Journal of the Caribbean Kangaroo

MacGuffin's is a place like no other. 

I'm just saying it's different.  Every comic book store that I can hit in the area has action figures dripping off the shelves, it's got baseball cards under glass like museum artifacts.  Racks and racks of new issues, later issues, much much later issues, and often cardboard boxes full of who-knows-how-much-later issues. There's anime scroll tacked up on the walls, Wizard magazine-fold out posters of Jean Gray and Mary Jane Watson taped up behind the counter, and somewhere there's a radio station playing tuned to the local classic rock station. 

Those are great places, sure, but MacGuffin's isn't like that.

First of all, it's like a library.  It has carpet.  Wood shelves.  Photographs on the wall--not of spandex-clad superheroes and heroines, but actual photographs.  Still life, primarily.  (A little further in there were some black and white ink prints.)  There's a coffee table, and a couch  (presumably to sit, though I never do.)   The shelves are divided between graphic novel fiction, and the Marvel/DC line of your standard Superhero books.

In the back, there are some kind-of-awkwardly arranged recent issues that are clinging to a narrow support,  I'm surprised they manage to stay up there, and sometimes they don't.  But it doesn't matter much.   They deal primarily in the bound edition graphic novels.

Every time I've been in there, the young guy at the counter greets me.  I'm usually the only one in there at the time, so it's not like I'm lost in the crowd.  At the most, there's been one other customer there.   The music's always been jazz blues.  I won't say they have everything in print on the shelves  (They're missing J. Michael Strazyncki's Rising Stars #3)...but they have some rarities that I haven't seen anywhere else.

I don't know why I ended up there, this afternoon.  Though when I usually end up in a comic book shop, I'm just seeking a glimmer of inspiration or enlightenment.   Sometimes I find it.  Sometimes not.  Today I went in with the intention of picking up a copy of The Watchmen.  I still haven't gotten around to reading it (in entirety.)  I've started it many times, but it's too thick a book to get through on a lunch break.  Of course I expected them to have it.  Every comic book store has The Watchmen. 

Sure, working at a bookstore has spoiled me, and I've gotten used to buying graphic novels with a nifty little employee discount, but as a patron of the comic book arts, I do like to go to stores and support the stores every so often.  I decided that when I ended up purchasing "The Watchmen", it would be at a comic book store, for the cover price.  I guess that's just my way of "keepin' it real."

Still...when I got there, I found the book, easy enough, but, for some reason, suddenly didn't feel like buying it. 

Instead, I mulled around for quite a while...ended up picking up a copy of "The Wizard of Oz"--the actual L. Frank Baum book--in graphic novel format.  I dunno, something about the way the artist drew Tik-Tok appealed to me.   Also, I grabbed a copy of Captain Marvel, a.k.a. "Shazam". 

I don't know why exactly I'm in a Shazam phase.   I've been through my Green Arrow phase...  I found Jeff Smith's recent issues of "Shazam" to be quite engaging, and I've found myself craving more.  I still think Superman could beat Captain Marvel, even though Captain Marvel has the powers of magic behind him, and Superman's weak against magic.  But Superman's Superman--there's no getting around that.

I think I found something particularly curious about a boy who magically transforms into a super-hero...I'm working around a similar concept in my own writings, and maybe I needed some super-heroic inspiration.  Love Superman, but I need to do some Shazam soul-seeking now....

Still hangin' in there.
--Steve.

Current Location: On the laptop
Current Music: Bear McCreery, 'Battlestar Galactica' soundtrack