not unexpected.
(An amusing side note was that I met her while I was stuck near Islington, after watching and listening to Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy for days now.)
Finally got back to the city, said goodbye to Kelly, and made a beeline for the tickets window, luckily Kelly's friendly chatter had calmed my anger down a bit. I was more Bruce Banner than Hulk about the problems with the trains.
Apparently they're switching over to LCD screen systems, and the old systems were wonky. They HAD people go in to each train yelling "Got the right train? This is for X station, not for Y station!".
"Looks like you slipped through the net." The ticket window guy remarked.
Lucky me. At least I saw the scenic route.
To finish up, read a few comics on the way home (hell, with a stash of 12, got plenty to read!), and when my paper bag landed on the deck, spilling all over the place, I got a joking "Good thing it wasn't porn!" from the opposite seats as I gathered the comics up, which I laughed and agreed to.
Home three hours after the shops shut, hungry as hell, ate, sat and now typing away.
What a hell of a day.