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Mentor, OH Comic Signing/events for December 10 & 11, 2016!

I just received an email from one of the local comic shops in the area–Comics and Friends, located in the Great Lakes Mall in Mentor, OH.

They’re having a couple of signing events this weekend–see below.

Chris Lambert I know from practically the beginning of my knowing comic shops existed–he was the owner of Comics and Collectibles back in the ’90s, and a huge part of my formative years as a comics fan!

Saturday, December 10th:

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And Sunday, December 11th:

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This is a neat comic shop, if a bit different from any others I’ve come across: this one is inside an indoor mall; "the Mall" to me, growing up. There’s no outside storefront, you have to know it’s in the mall, or just be in the mall yourself, to know it’s there. I usually park at the mall’s Macy’s "anchor store," and go in that way–the comic shop is the first store outside the Macy’s, into the mall.

And they have a good selection on back issues, very fair prices on ’em, lots of "sets" and a decent selection of toys and bank busts, and Heroclix and the like; a kids’ section, and a good selection of collected volumes.

The space is a bit cramped at times–being "just" a store slot in a mall–but it’s certainly a comic shop (as opposed to some other store that happens to also have comics), and I’ve found plenty of great deals here; found issues here that everyone else was out of, and while it’s not my "regular LCS," it is one that I like to visit on a fairly regular basis.

I don’t know that I’ll personally be able to make it to the events this weekend with prior plans…but if you’re reading this blog and in the vicinity, it’s well worth checking out–for the event themselves, or just the shop!

For more info, you can find them online at ComicsAndFriends.com!

The Weekly Haul – Week of December 07, 2016

Down to the final several weeks of the year (and the first comics week for me post-2016 birthday)! Counting back to somewhere after Halloween 1988 and early spring 1989, I’ve been "into" comics for 28 years now–over 75% of my lifetime! Or to phrase another way… I’ve only NOT been into comics for something less than 1/4 of my entire life!

This week worked out to be a pretty small week overall…really small, actually, such that I snagged a collected volume at full cover price and bought some stuff from $1 bins!

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After the driving I’ve been doing lately, I opted to stick with "just" the closer comic shop for this week–which means I’ll have at least the Aliens: Defiance issue waiting for me next week.

Along with my non-pull-list double-dipping on the Superman titles (not waiting for end-of-the-month bundles to arrive to read), I picked up a 2nd copy of the Direct Currents #1 magazine…and showing how much I did not look at it last week, I was pleasantly shocked to see the Super Sons ad on its back… that’s got to be probably my most anticipated upcoming title! And I love that they’re using the "classic" Superman/Batman logo with it!

And then, having seen the volume in the Comixology Pull list thing, I was interested in this One Week in the Library book. A HUGE thing it had going for it was the cover price–$9.99–so I didn’t feel too badly about buying it at "full price," after last week paying $4.99 each for two annuals and an ongoing TMNT, as well as $7.99 for the New Talent Showcase issue. This is much thicker/substantive.

AND it’s a case of the title, the CONCEPT, a textual DESCRIPTION "selling" me (again, along with the price point). Not some 20-40% "preview" of the issue online ("leaked" or otherwise). Just a title and concept for an acceptable price!

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With a surprising lack of 50-cent/12-for-$5 bins, I looked through a bunch of $1 bins that seem to have replaced the cheaper/older stuff at this shop.

No runs to speak of, at least not that I picked out, but I did find these six issues that were worthwhile to me to pick up.

Kaijumax for the heckuvit–only $1, and I have the $9.99 collected volume, so even now I’m still well below cover price on the individual issues, and this gives me the actual first issue to compare against the collected volume. A DC #50 in The Flash was quite worthwhile for only $1…rather than the original $4.99 price! Same for The Flintstones–for the $1, I’ll check it out where I was unwilling to buy it at full cover price.

The Street Fighter/GI Joe was interesting enough as a concept, and for "only" $1, more than willing to snag the issue, if only for the cover. While I loathe variants, I can’t deny that some of these overdone "action figure cover variants" hit a nostalgic sweet-spot for me! And for the price, opted to go with this, even if I wind up just using the cover itself–literally–as an art piece or such.

Then the Magic: The Gathering and Munchkin issues I bought soley for the card included with each. Well, primarily on the Munchkin issue; and I’m not sure if I already had this MTG issue, but on the offchance I ever decide to track down the single issues, doesn’t hurt to already have this now at the price.


Knowing I was looking at a small week, and coming off a weekend where I pointedly did my best to ignore my own birthday, I went ahead an placed an order with InStockTrades for an X-Men book I’ve wanted for awhile (and there are several more high on my want-list that I cannot justify buying all at once, though I’m increasingly anxious regarding their remaining in-print and thus significantly discounted!).

Unfortunately, though, I was also surprised with a real-life intrusion of discovering a burned-out headlight, necessitating the purchase of a replacement, which will likely now be a rather cold-weather endeavor in the doing of replacing the thing. Coldest day of the week, it looks like, so of course the bulb wouldn’t blow while we were having highly-unseasonable warm weather…

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