Our ever-able Eric Nolen-Weathington is on his way to Baltimore as I type this, to man our booth for the Baltimore Comicon. If you’ve never been, it’s a great show, lots of guests, fun times galore. If you’re there, stop by and ask Eric to tell you about Diamond Comic Distributors, and why his Modern Masters volumes on Mike Ploog and Kyle Baker were both solicited in Previews the same month, instead of two months apart as we’d requested. (I just love Diamond sometimes…)

Oh yeah, buy some stuff at our booth, before our government spends that $700 billion out of our pockets to bail out Wall Street. That way, you’ll have something to read on your coffee breaks, while we’re all working twice as hard trying to earn the extra money we’ll all need to pay the estimated $10,000 per family it’s going to cost us, all because those morons in Washington wouldn’t regulate the financial industry over the last 8 years.

(Sorry if I sound grumpy; I’m just so ticked off at our lousy administration for allowing this to happen, especially when they were warned this subprime mortgage mess was coming years ago, by the CEO of Self-Help, a major non-profit credit union who’s an advertising client of ours. That, plus my 3-year-old daughter was up all night throwing up, so I didn’t get much sleep.)

Now please excuse me; I’ve decided, for the good of the country, to suspend my blog temporarily while I rush off to focus my attention on the Presidential Debate tonight.

Kirby fans: Really, I’m working on it. Have been since July. So many things have jumped in the way of getting it done, but I hope to have it to press (finally) be the end of next week, and shipping by the end of October. Be patient; it’ll be worth it, I promise!

It’s been nothing short of crazy here the last few weeks, as our “Back-To-School Blowout” sale has been going on, generating hundreds of orders in the space of a couple of weeks. I thought I’d stocked our local inventory with plenty of copies of our sale items, but after the first week of the sale, we ran out of several of the sale items, and had to wait while more copies were delivered from our printer in Canada, where we store some of our books. We also literally ran out of shipping boxes, and had to scramble while waiting for our usual supplier to get more to us. So while the sale’s been super-successful, we’ve had to rely on a few customers’ patience in getting their copies shipped to them.

As of about a week ago, everything was cleared up, and shipping’s back to normal (we usually get orders shipped within two days of when they’re placed, and often the next day). The sale ends September 30, so next few days are your final chance to take advantage of the largest sale in our 15-year history: $2 magazines and 50% off books. Already, several items have sold out (and more are about to), so if there’s a publication you’ve been meaning to buy, this could be your last chance (especially at these low sale prices)!

The complete list of sale items includes:

$2 MAGAZINES:
Rough Stuff #1-9 (edited by Bob McLeod)
Write Now #1-18 (edited by Danny Fingeroth)
Comic Book Artist (all in-stock issues) (edited by Jon B. Cooke)
Comic Book Nerd (by Pete Von Sholly)
Crazy Hip Groovy Go-Go Way Out Monsters #29 and #32 (by Pete Von Sholly)
Wallace Wood Checklist (edited by Bhob Stewart)

50% OFF BOOKS & DVDs:
Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary Comics Fanzine (by Roy Thomas and Bill Schelly)
Best of the Legion Outpost (by Glen Cadigan)
Best of Write Now (by Danny Fingeroth)
Blue Beetle Companion (by Christopher Irving)
Brush Strokes With Greatness: The Life & Art of Joe Sinnott (by Tim Lasiuta)
Comic Book Artist Collection – Volume 3 (by Jon B. Cooke)
Comic Books And Other Necessities of Life (by Mark Evanier) – ALMOST SOLD OUT!
Comics Above Ground (by Durwin Talon)
Comics Gone Ape! (by Michael Eury)
Comics Introspective: Peter Bagge (by Christopher Irving)
Dick Giordano: Changing Comics One Day At A Time (by Michael Eury)
G-Force: Animated (by George Khoury and Jason Hofius)
I Have To Live With This Guy! (by Blake Bell)
Image Comics: The Road To Independence (by George Khoury)
John Romita… And All That Jazz (by Roy Thomas and Jim Amash)
Modern Masters: In The Studio with George Perez DVD
Modern Masters: In The Studio with Michael Golden DVD
Mr. Monster – Volume 0 (by Michael T. Gilbert) – ALMOST SOLD OUT!
Streetwise (edited by Jon B. Cooke and John Morrow)
Superheroes In My Pants (by Mark Evanier)
The Art of George Tuska (by Dewey Cassell)
THUNDER Agents Companion (by Jon B. Cooke)

SOLD OUT ITEMS:
Alter Ego Collection Volume One (by Roy Thomas)
Wertham Was Right! (by Mark Evanier)
True Brit (by George Khoury)
Secrets in the Shadows: The Art & Life of Gene Colan (by Tom Field) – SOFTCOVER IS SOLD OUT (but we have some hardcover copies left)
Comic Book Artist #9