by Josh Crawley

Picture the scene: you walk into the comic book store, scan the racks, and find a comic book — aside from the entertainment provided — that’s a pleasing little artifact. Maybe it has extra pages, or even just a cover paper stock you really, really like.

Fast forward a month, maybe two, or maybe just two weeks (this is comics, where any one of those could be on-time or late). You walk into the store and look for the second artifact in your collection. Once found, it doesn’t have quite the same luster as the first. After purchasing your little treasure and getting it home, you realize the true difference: inexplicably, the cover stock has changed. (No, I’m not going to say you have a disorder and before someone — correctly or not — diagnoses me with one, bear with me.)

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by Roger Ash

Recently, my friends Jeff, Kirsten, and I went to see comedian Patton Oswalt here in Madison, WI. Since seating was general admission, we decided to get to the venue early (about an hour and a half prior to the doors opening) so we could get good seats. This paid off as there were only six people in line in front of us. When the doors opened, I made a beeline to the front row in spite of Kirsten calling “Are you serious?” in back of me. My opinion was if we waited in line that long, we were going for the best seats possible. We ended up front row center.

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