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Lots of news this week, starting with Local Comic Shop Day, taking place Wednesday, November 24th this year! These cannot be pre-ordered as the purpose of the event is to drive more people into the store that day, but they’ll make handsome additions to any collection!

Then on Thursday, November 25th, we’ll be CLOSED for Thanksgiving!

We won’t be announcing our Black Friday weekend sale details until next Wednesday, but we WILL be open at 8 AM on Friday, November 26th in Greensboro for doorbuster deals, so set you alarms now!

Diamond Comic Distributors have sent an email stating that their shipments for next week should be on time (we already have tracking numbers, so here’s hoping), and we should have this week’s books in hand and processed by 1 PM tomorrow, Friday, November 19th (we’ll update social media when we’re all set)!

Heads up that Diamond Comics Distributors has already given us a warning to expect delays with next week’s shipment of non-Marvel & DC product as well (Lunar & Penguin have already delivered the Big Two). We understand that this is frustrating, but we assure you that this is an industry-wide issue, and we’re making out better than many, including some Charlotte-area stores that didn’t get their books for this week until today (Friday, November 12th) while we had ours ready to go around 12:30 on Wednesday.

I did not expect to be as excited as I am about so many things that were hiding in my parents’ house for the last 20 years. In addition to everything I posted on Instagram, there was a journal I kept my sophomore year of high school where I documented every assignment and exam I took in addition to every movie I watched, video game I played, place that I hung out, trip I took, etc. and “inspirational” quotes and “deep” thoughts that came to me. It’s both embarrassing and enlightening. I have no recollection of being as into Metallica as I seemed to be.

If you’ve been longing for the excitement of HeroesCon down in Charlotte with June’s event being cancelled the last two years due to COVID, the wait is over! Taking place this Saturday & Sunday, November 6th & 7th at the Charlotte Convention Center, get in on the largest assembly of dealers and artists in North Carolina since 2019! Colton will be representing us, so stop by and say “HI!”

Folks have been asking what we’re planning on doing for Halloween this year, and with Free Comic Book Day having taken place a little over two months ago in August (there’s no official Halloween ComicFest this year) and our Black Friday sale less than a month from All-Hallow’s Eve, the answer is honestly “not a lot”.

Marvel has made special reprints for 2016’s Miles Morales Spider-Man #1, 2016’s Hawkeye #1 starring Kate Bishop, this year’s Daredevil #28, and Star Wars High Republic #1 labeled “Halloween Comic Book Extravaganza”, and we’ll have our Wonder Woman 80th Anniversary issues of Wonder Woman Rebirth #1 and previews of Diana: Princess of the Amazons and Wonder Woman: Tempest to give away on Saturday, October 30th. My parents are going out of town the next morning, so they’re donating all their candy to the shop. Lois might be in costume (I will). That’s about it!

As promised, we have not one, not two, not THREE, but FOUR grail-quality books that we sent off to be pressed & graded at CGC today. Amazing Spider-Man #129 the first appearance of the Punisher complete with the Marvel Value Stamp, Incredible Hulk #181 the first appearance of Wolverine complete with the Marvel Value Stamp, Amazing Spider-Man #238 the first appearance of the Hobgoblin in extremely high grade complete with tattoos, and Werewolf by Night #32 the first appearance of Moon Knight! We sent them “express”, so we hope to have them back before the end of the year, and while we won’t be quoting prices until we know the grades, it’s time to start saving your pennies NOW!

We have been very fortunate to luck into several amazing collections over the last two weeks, an embarrassment of riches as Jay called it earlier today, and you can share in them by bringing a piece (or several) home today! I’ve posted over 50 books on our Instagram and Facebook to give you just an idea, but there will also be several short boxes of Silver & Bronze Age back issues making their way into the bins in the next week, and a few currently at CGC that will straight up knock you on your coal-mining @$$es!

At this point, the only Penguin Random House wrinkle that still needs to be ironed out from the last two weeks is four copies of the Amazing Spider-Man #75 Webhead variant (these are additional special orders, with main covers already having been replaced)! Everything looks good for next week’s order (see below), so hopefully it’ll be smooth sailing from here on ::knocks on wood::

By now, it’s become pretty clear to the comic world that Marvel’s transition to their new exclusive distributor, Penguin Random House, as of October 1st didn’t go as smoothly as anyone hoped. Some stores had boxes showed up unsellable, necessitating immediate redesigns. Lunar Distribution didn’t received anything. Here at Ssalefish, Concord and Winston had some nicks and dings, and in Greensboro we received dozens of ratio incentive variants instead of the regular issues we actually ordered. At this point, on Thursday afternoon, everyone that pre-ordered Amazing Spider-Man #75 now has it on hold in their folders, and replacements for our missing Captain Marvel #33, Eternals Celestia #1, Excalibur #24, and Hellions #16 are on the way. Next week, according to our pre-delivery report and providing we continue to escape the damage bug, the only title affected should be Star Wars War of the Bounty Hunters #5, and we’ve gotten out ahead of that to insurance copies already en route. We hate for any problems on our end to directly impact you guys, be it the leaky roof, the collapse of the comic supplies chain, or anything else, but we’ll always keep our heads up and make every effort to get you exactly what you want!

Last weekend, I got a guitar I’ve had my eye on for a while, a Fender Acoustasonic Jazzmaster. Check out that tone switching!

New phone, who dis?

Sometimes it feels like my entire inner dialogue and relationships are devolving into nothing but quotes from I Think You Should Leave and What We Do In The Shadows, but is that such a bad thing?

”I don’t even wanna be around anymore.”

”’Bazinga’ is the war cry of Sheldon, their tall leader.”

”Triples makes it safe. Triples is best.”

"I did apply for my American citizenship back in 1992 for 5 reasons and 5 reasons only - Johnson, Jordan, Bird, Barkley, Ewing - the starting lineup for the 1992 US Olympic men's basketball team. The Dream Team Baby!"