Ssalefish GSO First Look #331 for 9.6.23
I’m reading through the Green Lantern Corps omnibus that came out last week and I’m heartened that it’s as good as I remember even though I had forgotten that Dave Gibbons (as in the Watchmen artist) had written the first half of that stuff. I only recalled him doing the Recharged mini series that kicked things off, but he was there on the ongoing straight into the Sinestro Corps War. Kind of like how everyone remembers Frank Quitely as being the artist for Grant Morrison’s New X-Men because he did the first few, but I’m pretty sure Igor Kordey of all people did the most, and Ethan van Sciver might have done more than Quitely, too. Also, everything I remember of Preacher is in the first half.
My creative messing this week has mainly been dialing in the paint job I’ll be attempting on my new Fender Starcaster body when it arrives near the end of September (pictured in the thumbnail to this post) and fiddling with my new Focusrite audio interface to record direct from my Kemper Stage (which you can hear in the player above).
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Ssalefish GSO First Look #330 for 8.30.23
This Saturday, August 26th. we’ll be hosting a signing with Scrapper creator & series writer Cliff Bleszinski from 12 PM - 3 PM at the Greensboro store! In addition to Scrapper, Cliff was the lead designer of the Gears of War franchise while working at Epic Games, produced the Tony award-nominated Broadway show Hadestown, and has opened multiple success restaurants in Raleigh; truly a renaissance man!
He’ll be bringing along a cosplay collar so that your own four-legged friend can get their picture snapped looking like a protector of New Verona, and we’ll be collecting donations for Guilford County Animal Services! And you can get your Ssalefish exclusive variant to Scrapper #1 double-signed by Cliff AND Lois!
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Ssalefish GSO First Look #329 for 8.23.23
CGC 9.8 copies of our Ssalefish exclusive variant to Scrapper #1 by Jacob Chabot are now available at both the Greensboro & Concord locations! Unfortunately, CGC wouldn’t recognize Lois’s paw print for Signature Series, but this is the next best thing. We hope to have some more very exciting Scrapper news ready to go by tomorrow!
And if you’re still looking for something to do with your Sunday afternoon while you wait for football to come back, stop by Lee’s Brass Taps in Greensboro at 3 PM to compete against me and Jay in comic book trivia! Last time we went they had $1 PBRs & $6 burgers. They’re located at 2506 Battleground Avenue.
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Ssalefish GSO First Look #328 for 8.16.23
Colton & I just got off a retailer call with Robert Kirkman & Daniel Warren Johnson discussing the Energon Universe that began in Void Rivals in June and will continue in October with DWJ on Transformers and then on to Joshua Williamson writing several G.I. Joe mini series in December & January! We also got to read an advance PDF of Transformers #1 and it. Is. AWESOME! We’ll have plenty of copies of all the covers for the first issue if you wanna hold out, but trust me when I say it is the best Transformers comic since Tom Scioli’s Transformers vs. G.I. Joe in 2015.
Another advance PDF we got a chance to check out was Rafael Grampa’s Batman Gargoyle of Gotham #1, out Tuesday, September 12th, which deals with the concept of Batman killing off the persona of Bruce Wayne so he can focus on being the Dark Knight full time. Grampa’s art is incredible, I’ve been a fan since Mesmo Delivery from Dark Horse, and his best known work is probably Dark Knight: Golden Child with Frank Miller.
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Ssalefish GSO First Look #327 for 8.9.23
This is my initial “vision board” (using Apple’s new Freeform program) for a new family project that will take us into next year, up to my 40th birthday! Since Tom DeLonge debuted his new Starcaster custom guitars back in December as part of his return to blink-182, the community has been all over doing mods to Squier models on the cheap and doing high-end replicas. I had the itch myself, but then I got the idea to have Carly do her own take for me, something that sums up all my favorite things from my first four decades. The pets, comics, Star Wars, Transformers, NASCAR, the Yankees, all those passions, and my buddy Allan Corona out in San Diego will seal it and put it together.
In the short term, I’m rewatching the West Wing on Max, reading Star Wars Inquisitor Rise of the Red Blade, grinding to build up to fight the final Ganon battle in Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, just discovered Praising Petey on Hulu (originally airs on Freeform), and checking out Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem this weekend!
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Ssalefish GSO First Look #326 for 8.2.23
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve podcasted (in my hold life, I hosted & edited over 300 episodes of a decently successful show), but it was like riding a bike when I jumped on with Brian & Kip from Zero Dark Nerdy to review Bardenheimer and point out their comic book connections! The episode should be out tomorrow and I’ll be popping by once a month or so to talk about all the goings-on in the funny pages.
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Ssalefish GSO First Look #325 for 7.26.23
Today was my nephew Nash’s 3rd birthday, and the party was Spidey & His Amazing Friends (& Paw Patrol) themed! I didn’t realize until the soundtrack was playing in the background that Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy sings the opening number to the Disney Junior show, and at that point it’s just too many of my worlds colliding since I’m deep-diving back into emo at the moment while reading Chris Payne’s Where Are Your Boys Tonight? I was also tickled that the assortment of superhero costumes he got from his aunt as one of his gifts included a Venom and a Deadpool outfit (you know, for the kids).
Lois’s “Signing” Tour for our Scrapper #1 Ssalefish Exclusive Variant by Jacob Chabot & Landis Blair continues tomorrow down at the Concord store from 12 PM - 2 PM! I hope Colton doesn’t give her fleas…
In all seriousness, I think Scrapper is a bonafide Image hit that just needs some more word of mouth to reach the level of Stray Dogs, so we’re all in on the ground floor of this thing!
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Ssalefish GSO First Look #324 for 7.19.23
I’m currently waiting on the FedEx delivery of our Scrapper #1 Ssalefish Exclusive Variant so I can ferry them around the state to all the other Ssalefishes in advance of its release next Wednesday, but I also wanted to remind everyone about the July Warehouse Sale taking place tomorrow, Friday, July 14th from 3 PM - 7 PM & Saturday, July 15th from 11 AM - 4 PM at 929 North Church Street!
Stephen’s So-Called Emo Life!
Black Mirror Season 6 - the first three episodes really live up to the legacy of the show!
Color of Magic - after reading Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchet for the first time before season 2 of the show comes out on prime later this month, I decided that the 22 books in the Discworld series should keep me busy for a while.
Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom - with just one sage left to unlock, I feel like I’m finally starting to actually enjoy the game instead of it feeling like work.
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Ssalefish First Look #323 for 7.12.23
Some more cool stuff is on the way to compliment our Scrapper #1 Exclusive Variant featuring Lois, due at the shop on Wednesday, July 19th (a week earlier than I had thought)! Please help us show everyone’s favorite Frenchie the love during her “signing”!
Beyond that, we’ll be buried in the boxes getting everything ready for our July Warehouse Sale taking place next Friday, July 14th from 3 PM - 7 PM and Saturday, July 15th from 11 AM - 4 PM! We’re not even kidding when we say that tomorrow we’re adding 20 new boxes to the already overflowing selection.
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