Last night upon returning home from work, running the gauntlet of "hello Daddy's", kisses and a much needed shower I plopped sown on my couch, cradled a cool Ice Coffee and after recounting our days Angi got up to tend to dinner and my attention drifted to the TV. As the kids now were meandering about I aimlessly fluttered through the Netflix "instant" library to tune something on for background noise. There I stumbled upon some new additions Angela had programed in preparation for Movie Night. Toward the end of the list something caught my eye, and I stopped. A provocative title peaked my interest.
"The Comic Men"
Angela, always looking out for me, had came across it and instantly new it would be of great nostalgic interest to me. I'm not one for "reality" shows but this one was RIGHT up my alley!! The show takes place in a real life Comic Book Shop, but not just ANY comic shop this is "Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash" in historic Red Bank, NJ, Kevin Smiths home town! If you aren't familiar with the name, he is non other then the publicity whore (his words) director of such cult classics as Clerk's, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Red State (fanFREAKINGtastic!) and co-owner of this shop founded in 1997. A REAL feat considering the state of comic shops around the country! Unlike Pawn Stars and the ilk it heralds the exploits of the shops ACTUAL employees. And it's like a hilarious walk down memory lane for me! Angela was with me the last five years of my career in the field, at the time the death knell of the business was being felt and it was a struggle. A lot of sacrifices were made in those dark days and in looking back I made some bad decisions. Ones to this day I still regret. Suffice to say if I had now, what I had then, I would never have to work again...nor would my children, purely live off the returns from Sothebys! But, what is, is. My wife, to her credit knows in her heart that those 12 years I spent in the field were some of the best work days of my life. She has never forgotten the joy she saw in my eyes from the simple act of plopping on the floor and digging through a box of unexplored back issues, or the discovery of some forgotten milestone. The eager wheeling and dealing, the art of the close as it were. Bitterly, I turned away from it all and underwent a term of mourning, where I wanted nothing to do with it. Slowly, in part owed to the rise of the "Super Hero" movie I found myself slowly drawn back to my obsession. Culminating in, a small way, reacquiring some of what was lost, at least the best of some stories in Trade Paperback form.
With this thought tickling her heart she posted the show on our queue and gleefully awaited me discovering it! Needless to say after watching the Family Movie, with the patience and humor of a doting mother hen she sat with me as I was riveted to the screen joyfully being transported back through the ethereal mists of time and for moments could not tell where the images on screen ended and my happy memories began. As much as "High Fidelity" was a film nod to the elitists of the "second hand record" collector shop, this show is a (semi) real life thrill for me. Truthfully, not as rambunctious a lot as I was accustomed to back in the hey days of the 80's and 90's where "New Book Day" was TRULY a celebratory event. There is sadly no sign of the flood of humanity I was accustomed to in my Massachusetts shop where literally hundreds of bodies would come and go every Friday, greedily clutching their varying size stacks of new issues. No hands eagerly rushing across the new stacks of books compelling the guards (yes...on Friday I had to employ TWO "NEWBIEGUARDS" as they were to become known as) to exclaim "Not until he's done!" ensuring that I was able to unpack and place out all new issues AND pull subscriptions before any could be claimed. Not unlike a run on a hot concert ticket, or the premier of Twilight!
No, in a way it is somewhat melancholy, Exciting as it is to rekindle that Fanboy glee, it is also remarkably sad to see the fall that has become the neighborhood comic shop. With the advent of Amazon, and E-bay and the homogenization and mainstreaming of the industry, much like the second book store, or corner video shop I fear it's time is truly coming to a close. Now populated by the few die hard practitioners it appears to be a dying institution. I hope that I'm wrong, but even my son Eliah when he was finally old enough to watch "The Crow" was taken aback by the revelation that "There was a COMIC BOOK about this movie?!"
'DOH!
Yes, I failed him in fundamental knowledge and had since rectified it. But sadly, there are fewer and fewer children today being raised on the purest joy of holding a volume in hand and spending an afternoon, prone on their bed, locked in their room escaping to unending universes, fueled purely by imagination.
This show is a time capsule of sorts, chronicling an important American art form and sub culture that deserves historic mention.
And I warm heartily thank my lovely wife for her diligence in discovering this for me!
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