Nerd stuff

How do little kids afford comic books? They don't have any money.

I started collecting comics late in high school. It was back when Superman "died". The second time I went to Prairie Dog Comics it was like walking into Cheers. As I walked through the door one of the staff greeted me by name. I'd only been there one time and they knew me. When I went off to college I picked up some stuff at a Clay's place near campus and picked up some stuff in Wichita. When I moved to Kansas City I had PDC pull stuff for me to pick up when I came back to visit family. When I moved to DC I had them start mailing me stuff every $50 or so. Around holidays they make sure to see if I'm gonna be in town so I can pick them up in person. They're just great about working with me.

Why do I remain loyal to PDC? It's partially because they knew who I was and partially because it's so hard to find anyone who can compete. I've been to several comic book places around DC. Some people tell me I've been going to the wrong ones. Most that I've visited have been terribly snobbish. The store was mostly Manga and graphic novels. The comics they had were mostly off brand and obscure titles. The staff got uppity and snobbish if you said you were looking for actual comic books like Batman and Spiderman. It happened several times in several different stores.

A new comic book store has opened on 14th st NW. I forget the name of it but it's a branch of another comic book store in the area. The staff was friendly and tried to be helpful. They had a TV setup to show the cartoons they were trying to sell. They had lots of graphic novels but not the one I wanted. One small room in the back had the comics - Batman, Superman, Spiderman, etc - but there was no back issue collection. When I asked about a specific title they said the owners made a decision not to carry that. It was also about 1/3 the size of PDC's old store and about 1/8 the size of their new store.

So hail to Prairie Dog Comics. The only store with a clue.

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I finally got a Wii this weekend. Since I'm supposed to be doing housework I told myself that I wouldn't get one until I could walk into a store and see one on the shelf. Even so, I wanted one by Christmas so I could hook it up at the family gathering at my parents' place. Most stores will tell you not to expect to see it just sitting on the shelves until after New Years. But I found a non-chain store out near the University of Maryland called "Pandora's^3" or "Pandora's Cube" that had several. It's located in a run down little mini-mall. While it has video games and video game systems that doesn't appear to be it's main business. Half the store was dedicated to Manga and Anime. Even browsing that area felt like casually strolling through a porn shop.

Yes, I do react to Manga and Anime the way people in the comic book shops I mentioned respond to popular comics. I've seen a couple of good Anime films, but they're still just Speed Racer and tentacle rape to me.

A couple more shelves had Japanese foodstuffs like Pocky. Behind the counter they had several Japan only releases of some Transformers.

The shop keeper was friendly and helpful. He cut me a couple of deals. If they weren't so far out of the way I'd go back in again. I still may.

If you, too, have a Wii I can be reached at 4106 1848 4070 3967. If you don't have a Wii this number will be meaningless to you.