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Ellie wasn’t too impressed when I pointed out the stunning resemblance between me and Captain Horatio Turbot on Paw Patrol, but nose, chin, hair color, it’s all there!

We had some stunning new collections come in this week, including a first appearance of the Punisher, the first of those we’ve had in over a year, and there should be even more head-turners on the backwall before the end of the weekend, so stay tuned!

Add to that the new Mandalorian & Grogu Season 2 Hot Toys, Marvel Select Doctor Strange from the Multiverse of Madness, and Black Series Deluxe Baby Yoda, and we have plenty of new stuff to get you through a slow week of new releases this week until we get to the stuff down below!

I’ve done my best to stay out of the card craze that has mirrored the arc of the comic market in the last several years despite Bret & Colton giving me gifts including Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres autographs and Ahsoka Tano and Baku Frik features, making it extra tempting to keep going.

Then one day I was listening to Pod Meets World, and Danielle Fishel mentioned her husband was Jensen Karp, so I went on his Instagram, and he owns Gallery 1988 in L.A. which means he has a very impressive pop culture art collection, including this recreation of Bret’s favorite baseball card of Billy Ripken by Ermsy, who also did the above Derek Jeter card for the Topps Project 2020 collection. And now I’m sunk!

Two fold, cause now I want all of the Ermsy cards for Project 2020 and Project 70 AND I want all of the Yankee cards from both sets which are also done by other artists I know like Greg “Craola” Simkins and Joshua Vides, who have both designed basses for Mark Hoppus of blink-182 as well. And now I’m eating my own tail.

Several of you have been asking, and we’re finally ready to share the dates & times of our first Warehouse Sale of 2023, which will be Friday, February 10th from 3 PM - 7 PM & Saturday, February 11th from 11 AM - 4 PM, still at the same location behind Field Trip at 929 N. Church Street here in Greensboro!

In addition to the brand-new stock of $1 comics, we’re introducing Premium Back Issues that will be priced at $5 each or Buy 5 Get 5 FREE thereby cutting the price in half, tons of new-in-box $10 Marvel Legends, McFarlane Toys & Star Wars Black Series figures, Banpresto vinyl anime figurines at $20 each (regularly $25-$30) or 5 for $75, and hundreds of other assorted new-in-box figures for $12 each or 5 for $50!

On top of that, the Concord store landed an unbelievable collection yesterday, full of high-grade ghost variants! You can visit their eBay store to see everything available and if you see something you like, we can work out a price and arrange for it to brought up here for you to see.

Me & Concord Colbert are heading up to Pittsburgh for the ComicsPRO Annual Industry Meeting at the end of February! I only passed through Steel City once when I was fifteen, so I’d love to see more of the town, but I will still be disappointed that I won’t get to ride Steel Curtain at Kennywood and I won’t get to go see the Pirates play at PNC Park since it will be too early in the year for both.

At the conference, the first in-person event since 2020, we’ll be meeting with distributors, publishers, creators, and other industry insiders. If there’s product lines you’d like us to be carrying, out-of-print graphic novels you’d like to see back on the shelves, or any other change in comics you think would make things, this is our chance to make it happen, so speak up now!

This Saturday, January 7th will be our first event of the year, a signing with Brian “Smitty” Smith and Chris Giarrusso to celebrate the release of their brand-new graphic novel, Officer Clawsome: Lobster Cop! Clawsome and his partner/ badge Stariana keep Caper Cover safe by their own rules in this action-packed and hilarious 240-page full-color hardcover from Harper Alley! Chris & Smitty will be on-hand from noon until 4 PM and they’ll be signing copies of the book, as well as their previous work like Pea Bee & Jay, G-Man, and Hashtag Danger, and doing quick sketches for FREE!

To literally sweeten the pot, the first 25 people that show up for the signing will get a FREE Kelpy Cake (a.k.a. Donut World donut)! And anyone that buys a copy of Officer Clawesome before, during, or after the signing can pick out a FREE G-Man or PB&J graphic novel to double their fun!

We’d had a higher-than-normal number of new folks coming to check us out lately due to one circumstance or another, and to all of you we want to say “Welcome!” If it’s your first time reading the blog, this is where I take some time every week to share some commentary on next week’s new releases, let you know what’s up around the shops, and sometimes recommend my top picks from other media. Between this here site and my last job, I’ve been doing it for almost 800 weeks in a row!

Last weekend was wild, with a line stretching halfway around the shopping center to meet Ray Park! He signed for over three hours straight before he got to everyone, and the response was excellent. I promise your welcoming & enthusiastic reception will lead to even more signing opportunities in the future, probably even sooner than you think! If you missed out on Ray, we have a handful of signed Darth Maul Funko Pops and comics available for sale at all three Ssalefishes.

As a reminder, for our holiday hours, we will be open Saturday, December 24th from 11 AM to 2 PM for Christmas Eve and we’ll be CLOSED on Sunday, December 25th for Christmas Day! That’s it, no changes for New Year’s, and not even a skip week of new releases next week like there has been in the past. In fact, I think there are even more new titles than on your average week. Fittingly as we prepare to flip the calendar, there’s dozen final issues and a dozen number ones, out with the old, in with the new!

I still can’t believe we’re less than 48 hours away from hosting Ray Park, Darth Maul himself, right here in Greensboro in our very own store! There have been a lot of frequently asked questions surrounding the event, so I will answer what I can now!

While you’re in, please have fun as we end the year on a high note, take part in our holiday cheer, be conscientious to the staff and your fellow fans, and do some last minute shopping as we have something perfect for everyone in your life, from stocking stuffers to once-in-a-lifetime gifts they’ll never forget!

Man, I haven’t really been asleep for about 36 hours as of this writing, knee deep in the hardest ComicHub wrangling of my career. I think of myself as Ralphie’s dad in A Christmas Story going down in the basement to do war with the furnace, and Jay & Mike & Austin are Ralphie & Randy & Mom just watching smoke and obscenities drift over from the computer! Along those lines, A Christmas Story Christmas on HBO Max actually wasn’t too bad, definitely better than Hocus Pocus 2 or Disenchanted for nostalgic sequels from this year.

There were definitely some pick-me-ups in the long fight through the night, mainly Carly as always, and the gorgeous Lois ornament that Concord customer Artist DAK surprised us with! Now to rest up before the Reindeer Romp & Running of the Balls 5Ks tomorrow!