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My latest project at home has been building the LEGO Ultimate Collector Series Razor Crest! It wasn’t my first UCS, I did the Landspeeder and R2-D2 that are currently for sale in the end case at the store, and the 2000 TIE Interceptor, but it was the largest set I’ve done by over 4,000 pieces and took about 18 hours to build. But now that it’s done, I don’t want a cat or dog to knock it over or anything, so it, too, will make its way to the shop, to be purchased by a collector, complete with box, for a discount from the standard MSRP!

We’ve announced our plans for Free Comic Book Day 2023, taking place Saturday, May 6th from 10 AM - 6 PM in Greensboro! In addition to getting to pick out eight FREE books from the 47 available titles, you can also get Buy 2 Get 1 FREE Sale on everything in the store except posters, comic supplies, and new unbagged comics, visit with the Officer Clawsome creative team of Brian “Smitty” Smith & Chris Giarrusso, get FREE facepainting from Munchie & Me, and participate in the FREE hourly raffle (each person gets 1 free ticket for coming out, and 1 additional ticket for every $10 we spend in the store).

In case you missed it on Instagram the other day, we added a new member to the team! Say hey to Snips! Her appearances at the store will be a little more inconsistent for the next couple of weeks, mainly because we don’t want anyone to accidentally step in a puddle or pile while she gets the hang of potty training, but she’ll be a Padawan to Lois for a long time to come!

We’re also psyched for the April Warehouse Sale, taking place tomorrow, Friday, April 7th from 3 PM - 7 PM and Saturday, April 8th from 11 AM - 4 PM! We’ve got a brand-new collection of $5 back issues (or Buy 5, Get 5 FREE to make them just $2.50 each), plus the usual $1 books and discount toys. We’re also rolling out DVDs, VHS tapes, and novels for the first time, just $5 for individual movies or books and $10 for box sets! You never know what you might find in the warehouse or if you’ll ever have another chance at it, so come out and find a diamond in the rough!

Today’s Opening Day, Aaron Judge’s first season as Captain and Anthony Volpe’s MLB debut, so I’m running over to Winston, then down to Concord (with a quick stop in between at the Smoke Pit, of course) in time to watch the game in Colton’s back room!

If the baseball action isn’t enough for you this weekend, I recommend heading down to the Embassy Suites across the street from the Concord store on Sunday for Charlotte Comic Con! We’ll be set up, clearing out the last of our Funko Pops for bargain basement prices, and Bret’s son Robin will be setting up at his very first convention, letting go so Pokemon and sports cards.

When I get home from running, I like/ need to spend a few minutes catching my breath/ reflecting on being outside for while. Today I saw a cloud that looked a lot like a cloaked Klingon Bird of Prey. Would have made a better cloud ship than Nope.

Lois has found a way around the waterproof blankets we put down over the new couch every time we leave so that the pets can’t mess with them.

I couldn’t deal with the fact that there would be a Star Wars book out in the world that I hadn’t read yet, even though it comes out to comic shops later this year for cover price, so I ordered one of the 500 copies of the Celebration exclusive Star Wars Hyperspace Stories Annual (Celebration isn’t until May in Europe) and Dark Horse Direct went ahead and shipped it now anyway. The Mike Mignola cover makes the crazy price I paid for it a little better.

I felt like our toy section was finally looking kind of thin after the toy-pocalypse towards the end of last year, so I went out to see our friends at our sister store in Winston and came back with a carload of reinforcements! In addition to the Marvel Legends ‘90s X-Men Retro figures, Beast Kingdom Jack Nicholson Joker, and Marvel Select Super Skrull that would have arrived anyway, we’ve been restocked on NECA Gargoyles and Last of Us Joel & Ellie 2-packs, McFarlane DC Multiverse figures & vehicles, and the MAFEX Batman the Animated Series among others!

This weekend we’re also starting to roll out the back issue portion of the Storage Unit collection, to go along with the four boxes of Silver Age and backwall books already available!

Carly and I took our niece and nephew to the Asheboro Zoo, their first time there ever and probably the first time I had been there in 20 years, thinking it wouldn’t be that busy since it was still technically winter. Wrong! Busier than Disney. Still a great time wondering at Nash having no fear of a 1,000 pound polar but recoiling from Lois every time he sees her.

Stephen’s So-Called Emo Life!

• Smoke Pit - time to admit that I’m absolutely addicted to the Smoke Pit’s Brisket Super Spud down in Concord! Since the first time we went back in January, we’ve gone every single Thursday that we’ve been in town, and I even made Carly take a day off work to come down and try it!

• John Dies at the End - I was looking through Hulu looking for something left of center to watch, and I’ve seen this come up in my orbit for a decade. I checked in with my resident horror advisor Jay, and he said the movie wasn’t worth the time (he was right), but the book is one of his favorites of all time, so now I’m into the third of the four books that are out so far.

• Cocaine Bear - a few fun moments, but mainly worth waiting for it to come to streaming.

Colton and I are in Pittsburgh for the ComicsPRO Annual Meeting where we and our fellow retailers meet with distributors, publishers, and vendors about the state of the industry, what’s coming down the pipeline, and what we can all do to improve. But there has to be time for some fun, too, like yesterday when we walked across the Monongahela River on the Fort Pitt Bridge to the 146-year-old Duquesne Incline funiculars railway to see the view I posted six weeks ago for ourselves!

Next week’s new releases are a little wonky because even though February only had four Wednesdays like always, because the new releases straddle the first of the month again like in January, they’re kind of treating it like fifth week, but there’s still great new stuff to try like Jeff Lemire’s Phantom Road from Image (more below) and several fantastic hardcovers to use any extra cash on!

In addition to the days and days of key books that we’ll be adding to the backwall over the next week or so (the first taste of which can be viewed here), and the thousands of back issues to follow in the bins, we’re also ready to reveal last week’s mystery book, the highest know graded copy of Ultimate Fallout #4’s 1:25 Marko Djurdjevic Variant (also the basis for our Ssalefish Exclusive Ultimate Fallout #4 Facsimile Edition)

Due to the extremely valuable nature of the book, we kept it in our possession for less than 24 hours total, going from the Concord store to CGC by the next day, and then from CGC to the auction house ComicLink in less than an hour. You can follow along or bid yourself at the link above!