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Back in business with a normal full week of new releases on Wednesday, headlined by Dark Web #1, the kickoff for the Amazing Spider-Man & X-Men crossover that will carry over into 2023, Miles Morales Spider-Man #1, building excitement for next year’s Into the Spider-Verse sequel, and the Thanos Death Notes one-shot that calls back to Donny Cates’s run on Thor!

That said, it’s been a while since I’ve done any personal recommendations, so I’ll say with all sincerity that I can’t recommend The Menu, in theaters now, enough! As someone with a store whose bread & butter is franchises and blockbuster buzz, I should be more excited about Thor Love & Thunder or Black Adam, but as someone’s that’s gone to the theater about 18 times this year thanks to the Regal Unlimited pass, this, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and B.J. Novak (Ryan from The Office)’s theatrical directorial debut Vengeance were the best things I’ve seen. I guess it goes to the sentiment that I hear from a lot of you guys that are enjoying original ideas from Fantagraphics, Image, Boom, Aftershock, etc. more than the Big Two!

Next week is the dreaded “Fifth Week” of new releases, so between the holiday and an extra Wednesday in the month, publishers and distributors will be taking it easy. That means some of your extra funds are freed up to up to use in the Holiday Sale, continuing tomorrow Friday, November 25th at 11 AM and Small Business Saturday on the 26th, still Buy 2 Get 1 FREE on everything in the store except posters, comic supplies, and recent unbagged comics and 30% OFF standard back issues!

And we’re so thankful that actor Ray Park reached out to us to do an in-store signing on Saturday, December 17th at noon! This is another one of those moments that if I went back and told the 14 year old me that stayed home from the 8th grade year-end field trip to Washington D.C. to go see the premiere of Phantom Menace instead that one day Darth Maul would be coming to him, he’d never believe it. I’m getting his copy of the Phantom Menace novelization with the Maul cover signed for him.

Last week I was wrong, Local Comic Shop Day is actually Wednesday, November 23rd beginning at 8 AM, but we’re still going to run our Holiday Sale from Saturday, November 19th - Saturday, November 26th, so stay tuned to social media for the details on the deals!

For LCSD, we’ll have limited quantities available first come, first served of exclusive variants for Amazing Spider-Man #13, Batman & Joker Deadly Duo #1, Behold Behemoth #1, Eight Billion Genies #1, Grim #1, Once Upon a Time at the End of the World #1, and Spider-Man #2!

A couple cool events taking place in the Ssalefish Family over the next two weekends!

First there’s the final Warehouse Sale of 2022 taking place tomorrow, Friday, November 11th from 4 PM - 7 PM and Saturday, November 12th from 11 AM - 4 PM! For the first time, we’ll be offering a Fill-A-Long-Box deal at $150. Figuring a long box holds about 300 books, that’s a 50% off savings on our usual $1 comics, and even better than that if you really pack them in there. We’ve got a deal in place to sell off our entire dollar stock on Sunday, so if you haven’t made it out or wanted the chance to come back for something at a previous sale, this is your last shot, cause everything will be completely new in 2023!

Then next Saturday, November 19th is Local Comic Shop Day, and all three Ssalefish locations will have exclusive variants available for sale beginning at 11 AM! We’ve got a few surprises in store for the big day, too, so stay tuned!

Back down to Disney, and though I didn’t realize it’s the weekend of the Wine & Dine Half Marathon, I definitely would have entered if I knew about it! Instead we hit EPCOT first thing yesterday and rode Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure for the first time, then snagged a spot in the 5th boarding group for Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind (didn’t have a chance to read the comic adaptation of the story before i hit the road on Tuesday)! Then this morning we knocked out Rise of the Resistance & Millennium Falcom Smuggler’s Run and I loaded up on some new Star Wars merch you’ll catch be wearing around the shop shortly!

This Saturday, October 29th stop by and see us for Trick-or-Read, Penguin Random House’s replacement for the discontinued Diamond Halloween Comic Fest, and pick up some scary-good FREE reprints including Godzilla Monsters & Protectors, Star Wars Doctor Aphra, Amazing Spider-Man, and Strange Academy and a brand-new Spidey & His Amazing Friends special! We’ll also have FREE candy!

And our last Warehouse Sale of 2022 will be Friday, November 11th from 4 PM - 7 PM and Saturday, November 12th from 11 AM - 4 PM, and for the first time we’ll be offering long boxes to fill for a flat price of $150, or about $0.50 per book, even cheaper if you really cram them in there! After the last customer is out the door, we’re liquidating the stock and starting over for 2023, so if you’ve been meaning to come by or left something behind at one of previous sales, this is your last chance.

I don’t often talk about books on Final Order Cutoff here, the last chance for stores to solidify their guaranteed orders for a particular title, there’s an email list where I talk about that stuff every week and this is about what’s coming next week, but in case you like to fly-by-the-seat of your pants when it comes to pre-orders, have we got a doozie for you!

Batman/ Spawn #1, by none other than Todd McFarlane & Greg Capullo, will have its FOC this Sunday, October 23rd, and we’re giving you the opportunity to lock in every open order variant, including the Glow-In-The-Dark, Acetate, Blank Sketch, and Team covers, AND a 1:25 ratio incentive variant for UNDER COVER PRICE at $99.99! PLUS, one lucky bundle purchaser will have their 1:25 variant swapped out with a 1:666 Greg Capullo SIGNED copy!

One more last minute surprise for October Warehouse Sale, taking place Friday, October 14th from 4 PM - 7 PM and Saturday, October 15th from 11 AM - 4 PM at 929 N. Church St. in Greensboro, the above books, up until today featured on our backwall for the stickered prices, will be de-bagged & boarded and inserted into their proper place in our 60+ long boxes of $1 comics, waiting to be found for a buck!

Add to that the special discount for wearing any Ssalefish t-shirt, the perfect weather, and how easy it is to find candy close at hand this time of year, and we’re shaping up to have our best warehouse event yet!

Obviously I didn’t die while in Zion National Park last week, which I’m very thankful for, but I’ve completely decided that I hate heights, pretty much anything over 50 feet or so, especially if there isn’t a waist high rail at the edge. Panic attacks were had, but me and the rest of the family are home safe and sound with plenty of memories of the desert.

Our October Warehouse Sale will be next Saturday the 15th from 11 AM - 4 PM AND Friday the 14th from 4 PM - 7 PM! A common concern we’ve heard is that many folks are caught up at work or with other obligations most Saturday afternoons, so we’re trying to make the opportunity as available as possible without diminishing the novelty. This time around you can also get a special discount when you wear any Ssalefish t-shirt and we’ll be doing hourly door prizes!