Sometimes you just want to shoot the breeze. Since my wife’s eyes often glaze over when I talk about this stuff, you guys get to hear it.
From The Mouths of Babes Department:
I was sitting here writing my last post and my seven year old son was on the couch next to me playing Sim City on his iPod Touch. He has a habit of asking me questions about his games like I have the rules & strategies for each etched in my DNA.
So, he hits me with, “Hey Dad, how do you tell how much money you have?” I shoot him the “hand it over” gesture and he gives me his iPod. Well, the money meter’s in the top right corner of the screen and he’s rocking along at -$500 and dropping fast. His city appears to be crumbling like Lance Armstrong’s credibility. I say, “Well, it’s right here. You’re spending wayyyy more money than you’re taking in.” He thinks about it and says, “That’s probably not gonna end well, is it?” If only the idiots in Washington D.C. could grasp that concept.
First World Problems–Comic Books vs. Trade Paperbacks
I’m not saying this is a dilemma of epic proportions but it’s one I’ve struggled with a bit recently. I love comics but I’ve been seriously considering switching to TPBs for most of my titles. Here’s what I’ve got so far:
PROS
—Save Money? With the insane prices on monthly comics, I think I can tend to save a small amount of money by going the TPB route, especially with the discount I get from my comic book supplier, Westfield Comics. Mo money is mo better.
—Easier to Store & Access Maybe I’m just getting too old. But my right knee is swollen like George Lucas’ chin and I’m tired of messing with long (and short) boxes. How nice to just go to the book shelf and take down a TPB. Versus having to move around a bunch of boxes to get the individual issues then put the issues back later and put the stack of boxes back in order.
—Get The Story In One Shot Except for a few titles, I’m pretty much waiting for the whole story (or arc) before I read them anyway, so why not just get the trade?
—Save Time & Money on Bagging & Boarding Now THAT would be nice.
—Extra Content You do tend to see extra content in a lot of TPBs today. Nice bonus.
CONS
—Miss Out On The Cover Art I like a nice cover. There are TPBs that print all the covers in the back but I think that tends to be the exception rather than the rule.
—A TPB Isn’t a Comic Book I love comic books. Have since I was seven. I love books as well, but they aren’t the same thing. There IS something about flipping through a box of comics that I don’t get from browsing a shelf of books.
—Does Every Book Become a TPB? Heck, I don’t know. I know that titles like B.P.R.D. and Hellboy (from my Top 10 list) always come out as a trade. But what about ongoing titles like Batman, Detective, etc.? I guess that’s one of the hazards–assuming something will come out in TPB and then it doesn’t.
CONCLUSION
Good question. I think I’m going to take a hard look at this month’s Westfield order to see how much I’ll save by dropping most of my monthly titles and switching to TPBs. It’s gonna be interesting to see if I can actually hit that “submit order” button at the end of the day though.
The Nerd Cave Got a Grip On Me
So, you’ve got a guy. He starts with a 14′ x 17′ room and takes it from blank slate to his own personal Sanctum Sanctorum (and I mean that more in the vein of Dr. Strange versus the Biblical translation). It doesn’t matter if he’s into comics, Steam Punk, horror movies, or the Chicago Bears. It’s his Man Cave, Baby!
So it shouldn’t come as a shock when he tends to spend a lot of time in it. Well, I recently got into a bit of trouble over just that issue. I started sleeping in here. A lot.
It wasn’t a conscious decision. My wife is a morning person and I tend to be a night owl. So, after Thanksgiving, I left the hide-a-bed out after my in-laws went home and fell asleep in here watching Netflix. And I slept great.
Not that I don’t sleep good in our bed. One of the things we splurged on after the fire was a really nice mattress. Our prior mattress, while not cheap, had ended up sagging like George Lucas’ chin in a 10G turn (if George Lucas flew F-16s instead of spending his time ruining the Star Wars Universe).
But our really nice mattress is hot. I mean, I run hot anyway and I just tend to sweat at night with this new mattress. And as Seinfeld used to say, “That’s just not good for business…” So, for like the last month and a half, I’ve been kicking it in the Nerd Cave at night and falling asleep to the soothing glow of my old school lava lamp. Our bedroom is nice but so are a lot of hotel rooms.
Alas, all good things must come to an end. I closed up the hide-a-bed this morning and I’m going back to the bedroom. Maybe my wife will let me kick a lava lamp or two in there. Yeah…Probably not.
*I probably need apologize for wearing out George Lucas and his chin. I guess in today’s Hollywood culture where face lifts are as common as haircuts, I should applaud George for resisting the urge to tuck that bad boy in.
Copyright 2013 It Came From The Nerd Cave