Everybody's Having a Sale

Actually, first I went to Staples to buy stuff for my latest Neat Idea™. I have a lot of Neat Ideas™, most of them taking a moderate amount of time (a few hours), and generally being the result of thinking over a period of months about how to organize my Stuph™.

When I helped Ceej and David move a couple of weeks ago, CJ was bemoaning the fact that she'd kept all the boxes that her computer games and programs came in, despite the fact that the boxes are nothing but pretty artwork and air, and the actual games and instructions take up far less space. But it was easier to move them than to organize them at that point. And it got me to thinking, "Duh! I still have all of my computer game boxes! Why am I keeping them? They're taking up a whole bookshelf!" So a few days ago I went through all my computer game boxes, picked some games which are so old that they don't even run anymore and threw them out, and collected the boxes of all the others, made sure I still have the rules and CDs, and threw out the boxes and assorted crapola (ads, registration cards) in them. And voila! I now have another bookshelf of space for Stuph™.

(Of course, when I say "throw out" I mean "dumped in the paper recycling bin".)

While doing all of this, I looked at the two bookshelves next to the shelf-o'-computer-boxes which contain the first 66 mailings of APA Centauri, and thought, "You know, I don't want to throw this stuff out, but isn't it time to box it up neatly and stash it away safely since I almost never look at it anymore?"

So I went to Staples and bought ten 15-inch-deep boxes for about seven bucks to store APAs in. And I figured I would also use them to store the many other APAs I have that are already in storage (in rickety boxes), not to mention stuff like high school, college and grad school memorabilia that I'm keeping. So I spent some time this afternoon and evening moving stuff around, and it turns out that all the stuff I wanted to put in these boxes fits in ten such boxes with just a little space left over. Excellent!

Some of them will go into the closet, and some will form a smallish "table" for my computer printer. But overall it's nice to be reclaiming that shelf space. (I actually do have space in my apartment for more bookcases, but since I will - yes, I know I keep saying this - eventually be moving, I'd like to put off furniture purchases until after then.)

I do enjoy organizing stuff. It's a sickness, I know.

Oh, yeah: The shopping.

I decided that this long weekend would be a good time to hit my other favorite comics shops in the south bay (besides Comics Conspiracy, my regular shop), which I haven't been to since before the holidays. And it turns out to have been a lucky thing that I did!

Heroes, in Campbell, used to have a branch in Palo Alto which closed a few months ago. I had been disappointed in the Palo Alto branch because it seemed like they weren't making good use of their sizeable space; a lot of it was empty floor space. The Campbell store was a little better, and has improved considerably since the Palo Alto branch closed! They've substantially upgraded their back issue stock, have a much nicer display for their collections, and have segregated their new arrivals from the recent arrivals. And best of all, they're having a 50% off sale on all their back issues! Combine that with an improved back issue selection, and you can see that I dropped some money there.

I stopped off next at a map store in Santa Clara, which I hoped would have a selection of the highly convenient, laminated FastMaps for all the Bay Area regions I go to, but they only had the East Bay map, which I already have (and which is why I know I like these maps). So I will have to keep looking.

Then I stopped at What's Hot Comics and Cards, which impressed me quite a lot when I first moved here, but has not particularly excited me since. At first it seemed like they had a good back issue selection, but that selection has remained almost entirely static since I arrived, and I've bought very little there since. A pity.

Finally I went to Big Guy's Comics in Mountain View, which is where I'd probably go for my weekly comics if not for Comics Conspiracy. (What's the difference? Mainly I found the owner of CC to be friendlier and the layout a little more to my tastes. Plus it's closer to Apple. But I admit the difference is not that big.) Big Guy's also has an excellent back issue selection, and they too were having a 50% off sale!

I was pleased to pick up a number of odds-and-ends that have been on my list for a while. And I'll sheepishly admit that I am slowly moving into buying 1960s-era Marvel comics. I picked up some late-60s Avengers and Fantastic Four today, but resisted some Amazing Spider-Man, mainly because their condition was not quite what I wanted. (I for the most part expect near-pristine copies of comics published since 1975, but I'm willing to downgrade a bit for earlier comics. However, I don't want some ratty, damaged copy of a comic; it should look good at least at first glance, still be firmly attached to the staples, etc.)

Anyway, I fed my addiction today, and Heroes had other stuff that I resisted, but which may prove to be such a good deal that I'll have to go back while their sale's still on. Sheesh, being a collector is rough!

(Rebekah accuses me of rattling on in my journal at times, and I suspect that this entry is exactly what she means!)

I did spend most of the evening at Cafe Borrone reading, and Lucy and John joined me there later in the evening. I loaned Lucy the first two volumes of Thieves & Kings, which I hope she'll enjoy. If nothing else, it sounds like my trips to Borrone lately have neatly coincided with times when Lucy is happy to have some downtime and get out of the house for a little while.

So ironically, this entry's "comic book time" is about comics I didn't buy on my expedition today, but rather about a couple of ones I ordered from Bud Plant Comic Art a few weeks ago.

Captain Gravity, by Stephen Vrattos, Keith Martin, and Roger Quijano (Penny-Farthing Press) was a 4-issue mini-series which has been collected in paperback. It feels like an attempt to recapture the excitement of pulp-era superheroes while updating them a little for the present day, and it succeeds pretty well.

The year is 1938, and Joshua Jones is a young black man who's part of a film crew filming a movie about a character named Captain Gravity ("No one escapes the law of gravity!") around Chichen Itza, Mexico. It turns out that the film is being bankrolled by Nazis, so that the scientific advisor to the movie can find the mythical "Element 115" left there by aliens centuries ago which allows its possessor to cancel the law of gravity. The story is about the background of how the main characters got into their current situation, and how Joshua ends up imbued with the powers of Element 115 and becomes a real-life Captain Gravity and fights off the Nazis.

It's a stylish book (underneath the lovely Mark Schultz cover you see to the right); both Vrattos' script and Martin's art are a little rough around the edges, but their hearts are in the right place, which in this case serves to overcome their shortcomings. Not to mention that it is a pretty clever idea - casting a black man in the late 30s as the hero, with a female lead who's no dummy. It's a much better comic than Penny-Farthing's follow-up series, The Victorian (which is not so inspired, and whose artwork is not nearly as good).

The Captain Gravity One-Shot, One True Hero, takes place two years later, and involves another fictional hero - Captain Marvelous - also coming to life and challenging Captain Gravity as the superhero of Hollywood. it's a decent follow-up to the original series, but is a bit lightweight (its theme is the old "simply having power and a battle-cry doesn't make you a hero" saw), and mainly seems intended to foreshadow future stories.

Both of these are worth checking out if you enjoy good, clean superhero adventure, or have a fondness for old pulp heroes.