Comic Contrasts
It's always nice when life throws you a pleasant little surprise.
Today I called to renew a
Shonen
Jump gift subscription for my niece and nephews who live in
California. My niece Hannah had written to ask when I would be
sending her and her brothers more magazines. If Viz had sent me a
notice that their gift subscription was ending, I must have missed
it. So I called the 1-800 number for
Shonen Jump's
customer service and the friendly representative informed me that the
subscription had indeed ended...back in January. No wonder the kids
were writing to demand that I send them more manga! To my
surprise, the service rep graciously renewed the subscription at the
original introductory rate of $19.95 instead of the
current rate
of $29.95. Nice!
But today hasn't been all happy surprises. Some expectations have
been met depressingly. I've been calling around trying to find
the
latest issue of
The Comics
Journal. So far I've called four shops and none of
them have it. In fact, I get the impression that none of them
even carry it. One shop told me, "We only order one copy of
The
Comics Journal, and it always flies off the rack really
fast." I should have asked why they didn't order more copies if
it always sells out, but my disappointment must have momentarily
disabled my curiosity.
So: One comic product, easily available via multiple outlets,
including a toll-free 1-800 number where service reps go out of their
way to make you happy. And another product that isn't carried by
the very stores supposedly devoted to the art form the magazine
covers. Yep, the plan for Manga World Domination proceeds apace.
UPDATE: That Uncle Lar, always looking out for us
bloggers, has informed me not to panic:
Don't panic, John: it [TCJ #259] isn't on the
Diamond shipping list for this week, and, even if it was, there's
always this disclaimer from Diamond: "PLEASE NOTE: Please check with
your local retailer to confirm availability of new items, as not all
new releases will be on sale in all areas on the same week." Sometimes
the warehouses just miss a week.
Whew. And in even better news, the
Diamond
shipping list for the week does list another Fantagraphics book
I've been eagerly awaiting. Yes, that's right:
Sex
Warrior Isane. How could I
not be interested in a
book that
promises
"More salacious sex-action than one could ever ask for!"?
So when
is TCJ #259 scheduled to come out? I need to know
when I should start pestering my local retailers via phone again.
