Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in LWOW's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, September 30th, 2007
3:01 am	Busy Busy Busy by John So about a week ago I planned on posting a article about the upcoming Red 5 comics, but then things just kept coming up. Mostly involving a lot of sales on Ebay. It always surprises me how much time it takes, start to the finish of the sale for one auction or store item. I finally had time allocated last week Saturday to catch up on things and then the Friday before... my servers SCSI card fried. And so all my plans were completely shot. In fact from Friday on I was working 10 to 16 hours a day. Today (yesterday now) was the first time in two weeks that I got more then 56 hours of sleep in one night. So right now were re-inventorying a lot of the store, and I'm finding out that we accidentally let a lot of good TPBs go out of stock. Over the next few months we'll be bringing back a lot of those, even further expanding out already insane selection of TPBs. Next up, the newsletter for subscription customers should be coming out one of these weeks. Assuming any subscribers read this and have not gotten in there email address, hurry up, each news letter will have a money saving coupon for the store. Well, that's about it for now, I'm currently fighting off a cat from eating my dinner and she's starting to get the upper hand since I'm typing. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, September 16th, 2007
3:04 pm	NGE Angelic Days review by John Last night I read volume 6 of Angelic Days... definitely not what I was expecting! I'm sure many of you have seen Neon Genesis Evangelion the TV series, so you know what the characters are like. And I'm sure many of you remember the brief glimpse of what NGE would be if it was a "typical" anime series. Well, that's the part that Angelic Days is based off of. The manga mainly explorers the relationships that the characters have with each other in much greater depth without the constant kill an angel every episode focus the TV series has. There still is some of the original TV plot of angels attacking, but it's used as a plot device to develop the characters. To me it was refreshing to see the characters develop in a direction other then just going to (and over) the brink of mental melt-down. That and I was surprised to see which relationships worked out and which ones fizzled out. Though the best part I think was in volume 5 where the reader really gets into Gebdo Ikari's head and understands the reasons for his insane determination to save the world and steer it in the direction he feels it should be. Over all a fun read that while it had some of the typical anime/manga depressingness, but had a upbeat ending, even if it did feel that there should/could be more, it works the way it is. Current Mood: satisfied Current Music: Universal Honey (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 8th, 2007
10:47 pm	Hmmm, it's been 35 weeks since I put something here, so I better... Anyway tomorrow I fly out to Baltimore for the Diamond Comics Retailer Summit... and I am so nervous! The last time I went I at least was with someone I knew, this time it's just me. That and I'm on a panel. I've never done a panel before. At least it's something I really know, integrating manga into your retail store. Now I won't go so far to say that I could write a book on this, but I definitely could write a article or essay on the subject. The fundamental problem I have with the panel is that the distributor has a list a questions we have to address and it really is missing the point in my opinion. Bringing in manga from scratch is a serious cash outlay for a retailer to do it right. At a minimum it's a thousand just to stock a core selection of the hot titles, and probably another two or three to get a nice cross section. The distributor wants the manufacturers on the panel to come up with a starter package of manga that's going to be a total of eighteen books from six different companies. .... I'm I the only one here who sees how flawed that is. Since you as a consumer is going to be so compelled to shop at a store that has a total of eighteen books on there shelfs. Heck, next week we're getting in forty three new volumes, and they seem to think eighteen is a good start?!?! Whatever, hopefully after the panel I can get some one-on-one time with some retailers and tell them about the correct way to do this. Oh well enough of that, I've decided that I need to add content to this more often. Especially since we're finally starting the store email newsletter up at the end of the month! I have to write about one to two hundred words a week just about what's going on at the store and whatever. So all of you subscribers who filled out your sheets and checked off that you want the newsletter, you will be rewarded! We're going to have a coupon every month. If you're not a subscriber, start subscribing, and then you can get the coupons, and invites to special sales. For those people who just don't read comics and thus won't be ordering, down the road we plan on opening this up to the general customers, once we get things rolling. Ok, I think that's enough for now. Current Mood: anxious Current Music: Radio Nova Chicago (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007
3:34 am	Replacement Entry by John There was supposed to be an entry here, but since I rather tired and the cats are distracting me, I somehow closed the window and lost it. Oh well, I doubt anyone wanted to read about my Christmas disaster and trying to take Boo home. Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 21st, 2006
2:18 am	A slight continuation by John Yes, the last entry was brought on my the insanity of the season. (right now I have a brief reprive from the cats!!) I'll be happy when it's over, not that I don't like getting or giving things, but too often this whole thing seems like a joke. Of people getting preents for others out of some twisted sense of obligation. It's supposed to have meaning, not be some sort of chore. If you don't want to give people things, tell them you don't want to and that they shouldn't get you anything. if they still get you something, that's there prerogative and you're not obligated to get them something. That's usually the case with me. My employees, friends, and regular customers get gifts from me and the store, but I expect nothing back in return. Personally I think that's the way things should be, but what ever. That's also the reason why, in the last month, I've bought multiple anime cels for myself as well as several pieces of original comic art work for myself. My Christmas present to myself for working hard during the holidays. (and there is another rant related to this I'll have to go into another day.) Current Mood: accomplished (Comment on this)
1:52 am	More Wednesday Fun!!! by John Yes, it was once again new book day at the Lost World, and fun it was. Like usual Diamond Comic Distributors made a plethora of mistakes that the customers blame us for. For starters, we were shorted 30 copies of the latest Fantastic Four!!!! 30 COPIES!!! So we had almost none to put out on the new release wall. Fun stuff. They shipped a bunch of wrong items and shorted a bunch of manga, that'll be fun trying to get straightened out! And latestly, most of Diamonds copies of Ergoproxy are "lost." Yes, lost. As in about a month after the release we'll get them. And yes, I'm in a rather sarcastic mood today, it was a crazy day, my sister dragged me out to bail her out of her latest car accident, the cats are screwing with my comic collection, and the new Baileys Chocolate Mint tastes just like regular Baileys. That and that call that came in at 9:00 PM... I knew i shouldn't have answered it. It went something like this, "Hello, Lost World of Wonders..." Women on the other side, "What did you say your name was?" (you cold tell she was doing something else and my answering the phone was a surprise to her) Me "This is the Lost world of Wonders" Woman "What was that?" (she still isn't paying much attention) Me (thinking why did I ever answer the phone) "Lost... World... of... Wonders..." Woman "What are your hours tonight?" (with a hint of sarcasm, and a note of disdain in her voice) Me "Well, we closed at 8 o' clock" Woman "What are your hours tomorrow?"(even more disdain this time) Me "Noon to eight." (At this point I can tell this is going to end badly.) Woman "What about your Friday hours?" (noticeable irritation in her voice) Me "Noon to eight." Woman "Oh, (very sarcasticaly) your hours everyday are like that." Me "..." Woman (once again, dripping with sarcasm) "Thank you" CLICK At this point I utter a curse about how she should have bought the Christmas presents for the kids she probably must hate a while ago since the fifty five hours the store is open every week doesn't at all fit in her busy schedule. Yes, it's the little things like that that just but a cap on the longest day of the week for me. Now don't get me wrong I really like my job, but there is something to be said about being the owner. That is if any customer pulled crap like that to my face in my store, or stayed on the phone long enough, I'd tell them flat-out, I don't need or even want your business. If she wasn't such a b**ch to me on the phone I would asked her what she was looking for and if necessary, made arrangements for her to come after hours when I do the restocking or Ebay work. But, she made it clear from the getgo that even calling me was a painfull effort and the mere act of coming in might cause her bodily harm. So my question is why doesn't she just tell the person she's supposed to be buying the gift for the truth; she didn't want to go to the comic store, so she got them something they don't want instead? On the flip side I really like the customers who give people super detailed lists with descriptions, prices, etc. of what they want. Then all we have to do is show the person the items of the list and ascertain the amount they wish to spend. Unfortunetly for every one of these we get a list that says, "anime" or "final fantasy". Now we may be better then the other stores that stock these items, in terms of knowing what the stuff is, but I can't say with any certaintity what anime they might want or if they're even looking for a FF figure or what not! Yes, I really don't care for the holidays very much. But not for the above reasons, I can dela with those. I hate the constant barrage or the question, "so what do you want for Christmas, John?" NOTHING More specifically, NOTHING that anyone I know can give me! Now I don't mind gifts, but don't ask me what I want. I don't ask the people I get gifts for what they want, I try and get them things I think they will like. Last time I checked, that was the idea of gift giving. We only ask the person what they want to cut down on the amount of work WE, the gift givers, have to do. The way I look at it, if you want the gift to be anything other then blatantly superficial, think of what the person likes, where they shop, etc, and if you have to, (at this point I'm fighting off two cats. One is trying to walk on the keyboard and rub on me. The other is content with occupying the same physical space as my key board and mouse while occasionally trying to eat his sisters tail. Thus there will be typos here and potentially some random characters that they left me.) BUY THEM A GIFT CARD!!! The mere fact that you at least went to the effort to go to a store they like, (unlike the afore mentioned lady) you put forth more effort then just handing them the amount of money necessary for them to buy themselves the items they want themsleves, or bought them a completely thoughtless gift that they probably don't want, but won't tell you. I admit that this rant was partly brought on by all the CRAP (yes, crap) that I have to put up with every holiday season when people insist on dictating to us what the person they are buying for wants after we show/tell them that either A) they should get a gift certificate so they can pick out what thes want themselves or B) the buyer feels that the person shouldn't get what they want and instead whould get what the buyer feels the recipient should want. Either way I have to deal with all the screwed up returns, as well as having to deal with P.O.ed customers that are returning items six months after they were purchased ()because coming from the east side is such a far drive, yes, I've heard that excuse many times... I USED TO LIVE IN WHITEFISH BAY, THAT'S A LONGER DRIVE!!!) At this point Tyler is now sitting on the mouse, so I to end this rant. My opinion is just that, my opinion, and does not necessarlily reflect those of the Lost World of Wonders. There will be more... Current Mood: irritated (Comment on this)
Monday, December 18th, 2006
1:09 am	Random thoughts by John It's been a month and a half, not the longest time between updates, but that throws out the idea of more frequent updates out the window. The cats also don't help. They like sitting on the keyboard and pawning at the screen anytime I'm on the computer. But anyway, on to the good stuff! I actually saw some anime with I was very impressed with: Kino's Journey. It didn't follow the typical anime formula at all. In fact there wasn't even a "real" plot. It just was the main character journeying from country to country observing the people there. Definetely a lot of social comentary and a lot of fun to watch. I know there is a book series for it, I really need to get some time to read it, espically if it continues the series. We shall see. As stated in the previous post I watched Daphne in the Brilliant Blue. This was semi-painfull to watch, it was the anime formula to a T. Does this mean it was bad?, not really, it just was lacking, until nearly the end. At that point we actually get past the fluff and get to a story. A story that's about 3 or 4 episodes. The character designs were interesting and the animation was nice. If you want a mindless series to watch, this is the one for you. Rent it, don't buy it unless you have a lot of disposable income. On the other hand we have Fate Stay Night, by the people who brought us Tsukihime! The first disc came out last week, and I think everyone should go out and get a copy, or if you can't afford it, download it. It's worth every penny, and it doesn't follow the typical anime plot. Also, there is a ton of merchandise available for this series too. ...Now if I could just figure out where I left my copy, somewhere at the store I think... Last week we got a bunch of new stuff in for the holidays, espically a ton of import stuff. Now, almost every snack we've received from Japan has been really good, there are always excptions to the rule, several years back we got some really squishy gummies... they were a bit too squishy. So in this last shipment, we got Kurogo Pocky, aparently this stuff is five different sesame seeds ground up and put on a stick. If you like the taste of burnt peanut butter, this is the Pocky for you. I didn't think it as bad, but some of my employees had "adverse" reactions. At the very least you can get this as a gag gift for your friends. On the flip side of the store, I haven't read much. Right now I'm behind on DMZ, Exterminators, Boys, T the Last Man, Fables, and almost every other comic I read. But, the last issue of Walking Dead was good, painfull, but good. If you've read it, you know what I mean. For the most part, I've been reading back issues of the Legion of Super-Heroes. I deceided to go all the way back to the beginning with Adventure Comics #247... It's painfull to read the LSH archives... The old stories are dated to say the least, but this time I'm going to get every Legion story from the beginning on and I won't have that issue I had when I read the old 80's Giffen stuff. I just have nine more volumes and then hopefully I'll be up to Superboy and the LSH. We'll see. Other then that, right now I'm proceeding to watch all of Lexx since I missed most of it when it was on TV. Very amusing stuff and hours of viewing pleasure. All the while the cats are waching me from there perch. They just came back from getting them fixed at the vet yesterday, and it's night and day. They are much more mellow, and still rather silly. Earlier I gave them a can of wet food, so Betsy, the smaller one, dives in first, and then Tyler, who's much larger, wants to eat, but he won't push Betsy away. So what does he do, he pulls the can away from Betsy, and then she just steps forward and contines to eat. This goes on for a while and the can makes the rounds of the kitchen until Betsy is done eating and I swear Tyler didn't learn anything. Now just a few inutes ago I look over and Tyler deceides that he's going to sleep on top Betsy, which lasted about five seconds before she deceided it wasn't going to work. I swear are eternally amusing. If they didn't trash my house so much, I'd get more. (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 5th, 2006
4:44 am	Some random stuff by.....who else?...JOHN!! The opinions of this blog are John's and not necessarly those of the store, that and I'm drinking so my typing isn't the best. Nuff said. I'm kind of retro tonight, I bought a bootleg of Mann & Machine off Ebay and just finished watching it... Wow, looking back, in the 90's there was a lot of sci-fi on TV, and sadly enough, I actually hunting most of it down. It's not that most of was bad (at least not to me), but very little of it made it to DVD... for a reason. Next: Lexx all four seasons! I admit I only saw one episode of the show when it was on TV, but if they actually got out four seasons and got them all on DVD it must be ok. Now actually on things that are store related. I just finished readinf Mahoromatic, and I have to say I was pleasently surprised. At first the manga is just an abridged clone of the anime, but later on there are enough differences to keep my attention, and the end is similar, but VERY different from teh anime. Also the ending on the manga actually made sense. That and things were more explained in the manga. It's a trend that I notice a lot; even though the anime and manga for a series are very similar, it help to go through both for a more complete version of the story. But I have to admit it's just painfull to read the 14+ volumes of Excel Saga, they're decent, but not as good as the anime. Cassaday finally came out with another issue of Planetary!! Beautiful, just beautiful! It was kind of scary to see most of the series wrapped up in one issue, but it was cool to see that what seemed like random stories of the series actually coming together into a cohesive story. Now there is just a few issues left and that one's done. Speaking of Cassaday, in my opinion, his art is getting sloppier all the time. a few weeks ago I caught up on Astonishing X-Men, and noticed that the art wasn't his best, but just wrote it off as him trying to keep something that resembles a schedule. No big deal right? Well, after that I brought out some of my orginal Planetary art and when you look at that you really see just how much effort he put into his older stuff. Espically when you look at the latest Planetary it just looks like he's rushing and loosing something important. OR is it that he's evolving as an artist to a slopier style? Who knows, time will tell I guess. As for artists that haven't evolved, there are two that we've kicked around at the store lately. Jim Lee and Brian Hitch. Lee, for the most part, looks like he did fourteen years ago with Wildcats volume 1 #1, and Brian Hitch's stuff still looks like the stuff he was putting out in 1993. I'm not saying that this is bad, but as an artist aren't you supposed to evolve? just a tought. I suppose I should get to bed before 4 AM, tomorrow I have to sweep and vacuum my house. One of the kittens I got recently decieded that a litter box wasn't good enough, he wanted the litter kitchen. That and the dust bunnies in the corners are multipling like rabbits. I also supposed to watch Daphne in the Brilliant Blue tomorrow, we'll see when I get up and what I succeded in getting done. Hopefully I'll update this thing more, I still want to write about more comics, manga, and anime. Oh well, we'll see. Current Mood: Tippsey and tired (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 17th, 2006
1:36 am	Another titleless entry by John Wow! It's been a while since I posted here! .... Yeah, so Wizard World has come and gone, that really sucked up a lot of my time. Let's just say I'm not going to be selling there in the forseeable future after the way they treated us this year. So, that'll mean less interruptions every summer. But enough about that. Not much has happened at the store as of late. Chad did his push Criminal on the subscription customers with mixed results. Civil War is super, super, super late. Joe Quesada is still the devil, in my opinion. And Boo is getting fatter every day. Yup, pretty much all the same. But last, last weekend I went to the great, frozen tundra known as Minnesota for the annual Fallcon. I have to say that this was the best one yet! They had a really great cross sampling of creators including three of my personal favs: Gene Ha, Philip Moy, and Adan Hughes! Of course I once again got screwed out of getting my Hughes commision, but it wouldn't be a convention with Hughes if I didn't get screwed! (No I'm not bitter at all that I've sceen him at three different conventions, and still have yet to get my commision!) The cool thing about going there is that I get to spend time with one of my favorite ex-employees, Chris the Ax! This time he didn't get too drunk, and I no longer smoke so it was a litte weird to me. Also at this convention I meet Tony Dezuniga for the first time. He created Black Orchid and Jonah Hex, very cool stuff! Once again I spent way too much on original art, but I still justify it since I didn't buy nything at Wizard World. Hmmmmm, I suppose I should stop my new cats from trashing my house (thanks Frank!), since somehow they already had bad habbits, such as clawing me in my sleep, and trying to eat my food. It almost reminds me of Boo, except she doesn't have front claws. Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 6th, 2006
4:31 pm	............ by John Ok, ok, so it's been a while, but in my defense NO ONE ELSE EVER WRITES ANYTHING HERE! Now with that said onto the joys of the comic/anime biz! First off, slightly weird thing happened on Ebay recently. I keep selling lots of Demo to a guy that goes by the name Brian C Wood. So I just figured that this is a person with teh same name as the writer (duh, Brian Wood!), right? OR SO I THOUGHT! It turns out that this is the "real" Brian Wood, and for some reason he buys his own stuff back on Ebay. I really have to drop him an email and find out about this, 'cause to me it just seems weird. Maybe he just has something against his stuff being on Ebay, I don't know! But to think that all this time I'm sending one of my favorite writers comics and don't even know it. It kind of sucks that with the house I've been so busy that I haven't much time for comics or anime (or updating this thing either) lately. So I think I'm going to go on a tangent about my house :) So a couple weeks ago, my friend, Joe, who's going to be living in the lower half of the house starts hounding me to fix the hole in the kitchen floor. Now mind you at this point I've just semi-gotten over the stomach flu I've had for almost a week. So I say, sure, and then I go ahead and schedule the floor sanding since he's (supposed to be) paying for it (more on that later). After I get off the phone with Stacy (the hottest female in floor sanding I might add) I realize that I scheduled the sanding five days later... OH S**T!! So over the next four days, six trips to Home Depot, and a lot of late nights, the floor got fixed the day before the sanders showed up. The only problem was that i still had to move all my stuff upstairs since my floors were finally cured enough for furniture and the such. What ensued was me moving all my crap upstairs until 3:30 Wednesday morning, *sigh* and then it was time for new book day. (So my earlier comment about Joe paying. I'm still not sure if he's paid for the floor sanding yet, and of course the bill is in my name.) So back to the stuff I'm supposed to be writing about... Hmmm... Anime Central was a few weeks- well about a month ago. Lots of fun (espically since I was drunk most of the time. How else could I be convinced to wear a dress there.) And oddly enough I don't remember much about the convention. Including running into a lot of people who shop at the store. On the plus side I spent less money there then i thought I was going to. Ok, I'm looking around the store and I can't think of anything to write about... Hey! I know, another funny story, and oddly enough it also takes place in Illinois. Here at the store we were starting to run out of almost all the Japanese snacks, so I told Chad to settle this dispute I had with one of our suppliers to the south. They were saying I owed them some money when in fact their accounting department was at fault. Anyway he straightened the mess out, and to make the distributor happy I said I'd pick up the product at there warehouse rather then having them ship it (where the previous mess stemed from). A day before I'm supposed to drive down the rep calls to confirm everything, and he keeps asking me if were planning a big party or some special event. That is when I started to worry about how much I bought since i just wrote on the purchase order all case quantities. then he asks if I'm bringing a truck, and I think he's referring to a cube or straight truck, not my pick-up... CRAP!! So I call my friend (who probably owes a certain flooring company for sanding) and he brought his Jeep. I had directs from Mapquest, but Joe still insisted on leading... and he kept abruptly doing U turns on the same street, four or five times. As it was, we were going the right direction the first time, but because Mapquest had the name of the street wrong, he kept questioning the validity of the directs. We ended up arriving an hour late, which threw off my plans for the day, but at least there wasn't as much stuff as I thought there was going to be, only two pallets. So anyone who reads this, stop by and pick up some Pucca, it's amazing! And back to my meanderings! Right now I'm writting all this stuff at work for a change because for some reason it's just dead today. I even sent Max home early, and Chad kicked me off my computer so he can work on the LWOW Must Have Wall. Which Chad describes as "a colossal pain in the a$$" (hey, I'm being PC and not cursing, keep in PG yo!!) Actually the idea of this was it is what we call the list of TPBs that EVERYONE should have in there collection! Oddly enough two trends came out; DC had the majority of the titles (not really a big surprise to me), and the majority of the books were by Ellis, Ennis, Bendis, Miller, and Vaughan. What I thought was funny is that I look at Wizards Top 100 TPB list, and even looking at their top 20... WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!!!!!! For the most part our list is based on what titles are perennial sellers as well as extremely well written (even though Chad did sneak one of his personal favorites on there, but I won't say which one it is). The Wizard list just sems to be purely the opinions of a couple of fan boys. Hmmm, I'm sure this is somehow going to et back to Wizard, and I'm going to suddenly stop receiving surveys and free copies of Inquest. Oh well small price to pay for the sake of voicing my opinion. I think I wrote enough for one day. Maybe in my next entry I'll write about how much I hate the hundred year old windows on my house. Current Mood: bored Current Music: Kawaii Radio (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 20th, 2006
2:47 am	Random stuff (again) by John Brian Wood needs to write more books, period. He's writting three monthly or semi-monthly books, and nothing by him came out this week. Seriously, I looked at the new release wall and there is nothing that I rate as being a "I have to read this right now!" book. Now don't get me wrong there were a lot of great books out this week, but no Brian Wood books. And as anyone who reads this at all knows, I'm just blantant about pushing his books. But enough of that, onto some anime stuff. Central Park Media is run by idiots. They put out a Gall Force box set, and guess what, IT'S MISSING THE MIDDLE OF THE SERIES!!!! Yes, they don't really lable the discs easily, so you have to hunt for those stupid code numbers to figure out what comes first, then you watch the "second" disc, AND YOU ARE LOST!!!! Why, because they just jump way into the future, and don't tell you that the middle of the series isn't even in the box. IDIOTS!!! Seven years after 've watched Eternal Story, I'm still not sure what's going on excpet I know a lot of people die. Oh well, Melody of Obilvion is great, I haven't watched disc six yet, which Pirate (yes Greg you are the Pirate, live with it!) says is more messed up then the end of Evangelion. Instead tonight I went out drinking with a friend and his gf, and ran into Kelly, you know the chick who does all the art for the store and works the register on Saturdays, and at first I didn't recognize her. She was happy... and dancing... and stuff, just weird, small world I guess. So yes, right now I'm still feeling it since you're not supposed to mix allergy pills and alcohol. lol Anyways it was fun. Also I think anyone that reads this, that is sick of me tauting how Brain Wood is a god, should tell Chad to write something here instead of playing City of Heroes. So come in and nag him! Current Mood: tippsey Current Music: Eurodance on Winamp (Comment on this)
Monday, March 20th, 2006
12:35 am	Anime and other rants by John Ok, I lied, I'm going to write about some anime instead of back issues. Most of the anime I've seen recently is just messed-up or depressing. Elfin Leid, really messed up, body parts everywhere, and nobody's happy; all tragic characters. Chrono Crusade: possibly the most depressing I've ever seen for a series, ranks right up there with the ending to Mahoromatic, other then that a very done series. Melody of Oblivion: just weird, bordering on horror, but someone who did character design did some of the outfits based on Nina Darkness and that's cool to me! Full Metal Alchemist: still going with this one. But the further it goes the more unhappier it gets. I really need to find something that's happier, kinda like Please Twins, just some happy goodness all around. Well, since it's late, I think I'm going to digress for store stuff. I closed on my house this week, and I tell you, home repair stuff sucks! I discovered that in one of my rooms, the radiator leaked at one point and warped a section of my hardwood floors. So, rather then doing the floor sanding myself, I decided to just say screw it, and I'm going to find someone to do that for me. Aside from the floor, I think I'm going to put off rest of the major stuff until I get moved in. Then it's a new garage, grading around the foundation, remodeling the bathrooms, stripping paint off the wood trim, new windows, and siding. Yea! I can hear the sucking sound of all my money for the next few years. This also means that I need to cut waaaaay back on cels and orginal comic art. Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
Sunday, March 19th, 2006
11:48 pm	V For Vendetta - amazing!!! by John What is Alan Moore's problem, the movie was absolutely amazing! Aside from a few minor changes it was very faithful to the orginal story. Though I think they did one or two things that were not in the book at all, and probably could have done fine without them, overall it worked very well. I'm beginning to suspect that Mr. Moore is so egotistical that any minor change to one of his stories is tantamount to a personal attack on his writing ability. But whatever, I'd have to say it's the best movie I've seen this year so far. Now I just have to re-read the book. *SPOILER WARNING AHEAD!!!* It's been ten years since I've read the graphic novel, and I must have been reading it fast or gotten distracted, because I don't remember in the book, a viral plague, manufactured by the goverment, being tied to the current regime's rise to power. I thought at the beginning of the book they said that England had been exposed to floods and disease that followed it. But like I said it's been ten years. Upon thinking about it further, it's been almost ten years exactly since I've read it. Back when I was still at my orginal store on 98th, the first winter I was there. My memories of that year are really starting to blur, I distinctly remember that I only heated the store at about 55 degrees since I couldn't afford heat. And that I still had "the comfy chair". I used to wear gloves with the finger cut off to keep my hands warm, and the fingers cut off so I could easily turn the pages of the comic I was reading. That winter was so lean for customers that I read almost every graphic novel in the store. I think that's why I missed some important details, I was just trying to pound through every book in the store for fear that I might go out of business and never get a chance to read some of this stuff every again. Now I look back on those days and a part of me misses them. I don't have time to read comics like I used to. This week was an exception to the rule. I finally got to read volume six of Fables (awesome read I might add), some manga, a few comics off the new rack, and I almost read some more but I had to go through some of the seven long boxes of collections I bought this week. I think next time I'm going to write about the bizarre nature of back issues. Current Mood: nostalgic (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 21st, 2006
2:26 am	me again LOL, 2010, has sound in space. There aren't enough particles such as gases to collide together to carry sound. Idiots! Joss Whedon would be turning over in his grave if he were dead. Current Mood: still tired (Comment on this)
1:53 am	You know you're a geek when... by John ...you work at a comic store for twelve hours, get home at midnight, start watching 2001 A Space Odyssey and you kinda want to start watching 2010 instead of going to sleep when you need to be back at work by noon. But the more I watch this movie I realize that while dated it still is a great hard sci-fi piece that stands up to the test of time better then most sci-fi of the last ten years. ... -Heck with it, I'm up to the part where Frank is locked out of the ship, I've seen this movie enough times to know how it ends in someting resembling an acid trip. I'm going to watch part of 2010! ... Ok, movie started. So onto something more pertinent to this journal! I spent my day off screwing around actually reading comic books! Unfortunetly Newstralia wasn't a very good read, espically since it left almost everything hanging. But I dug out some classic 1990's gut Marvel, Lawdog! Great Flint Henry artwork, and actually a very entertaining story! That and I started reading World Without End... It looks pretty, too bad it doesn't make any sense so far. Hopefully by the end it might go somewhere. Hmmmm... Anime wise, I watched Tenchi Muyo GXP. As it started off, I wasn't too thrilled, typical cliche anime, then along the way... somewhere... it started to grow on me, almost like a cancer. By the end, I really enjoyed to the point that it rekindled my interest in Tenchi. I think I'm not going to sell my Tenchi cels after all. In fact I'm poking and I've even found some cels from my favorite OAV episode. *sigh* Need... more... money...! Other then that Divergence Eve was weird, started off completely a$$-backward, then it started to make sense. And of course it had an ending with nothing being resolved and a sequel series. *grrr* Hmmmm, getting tired, better stop here. Current Mood: sleepy (Comment on this)
Friday, February 17th, 2006
1:11 am	by John Almost every day for the past two weeks, someone has asked me, "so what's going on?" or "what's new and exciting?" or some such variation on that theme. Everytime I respond with a "nothing really" well aside from the debacle that my house is becoming, more on that later tho. It's just that time of the year where we're still picking up the pieces from last year, and no really big events are remotely close yet this year. Heck, I'm still over a month behind on going through my email and the stores taxes aren't done yet (and I have an accountant for that). So yes, aside from the usual stuff that happens every week, nothing else major is happening. And that's kind of nice. I like having time to get caught up with my paper work and maybe I eventually learn how the point of sale program works so we can get it installed, hopefully before the old one explodes. Other then that some recent comics have been interesting. Supermarket by Brian Wood! I know, I'm practically a shill for him, but I just can't help it. Everything he writes is good! ... Hmmm, if I wasn't so tired right now, I'm sure I could remember more, but I haven't had a decent night's sleep this week. Perhaps I should stop staying up so late on the computer. In other news, one of the stores regulars introduced me to this website called: statueforum.com OH GOD, what a mistake! After about three minutes of looking at the upcoming Bowen statues, all I could hear was a giant sucking sound. At first I thought it might have been jobes going to Mexico, but I realized it hasen't happened yet, so it must be something else. Then I noticed that my wallet was shrinking, I want at least two full size statues, and two mini busts. *sigh* Statues are so expensive, even at wholesale. Oh yeah, the house stuff. This is sctually kind of funny. It would be even funnier if it wasn't happening to me. So my mortgage lender calls me to ask about the roof on the house I'm buying. The owners are either going to put a new roof on before closing or they will escroll the money and I'll do it after closing. Well, there is a little loop hole that would allow me to take the money and default on the mortgage, and they are paranoid that I'm going to do that. WTF? I'm going to ruin my credit spend all this time trying to get a house just to default for a couple thousand dollars?!?!? Yeah right. Anyway, I'm tired. Current Music: Eurodance on SHOUTCast Radio (Comment on this)
Monday, February 6th, 2006
12:26 am	(No Title) by John So I've been really, really, really busy lately. In school you never get taught important life skills, such as BUYING A HOUSE!!! It's a total pain in the a$$! It's sad that even the looking at houses part isn't even that fun. It's like doing work. You have to have a critical eye, and really know what you need versus what you want. Then once you find something, the offer part is super boring, mostly just fill-in-the-blank. Then wait...wait...wait...wait, and blamo, the offer is accepted. Within three days cough up a thousand dollars and schedule a inspection. Also you can't forget the mortgage crap that is so boring that I'm not even going to bring any of that up. That about brings me up to the point where I'm at now. Next... hmmm, it's after midnight, this week I have an inspection, and if that works out I have to wait for the old owners to put a new roof on the house. With any luck I'll be closing on March 15th, then I get to sand the floors and put of new blinds. Yea. Part of me feels like this whole expirence is so surreal. I think that's the case since I have no other expirence that is even remotely close, I mean buying my truck new was nowhere nearly as costly. Even the store was a bit less surreal I guess because I had no idea what I was getting into until I was up to me neck in debt and work. Hmmm, other then all that I still have found some time to read some comics and watch anime. Comics: Exterminators by DC/Vertigo Just a weird book that just wouldn't fit anywhere except Vertigo. There's nothing quite like watching a guy shoot up roach pesticide like heroin. I'm very curious to see where the series goes. Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman Every issue has a cover which leads you to one conclusion and guess what it's always WRONG! This issue no exception, but like always, it's an amazing read. DMZ by Brain Wood This series started off a bit slow for me, but the latest issue really was Brian Wood doing what he does best connecting the reader to what the main character is feeling. Most writers just don't do it like he does. Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol 1 by DC Me and the Legion go waaaaaaay back. Back when I wanted to be an artist, I started to draw and paint the double page pin-up from Vol 3 #45 on the largest wall in my room. Well after 3 years I got bored and painted over it. But now I've decieded to go back and read every LSH story from the beginning. Maybe this way I'll be able to figure out just who Kent Shakespear is! Anime: Gravion Fun stuff, pretty formulized. But like most newer anime it has nice visuals and it's an excuse to watch something. Gravitation The anime is nowhere as funny or as over the top as the manga, but it was ok. Vandread This series takes the old cliche or a few guys and ton of women and completely turns it upside down. The guys hate the females and are forced to be with them. The plot for the first half is pretty good, but the CG leaves something to be desired. Read or Die TV This has to be the best anime I've seen since Last Exile or Cowboy Bebop! Great plot with a lot of crazy twists and turns. The characters were all well done, except Nancy should have had more of her old personality. So now I really want to get ahold of some of the douga that this was animated with! Speaking of douga, I got in some more Fruits Basket douga, it's just a matter of time now until I get all the main characters. Someday I have to scan all my cels, douga, and comic art and post it in a gallery. At the very least it's help for insurance purposes. Hmmmm, I think that's it, I need to get up early today, gotta go to the bank and get a statement for the mortgage lender. Yea. Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: Dream Theater "Awake" (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, January 14th, 2006
11:31 pm	....... by John It's been a while and I can't seem to guilt anyone else into posting anything, so I figure I better :) So....yeah, I only worked ten hours today with the itention of going home and sleeping, instead what am I doing, screwing around on the internet at midnight! That and making up for not drinking for a week!!! Seriously though, today was supposed to be my day off, but no one is willing to work Saturdays EXCEPT Chad and hoefully next week, Kelly. So then I'll catch up on my newspapers and maybe sort some comicbooks in my personal collection and perhaps watch some more anime. ... Mmmmm, I seem to be out of things to say... ... These delays on new product the last few weeks have been very annoying. ... Hmmmm, yeah, I really don't feel like going on a rant about how Marvel and DC are putting out marginal books that have no lasting impact on anything. And I don't feel like complaining about formulaistic anime... Yeah, I think I'll stop here before I start a casting call for my next gf. Current Mood: tired Current Music: Blue Man Group (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006
2:06 am	Super Quick - John Need more sleep, less work... watching too much anime lately, about eight discs a week, but Kiddy Grade started so badly and now in the middle it's awesome! Damn my lack of time! Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
Saturday, December 31st, 2005
7:17 pm	2005 The Year In Review by John Well, it being New Years eve, it's time for a year in review! ... ... So yeah, last night I knew what I wanted to write here, but right now I'm watching Kiddy Grade, and I have no clue where to start. Yup. Any minute now I'll just jump right into this. So I think I'll meander a bit here, I'm writing this at home (like most entries here) and I'm so happy that my computer got upgraded, the sound finally works, and I have a video card with enough ram to actually play the free Yahoo games! So now I can listen to music on my computer, good stuff. (Hours have passed) So I've watched the first four discs of Kiddy Grade, and like almost all anime series it's following "the formula" off fun, light-hearted episodes with a hint off a deeper plot, then about a third of the way in, it starts to get serious. But I digress... I was out on my balcony having a cigar and watching the traffic go by on I-94 twords downtown for all the New Years Eve parties and it made me think that the store and I have come a long way. Way back in the day I treated the store as a kind of inside joke. It was a way for me to avoid working the "real" job and avoid my Mom's decree that I go to college for a four year degree. So I started a place for like minded people to hang out and have fun. This was ok at first, but as I grew up and matured my values changed. Then in 2001 on the heels of 9-11 my life completely changed. I HAD to grow up and treat the store as a business and not a hobby/hang-out. About a month back I was going through some old paper work and realized just how much things have changed. In late 2002 I started on a plan that would get the store out of debt and get me all those things in life that I wanted. As with all plans, things never quite go the way you plan. Thus we came to 2005, which I now think of as the year I got my s**t together. The year began with finishing up implementing the two truck loads of new fixtures I bought and refocusing the store on more comics and anime stuff. Along the way even that evolved differently then I expected. I now think that the only constant is constant change. I guess that in the process of trying to recap 2005 I've realized that you just can't encapsulate just one year. Since most large events and trends aren't just confined to occuring from January 1st to December 31st. I'm looking back at manga for example. When I first started to carry it back in 1997/1998 carrying almost every available collection ment to stock about 80 items, now the Big Two (Viz & Tokyo Pop) put out about 3000-4000 books a year and I think those are conserative numbers. More manga books go out of print each year then were produced between 1990 and 2000. Scary stuff! If you tink that's crazy, I remember back in 2000 I was telling people that trade paper backs (TPBs) were going to be the future of comics. That soon some things weren't even going to come out in monthly forat and then get collected. That they were going to go right to TPB. A lot of people just thought I was nuts or talking out my butt. Now look, some TPB collections out sell their monthly counter-parts. Now I'm not just saying this to congratulate myself (I'm sure I've said this all before), I'm saying this to make a point, that things in "the industry" are always changing and these changes have good and bad ramifications that go along with them. One major change I've seen and really don't like (but I used to) is that the cost of entry barrier to opening a comic or anime store have gone up astronomically from where it used to be when I first got in. I opened the store with $20K and my comic show stock. Now, to open a 1500 sq foot store that looks professional and it decently stocked, I estimate would cost about $60K and then you also need to have operating capital for the first 18 months. (The 18 months of capital is a standard that business books suggest.) So the total start up and maintenance cost of a new store is realistically closer to $150K! Of course you could shoe-string it, but there is a reason why 80% of businesses fail in 5 years and 95% in ten years. Shoe-stringing takes a hard toll on the owner and since you're so far behind the curve playing catch-up, in many cases, it's just not worth the sacrifices for so little pay off. It's funny, September 2006 will mark me completing 10 years of having the store. Of those 10 years eight of them will be profitable ones. At times I've thought about getting out. The classic teh grass is greener on the otherside senerio, but each time I always think, I would miss the store too much and I'd have to open another one, probably in a different state. I know that Lost World has gone from a kid selling comics and cards at local comic shows to being a juggernaut in Wisconsin, I couldn't compete with it! I suppose that's good thing, and once again I don't mean this to be a pat myself on my back session. For as much as I put into the store, I also know it would run with out all the hard working, dedicated employees that work the store. So I think 2005 has been a good year for us, and I'm looking forward to 2006. Like I stated earlier, major changes are in store and I hope that they will all be good ones. With that thought I'd like to wish my employees, my friends, my customers, and everyone that has helped me get to this point in time a HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Current Mood: happy Current Music: X Japan "Vanishing Vision" (Comment on this)