The Worst Day Since Yesterday

Well I know, I miss more than hit

With a face that was launched to sink

An' I seldom feel, the bright relief

It's been the worst day since yesterday

If there's one thing I have said

Is that the dreams I once had, now lay in bed

As the four winds blow, my wits through the door

It's been the worst day since yesterday

Fallin' down to you sweet ground

Where the flowers they bloom

It's there I'll be found

Hurry back to me, my wild Colleen

It's been the worst day since yesterday

Though these wounds have seen no wars

Except for the scars I have ignored

And this endless crutch, well it's never enough

It's been the worst day since yesterday

Hell says hello, well it's time to I should go

To pastures green, that I've yet to see

Hurry back to me, my wild Colleen

It's been the worst day since yesterday

One man's trash is another man's treasure

CUSTOMER: Do you buy second hand graphic novels?
ME: Nope
CUSTOMER: Rarrgh, *splutter* why not? Rarrgh, I have good things. You're wrong. Change your entire business model. We want a comic shop in this town and you will fail without buying my books. Mark my words, you will FAIL! I haven't bought comics for about a decade, but when I lived in Brighton we had a lot of comic shops and they all bought and sold older stuff!
ME: I've worked in comic shops for over a decade sir and the back issue market has dwindled in stores with the rise of eBay, etc.
CUSTOMER: Pah.

I get a variation on this regularly.

Every time I do new advertising, I am inundated with calls. Yay. But mostly from people wanting to sell me stuff.

Buying second-hand stuff from people does tend to generate more ill will then turning them down cold. Second-hand stuff is bought in the hope of selling it rather than ordering to new trends or reservation orders.

So you have to cherry pick the best stuff, often annoying the customer that you haven't bought it all. Or you buy it all at a job lot price for peanuts, and they become angry that you haven't given them top dollar for it.

A comic may be worth £20. But a shop can't give you that for it then sell it for the same. They make no money, and thus the sale does nothing to contribute to the costs of rent, utilities, business rates, music licensing, business insurance, PDQ terminal rent, etc.

And it there's no guarantee it will sell in the next few months like the new sotck from Previews, so a lower price must be offered.

Then there's space. Storing and presenting old stock in a small shop like mine is problematic.

So between these considerations, eBay and the current economic climate - I chose when I opened not to buy back issues or second hand graphic novels as a rule.

I sell some back issues on commission for a local customer, who was smart enough to get in early and make me a canny offer. We have a good working relationship and should I wish to end that arrangement, I could. And then repurpose that part of the shop for something else.

Frankly, if I bought old comics and graphic novels from everyone who offers it to me, I'd probably be in debt right now.

The purpose of this blog entry? Well today's customer get right in my face. His body language was threatening and he becmae bullying. It was unsettling and just noting my position on it all helps to banish any ill feeling form the encounter.

Right at the end, he changed tack. He began to say that he wanted to see a comic shop in Cheltenham and hoped we'd continue. He went on to mention another retailer in the town and say that they'd spoken of Proud Lion together recently, both saying that they hoped we'd thrive.

"Well, we've been here for two years," I pointed out.

"Have you?" he choked.

I have to add, I have never seen this gentleman before either.

Sigh.

The Defamation Of Strickland Banks

Some times you hear some new music and go 'wow'.

I'm late to the party when it comes to Plan B, but this new direction is amazing. Concept album/video hybrid too. Wonderful. Plus, is that Effy from Skins and Keeley Hawes?





The Pendulum remix of Stay Too Long is awesome too.

Scrapbooking, Skins and life in general

I'm trying to get out of the habit of only blogging when I'm low.

Right now, I'm OK. Life is bemusing me rather than getting me down. It's bittersweet bemusement at the moment.

The eating is still a disgrace. I'm angry at myself. I can do this. I can eat 2000 calories a day or less, and I start each day with good intentions. Then the wheels come off and I have a mini-binge on junk from the little shop. I'm not sure if its boredom, or underlying unhappiness, but I determined to eventually get this under control again.

I've nearly finished my North Channel Swim Challenge. I hoped to complete this week, but alas I find Friday is becoming a fun day of Revolution drinking with Suzy and the Nationwide folks. It's a big help. Tonight will also see some Tex-Mex dining and Judder fun.


I was nervous about going as tonight's Judder will see the arrival of an entourage from Swindon (ah the wonders of Facebook for telling you things you didn't need to know, and my lack of willpower for clicking on things I shouldn't!) and among their number are not one, but two ex-girlfriends of mine.

But I've decided I won't let it unduly worry me. It's ancient history. Past is prologue. I intend to have a great night.

I recently took lots of old greeting cards, gig tickets and other paper keepsakes and made a scrap book. I was inspired by finding some of Mum's scrapbooks from the late Seventies.

In them were cards from my estranged half-sister to my Mum when she was quite young and I was not even a twinkle in the eye. They highlight a deep sense of unease and disquiet in a young mind unhappy that her parents have divorced. It was very illuminating. I have often taken Tamzyn's decision to sever contact with Mum and myself as rejection.

She did it when I was seven years old, not long after I'd started to realise I had a big sister that didn't live with us and how special that was. I'd begun to idolise her and then she was gone. Reading these old cards makes me realise she had her own issues with Mum and her decisions to stop being part of our lives was her way of coping.

I guess it wasn't a reflection on me per se, more of a reflection on the position I occupied as usurper. And Mum was a hard woman. Fiercely protective of and passionate about her kids, but she demanded reciprocal concern that is often above and beyond the ability of a child or a teenager. I wonder if Tamzyn ever realised how much worse she made it for me? At least in my opinion. Mum had all that love for two children with only one son to focus on. It was an intense relationship and defines so much of who I am today.

I'm off-topic, as I so often am. :)

A quick further aside then, before I get back to my original point about scrapbooking. If you haven't been watching Eddie Iz Running please do. That episode and episode two are up until the 25th March.

Last year, Eddie Izzard ran around the country doing 33 marathons, only taking a rest day every seven days or so. The whole thing is narrated by David Tennant and it's well crafted TV. But more over, it's a testament to a person's determination. Eddie lost his Mum when he was very young and I can't help thinking that David Tennant lost his Mum recently too. Can't have been easy to narrate, as Eddie visits childhood haunts on his travels unearthing long buried memories.

It's all too raise money for Sport Relief. Please do watch it.

So, moths. No wait, that's Eddie Izzard's material. I mean, so scrapbooking. This has really given me this current sense of bemusement. I have four different greetings cards from five separate women among the scraps in the book, all of which say "Forever yours" or "Always and forever" or some variation there of. Of those four I remain in contact with one of them and haven't heard from her in quite some time now.

Seriously, why do we fool ourselves with these lies? Humanity is incapable of forever! We have finite lives with fickle hearts and minds. I was struck by how daft the whole thing is. Combined with the massive revision of recent events from "I am smitten (with you) too" to "You can be smitten with people and not want a relationship with them. It's called friendship.", I find myself not wanting to even try and believe people in the future.

One of my housemates showed me this:


Very true. :)

In other news I've booked all my flights and hotels stuff for my trip to New York and Denver. Can't wait. Adventure!!! I'm also planning something slightly different for New Year's Eve, more on that later.

My RPG, Cactus Land seems to be coming into's it's own after a shaky sophomore effort. I've separated the group into two smaller parties for a while, all part of the ongoing narrative and it should make life very interesting. I've described it as like Survivors meets Lost.

I'm really enjoying the final season of Lost too.

Sadly the same cannot be said of Skins. I was enjoying it, despite being relentlessly grim this year, but the latest episode had a real jump the shark moment at the end. Skins always got the balance of drama and sensationalism right - in that it wasn't really sensationalism. Teenagers do crazy things and many of them try EVERYTHING. Media reaction and parental reaction to Skins was extreme and suggested a sheltered upbringing, rather than that Skins was out of proportion.

However, the ending of episode 3.07 was horrendous. While I can conceive of such a thing happening (and the character that is the catalyst for it all has been portrayed as being almost hypnotically appealing in her combination of allure and mischief), I find it hard to believe that a professional adult would do such a thing.

I am being vague, in case people haven't seen it and intend to, but I will say this. To become a therapist, you must first undergo fairly comprehensive psychological evaluation. Perhaps if the character responsible had been introduced earlier on and the gradual erosion of his values in favour of his obsession had been documented, it would have felt real. Instead it felt melodramatic and forced.

Plus the timing of a character death echoed season two in a way that felt like the Skins showrunners were following a pattern rather than telling new stories. The whole point of a new generation was to keep it fresh, I thought? Sigh...

Finally I've just learnt one of my goals for this year has been ruined by circumstances beyond my control. The cheeserolling has been cancelled. After two years of living in Gloucestershire, I intended to finally go. Boo.

WAAAAA! Comics and graphic novels are SO expensive. WAAA!

Ugh. Headdesk. People are idiots.

Dude just quibbled the *high* cost of Kick Ass in hardback graphic novel. Erm, it was eight issues long at £2.35 an issue. That's £18.80 if you'd bought it individually. It's £18.95 now bound together in a shiny hardback. That's not a high cost fella.

Seriously people, comics and graphic novels cost more than books and yet the British seem appalled by this. A book has maybe three direct personnel involved outside of the publishing house.

Writer, agent, cover artist. The latter is often in house any way. Yes there's an editor, but I consider that role to be part of the publishing house staff.

Sequential art narrative requires a writer.

Then a penciller.

An inker (who will trace a chalk outline around your dead body you fuck!).

A colourist.

A letterer.

And a cover artist.

Often one artist does all the art duties and the writer handles the lettering. But it's still much more work than a book.

A comic script is comparable to a film script. Yes, less prose, but just as much craft, dammit.

The art duties take hours and hours. I know an incredibly talented illustrator who won't do comic art even though he got into art THROUGH a love of comics. And he trained to do Sequential Art Illustration at university.

Why won't he do it? Because sequential art requires on average five or six images to be created per page. The average comic is 22 pages of artwork - 30 for a premium title like Blackest Night. That's a minimum average of 110 images every month. For less money than he gets for doing say twenty images for an illustrated history book.

Comics are ART and LITERATURE. They are unique in that form and yet they get lambasted by the general public for being a derogative medium. If you think that, get your head out of your damn ass you pompous prick.

Comics aren't just superheroes. You may consider yourself to be too intellectually adroit to watch soap operas, but you'll watch a documentary or a period drama. You choose your genre.

Comics are not a genre - they are a medium. If you feel you are too clever for superheroes, it doesn't mean you wouldn't enjoy a comic like Blankets or Local.

Ugh, I am off topic. Comics aren't cheap. There's many, many (hu)man hours involved in crafting a graphic novel. Suck it up.

I know that guy is going to go and try to buy the graphic novel from Amazon. But this edition is now sold out at supplier level. Amazon are sold out. Ha. Small moral victory.

And don't get me started on the rise of internet shopping over high street retail. If you want to live in a town that has one big Tesco Walmart with north, south, east and west entrances, fifteen in-store Starbucks and an in-store Ikea, then be my guest: continue to use internet retail.

But you live in a town where Badlands Records has won BEST INDEPENDENT RECORD STORE IN THE UK. Cheltenham and Gloucestershire as a whole can support independent retailers.

Keep it up.