Wednesday, September 2, 2009

No heroes today

Today marked a momentous occasion that I think all should be made aware of. You ready for this? Here goes: I did not buy a single comic book today.

"That's nice," I hear you saying, "But most days I don't buy comics either." Ah, so it is with me as well, grasshopper, but Wednesday is new comics day. Ergo, every Wednesday I head over to my local comic shop at lunchtime and pick up the week's books. For the longest time every week's haul was a substantial pile. In recent months that's dwindled, as I've lost interest in some books and just figured I should save my money, especially with the price of comics going up again. (Remember when they were 75 cents? And how it was a huge deal when they made the jump to a buck? God, how cheap that sounds now. And how old I sound.) So over the last year I've had a few trips where I only picked up two comics on a Wednesday, and once or twice only one. But today... oh, today, my friends. Not. A. Single. One. Walked in, browsed the shelves, walked back out. It felt a little strange -- like a junkie who walks up to his neighborhood dealer, inspects the crack carefully, and then puts it back -- but it was a good feeling. And even if next week brings a stack of 10 must-buy comics to make up for it, I'll still have that one week.