Big Monkey No More

It's been six years since I started going to Beyond Comics 2, the comic book store now renamed Big Monkey Comics, the first comic community experience I've ever known in my twenty-three years of reading comics. I loved going there on Wednesdays for new comics, Thursdays to record a podcast and Saturdays to play HeroClix. Mostly, I went so often to see my friends who worked and/or shopped there.

It's over now.

Devon Sanders, the manager of the store for many years and owners, has been let go, due to financial mismanaging by the owners and the douchebaggery of one person in particular. With him goes many of the customers who became loyal customers due to the environment Devon encouraged. We became real friends, who talk about our lives, as well as the lives of our favorite superheroes and villains. In good conscience, we cannot support people who would treat Devon so unfairly, when he can basically run the store himself and devotes much of his time to making Big Monkey a great store.

This is my goodbye to the time I spent in that store. I don't regret any of it and only wish the store could remain as the clubhouse we've come to enjoy. But it can't. Not for me. For the foreseeable future, Fantom Comics in Union Station will be my comic book store of choice.

"Cheer Me Up" Post

Over at Living Between Wednesdays, Rachelle would like to hear a good "how comic books had a positive impact on my life" story. I don't know if mine is that good, but she's offering free stuff. So read on...

After leaving college and starting working my "real" job, I became something of a shut-in. Talking to people has never been one of my strong suits. Without the almost mandatory relationships that come from attending school, I talked to basically no one but my family. I didn't go out unless it was to eat or celebrate one of my nieces' birthdays.

And to buy my comics, which I would wait to read at home. I wasn't as open with my comic geekness back then, and people only found out about my fondness if I slipped and read one out in the open. I didn't like the questions that came from being "outed" as a comic reader. People treated you as if you were mentally challenged and that offended me to no end, mainly because, you know, I'm brilliant.

I used to buy my books at a place called Geseppi's(or Geppi's or something), but it closed, so I had to find a new spot. Back when Big Monkey Comics was called Beyond Comics 2, I decided to make that my new comics place. It was a two story place and appealed to me for the fact that it seemed that only black guys worked there. Being a black comic book fan means running into a lot of white guys, so it was kind of wild to be in BC2.

Anyway, besides the occasional questions about when stuff comes out, I didn't talk to anyone in the store, employee or customer. But there was a clerk named Kevin who was friendly and struck up conversations with just about everyone who came into the store. When BC2 moved into a smaller place, they gained a window alcove where you could sit and hang out a while. Which I did to talk about comics with Kevin, then Tarq, Devon, Jerome, Sherin, Drew, Kat, Martin, Damani, Tim, Seel(well, you don't really talk to Seel), Scip, Big Mike, Ulie, Rambo, Ben, the credited Andrew Carl, Brian & everyone else it would take many lines to name. I found a group of people I could talk to about comics who weren't family.

Soon enough, it became a regular Wednesday(Thursday if there was a holiday) thing, where we would talk about comics, politics, movies, music, anything that came to mind. These people I saw once a week became my friends. I would go to Kevin's house for parties, go to movies with people from the shop, tape a public access show on Saturdays and play HeroClix for time to time. I started reading Devon's and Scip's blogs, and then decided to make one of my own.(That's right. I started a blog while trying to stop being a shut-in.) When Big Monkey moved to it's current spot near U St., most of us went with it because we just liked hanging out there.

I feel as though my real life didn't start until I let everyone from Big Monkey in. I have friends I can be more open with then I ever could before. I have a release for my thoughts. A super cool Canadian gave me this awesome sketch. The trip home from the comic store is even better than the rest of my week.

If it wasn't for comic books and Big Monkey, I'd be where I am right now as I write this, but I wouldn't be happy and I'd probably just be watching TV. Being around other people who shared my passion for comics made it easier for me to be me, pretty much. Because of comics:

FRIENDS! GEEKS! LEND ME YOUR EARS!!

So the Big Monkey Comics podcast is up and as I've mentioned before, I was in it. Give it a minute to load up.

Listen to it. Tell me what you think. Read our blogs. It's all love.

Change is....

Being a comic book fan in the nation's capitol, you have to get used to some things. Mainly that your favorite store may not be there the following week. Such is the case with mine, except(bright side!) it's only moving.

Still, the store in Georgetown was my destination every Wednesday (sometimes Thursday, damn holidays) and I will miss it. And I guess U St.'s not that bad. I'll see Saturday. Well goodbye, Georgetown store. It won't be the same without you.

Well, that's done, time for rantin'.

Everybody is so hot for Guggenheim to come and clean up The Flash:The Fastest Man Alive, but I have read issue 9 and I am not impressed. Unfunny banter and outdated costumes aside, this story was kind of lame. Yes, Bart is no longer the mopey whiner who didn't want to be Flash unless he could rescue the girl he had a crush on, but now he's in a relationship with problems that seem to spring from nowhere. And I don't know about the rest of you, but when I see Arsenal, I don't think he's "a giant working astride the Earth." You would think a guy who single-handedly held back a psycho Superboy stronger than SuperMAN wouldn't have such an inferiority complex. And Bart, if Steppenwolf is out of your league, so is the Justice League.