Monday Pop Quiz

This video was posted because...

A) We helped direct this video.

B) We OD'd at the comic book store this weekend and because all the books we picked up we didn't have time to come up with an original post for today.

C) We started a segment called "Music Monday" because we're super original and creative like that.

D) We were paid to post it.


The answer is B.

This saturday was national "Free Comic Book Day" and "Cards Comics and Collectibles", a pretty good comic book store about 20 minutes outside Baltimore was having a really, really good sale.

Frank Cho was also there too, he's a great artist who actually got his start by drawing comic strips for the University of Maryland's school paper. He's been in the game for years working independantly as well as for Marvel and other brands.

The plan was to interview him but when I got there I changed my mind because I didn't want to buy any of his books (which I would've had to do in order to get the autograph that would have led to the interview).
I respect his work, but I wouldn't say that I'm a huge fan. Maybe I should've asked him a question, I couldn't think of anything good to ask though.

In addition to "Free Comic Book Day", the shop was also celebrating thier 25th anniversary, which is pretty cool for any business.

They celebrated by offering every book in the store that wasn't a "new release" for a dollar. Also there was cake. It looked ok but I didn't have any of it. I stocked up on discount comics and I spent most of Sunday reading.

I think this store is better than the other 2 options, if it was closer, I would probably go to it all the time. If you're ever in Reisterstown, MD, check it out.

Cards Comics and Collectibles:
100 A Chartley Dr., Reisterstown, MD 21136
410-526-7410

Bonus: Skip Serpico's long winded account of what happened Saturday:



This past Free Comic Book Day was the first one that I actually participated in. Usually I have to work on the first Saturday in May, but somehow I got this one off. What's more is that Jay1 said he was down to take in some of the festivities. It had all of the makings of a great day.

When Jay1 came by the crib to scoop me he was fondling his fancy newfangled phone.

He'd informed that the phone would actually be our co-pilot. It'd GPS us all the way to this mythical comic book store that we'd never been to.

I wasn't really looking for that much in particular. Honestly, one of the reasons I'd never really tried to do a FCBD before is because a) I imagined that the geeks would be out in droves and b) the only thing worse than a geek is an outsider who knows nothing about comics. My approach to comic shops is "in & out"; I look for what I’m looking for, cop it and bounce. A high traffic day like FCBD just isn't my scene.

But Frank Cho was going to be signing and Jay1 thought it'd make for an interesting Intense 10 Seconds. And since I had nothing planned for the day I figured that worst case scenario Jay1 and I would become embroiled in some sort of fiasco that would require extrication, which is always fun.

Oh, I forgot to mention that WEAA, Morgan State's radio station, was celebrating the anniversary of Strictly Hip-Hop, which made for an awesome soundtrack. And a distracting one but more on that later.

The GPS (who sounded like the younger sister of the computer from Radiohead's "Fitter, Happier") and Baltimore were a tricky mix. The GPS didn't give that much lead time for it's "turn right on…" directions. Plus Baltimore's street signs, kinda obscured. I felt just like Kima at the end of the first season of The Wire. I swear I thought we were going to get ambushed.

The trip to Reistertown was a pleasant one. I hadn't been around Owings Mills in years. It really brought back memories. Heartbreaking, regrettable memories that I wish had never been unearthed.

On the drive up we bounced some ideas for interview questions. I couldn't think of good questions, so I just thought of doing something funny. I thought that we should pretend that our editor sent us there to interview Margaret Cho and since we didn't want to go back empty handed we'd just ask him the questions we had for her. We'd start with "so, when exactly did you realize you were gay.?"

Of course every other song that came on the radio was something that took Jay1 down memory lane (although clearly a different path than I was traveling on.) Neither of us has the greatest of attention spans, so GPS directions were missed/forgotten and we were rerouted several times.

So many times that this piece could have been titled "Recalculating Route…"

Once we arrived at the store we realized we had no game plan for the interview, but hadn't officially aborted it yet. We do some of our best work on the fly. At least that's what we pretend.

Neither of us really knew what we wanted to get at the store. A comic book store is like a strip club for geeks; it's all about location, selection, clientele and management. I was just checking the place out.

The selection was pretty solid. Things were well organized and pretty much every comic was represented in the back issue bins. The current selection was dope too. It was a fun comic experience. Plus all back issues were only $1.

But it was crowded. There was this one dude who felt the need to periodically do his impression of the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. It was periodical and every time it went on for far too long. And every time he did it, Jay1 and I would get more vocal with our disdain for it.

It was sort of surreal to hear such stereotypical geek conversations. People were talking about the Wolverine flick and Heroes. I felt sort of bad because this one dude there tried to bond with me over some title that I wasn't even looking for, at which point I hastily made my way to a different part of the store.

Jay1 and I both made off with some pretty good deals. I picked up some Spider-Man stuff and some Paul Pope stuff I'd always been curious about. Jay1 being the selfless guy that he is copped stuff for his family.

I've got to admit that I feel sort of guilty about how much I got over on the store. The stuff I picked up would have cost $73 plus tax, but I paid $14 plus tax. That's quite literally a steal.

Anyway as my penance I highly recommend that you check out

Comics Cards and Collectibles

100 A Chartley Drive

Reisterstown, MD 21136