I guess I can check THAT off my list...

Let me start out by saying that I get a little annoyed when people talk about their "bucket list."  This is not because I object to the phrase, per se, or its implication.  I understand that the 'list of stuff I want to do before I die' has been around forever - it's nothing new.  But I hate that people have decided to pick up on a movie title and use it like they invented it.  You didn't!  So stop using it like you're clever!  Jerks.

At any rate, when the local comic shop was looking for help this past week, I knew I had to respond.  I don't aspire to own a comic book store or anything like that, but I've always had a desire to work at one, just for a little while.  I suppose that it's on my list of things to do before I kick the...well, you get it.  I'm not going to kowtow to popular sentiment!!!

It seems that Fanboy Comics, the shop close by in Wilmington, is moving to a new location, as I mentioned a little while ago.  The move has provoked them to do some spring cleaning, which has lead to sales aplenty and a reorganization of a number of back stock items.  I was lucky enough to be a part of the organization effort - not just because of the mounds of store credit I piled up, but because I can say that the list of jobs I've had in my life now includes working at a comic book store.

My main tasks were to organize, alphabetically and by publisher, a mountain of back issues.  Afterwards there was some re-bagging and boarding.  This may sound like the height of monotony, but I am nothing if not meticulous when it comes to organizing my own comics - so this was second nature from the get go.  I mean, my goodness - I do this stuff at my own house, for free!  Why wouldn't I jump at the chance of doing it for some form of payment?

As I mentioned, I racked up a nice sized tab of store credit in this process, and I've proceeded to cut into it already.  I've snagged a bunch of back issues, including nearly 40 issues of Marvel's Greatest Comics - which are reprints of old Fantastic Four issues (but I need to get anyway...I do), and some great trade paperbacks: SCUD The Disposable Assassin and Kyle Baker's Nat Turner, for starters.  The capstone I'm looking forward to is the gigantic Secret Wars Omnibus, which clocks in at nearly $100.  I'm gonna get it for free.  Basically.