wacky hijinx weblog

Thu, 18 Dec 2003

paper pandas

boingboing just linked to a killer paper craft repository from Yamaha of all companies. You can download full-color pdfs to print out and assemble. The models are all ranked on their level of difficulty to assemble, sort of like a paper gundam model I guess.

[/topics/arts] permanent link

Mon, 15 Dec 2003

Grodd!

How many super-powered monkeys can you name? Not as many as me since I found The Canonical List of Super Non-Human Simians.

Socialist Men Under a Red Father

my roommate sent me this:

Communism. Seen as the alien evil for so long in democratic countries. The public has been unaware that for so long their children have been exposed to communist ideas and regimes in a median as innocent as a childrens cartoon show.

Was Peyo (the genius behind the smurfs) simply creating a children's television show, OR was he simply trying to pass his communist ideals down to a new generation?

Take a look at the man in charge of the Smurfs, Papa Smurf. Is it just a coincidence that he wears a RED hat and RED trousers? Also notice the similarities in appearence between Karl Marx, the founder of the communist ideals, and Papa Smurf.

All of the smurfs look exactly the same (with the exception of Papa Smurf and Smurfette). They all have white hats, white trousers and are blue. This is just like the Marxist theory of a classless society where all men and women are treated as equals and are comerades.

Communism is built on the idea that no man is better or worse off than any other. Private buisness is disallowed and all workers work to benefit the country as a whole. In the Smurfs village all of the smurfs have their own individual jobs to do. No Smurf is regarded as being better than any other smurf. Every smurf has their own job to do, which benefits everyone in the community. Handy Smurf makes the houses for everyone to live in, Jokey Smurf keeps everyone happy, Brainy Smurf has a lot of technical knowledge. The Smurfs have no currency and every thing is shared equally between them. It is nearly impossible to tell one smurf from another. This demonstrated the idea of total equality and that every member of the society was as important as the others. Communists were often depicted as using violence as a way to sort out their problems and get what they want. In keeping with that portrayal the Smurfs have no qualms about using their "Magic Dust" to stop peop le aggressing against them or to retrieve an object which they desire.

Take a look at what Smurfs are portrayed in a positive light. Handy Smurf, the worker (which illustrates the rise of the working class to power) and Hefty Smurf, the soldier. Also look at which smurfs are portrayed negatively. Greedy, who eats too much, and Vanity, who contributes absolutely nothing to society.

Another of the Smurfs negatively portrayed is Brainy Smurf.

He bears a striking resemblance to one of Lenin's high ranking officials, Trotsky.

During the 1920's Trotsky was exiled from Russia by Stalin to Mexico. The reason for this was that Trotsky's ideas conflicted with those of Stalin and other high ranking communists. Like him, Brainy Smurf too questions the smurf ideals and is one of the few unhappy smurfs.

The Smurfs biggest enemy was Gargamel, the representation of Capitalism in Smurf Land.

Gargamel wanted to catch the Smurfs in order to turn them into gold. Peyo wished to portray Capitalists as money hungry, greed-driven people whose sole purpose in life was the accumulation of wealth. Also note that Gargamel looks not unlike a stereotypical person of the Jewish faith. Under the communist regime (during certain time periods) Jews were persecuted for, among other things, their love of money. Also Azrael, Gargamels cat, was an indication of the communist belief that the American politicians were under the control of one overbearing greedy leader.

Wed, 03 Dec 2003

help wanted

I need somebody to work Sundays and Mondays in the Willow Glen store. If you're interested in joining the Hijinx team, send your resume to jobs@hijinxcomics.com in a plain text format. I'm hoping for somebody with experience at a traditional bookstore who likes comics and wants to learn more about the business. A willingness to work for comics sometimes wouldn't hurt either!

website facelift

I finally got around to updating the look of this here website. I ditched some of the superfluous elements and concentrated on readability and utility. The jazzy new design was created by the fine folk at egon.

Sat, 29 Nov 2003

rent-a-manga beta test

Now you can read Manga the way the Japanese do: by renting it!

Rent any manga trade paperback for $2 the first day and $1 for each additional day. Receive a $1 rebate if you take store credit!

example: Johnny decides to see what all the fuss with Osama Tezuka is all about. He purchases Astro Boy vol 1 on Monday for $9.95 and reads it that night. He returns it the next day in good condition and has a choice to take an $8 cash refund, or a $9 store credit towards his next rental or purchase at Hijinx. He decides he wants to read the next volume of Astro Boy, so he takes the store credit and applies it towards volume 2. Now he only pays $1 to take home volume 2! He can keep it or start the cycle over again. He could read all 20 volumes for the price of purchasing 2!

Fri, 28 Nov 2003

free tickets to Last Samurai

I just received 10 tickets to see a special screening of The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise. No, he's not the titular character, but he is "thrust into harsh and unfamiliar territory, with his life and perhaps more important, his soul in the balance, the troubled American soldier finds himself at the center of a violent and epic struggle between two eras and two worlds, with only his sense of honor to guide him." At least, that's what the hype sheet they sent me says.

Each pass admits two on December 2 at 7:30pm. Come and get 'em while they last at Hijinx Willow Glen.

Sat, 22 Nov 2003

comics-related dissertations and theses

Check out this link for a list of doctoral and graduate theses on topics related to comics. Good stuff via egon.

Fri, 21 Nov 2003

who says I'm a square?

Just to prove that I'm "down" with the kids and not hopelessly out of touch with youth culture, we're going to have local DJ Pyd Pyper out front for a mini sidewalk salestravaganzathon. Come check out the tunes starting at 2:00pm until I get get sick of it and start blasting Thelonious Monk.

Thu, 20 Nov 2003

pho shizzle!

I love pho, vietnamese noodle soup. There's no better way to cure a hangover than a good steaming bowl of that elixer of the gods. My buddy Howie sent me the great picture of Pho Shizzle. I don't know where it is, but I will find it and dine there some day. I swear it.

Hellboy fanimation

I just read about this cool Hellboy fan film on boingboing.net. It's pretty short, but it's really well done. It really captures Mike Mignola's distinctive style.

Fri, 07 Nov 2003

Ebay Auction Extravaganza

Make sure to check out my latest ebay auctions for some awesome bargains. Everything starts at $4.99 with no reserve:

Plus many more great books. Everything must go!

Sat, 01 Nov 2003

hype helps

The word is spreading about San Jose's best comic book store in this link on the Sequential Tart website which tries to promote comics by and for women. Read the interview with yours truly and gasp in wonder at the precious pearls of wisdom I impart.

Thu, 30 Oct 2003

you all rule

Thanks so much for the many offers of help and equipment from everyone who responded to my post about the burglary. Special thanks to Kil and AJ who both went above and beyond the call with their generosity. I was feeling pretty bummed out for a bit there, but you folks have restored my faith in humanity!

Wed, 22 Oct 2003

burgled

Hijinx Willow Glen was burglarized last night. Somebody smashed the front door and took off with my trusty laptop and digital camera. Luckily our crack IT staff had prepared for such emergencies and protocols were implemented to make sure Wednesday went off ok.

I'm pretty bummed though. The laptop in question will be of no use to anyone looking to sell it as it's old and covered in Stray Bullets stickers. It could have been worse, but this is a particularly bad time with the slow economy and a second store to support. We'll muddle through, but if anyone has an old computer monitor or old laptop they'd like to dispose of, let me know.

Mon, 20 Oct 2003

fringe restaurants

A friend sent me a link to a cool article on fringe restaurants. These are illegal, cash-only restaurants and supper clubs that skirt the law to avoid the prohibitive costs of starting up a legal joint.

[/topics/arts/cooking] permanent link

Fri, 17 Oct 2003

Hijinx Downtown Grand Opening

The grand opening of Hijinx Downtown was a great success! So many people showed up that we had to stay open until midnite to let everyone get a peek at the place. I think we proved that you only need Neil Gaiman near a comic book store to reap the benefits of his devoted fanbase. Check out this page for more info and pictures of the event.

Sun, 12 Oct 2003

now with 75% more comics

Eagle-eyed readers will already have noticed the debut of a syndicated comics box at the bottom of the page you're now reading. The good folks at moderntales.com have seen fit to allow web pages like this to show their webcomics for free!

Those who know me well know that free is a magic word to me, and I was all over this like white on rice. I even set up a seperate comics page so you can read them all. Enjoy.

Fri, 10 Oct 2003

Jemas gone by January

I just read this newsarama story which says Marvel Publishing President Bill Jemas will be leaving his position by January at the latest. Jemas has always been a controversial figure at Marvel, from his launch of the Ultimate line to the high-profile flops he helped push like The Rawhide Kid and Trouble. Ultimately I think it was his contempt for fans and retailers that most people disliked about his tenure at Marvel.

Sat, 04 Oct 2003

peanuts

Peanuts is one of the greatest comic strips ever made. Fantagraphics recently announced that they'll be releasing a 25 volume set of every Peanuts strip ever done. If you can't wait the 12 1/2 years it will take to complete the series, you can try hunting down the various old paperbacks from flea markets and garage sales. To help, check out aaugh.com for a great Peanuts book collecting guide

marvel value stamps

If you added up the total value of the comics defaced due to the Marvel Value Stamp program you could probably buy a smallish third world nation. These are good n' goofy.

Thanks again to Mark Evanier, hands down, my favorite blogger.

who was that masked man?

Thanks to boingboing for linking to a cool gallery of classic halloween costumes. Anybody else remember those goofy inflatable head costumes from the 80's?

Wed, 01 Oct 2003

downtown is live

I'm just taking a break from the frenzy of getting Hijinx Downtown open for business and ready to go. In the few short hours that we opened our doors we got at least three converts from other local shops, and only one of them was from Hijinx Willow Glen!

Seriously, the place is still a little rough around the edges, and we'll be rapidly ramping up with new product lines like general interest magazines and an expanded mature readers section, plus the addition of nice comfy places to sit and enjoy a comic or two. But it's already got that Hijinx Feeling© which means great selection and service for all of downtown San Jose!

Sat, 27 Sep 2003

this is why

A lot of people ask me why I give away all the comics retailing software that I write. This is why I write Free Software. Because 20 years ago today RMS started the GNU Project and changed the way people think about proprietary software. Without that little email, I would not have been able to build any of the fun and interesting software gadgets I've tinkered with to help me run a better comic book store.

the website that made a man out of mac

Check out this great website for an archive of classic comic book ads. Many folks agree that the ads are some of the best parts of classic silver age comics.

A thirty footer!

Sun, 21 Sep 2003

What does Stan Lee mean to you?

An essay contest to promote the new Stan Lee Biography has announced the winners. I was surprised to see old Mike's Coliseum/Hijinx customer Mark Klegg listed among the winners. Way to go Mark!

Mon, 15 Sep 2003

Family Guy movie

I'm a big fan of the short-lived Fox tv show The Family Guy. I recently got the second box set and watched a huge marathon session. According to this the series creator Seth MacFarlane is going to produce a full length Family Guy movie direct to DVD. I'll buy one, would you?

[/topics/arts/tv] permanent link

Johnny Cash 1932-2003

Rest in peace, Johnny.

prestidigitation posters

I love stage magic. There's something cool about going to a show where you know everything you see is going to be a fake. Harry Houdini was more than just a magician, he was one of the first professional occult debunkers. He thought that anyone using stage magic techniques to bilk desperate families out of cash was wrong, and he used his skills and money to bring those people down. Now if only someone would go after that phony Crossing Over guy. I hate him.

Thanks to boingboing for this link to an archive of old magic posters.

bazooka joe comics

You've gotta love Bazooka Joe. Not only is it cheap, it comes with cheap comics too. Check out this great BZ archive site. I just don't think I'd look good in an eyepatch and turtleneck...

Fri, 12 Sep 2003

like a duck

I'll admit I've never heard of MC Honky, but sharp-eyed readers will notice the fine cover art by Ivan Brunetti. Even sharper readers will go to this link and download the music video animated by Mr. Brunetti, then rush down to Hijinx to purchase his comic Schizo or Haw his collection of horrible, horrible cartoons.

Wed, 10 Sep 2003

Fleep Online

Fleep is one of my single favorite comics of all time. Jason Shiga was nominated for two Eisner awards this year, and took home one for Talent Deserving Wider Recognition. In Jason's words:

It's about a boy who wakes up in a telephone booth which has been mysteriously sealed in an envelope of concrete. Using only the contents of his pockets (two pens, a paperback novel, three coins and 20 ft of unwaxed dental floss) our hero must fashion and execute an escape plan before he runs out of oxygen. Believe it or not, I try to end each strip on a cliffhanger which is very challanging considering most of the 42 strips take place inside this one phone booth.

Read it online, then buy a copy at Hijinx!

mad is rad

Thanks to Mark Evanier for blogging about this great Mad Magazine cover gallery that has the cover of every regular issue from 1953 to the present day. It also includes the table of contents for each issue.

Many people don't really think of Mad as a comic book and are surprised to hear that it's still being made. They've brought some interesting artists to the mag in recent years like Peter Kuper and Kyle Baker, but they'll never recapture the magic of the early Kurtzman years in my book. I sometimes think of Mad as the perfect comic book.

Mon, 08 Sep 2003

crime does not pay #22

from crimeboss.com:

For crime collectors, this is the Holy Grail. This is the one that started it all...the very first "crime comic." For my money, this is the second most important comic book of all time (the first being Action Comics #1, of course). Editors Charles Biro and Bob Wood* stole the title from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's popular newsreel series, and bordered the cover with photographs of famous criminals to give it a "true detective" look and feel. All of the early covers, including this one, were drawn by Charles Biro himself.

*Ironically, according to Ron Goulart's Over 50 Years of American Comic Books (which is a great reference, by the way), Bob Wood went to prison in the early 1950's for beating his girlfriend to death.

Sat, 06 Sep 2003

TPB Tuesday every day

I'm happy to announce that the extremely positive response to our TPB Tuesday program has prompted me to expand it into the all new Hijinx Book Club!

That's right true believers, earn store credit with each Graphic Novel or Trade Paperback purchase every single blessed day of the week. You can spend your credit any time on any other GN/TPB purchase. It's the new rage all the kids are talking about! Sort of...

an important message from Mark Evanier

programmer or serial killer?

My buddy Howie just sent me a great link to an online quiz where you decide based on a photo whether the person is a serial killer or the inventor of a programming language. I guess either one qualifies as a hacker...

Fri, 05 Sep 2003

Hijinx Downtown is coming!

The papers have been signed and the die has been cast, I'm proud to announce the all new Hijinx Downtown! All the great service and selection our loyal Willow Glen customers are used to is coming to the underserved downtown San Jose area. Watch this space for more info about the grand opening nuttiness that will unfold in the very near future!

Scarlet Traces guest reviewed by JK

from the message boards:

Sleeper of the year-"Scarlet Traces"

This could be the perfect example of what Frank Miller was talking about when he said the future of comics is original graphic novels. Written in four equal chapters, it seemed the intention was to be a mini series, although Dark Horse put out the story as a single hardcover book.

The story takes place in Victorian England and has a LXG feeling about it. The main storyline is about two men, a retired-soldier-turned-gentleman-adventurer and his former Sergeant Major (now manservant), and their quest to find the later's missing niece. What really sets this story apart is the incredible backdrop storyline: the Martians(the tripod variety from H.G. Wells) invaded England, but before their inevitable victory they succumb to germs that humans have been immune to for centuries. The industrious English assimilate the left behind Martian technology into their everyday lives, including the devastating heat-ray, and became a world power. What does this have to do with the missing niece? Plenty! The scripting by Edginton is flowing and flawless. The artwork by D'Israeli captures that victorian feel and his Martian technology is right on the mark. This book is so English, in a good way.

JK GRADE: A-

See, there's occasionally something useful on the feedback board

Wed, 03 Sep 2003

FF movie sighting

Sharp-eyed customer and Hijinx message board troublemaker Mario pointed out this image and said it was spotted in an LA movie theatre. I thought it was for the old Corman stinker, but no...

The Fantastic Four was a great book for two reasons and their names are Stan and Jack. To capture the scope of the book in it's prime would require a huge budget. I'm looking forward to seeing the negative zone, but I bet it'll be mostly set in Latveria and a involve a certain Doctor named Vic.

Mon, 01 Sep 2003

I likes me some bugs

When I was a kid I was really into dinosaurs and insects. To this day I buy insect field guides just to look at the purty pictures. Check out this cool bug site for everything you need.

Sat, 30 Aug 2003

inmate inventors

I just had to post a link to this great site full of prisoner inventions. My brother once gave me a prison style tatoo gun made out of a dc motor, paper clip, a pen and a bunch of needles. Luckily, I was smart enough to never use it on myself. The chess set made out of toilet paper, sugar water and cardboard is a personal favorite.

Sat, 23 Aug 2003

Springfield Splendor

Simpsons Comics is the funniest all-ages title around, bar none. Like the show, the writers are able to pull off that toughest of all writing feats, it's as funny for adults as it is for kids. Bongo is the only comics company delivering on time, high quality comics that kids actually want to buy! I have a hard time keeping Simpsons and Futurama Comics in stock because of all the local fans.

Anyway, I just finished the latest issue (#85) and it was a hoot and a half. The best part was the backup story featuring the Comic Book Guy showcasing some less popular Bongo comics. Books like World's Funkiest with Disco Stu, Moe's Sad But True Romance and Smither's the Wacky Lackey. Good fun for the kids!

Thu, 21 Aug 2003

The Acme Novelty Datebook by Chris Ware

I usually don't like to read artist's sketchbooks because they weren't meant to ever be collected and read. That is, artists use sketchbooks to work out different approaches in order to incorporate the best bits into their published works. Maybe I just am looking for a narrative hook to tickle the story centers of my brain, but I need more than just some purty pictures of the artist's own thumb and such. Where others have failed, Chris Ware delivers with The Acme Novelty Datebook, a lushly designed and produced collection of sketchbook material chosen by the artist from almost a decade worth of his work.

I tore through this pretty quickly, as you might expect of a sketchbook, but I kept hitting gooey hunks of brilliant little comic strips and self-deprecating tirades that gave more depth than you would expect, all in lavish full-color.

This book is a thing of great beauty to behold, and is just the thing to read if you are ever feeling too happy. Like his comics, Ware's sketchbooks can be a lonely and depressing place to visit, but the rare moments of joy are highlighted and focused to great effect in contrast.

Mon, 18 Aug 2003

graphic novel bumper crop

That's right kids, take a look over at the selection of Graphic Novels and trade paperbacks coming in this wednesday, I'll wait.

Done? That's quite a list. I was recently challenged by a long-time customer on my GN/TPB selection. I was taken aback by his contention that I didn't have enough, since I pride myself on stocking comics that other stores might deem too obscure to even consider, let alone prominently display and support. He told me it wasn't the independent stuff he meant, it was all the various mainstream Marvel trades that I needed to stock up on. I stepped back, looked at my stock and realized that he was right. This week changes all of that, and you can thank Tony for it!

Mon, 11 Aug 2003

Garish Zow #4

I've always liked anthologies because they give you a nice taste of a lot of different artists. Garish Zow #4 is sort of a comics smorgasbord if you will. Rarely does every person like every dish, but as long as there's enough, and the overall quality decent, it makes for a satisfying meal.

This issue made a real leap forward from the earlier ones, both in terms of content and production values. Just as an object, it's lovely to look at and feels good in your hands, but that's not enough to make it good reading. This issue isn't just the prettiest one, it's also the funniest yet. The folks at Hidden Agenda Press show not only production savvy, but also refined editorial taste in their selection of stories. I'll just list a couple of my favorites.

MacBoth by Leland Purvis is my favorite piece, pulling off a brilliantly paced pantomime parable that is both fun to read and has a great message it delivers with nary a word balloon or sound effect.

A two-pager called Landscape by Andy Gouveia is short, and also silent but conveys it's message through facial expressions and body language. It's quick and fleeting, but shows lots of potential.

Struck Oil by Lou is just the kind of silent scatalogical space humor that makes me laugh. Giant robots and spacemen mix it up in a wacky moon mix-up.

As for stories with words, Actual Dream caused an actual spit-take when I read it while drinking. Written by Michael Allen and lovingly rendered by Chris Kohler, the story gives us a peek into the nocturnal wanderings of the author. I sort of wish I hadn't looked as Disneyland and Count Chocula blend together into a creamy blend of the cheerful and horrific, while managing to comment on the perverse machinations of modern corporate merchandising deals. The final punchline of this strip alone is worth the price of admission by itself.

Mount Philadelphia by Samuel Kienbaum and Hijinx's own Tim Goodyear is creepy and strange, with art evocative of Steve Ditko after donating blood. I'm not sure if the characters are F Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, or just two dudes in a bar, but the tension in the conversation comes through as Ernest bums money off of Scott. At first I found some of the symbolism employed early on to be impenetrable, but upon subsequent reading I found it more accessible.

Not everyone will like every story in GZ #4, but I liked it enough to offer a full money-back guarantee on this issue. If you can read it without laughing out loud, bring it back and tell me I'm a moron.

Sat, 09 Aug 2003

UT!

I was googling around and came across a great custom-made Flaming Carrot action figure! Pretty meticulous and painstaking work on the part of someone with a lot of time on their hands.

Sat, 02 Aug 2003

the real Mike

As any old customer knows, Hijinx used to be called Mike's Coliseum. Today the original Mike Gamble returned with his two kids in tow. The youngest wanted to know one thing: "Why'd you take my dad's name off the store?!?"

I explained to him that there was only one true Mike, and that I just couldn't fill those shoes. Mike was a great guy, and I credit him more than anyone for inspiring my career choice. He had a vision of a place kids and adults could come and have fun with their hobbies, and Hijinx is continuing in that spirit. Click on the picture to see the full size version.

Fri, 01 Aug 2003

Joya to the world!

I'm pleased as punch to announce the latest addition to clan Shahin: my niece Joya! My brother Chris and his wife Eddy were joined by Joya Marie Shahin on July 23rd at 12:25 am. Weighing in at 7 pounds 12 oz she was born just 2 days before my 28th birthday. Now I get to either be that cool uncle with the comic shop, or at least that weird uncle with the comic shop. Click on the picture to see more.

Wed, 30 Jul 2003

DC exclusives

DC comics just sent me an email to say that Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale and Grant Morrison have all signed exclusive contracts with them. Sale and Loeb will team up soon for Catwoman: When in Rome and Morrison has all kinds of new series and projects in the works.

Dan DiDio, DC's editorial VP said: "We're very happy to have Grant Morrison back where he belongs, with the characters he loves, doing the best work of his career"

Craig Thompson's Blankets

It's pretty rare to read a beautiful comic book. Lots of comics are fun to read, well-drawn and written, but rarely do you get to look right inside a person's sometimes troubled life and draw hope from the lessons they've learned. Rarely do you read a comic that takes you so deep into the artist's soul that you might even wish you hadn't gone. Craig Thompson's Blankets achieves the rare distinction of a genuine masterpiece in the medium of comics.

At 590+ pages, it's an intimidating tome at first glance. However, the pacing is quite rapid and the story is so engaging that it demands to be read in one sitting. It's the story of the artist's youth and especially his first love, but more broadly examines his life and art through the filtered fog of memory translated into ink on paper.

Don't let this book pass you by. Buy it, read it, and if you don't like it, return it in good condition and receive a full refund in store credit. At $29.99 for the softcover, and with the Hijinx 100% satisfaction guarantee, how can you lose? That's no-risk reading on a truly inspiring work of art. Click the cover image for an online preview.

Tue, 29 Jul 2003

return of the wednesday want-list

all ages picks of the week

action adventure picks

mature reader picks

Make it a point to check these titles out in the shop, you won't be sorry!

league of ordinary rubbish

Yes, I saw it and I hated it. What was most depressing was how good the special effects and visuals were. If they could have just have written a good script to go with the F/X I'd be happy. Every character they added or changed significantly enough to lose what made them so great in the comic.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic is one of my favorites of all time, so I was scared when I heard that it was being adapted for the big screen. How right I was to be scared. The movie totally missed everything that made LOEG a great comic. Rather than stick with a strong female leader like Mina Murray and a drug-addled Alan Quartermain, they opt for a tough guy and super-vampire woman interpretation. Do yourself a favor and stick with the trade paperback.

Thu, 24 Jul 2003

pro quality batman fan film

Saw this on boingboing and I'm still downloading it, so I'm not sure how it is. It's only in Quicktime format, and you can find it here. Apparently it was directed by the guy who played Boner on TV's Growing Pains. Not sure what that means yet...

update(with spoilers!): I just watched it (without sound) and it was pretty bad-ass! It takes an unexpected turn when Batman wanders into a battle of Predator vs Alien. The production values were pretty high and the credits were long. Looks like Boner sunk some serious dough into this as his "reel" to show to prospective employers. I bet he gets a job.

correction: the director of the film is NOT "Boner" from "Growing Pains"... "Boner" plays the Joker in the short film. Thanks to Jose de Leon for the correction.

Wed, 23 Jul 2003

TPB Tuesdays are here!

I'm trying a little experiment to spice up every comic store's slowest day: tuesday. Basically, every GN/TPB purchased on a tuesday will earn you a 10% rebate credit good for use on future GN/TPB purchases. Will it work? Only time will tell...

Mon, 21 Jul 2003

creative commons

I recently applied a creative commons license to my writing on this site. Check out the cool comics they use to explain the concepts in practice. I've decided on an attribution license which let's people use my stuff, even for commercial purposes, but they must give me credit for using it. Other options are available to restrict commericial use and/or derivations, but I'm a lot less up tight than that.

wonderful wednesday want-list

I just posted the new comics list for wednesday, and thought I'd point out some new and not-so-new stuff that I can't wait to read myself!

all ages picks of the week

action adventure picks

mature reader picks

Make it a point to check these titles out in the shop, you won't be sorry!

Fri, 18 Jul 2003

bearskinrug.co.uk

I usually don't like flash heavy sites, but this one is just too cool! Make sure to play with the polar bear, it's darn funny, and a real triumph in the swf format.

online etchasketch

Check it out right here. Be prepared to waste some serious time.

alpha(bet) flight

You've heard of the X-Wing, the Y-Wing, and maybe even the B-Wing fighters from Star Wars, but I'll bet you've never seen a Q-Wing, or a K-Wing. Now you can with the Star Wars Alphabet Project which is almost to it's goal of 26 letter-inspired spaceships.

Thu, 17 Jul 2003

blogger jobs

I just saw a cool job posted at google/blogger. They're looking for experienced bloggers to provide technical support to newbies! Check it here for more details. If I didn't have a dream job already, I'd be looking into this...

hipster bingo

Being tragically unhip myself, I couldn't help but laugh when I saw this on boingboing. I wish I had this at the party my roommates threw a couple weeks ago. I could have filled the whole card!

Sun, 13 Jul 2003

not going to San Diego

I'm not going to Comicon this year, I'll be too busy to make it. I've never really liked comic book conventions, or "pop culture" conventions as they have morphed into. Maybe I'm a prude, but I tend to agree with those parents groups who protested porn stars appearing at a convention in Pittsburgh. If the "actors" in question actually have comics to promote, that's one thing, but that isn't what's going on in 90% of the cases I've seen. Don't even get me started on the pylons, cylons and klingons...

Sat, 12 Jul 2003

CHIC IN JIM SOX

I was just checking the Internet Anagram Server for anagrams of the store name. You can see the rest right here. I'm a fan of anagrams, palindromes, spoonerisms and other nerdy things like that there.

Thu, 10 Jul 2003

ultimate Beetle Bailey auction

Somebody just sent me a link to this ebay auction for thousands of mint condition Beetle Bailey comics from 1970. Get those bids in now!

Sacco in the Gaza strip

Joe Sacco is one of the best cartoonists around. He goes to all the war-torn trouble spots around the globe and reports on them through comics. Check out his latest work on the Palestinian Israeli crisis here at the NY Times website.

Tue, 08 Jul 2003

same difference

I was going to review Derek Kim's excellent trade paperback Same Difference today, but then I found out he's posted the entire story online. Go there and judge for yourself. I think you'll like it enough to buy a "real" copy of it at Hijinx.

[] permanent link

Sun, 06 Jul 2003

more navel gazing

I've integrated the weblog right here onto the main page. I'm actually subscribing to my own RSS feed to do it. So very dorky. I just love info-clutter!

lucky ducky

MOCCA is running an online exhibition called duck! with some far-out comics. The one by Ruben Bolling is my favorite.

Sat, 05 Jul 2003

featured artist box

I like to rearrange my website as much as I do my store. Actually more, since I've yet to throw out my back cutting and pasting HTML. I've added a featured artist box right under the featured customer box on the homepage. I'll update this every once in a while when I get bored of the current one.

I'm thinking of making the top graphic change every hour, but haven't yet written the code. Maybe I'll go do it now.

Thu, 03 Jul 2003

the dawn of comic micropayment?

Scott McCloud has been talking about micropayments as a means of supporting online comics for some time now. He's finally released a comic this way, so we can all see if this business model really works. Check it out.

Mon, 30 Jun 2003

salestravaganzathon wrap-up

Many thanks to all who attended the Hijinx Comics 21st annual Salestravaganzathon to soak up some culture and bargains. Saturday was the busiest day of the year, over 50% above Free Comic Book Day which was the previous record setter.

None of this would have worked without the help of a bunch of great people. Thanks go out to: My Mom and Dad, Steve, JK, Andy, Tim, Steven, Mike and anyone else who came out to say howdy. Special thanks to Kieron Dwyer and Larry Young for hanging out on Sunday signing books and doing sketches, as well as for saying such nice things about my store!

Fri, 20 Jun 2003

Hi-Jinx Teenage Animal Funnies

My old friend Kevin pointed this book out to my on Ebay and I swooped in and won the auction. I just might rip off the logo for some store signage. The book has a real dated hipster look that makes me smile! Click on the picture for a larger version.

Thu, 19 Jun 2003

Human Defense Corps #2

Another good issue from an underdog title. Most people haven't given this book a fair shake, but I think it's pretty good. Ty Templeton used to write for Batman Adventures, so he writes well for dummies like me that like things laid out clearly and simply. The art by penciler Clement Sauve Jr,and inker Juan Vlasco go beyond servicable and they draw good gorillas too . Good stuff!

Sat, 14 Jun 2003

the distinguished competition

Sometimes I worry that our website is just not cutting it, then I look up the other guys. Funny stuff!

corntainer

This link right here goes into the details of a new type of bio-degradable plastic made from corn. Neat. Here's a link that shows you how to make your own corn plastic in the microwave. Thanks /.

floppybot

I just saw this in the boingboing feed and had to link it. If you like building robots and have an extra 3 1/2 inch floppy disk drives laying around, you'll be in geek heaven. I'm currently serving time in geek purgatory to make up for all that software I copied in college!

Tue, 10 Jun 2003

miserable message from Matt Manselle

Matt Manselle called me today to tell me about the press screening of the Hulk movie he saw last night. I declined to hear any details, but he said it sucked. He said any time the hulk was on screen rocked, but everything else was doo doo. The only thing he told me that chilled me was that all the rumors about hulk dogs and the absorbing man were dead on. Not good, but then again Matt really liked Daredevil when we first saw it, but he denies it now!

Sun, 08 Jun 2003

snake plissken chronicles review

I was combing through the logs and noticed that the top search term this month was snake plissken chronicles review. I'm not sure why this particular search led to me, but never let it be said that I don't respond to my audience. So here it is, the Hijinx Comics Official Review of The Snake Plissken Chronicles:

It sucked

The art was competent in that glossy Crossgen style, and Snake looked just like Kurt Russell, but I couldn't help but think of the artist cooped up with KR reference material, wishing he were dead. The scripting was beyond awful, it was gawdawful, and that's not even a real word!

VHS blowout

Apparently my distributer wants to dump all their old VHS tapes at dirt cheap prices. DVD is cool but the tapes on this list are damn good for $4 a piece! Do yourself a favor and check it out.

about as geeky as possible

Just in case you were looking for one, here's a Klingon to Esperanto translator for you. Just try to find a dorkier link than that. I dare you.

Fri, 06 Jun 2003

**telephone * codes**

I knew about *69 and *70, but did you know there are a ton of other telephone codes? Neither did I till I read a blog by John C Dvorak. You know, the guy with the funny keyboard.

automatic chicken-catcher

The PH2000 mechanical chicken harvester can catch 150 birds a minute.

I saw this on slashdot and thought it was way cool. This machine does the jobs of 8 fully qualified human chicken-catchers. That's some nice economy of scale. Now I'm just waiting for the version that sorts comic books. The Wall Street Journal has the full poop

Wed, 04 Jun 2003

Frank Miller interview

I'm listening to a killer interview of Frank Miller by Gary Groth of The Comics Journal. Check out their mp3 archives for a great listening experience. Frank comes off as a real down to earth guy who loves comics.

Script Preview: Red #1 by Warren Ellis

The always retail-friendly Warren Ellis was smart/cool enough to send me a copy of the script for the first issue of his upcoming series Red. More black ops with a superhuman twist, and this one had me glued to my screen. It's in rtf format to preserve all the formatting and stuff, and because I'm too lazy to convert it to html. You should be able to open it with any decent word processor. I used Abiword and it opened just fine.

Check it out and drop me a line if you want to add it to your subscription list. He also just sent me the script for Planetary #16 but I don't want to ruin any of the surprises...

Sun, 01 Jun 2003

unh! oof! aaaaaaaaaarrgh!

More fun stuff on boingboing about the Unh! Project: A collection of guttural moans from comics. As far as I know none of these were taken from Eros Comics, so it's pretty tame stuff.

Sat, 31 May 2003

I made this. Forgive me.

I was poking around the websites of ex-employers and I found a product I created still rearing it's ugly head. I conceived this monstrosity when I was saving up enough money to buy the store. Originally it was a Perl script which forked keystrokes into a fifo which basically saves all I/O for a shell session. I'd run the logs and it would playback your whole shell session a keystroke at a time. It even recorded vi sessions and other interactive programs.

I wrote the initial prototype in about a day, and then handed it over to a better programmer to make a c program. We took the BSD Script utility and made it spit it's output into a secure port. While Ton worked on the c client, I refined the logging server which remained written in Perl. I'm not sure how or if it's changed in the year+ I've been gone, but I know I made the right decision in leaving.

Thu, 29 May 2003

Fantagraphics Books Needs Your Help!

Come on people, get out them wallets and order!
Buy Books! Keep Us Alive!
To Comics Lovers Throughout the World:
Fantagraphics Books has just celebrated its 27th year publishing many of the finest cartoonists from all over the world as well as our flagship publication, the magazine people love to hate, The Comics Journal. We are proud of our long-term commitment to comics as an art form and our dogged determination to push excellence down everybody's throats. This is all very well and good but it doesn't mean much in the face of brute economics - and it's the wall of brute economics that we've just hit, hard.
Due to two major financial obstacles over the last two years, we're hard against it.
Our former and now bankrupt book trade distributor went out of business owing us over $70,000 - which we will never see. (To add insult to injury, we learned that the owner is selling copies of our books that he should've returned on e-bay!) This unexpected shortfall necessitated taking out a couple loans which have now come due. In late 2001, our line was picked up by the W.W. NORTON COMPANY, who took over our bookstore distribution, and has done a magnificent job of providing us unprecedented access to the bookstore market. Inexperience with the book trade resulted in our erring on the side of overprinting our books too heavily throughout 2002, so that our anticipated profit is in fact sitting in our warehouse in the form of books. Loans must be paid in cash, not books. The only way to get out of this hole we've dug ourselves into is to sell those books. Which is where, we hope, you come in.
Over the last few weeks, we've worked to fix our in-house problems (which included, most painfully, laying off several fine and long-term employees). We have put in place a system of checks and balances by which we will watch our inventory growth scrupulously. But, we have a debt to pay down and wolves at the door. It's so severe that this month we envisaged shutting down our active publishing, seeking outside investors, or similarly odious measures. (Fantagraphics continues to be owned 100% by Messrs. Gary Groth and Kim Thompson. We'd like it to remain that way.)
If you've respected what Fantagraphics stands for and what we've done for the medium, if you've enjoyed our books, and if you want to insure that this proud tradition continues into this new and ominous century, we're asking you to help us now in our especial hour of need by buying some books. Put simply, we need to raise about $80,000 above our usual sales over the next month, and the only way to do that is to convert books into cash.
We've spent the last quarter century trying hard to produce the best comics the world has ever seen. You've rewarded us over the years with your loyal patronage, your moral support, your praise, your intelligent and honest feedback, all of which are more than we could ever have hoped for. We know we have tens of thousands of loyal readers: if even a fraction of you come forward and order two or three books that you've been meaning to buy, we'll be over this hump. We've published some some of the best books ever over the last year -Gene Deitch's (yes, that Gene Deitch!) THE CAT ON A HOT THIN GROOVE; B. KRIGSTEIN, Greg Sadowski's definitive biography of the pioneering artist from the '50s; the magnificent FRANK collection; and the third volume of the extraordinary KRAZY KAT series. Our publishing plans for 2003 include a huge coffee table book by Will Elder (WILL ELDER: MAD PLAYBOY OF ART); KRIGSTEIN COMICS, a 240 page follow-up collection of Krigstein's best comics from the '50s, and new collections and graphic novels by Gilbert Hernandez, Jason, Dave Cooper, Robert Crumb, A.B. Frost, Bill Griffith, Gary Panter...
We already sell books by mail, so, as clichéd as it sounds, we really do have operators standing by. You can view out catalogue online. You can order by calling our 800 number or on-line at our web site (all ordering information below.)
If this was a standard pitch, we'd offer you some extra incentive - a discount or free books or knicknacks or whatnot. But, it's not. We're asking those of you who believe we've contributed something worthwhile and meaningful to help us continue to do so, that's all. We need the full retail value of our books. But we can offer something that won't cost us any money: anyone (individually or collectively) who buys $500 worth of books from us will get a personal phone call from Gary Groth thanking you for saving Fantagraphics' ass. Think how much fun this could be at a party!

via FAX: 206-524-2104
via mail: Fantagraphics Books, 7563 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115
Secure Internet Orders: http://www.fantagraphics.com
phone: 206-524-1967 or 800-657-1100

Wed, 28 May 2003

shrinkage

Get your mind out of the gutter, I'm talking about shoplifting. I haven't caught any yet, but I'm not naive enough to think nobody has done it here. My friend Phil at CCS, formerly Big Guy's Comics, had some original art stolen right off his walls. These are original cover art, so they're one of a kind. I sure hope somebody tries to sell 'em to me so I can bust them!

Mon, 26 May 2003

east meets even further east

I just got back from the wedding of my old roommate Duy. It was a Vietnamese/East Indian/Catholic wedding, and one of the coolest I've ever witnessed. And the food was incredible. The reception was at the Bamboo Garden in Sunnyvale, and the dinner consisted of 9 courses plus appetizers! We started with roast duck and eggrolls, followed up with honey walnut prawns, general's chicken, sea bass, lobster, chow mein, asparagus, tofu and a bunch of other Indian stuff I either forgot about or couldn't identify. Even the DJ commented that in all her years of doing weddings at that very restaurant, she had never seen anyone throw down so much killer chow like tonight!

Sat, 24 May 2003

JB and the Rebellion

My good buddy Joel Bowers just sent me a link to his killer new website. Some of you customers may have heard me play Joel's graduate recital album and asked about it because it sounds so damn good. I expect Joel to make it big any time now, and then it's coat tail time baby! Bring on the groupies!

The only problem with that scenario is that Jazz is such an under-appreciated artform, much like comics. Ironic, since they're both such great new forms of expression, developed here in the U.S. You'd think with all those jingoistic xenophobes out there that more people would get into jazz and comics.

[/topics/arts/music] permanent link

Fri, 23 May 2003

what's big, green and boring?

Apparently the new Hulk Movie is. I won't judge it till I sees it! All I know is Ang Lee has never dissapointed me yet. Even the commercial he did for BMW was pretty good. The article calls it the Ice Storm meets Shrek. I don't know about Shrek, but the Ice Storm kicked butt!

quotes that break my heart

I was reading a nice article from the journalista feed about some rich guy who donated his comics to a library. They want to preserve the stuff for future historians. They end the article with a quote that made me want to rip my hair out.

"We preserve a reflection of the times, and a part of that has got to be comic books," Mitchell said. "Not to say that comic books are as important as other forms of art or literature, but they are important."

oh well...

Tue, 20 May 2003

press play

The Willow Glen Resident ran an article about free comic book day this week. Besides being littered with cliched comic book catch phrases, it was pretty good for an article three weeks after the fact. The only real factual error was they put the wrong website! They put wackyhijinks.com instead of wackyhijinx.com. That's why I'm going to make hijinxcomics.com point to the store website and wackyhijinx.com will be for the weblog primarily.

Mon, 19 May 2003

like, extreme dude

It's time again for California Extreme in downtown San Jo! For a single cover charge you get to play every arcade and pinball machine you loved as a kid, and can even buy one if you like it enough. It's moved to July 26-27 (the day after my birthday) but stayed in the same spot downtown. This was fun last year, even though I only caught the tail end. Come play Fish Tales with me!

copyright infringement is fun!

I saw this first on boingboing, and then saw it linked in the XML feeds. Bill Watterson is an interesting fella. In college, I wrote a documentary based only on the few interviews and speeches he's made in his rather reclusive career. Did you know that there are absolutely no Calvin & Hobbes dolls, t-shirts, calendars, coffee mugs, early pregnancy tests, catheters, or any other licensed merch? Watterson thought that that stuff cheapened the comic, but in the void created by his ethical stance a lot of really cheesy bootlegs were made appropriating his drawings. Most of them are for things like frats or hot-rod clubs and other things that Calvin despised, like organized sports. Anyway, check out the link from the tasteful graphic above.

Fri, 16 May 2003

9th level Dan with high levels of Shahin!

I was googling around when I found this page, apparently about archery. Here's an excerpt:

5th Dan
One whose shooting form, shooting technique, and taihai all conform to correct principles, who has begun to display shahin (dignity, quality, and elegance in shooting), and who, in particular, is judged to have achieved refinement.
6th Dan
One who shows excellent shooting technique and whose further development of refinement is striking and obvious.
7th Dan
One who has made shooting form, shooting technique and taihai a part of him or herself so that they are naturally expressed, who is possessed of a high degree of shahin, and who has reached an expert level.
8th Dan
One whose technical ability is perfect (mature), whose shahin is refined and elegant, and who has mastered the mysteries of the art of shooting.
9th Dan
One who has penetrated to the ultimate truth of kyudo.

I may not have penetrated to the ultimate truth of kyudo yet, but I defy you to find me a Dan with a more refined and elegant Shahin than me!

eclipso

Did you look at the moon last night? It was a total eclipse around 9:30 pm pacific time. It looked cool, but I bet it was much more impressive back in the days before electric light all but drowned out the stars. Even with a rudimentary knowledge of astronomy, it's hard to get your head around the sheer scale of the objects and their relationship in space. No wonder ancient people thought strange and mysterious things were happening, they were!

asteroids rocks

Not a typo, I'm talking about the old vector graphics video game from Atari. I've come to realize that the design of games peaked with this title, and a purer video gaming experience is not to be found.

I'm not a video gamer. I don't spend hundreds of dollars and hours on the things, I just know what I like. Here's my short list of the best video games I've ever played:

asteroids

discs of Tron (not the movie game)

bubble bobble

Michael Jackson's Moonwalker

smash tv

gauntlet 2

spy hunter

street fighter 2 There are many more I left out, but these are the one's that robbed me of so many quarters back before I discovered the sublime glory that is pinball.

Thu, 15 May 2003

bike to work day

Did you bike to work today? I know I did. It's nothing new to me, because I ride as much as I can. No, I'm not some hippy tree-hugger or fitness fanatic (that's obvious), I'm just cheap. Like, Uncle Scrooge cheap.

Don't forget to check out the moon tonight around 9:30 for a full lunar eclipse! Good stuff.

Wed, 14 May 2003

more tales from next wednesday

Hot off next week's new comics shelf, here are some quickies:

Amazing Spider-Man #494 - Fun reading, solid comic for spidey fans.

New Mutants #1 - Not as bad as I feared, but the cover is the best part.

The Crew #1 - Muddled art and storytelling, unsympathetic characters. Rhodey's sister is a dead crack ho!

Daredevil #47 - My favorite Bendis book keeps getting better. Read this!

Sun, 11 May 2003

reviews from the future

I've got another batch of quickies for you, but these ones don't come out until next week. That's right, I'm milking my industry connections to review books that the ordinary reading public can't get yet. This may seem pretty trivial to some, but to a comic geek like me it's like manna from heaven.

The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong - Great art, fun story, read this book! A bevvy of heavyweight guest artists delineate this dimension-hopping tale of myriad missing monkeys.

Blood and Water #3 - Pretty good, I guess. I get it, it's cool to be a vampire, but there are some disgusting drawbacks too. I just don't care.

Captain America #13 - Muddled but interesting. Switching artists or writers in the middle of a storyline is not usually a good sign. Switching both midstream tells me something is very wrong.

Incredible Hulk #54 - Titans finally clash, and it was good. Abomination vs Hulk in the slugfest we've waited months for.

Human Defense Corps #1 - Surprisingly good. The best part was that one of the members is the grandson of Little Sure-Shot from Sgt Rock.

quickies - short reviews of a bunch o' stuff

Tony Millionaire's Sock Monkey vol 4 #1 - As usual, great stuff! Haunting and funny, for all ages.

The Leauge of Extraordinary Gentlemen vol 2 #5 - Well worth the wait. Possibly the most disturbing scene I've ever read in a comic.

Alias #22 - Pretty good. Nice throwback issue as part one of Jessica Jones' Secret Origin.

Uncanny X-Men #423 - Awful. At least it was only 25 cents. How come I still feel ripped off?

Venom #1 - Not so good. Remember the movie The Thing From Another World? Imagine Venom in it. Except neither Venom or Spidey appear in the first issue. Now go buy something good.

Wolverine: Snikt! - Dumb name, good book. Light on dialogue the first issue only takes minutes to read, but you'll go back for the pretty pictures by Tsutomu Nihei.

The Filth #10 - I still don't get it, but I like it! Wherever Morrison is headed, I'm in it for the ride.

Ultimate Spider-Man #40 Yawnsville. I'd still rather read old Lee/Ditko issues, but what the heck do I know?

The Authority vol 2 #1 Poop with staples in it. Both the story and art are so below par with this issue, I wish they hadn't bothered to bring it back.

applicant must speak Klingon

I'm sure by now you've heard this story about an open position for a Klingon interpreter. Apparently some of their nuttier fruitcakes will only speak in this made-up gutteral geek-speak. The problem is, anyone qualified for the position should be considered prospective patients there too.

Fri, 09 May 2003

jughead vs predator

I think the title says it all. It's the only predator crossover I would want to read. I'm launching an impromptu contest. Best picture representing the cover of Jughead vs Predator: A Reckoning for Riverdale wins something so unbelievably cool that I havent even thought of it yet! I'm going to bed.

Thu, 08 May 2003

tales of suspense

My favorite superhero as a kid was always Captain America. I never realized exactly why that was until today. I just stumbled across a copy of Tales of Suspense #59, the first issue that edged Iron Man into a co-feature so the recently defrosted Cap could get some solo action. The first time I read this story, it was in a paperback sized collection of classic Cap stories, starting with his first Silver Age appearance in Avengers #4. The second story in that collection is the book that sold me on Cap as a top-notch hero. He had to defend Avengers Mansion from a group of well-organized thugs who think Cap is "easy picken's" since he has no super powers, and is just a "glorified acrobat".

I didn't realize it at the time, but that issue in a nutshell shows why Jack Kirby was so great. A lesser artist wouldn't be able to depict his subject with the same grace and power as Kirby. The only artist I've seen come close is Steve Rude in the recent mini-series What Price Glory?, and that was only by practically aping Kirby's work in Tales of Suspense. If you read only one Cap story your entire life, track down Tales of Suspense #59 and you won't be dissapointed.

Wed, 07 May 2003

sprucing up the homepage

Spent the last few hours in an HTML haze sprucing up tiny details of the homepage. I hope google doesn't mind that I replaced their logo with a little Barney Google badge I found using their own image search tool! Barney is also getting a little love in the upper left box of the homepage. What can I say, I like the little guy! Did you know that none other than Charles Schulz was nicknamed Sparky after Barney's racehorse Sparkplug? Now you do. Will it ever do you any good to know? Doubtful.

Mon, 05 May 2003

X2 reunited and it feels so good

I just got back from X-Men 2 and it was a hum-dinger. It is the Empire Strikes Back of the series, complete with Han frozen in carbonite, sorta...

My friend Matt who works at Garden City told me that I misused the terms action and juice, as far as they are described by California law. I explained to him that I use the terms in their truest sense, as felt by degenerate gamblers everywhere. Nevertheless, I will find out and report on the legal definitions as soon as I can make some sense out of them.

marvel stock quadruples during stock slump

Interesting story on Motley Fool (fool.com) about the incredible performance of Marvel's stock, due mainly to the great success of movies based on their characters.

I just hope that the Hulk movie is as good as X-Men 2 was, so it can cover up the stink that emanated from the Daredevil movie.

mr rogers lives on...

...as a comet! I just heard on KGO that some astronomers have officially changed the name of comet #26858 to Mr Rogers. Since I was born in Pittsburgh, the home of Fred McFeely Rogers, I practically grew up in the neighborhood of make believe. Those who know me well would say I never left.

And I don't want to hear any creepy pedophile innuendo either, because he deserves better.

Sun, 04 May 2003

bubble babble

Just read a cool link over on scienceblog.com about extrememly resilent soap bubbles. Seems you can keep one around under ideal conditions for up to 10 days!

Jay Leno apologized to Kentucky doctor he said resembles Adolf Hitler

har har hardy-har har

proving himself to be the nicest guy in show business:

Sat, 03 May 2003

free comic book day wrap-up

Wow! Today was a non-stop flurry of customers. Some just wanted free stuff, but most people bought stuff making it a really great day sales-wise as well as from a P.R. perspective. The funniest thing I heard is that my competition was charging for free comic books. I get more customers by other store owners being jerks than I do through the yellow pages!

Fri, 02 May 2003

orbiter

I just finished Orbiter written by Warren Ellis with art by Colleen Doran and Dave Stewart. Good stuff, but a bit of a tease. This book left me wanting more, but in a good way! The whole thing reads like an introduction to a much grander sci-fi story, and I'll be waiting for it.

Orbiter deals a lot with a longing for space travel. The idea that we've stopped thinking about large-scale space exploration and have settled for piddly little missions in low orbit, denied the wider perspectives achieved by the early Apollo missions. It's a bit sad that we worked so hard to reach the moon, and then used much of the computer technology learned to turn inwards and make the world we live in even smaller.

In light of the latest space tragedies, it might be a good long while before we see any more manned missions, certainly before we set foot on Mars, or even the moon again.

tales from the old school

"I was the first person to put comics in alphabetical order!"

I always wondered who came up with that!

Frank Scadina is a true comic book character. He opened the second comic book store in San Jose. He started 7 sons comics with some other names that might be familiar to other south bay comic junkies: Dick Swan, Bud Plant, Mike Nowlan, now known as Michelle Nowlan, Jim Buser, Tom Tollmon and Dennis Cunningham. Some of these guys went on to have major success in the business, and are still out there plugging away.

I remember Frank coming into Mike's Coliseum when I was a kid working here. He used to love to have us stump him with baseball or cowboy trivia. His mind was like a steel trap for that stuff, as well as monster movies and pop culture from the 50's. He used to try and promote his shop by being on the old Creature Features show, but when people would come to look for his shop at 44 E. San Fernando, they'd have to first pass by Bob Sidebottom's shop which moved in just up the block on that one-way street. Most people looking for the shop on San Fernando would just stop at Sidebottom's and Frank eventually got out of the business.

He's going in for heart bypass surgery next week, so keep your thoughts and vibes positive for this self-proclaimed Comic Book Pioneer.

Thu, 01 May 2003

old stuff

Just read about a cool auction on boingboing. Turns out someone closed an entire grocery store and left it untouched since 1952. Check out these pictures for a blast from the past. I can now officially tell shit from shinola.

Wed, 30 Apr 2003

disturbing trend

I've been noticing a disturbing trend on the referrer list on my stats pages the past couple months. I guess this is a new way to generate links from sites that list their referrers to porno sites.

Guess I'll have to see what I can do about that...

update:

I think I fixed it, so that it won't show the offensive stuff. I used this:

webalizer -rshemale -rblack -rebony -rgay -rsex -rslut -rvirgin -rxxx -rcasino -rhound22 -rlesbian -rsan-fran.net -rtriconex -rwickedsearch.com -rsemenyak -rifxforum -relbe1.com -rtriplespace.com -rmyezsigma -ryellowpage.ws

action

What is action? Go ahead, check out that link and come back. I'll wait.

That pretty much sums it up, right? Wrong. They forgot about the most important definition for action, one every gambler knows. Action, sometimes also called juice is that feeling you get when you risk something with the chance to win big. You don't even have to win, you're in it for the thrill, the juice, the action.

What is it? There's no doubt your conscious mind and your innermost emotions are all wrapped up in there, much like other major players in the human psyche like love and hate. Some might say it's pure greed, but most gamblers know they'll eventually lose more than they win, so that's not the entire story.

Action has crept from the once exclusive den of compulsive gamblers and into the hearts and minds of children in the form of trading cards. Where once the hobby was about having a complete set or even one's favorite cards, the new mindset is purely focused on collectible value. Price guides are required reading for any 6 year old kid buying Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, or whatever it's called this year. There's no doubt that it's a money-maker for me, but that doesn't mean I can't be intrigued by all the action going on...

Tue, 29 Apr 2003

better late than never...

Just in case you haven't read them yet, here's a link to the 2003 Eisner Award nominations.

I haven't decided on every category yet, but I'm definitely voting for Jason Shiga's Fleep for best one-shot.

free as in speech and/or beer

I finally got around to putting up a software section of the main site. Check out the software page for releases of my various comic retailing software. They are all Free Software, written in Perl, and of course, inadequately documented.

Why release this stuff for free? Because the industry needs it, and I want as much feedback on it as possible. Also because I'm dumb.

Mon, 28 Apr 2003

warspying

Warren Ellis had a nice link about how to have a little fun with things you get at Fry's Electronics.

Sun, 27 Apr 2003

wondercon 2003

I just showed up for the tail end of this convention. Apparently lots of people bailed out when the venue changed to San Francisco from Oakland. It's always a trip to see so many people in your same business gathered together. It seems that the one thing every comic store owner shares in common is that they are all very unique. I have to say by far the nicest guy I met was Dick Swan, owner of Big Guys comics. Of course, he might have been so happy because he recently sold his store and got out of the business...

Fri, 25 Apr 2003

america's best comics

Now that most of my major store improvements are done, I can finally spend a little time digging through the 21 years worth of accumulated inventory. So far, my favorite find was America's Best Comics #13. Besides having an unapologeticly racist caricature, this comic is notable for being the inspiration and namesake for Alan Moore's ABC imprint. In fact, these guys are all about to make a comeback in the upcoming ABC book, Terra Obscura. I just did a quick google search on it, and came up with this timeline of the characters.

If you think kids see a lot of violence today, howzabout our "hero", Doc Strange incinerating that Japanese soldier with a flame thrower right on the cover?! Keep watching that upper left corner of the main site for other cool old comics to appear!

action comics 215 f/vf superman 10 cent cover
detective comics 278 f/vf batman 1960

Thu, 24 Apr 2003

going once...

I just started getting back into posting auctions on ebay. I'm just sort of dipping my toe in, but you loyal customers might as well get in on the auction action. Click on the pretty picture to check out the details.

or check out these other auctions of mine:

finally, a formula for deriving artistic greatness!

Van Gogh a no-go

I actually received an interesting spam today. By interesting, I mean it didn't offer me viagra, a high school equivalency certificate, or any Nigerian investment opportunities. It was from artprice.com. What made it stand out were the cool graphs charting the average auction prices of various artists. I'm a sucker for a good graph. Geeky I know, but I also read Edward Tufte books for fun.

Probably the best statistical graphic ever drawn, this map by Charles Joseph Minard portrays the losses suffered by Napoleon's army in the Russian campaign of 1812. Beginning at the Polish-Russian border, the thick band shows the size of the army at each position. The path of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in the bitterly cold winter is depicted by the dark lower band, which is tied to temperature and time scales. Exquisitely printed in two colors on fine archival paper, 22 by 15. buy it here

[/topics/arts] permanent link

Mon, 21 Apr 2003

linky-linky!

There's a nice discussion about indy comics over at slashdot.org. Plus, you can ask Warren Ellis something while you're there.

Speaking of Ellis, check out artbomb and Die Puny Humans. Both have some really good reviews and such.

let's get mainstream

Mario told me I haven't been reviewing enough "mainstream" comics, so here we go. I really enjoyed this comic. I read the first collection of issues 1-9, and found them to be a fun read. I especially liked the Rick Jones issue.

Rick Jones is kinda like Marvel's version of Jimmy Olsen. He's been a staple of the universe since Hulk's first appearance, and each time he hooks up with a superhero his schtick gets wackier. Personally, I think he deserves his own book, a la Superman's Pal...

Sat, 19 Apr 2003

blog system upgraded

I just switched over from plain Vim editing over to the blosxom weblog system. You can click on the little "powered by" logo on the lower left of the page to learn a little more about it. I switched over for a couple of reasons:

I can still use Vim directly on the webserver to post entries.
It's written in perl.
No DB required. It uses the file system to keep track of things.
I just need to keep busy.

radio shack comics!

Before I discovered the magic kingdom that is Fry's Electronics, Radio Shack was there to fulfill my geeky tech fantasies. They used to give away dorky comics that were so bad, they're good! I especially like The Computers That Said "NO" To Drugs. Sometimes I think my computer has been sniffing glue...

bear necessities

P. Craig Russell rules. Not only did he draw my all-time favorite issue of Sandman (#50 Ramadan) and the best non-Ditko Dr Strange story ever (What is it that Disturbs You, Steven?) but he does the best literary adaptations around. He's done Salome, and the entire Wagner Ring Cycle with style and aplomb, and Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book is in the same tradition. Check it out!

$16.95 - NBM Publishing

hijinx has hair high. huh?

Another day, another graphic novel review. Bill Plympton's Hair High is a comic preview of the upcoming feature film animated by Plympton. The work is quirky, distinctive and a damn fast read. The figure designs are full of energy, and you can almost imagine them in their full animated glory. You may have seen Plympton's work in the Spike and Mikes festival, but those are just little tidbits compared to his complete feature works.

$10.95 published by NBM

originally posted 4.14.2003

nice rack!

Get your mind out of the gutter and into the store to see the new comic racks I scored at a Super K-Mart liquidation sale! Apparently Big K has come upon hard times, and has been closing stores left and right across the country. They can't seem to compete with Wal-Mart any better than small local businesses, I guess. Wal-Mart is amazing to me because they're expanding exponentially into new markets and eating everybody's lunch. They'll never get comics though, I've instituted my own sinister protocols to assure of it.

Speaking of sinsister, check out little green men, a fun little webcomic I read about on boingboing today.