Hey, Folks!
The holidays are certainly barreling down on us like a freight train out of control this year, aren’t they? I mean, I’m not much of a holiday guy and I don’t really celebrate the season too much anymore, but even I feel a little residual tingle of anxiety when I consider there is only going to be a scant three weeks of shopping between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. I can only imagine what this vague itch of anxiety translates to those of you who, you know, actually celebrate and do the whole gift giving thing.
In any case, I suppose it behooves me to mention at this point that we will be doing a scaled back Black Friday sale this year. Steve’s tenure is quickly winding down and he’s not too interested in doing much more than the basics until his retirement next year. So this year we will be open our regular hours on Black Friday (11am-7pm) and we will be featuring a 25% off all hard covers and trade paperbacks. This will include an additional 25% off sale or marked down prices in the store. Additionally, if there’s something you’d like at the discount that we don’t have in stock we will be offering the discount for any special orders made on Black Friday, so if we are out of or don’t carry that very special title you are looking for then please ask and I will order it in at the 25% off.
It also bears mentioning that we will be closed on Thanksgiving, although we will have normal operating hours for the rest of the week. Now that I think about it there will probably not be an EDitiorial next week because I doubt I’ll have time to actually write it between getting the subscription form completed, dealing with the new shipment, getting ready for Black Friday, and, of course, Thanksgiving itself. On top of all of that November initial orders are due in next week, so I will have that to monkey around with as well. I’m going to make an effort to get the shipping list and subscription form posted on Wednesday evening next week and hopefully it will get done before I leave work for the day, but, if not, I think I can get it done while I am baking pies on Wednesday night at home.
Yes, I said, “baking pies”. While I haven’t truly celebrated Thanksgiving for quite some time, this year Hill has talked me into volunteering at a mission to serve dinner. I figure I might as well throw a couple of pies together to keep my pie crust making skills sharp and since I don’t eat much in the way of sugar or carbs anymore it will be nice to actually serve my baked goods to people who will appreciate them. Hill, for those of you not in the know, is a proponent of the plant-based whole foods lifestyle, so the typical Thanksgiving feast is clearly not on the menu for him. As a result, despite a couple of kind invites, it seems ridiculous to take him to a dinner party where most, if not all, of the menu are verboten. So, we are going to eat out early in the afternoon and spend the rest of the day serving those of us who are less fortunate. I’m looking forward to the experience and I hope it ends up being a new Thanksgiving tradition.
We went to a pretty good concert last night. Elvis Costello, one of my favorite rock gods, was playing at the Michigan Theater last night in Ann Arbor. I’ve seen Costello perform once before, last year at the Fillmore in Detroit, and it was an amazing performance. Last night’s performance was not quite as strong…not sure if there was a problem with the sound mixing or if Costello’s voice was worn out from touring, but it was somewhat hard to hear him over the music. Still, the energy was good and I forgot how much I love going to live performances. He brought down the house at the end with a medley of his biggest hits, although I was most excited to hear his live performance of “Brilliant Mistake” in the middle of the show as it is, quite possibly, my favorite song in his catalog.
Has anyone here watched the “Lucifer” show, late of FOX and now showing on Netflix? It’s ostensibly based on the comic of the same name which is, of course, spun out of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. When the show debuted I was initially curious about it as the comic book run, written by Mike Carey, is one of my top 10 all-time favorite comics. I know this will sound like heresy to many of you, but I actually enjoyed the Lucifer comic even more than Sandman. Unfortunately, I watched the first two episodes and was disappointed to discover that the show took an incredible showcase for mythological figures and fascinating characters dealing with out of this world metaphysics and turned it into a run of the mill buddy cop show. It wasn’t that I necessarily hated it, but it was so different from my beloved comic that I just couldn’t get into it. I gave up after those two initial episodes and never gave it another thought. Hillman, however, is a big fan of the show and I decided at his suggestion to give it another try.
I started over at the beginning and found myself with he exact same opinion of the show after watching the first season. It basically keeps the same buddy cop formula going on through the series and while there are a couple of characters who create a frission of interest (Mazikeen in particular manages to come through as the character most closely aligned with the comic version) it still remains of limited interest to me. I am about three quarters of the way through season two at this point and I’m not sure whether I will continue or not as there is a convenient jumping off point in the last episode I watched. Like I said, it isn’t terrible, just of limited interest to those of us who have actually read the source material. If you’ve read the comic and watched the show mention it the next time you are in the store. I’m curious what you may have made of it.
I had a chance yesterday to catch up on DC Comics’ “Infected” story line that is running through Batman/Superman as well as a handful of monthly titles (Hawkman, Supergirl) and a couple of one shots (King Shazam, Sacrab). I find myself really enjoying the narrative, much more than the current Year of the Villain story running in Justice League. In it The Batman Who Laughs is slinking around the DC Universe with a handful of poisoned batarangs designed to infect their victims with he same voodoo that turned The Batman Who Laughs into he perverse monster he is. There was initially a mystery regarding who laughing boy was targeting, but batman and Superman pretty quickly figured it out, especially after they laid siege to the Fortress of Solitude.
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
It turned out that there were six different victims and together they comprise a new “Secret Six” team of corrupted heroes. The lucky recipients? Commissioner Gordon (infected at the tail end of the Batman Who Laughs miniseries), Shazam, Hawkman, Blue Beetle (the Jaime Reyes version), Supergirl, and poor “I-Can’t-Buy-A-Break” Donna Troy. The full team is revealed in Batman Superman #4, out this week, and while we are not quite sure yet what there ultimate goal is at this point, I can say that it is an interesting variety of characters and it should be quite interesting what these dark and perverted versions of these heroes gets up to. I know I complain a lot about DC’s tendency to make everything dark and dour in their move serials, but I have to admit that I am looking forward to seeing what kind of mischief this new Secret Six gets up to before their inevitable redemption. Hell, I the current Hawkman comic hasn’t even been on my radar and I am actually excited to see what the next issue brings! If you haven’t been paying attention, now is the time to jump into this story line.
I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving and I hope to see you in here on Black Friday after you are done with your holiday clean up and shopping!