Monthly Archives: May 2011

It’s a Super Sized episode as we highlight the 2011 SpringCon! Yeah, it’s the convention that Cory and Joe have been working on since the late 80’s, which makes them old. And not very bright, since friends don’t let friends work at Comic Book Conventions. We find out that Joe’s internet is NOT made out of moose antlers and get a short science lesson from him. And he’s blinded me, with SCIENCE!

After our lovely sponsors get their plugs, we discuss how Joe is able to get all of his stuff home from Barrow Alaska now that airlines will charge you if you have too much stuff. We would go on about the joys of having too much stuff, but we are interrupted by The Sad News Music, bringing the tale of the death of Tokyopop. Because Cory is a sick bastard, he goes into detail about why the company went under, stories of other companies who run into the same problems and if you are scared about the future of your favorite comic company, GOOD! You should go buy their stuff instead of stealing it off the interwebz, you lousy bums!

Then, it’s time! We talk about SpringCon!! We give the story of where the name came from (as well as why the one day was called MicroCon III for about 5 years in a row. Joe then discusses how he worked the convention when he was a retailer and how comic shops see comic conventions. Here’s a hint, it involves money! They give advice on what to bring as well as when and how to bring your art portfolio! They tell you what to bring to the convention! They talk about the history of the convention’s name! They go on and on about the convention for almost 90 minutes!

Download it and listen!

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OK, we start off with an update on Cory’s very serious medical condition, so if you want to skip that and if you want to skip that and go right to the comic stuff, skip to 34 minutes in for a mention of comics and until 41 minutes before we get into talking about comics.

Cory tells the story of how he ended up in the hospital for the 5 days, and Joe constantly interrupts with internet advice on how he could have gotten better.

Once we get to comics, Joe talks about the trade paperbacks that Cory was able to send up to Joe, and he recommends the ones he likes, and really only feels he wasted his money on a couple of them because they were too short. This leads to us to:

Tales From The Shop which is sponsored by Chris B at www.broomhildamusic.com Go there. Sign up for the newsletter. Buy her album. DO IT!!!

Out tale from the shop this time is when Joe had a medical issue when he had the small shop. He had to take a week away from the shop when he got a hernia from lifting too many damn comic boxes. Since he was out for a week, he created the League of Substitute Retailers. Finally, they discuss people who have said in interviews that they started reading comics when they were sick for a long time. Cory has a story like that where he was in the hospital after breaking his jaw and reading a bunch of the Giant Size comics from the 70’s and getting hooked on Silver Age Marvel.

This leads to a discussion of understanding the difference between a reprint and a new comic when you are a kid, Peanuts paperbacks, MAD Paperbacks, and Car-Toons magazine of all things. Have you ever seen a copy of Car-Toons magazine? It’s horrible. I’ve seen comics from grade schoolers that look better.

That’s it. That’s all. Go listen. And send Cory a get well card.

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