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We’re also finalizing a deal for 100 new long boxes of books that will form the basis of our back stock & warehouse sales for the rest of the year, so we need to make some room!

I’m torn on Transformers Rise of the Beasts this weekend. As a kid whose first love was the Robots in Disguise, the Michael Bay movies were awful (OK, the third one was decent because it was based on “Countdown to Extinction”), but Bumblebee was a step in the right direction. Throw in the Maximals, and you’ve got yourself a stew going. Then everything I see since that (Pete Davidson voicing Mirage who is just who Jazz should have been all along, the Maximals having cybernetic skin like Transmetals instead of organic, Optimus looking more like Bay than Bee) has me worried again. We’ve still got Regal Unlimited, though, so I’ll report back next week.

As I mentioned three weeks ago, our next exclusive variant will be for Image Comics’ Scrapper #1, out July 19th, written by Gears of War scribe Cliff Bleszinski and drawn by North Carolina artist Sandy Jarrell! The back cover will feature the Lois portrait from the last post by Landis Blair, and it’s time to reveal the front cover (sans trade dress) by Jacob Chabot! Cover to cover, it’s a love letter to everyone’s favorite Frenchie, and the inside story is billed as Blade Runner meets Stray Dogs! Pre-Order your copy today at all three Ssalefish locations!

We also just acquired a collection of over 100 vintage carded Playmates Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures that we’re putting up on our eBay page for perusal since there’s no room to display them all properly on the sales floor. If you see anything you like, they’re available for local pick-up and we can offer a price break from listing because we’ll be avoiding eBay fees.

Thanks to my buddy Michael for turning me onto the Spider Society image generator! I like that it gave the costume the Spider-Gwen/ Rico Renzi flair that I asked for, but I never realized my chin was so lopsided before (it’s probably because I tend to lean my head back because I’m self-conscious of my underbite). Also on the Spider-Verse front, we’ve restocked all volumes of Miles Morales and Ghost-Spider in anticipation of the new movie, so get caught up on the source material today.

And in other big comic shop news, it was announced yesterday that Image Comics is leaving Diamond Comic Distributors for Lunar Distribution with their July catalog for items on sale in September and they’ll be switching to a Tuesday release date when the change-over occurs! While this means you’re free to pick up your new issues of Saga and Robert Kirkman’s new Void Rivals a day earlier when you pop around early for Batman or Superman, we’re most excited to refill our older Image trade paperbacks with the confidence of transparent shipping costs on our end.

Back in the saddle after helping the Guardians of the Galaxy save the Earth from a rogue Celestial, and just in time for our May Warehouse Sale, taking place tomorrow, Friday, May 19th from 3 PM - 7 PM & Satuday, May 20th from 11 AM - 4 PM at 929 N. Church Street in Greensboro behind Field Trip! Bret has donated his entire Amazon inventory of more than 20 boxes to the premium $5 back issues (or 10 for $25) and we’ve added close to 6,000 comics to the $1 books.

We’re kicking around the idea of taking the rest of the summer off when it comes to the warehouse sales and starting over fresh when the heat breaks in the fall, so get there while the getting’s good!

I promised last week that once Free Comic Book Day was in the rearview mirror I would have something new to reveal, and here it is! Our next Ssalefish Comics exclusive variant will be for Image’s Scrapper #1, out July 19th, a series with the tagline “Blade Runner meets Stray Dogs”! The book is written by Gears of War scribe Cliff Bleszinski and drawn by Chapel Hill’s own Sandy Jarrell. The cover will be illustrated by our pal Jacob Chabot (final art arriving soon) and the back cover will feature the above portrait of Lois by Landis Blair!

Alright, back down to Disney this week to decompress from FCBD, but I’ll be back in time to catch you up on all the new collections coming to our May Warehouse Sale next weekend.

Some last minute Free Comic Book Day 2023 updates! Unfortunately, Munchie & Me Facepainting will NOT be able to be in attendance this time around. There’s also an 80% chance of rain right now, so while we hope it will hold out until after we close and we’ve got back-up floor plans to accommodate all of our festivities indoors in necessary, please plan accordingly! And lastly I want to drive home again that our hours will be slightly altered to 10 AM - 6 PM instead of the usual 11 AM - 7 PM. Otherwise we hope to see everyone out and that you have an awesome time!

Today we’re doing our annual Comics For Kids donations at Irving Park Elementary & Pilot Elementary here in Greensboro, where we provide a bag of five brand-new, all-ages appropriate comics to every student in the Title I schools to make sure they’re introduced to comics at an early age, help sharpen their literacy skills, and share in the joy of Free Comic Book Day if they’re not able to make it out on Saturday. If you’ve already donated to the cause, THANK YOU SO MUCH, and if you’re just hearing about it for the first time, it’s not to late to help us meet our goal for 2023 or get a jump on next year!

We’re putting the finishing touches in place for Free Comic Book Day 2023! Mike has been pricing full-series packs and back issues to fill out the backstock bins (everything including the new stuff will still be Buy 2 Get 1 FREE next Saturday), I’ve got them labeled up, the case at the far end of the counter is illuminated again, and Jay just picked up a new collection of 7,000 books that will be split between the store and the warehouse!

Remember we’ll be opening and closing an hour earlier on Free Comic Book Day, so 10 AM - 6 PM instead of the usual 11 AM - 7 PM!

I was questioning why every Star Wars comic except Hyperspace Stories & Bounty Hunters plus Insider magazine and a young adult novel were coming out five days after the new video game and the day before Young Jedi Adventures and Visions season 2 are dropping on Disney+, and then I remembered May the 4th Be With You! Between Free Comic Book Day and my vacation the week after, I’m going to be playing canon catch-up all summer.

This blog marks six years of new releases for the Greensboro store (delayed three weeks from our actual opening date because of the COVID shutdown)! But in addition to all the comic releases that are ramping up in anticipation of Free Comic Book Day, coming the first Saturday in May, we also had our largest toy shipment of the year, featuring the Marvel Legends Ant-Man & Wasp Quantumania (Statue BAF), Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 (Cosmo BAF), and Avengers Classic Comic (Puff Adder BAF) waves, Indiana Jones Adventure Series Indy (Arc of the Covenant BAF), Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon Classics, TMNT Adventures Jagwar & Dreadmon, She-Hulk Matt Murdock Entertainment Earth Exclusive Funko Pop, Star Wars Black Series Clone Trooper Helmet, and Sideshow Hoy Toys Mandalorian Season Two Ahsoka Tano 1/6 Scale Figure!

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).