Hey, Folks!
Well, I’m back! I had an absolutely magnificent time all weekend exploring the parks and tourist traps of the UP with Hillman. It was also incredible meeting up with two of my favorite people, Mike and Caryl Johnson (otherwise known to y’all as Captain America and Black Widow/Catwoman!), as they joined us for the day Saturday. And I got to see BEARS! Lots of bears in very comfortable bear habitats at the Oswald Bear Ranch in Newberry, MI! And the piece de la resistance was getting to actually feed and pet a bear cub! Spoilers: it was SO soft and cuddly! Hillman and I also experienced a panoramic view of the night time sky at the Headlands International Dark Skies Park in Mackinac City and we spent some time laying on the grass and looking up at veritable blanket of stars! And I haven’t even mentioned the sinfully delicious French toast made with croissants and stuffed with cream cheese and fresh fruit that I wolfed down at Diana’s Delight in downtown Gaylord or the ice cream cone that I got in St Ignace that was bigger than my head! It was a great time and I wouldn’t trade it for the world, but…
…now I’m back to the “office” and there is a boatload of work to catch up on. I haven’t been on a proper vacation in many years and I think I had blocked out exactly how far behind I get when I’m away from the store for a few days. I’m sure many of you experience the same things after a vacation, but since most of the heavy work falls on my shoulders here at Monarch when I step away it tends to start falling apart. Unfortunately, I have no one to blame but myself as I AM the one who devised all of the various systems that are in place to keep this weekly/monthly business going. Clearly there are going to have to be some serious changes in the way things get done behind the scenes once Steve retires in January. You’d think that since this changeover has been in the works for years that I would have a more cogent strategy on how to deal with things once I’m in charge, but this year has left me a bit breathless between the shutdown and the bump in business we’ve had since things started up again and the distributor/publisher foolishness that I’ve been dealing with since everything opened up again. I’m thinking I’m going to need a bit more help running the joint then I was originally considering, but I have a feeling that I’m not going to be able to determine exactly HOW much help I’m going to need until I get there.
Anyway, today is going to be devoted to getting my September initial orders in as well as some inventory work that has been neglected for a week. I haven’t even looked at the September Previews catalog, much less started processing special orders or coming up with some inventory numbers. The process for placing initial orders isn’t difficult, per se, and I’ve been doing it for a loooong time, but it is time consuming. Since D.C. has moved their distribution over to UCS I haven’t been doing monthly initial orders for them and instead have moved to placing my numbers in at FOC every week. I couldn’t do that for Diamond…too many special orders and small publishers who don’t participate with FOC, but for just one publisher I’ve found it is actually a pretty good system as long as I remember to do it every week. If anyone has any special orders they’d like to place from the September Previews now is the time to let me know.
As you know, I now come into work every Tuesday afternoon to unpack and sort the Diamond shipment (the UCS shipment is generally here on Fridays) and pull the subscription orders. Well, I’ve also started taking my favorite comics home on Tuesday night in order to read at least a handful of the new books for when everyone starts pouring in on Wednesday morning. This week I was excited to get my hands and eyes on X of Swords: Creation #1 and it did not disappoint. I was initially worried that it was a bit pricey at $6.99 a pop and the fact that Marvel has been pushing it pretty hard as a 22-part story spread over the entire X-line, but my fears have been mostly allayed. The first part is a dense and fascinating look at mythology building in the Marvel universe and it took me a good half an hour just to get through the first reading of the book. I had to go back and reread pieces of it in order to completely understand where they are going with it, but if you’re paying seven bucks for a comic then I think it is absolutely essential that you get a couple of good reads out of it. I don’t want to get too much into the story specifically as I solidly believe that you should take the time to unwrap and digest its mysteries first hand, but a lot of the mysterious subplot stuff that has been percolating in X-Men and Excalibur get at least partially explained and I for one am looking forward to seeing how this ends up changing, well, everything for the mutants and Krakoa. I also loved the use of Tarot imagery throughout the issue and I hope they keep it up for the remainder of the story.
Completely off the subject of comic books, I want to remind everyone that the new season of the Great British Baking Show (season 11) drops on Netflix 9/25! I know it’s not everyone’s cup of Joe, but it’s one of my favorite TV shows! This season will be shown like last season with a new episode coming out every Friday until the show wraps with a new master baker. I just want everyone to know that my phone will be off and I will be parked on my couch with Hillman gleefully watching a new set of bakers doing their level best to wow us with cakes, pies, bread, and biscuits!
I’m sure many of you have already seen the news regarding the once again revised release dates for up coming comic-related movies. D.C. announced Wonder Woman being pushed back until Christmas and the Marvel movies have been pushed way back, with Black Widow not debuting until May. This is quite disheartening for me as I was looking forward to hosting more Monarch Comics Watch Events at the local Cinemark. I’m still hoping that James Bond debuts in November as that was one of the films on my shortlist for movies to host. In any case, Cinemark is filling up their screens with many older blockbuster movies like Goonies, Labyrinth, the Star Wars films and I was wondering if there was any interest out there for folks to participate in a viewing party for these films. It’s a cheaper deal to host an older film viewing party and I could get away with charging $5 per ticket for the 20 person limit. Let me know in the comments section or mention it to me when you’re in the store. If I perceive enough interest then I will give it a try in a week or so. The first one was a lot of fun and I’m chomping at the bit to do another one!
I wanted to take a moment and ask everyone who uses the weekly subscription form to please carefully check your order before hitting the “send” button. It hasn’t been a huge deal, but I’m noticing that there are more folks accidentally ordering things they don’t really want because of the Google interface on their phones. Unfortunately, I have no control over the format of the form as I am basically just filling in the blanks every week although I am exploring other formats to present the sub form. In any case, just take an extra moment before you confirm your order so I don’t end up with a bunch of stuff nobody wants…lol.
That’s it for me this week! Like I mentioned above, I’ve got about 12 hours of work to fit into an 8 hour bag, so I need to get to it. If anyone is interested in seeing my boring vacation photos just mention it to me and I will gleefully whip out my phone in the store and show you my bear pics! 😛
Have a great weekend!
Eddie