Like The Dark Knight, My LCS Strikes Again

That's Local Comics Shop, for anyone unfamiliar with the acronym. Still having some random, repetitive problems with mine. In the immortal words of Ricky Ricardo, "LUU-CYY! WHA HOPPEN?!"

Remember a couple weeks ago when I had my little encounter over the latest ish of Iron Fist? Well, that retailer *just this week* finally got copies in. Yes, that's four weeks later, or a month late. Although I was kinda' pleased to see that they finally did get a healthy stack of copies in, there was no explanation to regular customers why they didn't have them in the first place, that they intended to order more, when they would arrive, or when they finally *did* arrive... they simply got silently folded into the mix and put up on the shelf with this week's new books. I smiled to myself and was glad I'd bought it elsewhere. Certainly don't want to reward those screwball practices and disservice w/o communication.

Last week, I had a similar little chat over Volume 4 of the Conan Hardcovers from Dark Horse. Didn't see it on the shelf, but had the same basic convo. Q: Yo, did Volume 4 of the Conan Hardcover come out today? A: Umm, I don't know. Q: It was on Diamond's Shipping List though(?). A: Yeah, we didn't get it. Q: Yes, I can see that. But it came out? A: (Consults Shipping List Printout) Yeah, it did. But we didn't order it. Ok, well that last bit of info is new, right? Instead of the perplexingly nonsensical circular logic I got last time of "if you don't see it on the shelf it means we don't have it because it didn't come out because you don't see it on the shelf," I got something meaningful with the we didn't order it part. And I'm thinking, you didn't order it? Why the fuck not? You have the first three Conan Hardcovers sitting on your shelf over there. I deliberately stopped buying the single issues so I could convert to hardcovers and that's precisely the moment you decide not to order it? This, a major property, from (arguably) the third largest publisher - and you just randomly didn't order it with no reason why. That makes oh-so-much sense to me. Awesome.

To top things off this week, I went in looking for the new Warren Ellis book Black Summer #0, based on an interesting review over at Comix Experience. And, you guessed it, my LCS did not order this book either. A new #0 issue. A new Warren Ellis #0 issue. A new Warren Ellis #0 issue about superheroes. A new Warren Ellis #0 issue about superheroes with a reported cynical, political bent. A new Warren Ellis #0 issue about superheroes with a reported cynical, political bent - for only 99 cents! You're guaranteed to sell a pile! Warren Ellis, arguably one of the best/hottest writers in the last few years, with a loyal fan following on a book that is purported to be Authority-esque in nature. What the fuck? Did you decide that you don't like making money?

And it didn't stop there; it was apparenly two-fer follies this week. The Warren Ellis debacle wasn't the only mystery ordering gooch to behold. You know what else was on the Diamond Shipping List this week? Eddie Campbell's new book: The Black Diamond Detective Agency. Eddie Campbell, friend and occasional collaborator to Alan Moore. Arguably one of the finest writer/artist self-contained dynamic creator duos out there. Critically acclaimed Eddie Campbell, whose teaser for The Black Diamond Detective Agency was one of the books to appear during Free Comic Book Day. For fuck's sake, I *got* the damn Free Book from this very LCS, and now you don't even order the damn thing? You have From Hell. You have Alec. But you didn't order this. Fucking hell, alrighty then.

I'm at the point where I would seriously consider changing stores to frequent based on this series of mishaps, but there are no other options. Unfortunately, this is the (ahem) "best" (a relative term for sure) store I've been able to find in my area.

Stop acting like a bunch of retarded sea donkeys.