And his neighbors think he's helpful and he's sweet

[austin_dern]

I've got a fair idea why it is at the comic book shop I'm often asked if I work there. There's this comic book shop in a mall that's not really so conveniently located anymore, but was pretty near perfectly suited to my parents' old home, and I still end up going there as there's an Apple Store and various other interesting things, including a whole other Barnes and Noble with marginally different books on display than the nearby one or the next-nearest one. And in the mall is a small comic book shop that breaks some of the Comic Shop Rules for Commercial Dismalness by having a wide-open front in a fairly busy section of the mall (opposite the center balcony from the food court) and not having faded, dusty posters for Voluptina, Demon-Princess of Improbable Poses #1 Special Collectors Edition (by Frank Miller) covering the walls. But they hew to some of the traditional elements for comic shops, particularly the staff hiding away like chipmunks and only emerging when they feel comfortable, when there's been no motion from suspicious customer-like entities for several minutes or when one of the customer-things holds out a handful of cashew nuts.

So it's natural that innocent by-shoppers would turn to me as a guy who probably works there. If you saw a picture of me you'd agree: I'm tall, but pretty doughy, with a beard that loses its neatness about 120 hours after I leave the barber shop, and hair combed in a fashion that suggests an armistice of fatigue arranged among my hair, my shampoo, and my comb. I even go out in sweatpants, not because I don't care how I look but because I don't wear jeans and dress slacks are inappropriate for hanging out in the mall. In short, despite some differences, I look like I'm the guy being caricatured by the existence of Comic Book Guy.

Going up to me for help is, therefore, a very good strategy, and while I don't actually work there I do try to give a good impression and answer questions to the extent that I know anything. Questions about where some type of thing, like Archie comics or toy merchandise, are I can answer; questions about stock, not so much. While I really like the idea, at least, of comic books I haven't found books that I feel enthusiastic enough to buy regularly in years. The last books I collected regularly were the Marvel New Universe, about twenty years ago, which makes me kind of the guy who collects Go-Bots in a Transformers world. Mostly I go in to the store, look around, and eventually leave. I'm nearly as good a comic book fan as I am a modern science fiction fan.

Trivia: Captain America was the first Marvel (or Timely, depending on how you want to count the corporate names) comics character to debut in his own title. Source: Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and the American Comic Book Revolution, Ronin Ro.

Currently Reading: Alone Against Tomorrow, Harlan Ellison. (I got it in a used bookstore about six months ago and just got around to it. It was published back when Apollo 16 was being planned.)

Comments

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

You're a comics professor too! ^V^

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Not hardly, but I do have most of the archive editions of the Jack Cole Plastic Man books.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Warren Ellis is doing a new take on New Universe, except it's all in one series. So far it's rather good, dark and rather violent but not gloomy yet, and with several areas of ridiculous.

I'm often mistaken for staff at my local comic book store, but far moreso at Best Buy, even without owning a blue polo shirt.

Dress slacks are fine for the mall. Why don't you wear jeans, out of curiousity?

--Chiaroscuro

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I had no idea they were doing such a thing. What next, the Great Lakes Avengers getting their own graphic novel?

I'm not surprised it's dark and violent, but I am surprised if it's held off on being gloomy, since as far as I can tell the last person happy in a comic book was ripped apart and stuffed in the refrigerator in 1993.

There's not really any deep reason for me not wearing jeans; I'm just not comfortable in them. Once upon a time I could say that was because I didn't like the breaking-in period and I never got around to the stage where they feel like good fits. It seemed more sensible to go right for clothes that were already comfortable fits. I imagine they have shorter breaking-in periods these days, but, you know, Van Heusen and Joe Boxer don't have any breaking-in period.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Some times, I can't tell if you know or don't know, but there was GLA:Missassembled about two years back.

--Chiaroscuro

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Huh. Mighty hard to keep the jokes ahead of the reality anymore.

[orv.livejournal.com]

...I look like I'm the guy being caricatured by the existence of Comic Book Guy.

Who is, as you've probably heard before, rumored to be a caricature of Ralph Bakshi.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

... Huh. No, I'd never heard that before. But, wow, yes, I can see that. Huh.

(Despite familiarity with the general Simpsons universe I've actually only seen about five episodes, one of them the one from the first season where they gang up on the neighborhood bully.)