NO TIME

No time to post anything today. Instead, enjoy the following:

EAR WORMS

On the way home from the convention, I was listening to Dr. Dean Edell, and he was talking about "ear worms". Those are the songs that you have stuck in your head, and you can't get rid of them. On day like today, where everything goes nice and easy, I often have this one running through my head. It's a nice, pleasant ear worm.





What is the music that goes through your head? What is your "Theme"?

WONDER CON DAY 0

Yesterday, Mark and I loaded our cargo van to the brim with vintage comics, bargain books, toys and Pure Here shirts.

I got up at 5:30 this morning, and got on the road before 7:00. I picked up Mark at his house in Hayward, and continued on to San Francisco. We arrived before 9:00. Within a few minutes, they let us drive underground to the convention floor. We grabbed a couple of pallets and started loading them up. As soon as we were done, a forklift operator took the pallets to our booth. We started setting up the booth. By 12:30 I decided that we were pretty well set up. We covered everything up, and called it a day.

Now it's 3:00 pm. I'm back at my San Jose home, relaxing in my sweatpants. I gassed up the van, and just enjoyed a delicious sandwich at Eric's Deli. It can be really hard setting up at shows, but today went really smoothly. I'll be relaxed, and ready for tomorrow. I'll be back with a report, and pictures.

If you are going to the show, look for us in the 1000 isle, right by the front. Make sure to say hi, okay?

WONDER CON

That's where I'll be this weekend.

STOUT!

I had a fantastic time at our William Stout signing on Saturday. William is not only one of the greatest artists alive, but he is one heck of a fun guy and interesting storyteller. He does a lot of work on movies and music projects, as well as the occasional comic book. He's worked with Arnold Schwarzenegger several times. Some time I'll have to recount his amazing stories about Arnold that he told me.


William did some fantastic drawings for the lucky attendees.


Here's one of the people that showed up to this event. It's Kirk Durfey. Some of you may know him from when he worked at Comics and Comix in Palo Alto in the 1980s. He worked with Teresa Marovich who we profiled a while back. It was nice to see Kirk again after all these years.


Here's a shot of me, Bill, and John Fleskes, the publisher of Bill's great new book.

I don't know what the next Lee's Comics event will be, but make sure to attend. These things are not to be missed!

NEW BROOM

I've got an idea for a new product: The Slumdog Broom. It sweeps everything!

I'm happy about Slumdog Millionaire winning all those awards, as it was my favorite move of the year. Well, that and Wall-E. Two fantastic films, in a very good year for films.

IF IT TAKES FOREVER

Watching the Oscars here. A guy just won in an obscure category, and rattled off his long long list of people that he wanted to thank.

When he finally finished, the band walked him off with "I Will Wait for You." Very funny if you know the song. I wonder how many people caught it. Not many, I bet.

"If it takes forever I will wait for you
For a thousand summers I will wait for you..."

SIGN OF THE TIMES

It now costs less to buy a share of the New York Times than it does to buy their Sunday paper. The paper costs $4.00, and the stock price is $3.77. Maybe they could try inserting a share of stock into each paper as a premium.

YELLOWED PAGES

This year I am going to stop advertising in the Yellow Pages. I never use them anymore, and I don't know anyone who does. I just toss them, unopened, into the recycling each year when the new book arrives. I only keep them around because of habit. If you want to find a store that sells something you need, you just Google the product and the city you are in. You can Google something like "Mountain View Comic Books", or "San Mateo Comics Books", and guess who comes up? Guess who comes up if you Google a nearby city like Palo Alto or Sunnyvale? The closer you are to me the higher I come up in the finding. That seems fair to me.

I hate dealing with the Yellow Pages. They always seemed to be very archaic in their layout and graphics even back in their heyday.

Since I have customers from all over the Bay Area, I have ads in many different city editions. Each book has it's own closing day, and pricing. If you run a small box ad in the San Jose edition, and they tell you that it's only fifty dollars. What it really costs is six hundred dollars, because it's fifty dollars a month for a year. They put the book out once a year, but they bill you each and every month. Sky high monthly bills: Small business folks LOVE the phone company for that.

No more of that for me, thanks. I'm pulling the plug now. I looked around a bit online, and found out that I am not the only one that thinks that the yellow pages' days are numbered. Bill Gates thinks so too, as noted in this article. My only qualm with the article is the assertion that the Yellow Pages will die off in 10 years. I think it will be sooner. A LOT sooner. Anyone want to make a bet who is going to be around longer, Lee's Comics, or the printed Yellow Pages? Let me know if you want some of that action. Daddy needs a new pair of shoes.

WHAT'S NEW?

President's Day or not, the new comics are coming out on Wednesday as usual.



That includes the 5th printing of your friendly neighborhood you-know-who, featuring the boys from Illinois!

THE INTERNATIONAL

The International, staring Clive Owen is a suspenseful and well acted thriller. It's fast moving and picturesque. There is plenty of action. Too bad that the plot-line is incomprehensible for the most part, and the few parts that can be comprehended are preposterous. The movie does not work up to a climax. Instead it looks like the director ran out of film, so they just stopped it, and rolled the credits. Perhaps the banks cut off their funding.

This film is well timed, as it uses bankers as the bad guys. On the downside, the plot is harder to comprehend than the stimulus package. It should have been called "The Irrational." This movie's rating is should be downgraded to "Junk."

HANNAH'S ALL NEW MOVIE REVIEW!

My Daughter Hannah has been wanting to see Coraline for a while now, and we got to see it tonight. Also she always reads my Blog and has been wanting to write for it. So I invited her to contribute a movie review of Coraline. Here is Hannah, age 12, in her own words. Take it away kid-do!

Coroline, 4 stars

Well I just got back for the movie Coraline 3D. I would say it was very fun and exiting movie to watch. I felt that the animation was very clever as well as the story plot. Overall it seems much effort was put in to making this movie. Through the course of the movie, the main character, Coraline, seems very relatable for young girls as well as adults. Also my whole family adored the talking kitty. This is why I think this movie is the perfect movie to go see with your family and I give it 4 stars. : )


Hannah Hester

CH CH CHANGES!

If you are reading this post on my home page Leescomics.com, then you will notice that my Blog is now embedded. I did this with the help of my long time friend, Lauren Katzive. Take a bow Lauren! We are still ironing out the bugs, so expect the old web page to start looking better and better.

If you are reading this on Blogger, on the other hand, it's high time you bookmark and switch to the Lee's Comics web page. It's your world headquarters for all things Lee.

Now that the blog is on my homepage, you can bet that I'm going to be updating it much more frequently. That's right friends, you'll be getting more comics info, more movie info, more pop culture references, more stories, more videos, more random comments than you can shake a stick at. Everything that's new and notable from the mad mind of yours truly. As always, thanks for reading. You keep reading 'em and I'll keep writing 'em!

THE "SULLY"

There's a new cocktail honoring heroic US Airways pilot Capt. Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger. It's called the "Sully"

Here's how to make it:

Two shots Grey Goose, and a splash of ice cold water.
Shake violently, and set down gently.

FIFTY CENT COMICS!

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that the hard economic times are probably bringing me more vintage comics than usual. We had a mountain of great back issues in the back of our Mountain View store, and the mountain just seemed to grow higher and higher. What to do with them all? Offer them to our customers for an incredible bargain price!



We are now offering the biggest 50¢ section in the history of Lee's Comics! That's right, we are now devoting 24 bins just for the 50¢ bargains. This is not a bunch of tired old stock, but brand new collections that have never been offered before. There's thousands of comics here dating from the 1970s to the present. New stuff will be added daily. Make sure to check it out, you are going to LOVE these bargains!

TIN STARS

I'm always on the look out for cool items that will delight comic book fans. Here is a neat new item, now on sale at the stores. It's tin signs, and license plates with many of your favorite Marvel and DC characters. The art and graphics are fantastic! Some of them have that weathered and rusty look. These make great gifts, and they are a big step up from your standard poster. Check out the full selection next time you shop at Lee's Comics.

NOT GOING UNDER

One of the things people often ask me is "how is business?" These are economically challenging times for sure. Everywhere you turn, another company is struggling, going under, going into bankruptcy or laying off people.

Truth be told, Lee's Comics is doing just fine at the moment. Sales are steady, and we are nowhere near the dire conditions of so many other businesses.

I am very thankful for this circumstance, but I don't want to take anything for granted. I want to do everything possible to stay ahead of the game. You really don't know where this economy is headed in the long run, so you have to maximize every opportunity that comes along. As an example, hard times may force some very nice vintage comics onto the market. I don't believe that the stores would still be around if not for a number of very good vintage comics collections that have come in over the years.

Tough times also bring opportunities. You have to look for them, and you have to be flexible. Lots of hard work may be required. The ice age is here, and the business dinosaurs are falling. My goal, as always, is to stick around for 50 years. 24 years to go.

- Lee

BACK

As you might have noticed, I took a break from writing for a while. In the meantime, I've looked around a bit, and had a few ideas that I want to try. I'll be back soon with a different approach. As always, thanks for reading.

Regards,

Lee