RIP Rory

Comic book retailer Rory Root, owner of  in California, died today.  He was in "the business" for quite some time, and won the Eisner Spirit of Retailing award back in 1993 - one of the first to receive the award.  He was an important member of ComicsPRO.  Really, an important member of the comic book community, known not just among retailers but among most in the industry.  I did not personally know Rory, but of course I knew of him, and had communicated with him on more than on occasion.  He seemed like an interesting guy, well liked, respected, knowledgeable, and possessing a deep love of comics.  He was one of the good guys.

This morning Rory went into a coma, after having some other serious health problems.  This evening he left this earth to go sell comics to the angles.  ComicsPRO has a few more details, and I am sure more information and a tribute will be coming from them and a variety of other sites in the coming days.

My condolences to his family, friends and the comic book community.

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Neptune Comics FCBD Commercial 2008

For those who don't have cable here's a look at our FCBD commercial.

Truth in Advertising

This post has nothing to do with comics. I couldn't come up with anything on the topic.  And since it's been a week since my last post, I wanted to write about something.  Today it's about how misleading realty advertising can be.

Take this house, for example.  It's 112 N Porter Ave in Waukesha WI.  On the outside it looks somewhat normal.  Even the inside photos make the home seem OK. 

The description reads: Rehabber's Special!! Basementless ranch home. Great Waukesha east side location! 2 full baths. Large city lot. Priced $80,000 below city assessment. Hot Water Heat, Tankless hot water heater. Some new doors and windows. Concrete construction. Water damage. New Price. A great deal just got better.

Great deal - I'm all for that.  This home started out around the $150,000 neighborhood when Craig and I first saw it listed, so a $116,000 price sounded very good, even if it is a "rehabbers special."  The neighborhood is a good one, and has mostly unique and historical homes.  The square footage is good, an attached garage, three bedrooms and two bathrooms.  Sounds GREAT.  A relatively large lot as well.  Sure, no basement, but we're having problems with our current one, so not having one eliminates that problem in a future purchase.  We figured water damage = new roof.  Sure, it's an expensive fix, but it's easy enough to hire someone for that and we'd have a house that could appreciate in value from that repair.  Maybe some paint, other homey touches, some landscaping, and it would be a pretty cool house.

Or not...

If you live in the area, they're having an open house next week, 5/24/08 from 2-3 pm. You'll have to check it out.  We saw it during an "open house."  The Realtor was waiting in her car - NOT in the house.  That was the first sign of trouble.  As we walked to the door she asked us, "You know about the serious water damage, right?"  We replied that we had read the description that said there was water damage, but it did not indicate how severe.  (here's where the truth in advertising issue starts to appear)  Upon opening the door the Realtor did not turn on any lights, but stayed near the door, telling us to wander around and let her know if we had any questions.  She did briefly point out the new interior and exterior doors and interior light fixtures, even though they did not match the style of the house at all, but they WERE new. 

She seemed afraid to turn on the lights and carried a small flashlight in her pocket.  Why you ask - because I think she was afraid of being electrocuted.  Yes, that's right, she did not want to turn on a light and die in the process.  It wasn't that there were bare wires hanging everywhere.  Not at all.  It was the puddles of water everywhere.  In this photo you see a large garbage can sitting by the fire place - that was half filled with water pouring from the roof - and she told us she'd emptied it once already.  The photo of the bedroom does not show the mold and soggy ceiling from the waterfall feature coming from the roof there.  The carpet squished when it was walked on.  The floors, even without a basement, were bowing and warping.  The wood beams, seen in the fireplace picture, showed signs of rot and mold and would not, most assuredly, last another year in the destructive conditions of the extremely leaky roof.

The owner must have mounted a flat screen TV of some kind inside a wall because there was a large rectangular hole in one inside wall in the living room - so the purchaser of the home would need to fix that or have the same exact size TV.  Or demolish the entire inside of the house - which really is the only option for a house so severely damaged by water as this one is, and so poorly laid out.

Another odd thing about the house, even if it was not leaking like a sieve, was the layout.  It seemed like it was thrown together by a child - someone to whom space and function were completely irrelevant.  There was a back side door with a mud room - that seemed detached from the rest of the house, and it was classified as a bedroom.  WHO has a front door, garage entry way door and utility connections for washer/dryer and hot water heater in their bedroom? Unless they're living in their mom's basement, and even then there's not a front door.  There was not a closet in this room either. We really thought it was a mudroom until the Realtor asked us if we'd seen the "extra" bedroom by the garage.

The living/dining room also had a front and back door. The front doors were double - can be seen in the top photo as the two doors on the front/right side of the house.  The kitchen/dining room were spacious but kind of oddly laid out, along with another front door with a screen.  That's 4 entrances to the home, not counting the garage.  None of them had any kind of paved walk way that I recall. 

How about bedrooms.  Four, it says, right?  Well, not really.  There was one obvious bedroom and the mudroom that they'd called a bedroom, but we could not find the other two.  Then Craig asked me why the kitchen would need two pantries.  Upon inspection I assumed, and it was confirmed by the Realtor, that these two 9X7 rooms, completely devoid of closets or electric outlets, each lit only by one exposed bulb hanging from the ceiling, were the other two bedrooms.  I can assure you that these rooms would not be functional bedrooms.  A twin bed would barely fit inside either of them, and again, no closets.  I don't think they had windows either, but I can't completely recall that.  And they were attached to the kitchen.  I guess that's convenient for morning coffee.

The stove top was built in, and was clearly the original from when the house was originally built back in 1951.  Not sure if it even worked anymore.  Same with the vintage built-in oven.  Not sure if the garage opened properly - she never showed us.  It had an extremely cheap tankless hot water heater installed - not sure how much longer that would work.  She claimed the house was heated with hot water heat, but we couldn't be sure of that still working.  We did turn on some lights and they worked, but the faucets were labeled by the city - so the water was probably turned off. (not that there was a shortage of water in the house)  She did not know if the fireplace worked properly. It did not have any air conditioning, nor any ducts by which a/c could be run into the house.  A small window air conditioner dangled out of the one "real" bedroom window, but we were not sure that worked either. 

The house was also built on the back of the lot line - no back yard to speak of.  But an extremely large front yard.  VERY unusual!  And what that little rock wall (seen best in the 1st picture) was for, I have absolutely NO idea.  Driving up to the house it looked like the shed or pool house for the house directly next to it. (seen to the left in the photo)

I said something like - I wonder how much the lot is worth. Might be a value just to tear the house down and build a new home.  The Realtor quickly informed me that because it was a historical neighborhood it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to tear the house down.  Apparently even though this house was not old or historic, the historical society would put up a big fight about any home in the neighborhood being demolished.  She said we could call the city and see what they said, but that we'd have a real fight on our hands.  Not that we could afford a demolish & rebuild plus the lot anyway.

This poor house! I'd bet the only people who walk through are those who read the listing and were not informed of the true state of destruction this house is in.  I doubt it will last another winter without falling in on itself.  The leaks are so bad that with the humidity of the summer and the damp-wood loving insects that will surely come to visit, if  they have not already laid their claim, will find a haven here.  Mold and mildew were already present; the house had the smell of it everywhere, and the summer heat will also increase that problem.

Let's fix this add now.  One bedroom 10 X 7. One "other" room called a mudroom or den, 13X12, two utility rooms, each 9 X 7.  Occupancy - while you could get the title quickly, there is NO WAY anyone could safely live there, making it not really as immediate as the "Immediate" indicates on the listing.  The description should say something like:  Rehabbers Only!! Basementless ranch home. Waukesha historic location. Large city lot with home set at the back. Priced $80,000 below city assessment. Deteriorating interior construction. Serious water damage. Bank owned.  Lots of love and money needed to restore this to its original beauty!

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Dateline's Comic Book Murder Story

The other day we watched the NBC Dateline episode where the told the story of the murder of Barbara George, owner of Comics World in Clinton Township Michigan with her husband Michael George.

Did you see it? You can read the transcript at the link above, or watch an abbreviated version here.

It is an interesting story about a cold case, from 18 years ago, that took place in a comic book store in Michigan. I was not familiar with the case until last year when Michael George was arrested for the murder of his first wife, a murder that had taken place 17 years earlier. At that time I did a bit of reading and found that Barbara and Michael had a rocky relationship and children. Michael had been having an affair with a female store employee while Barbara tried and tried to keep the marriage alive, even planning a birthday party and romantic weekend for the two of them. But that all fell apart when Barbara was shot and killed in the back room of the comic book shop.

I suspected that there must have been a big break in the case that lead to Michael's arrest - a new piece of evidence that led the police to come back and arrest him after all that time had gone by. Maybe the murder weapon had finally been found, or some forensic bit that couldn't be processed then could now, and lead them to arrest the killer.

Since the murder Michael had married that employee he was having an affair with, Renee, and they had moved to Pennsylvania to start a new life, and a new comic book store, out there. They seemed to have gotten on with their lives, never looking back in wonder at what had happened to poor Barbara. They even had a large part in sponsoring the Pittsburgh ComicCon, a popular comic book convention.

One thing the show did was make me wonder how the jury managed to find Michael guilty. There wasn't much evidence. There were a lot of holes in testimony and gaps in time that were unaccounted for. There was he said/he said and fingers pointing every where. Yes, Michael was a strong suspect, but was there really enough evidence to convince an entire jury beyond a reasonable doubt that he was her killer?

Some people saw a person outside the store during the time the murder took place - a person who could have been a man or a woman with a fake beard. Was this person involved in the murder? A watcher? Or just one of many unusual people who wander in and around comic book stores and/or strip malls?

At first Michael had said that there were $30,000 in golden age comic books stolen, and that the robbery went bad and lead to the murder of Barbara. Why would the store owners leave these comics in the back room instead of having them either locked in a safe, in with the other back issues, or on display? Who else knew these comics were there? Why were those taken while those on display in the store and visible to anyone looking to rob the place left as they were? Why was the cash in the register not taken? Or other non-valuable comics? How would a robber not familiar with comics know which ones to take in a store clearly FULL of boxes filled with comics? Michael was usually the one working - what are the chances a thief would happen by at one of the rare moments he was gone and Barbara was there alone? No one saw someone running out of the back or front of the store with a couple of boxes of comics? No other stores in the area reported a valuable collection being brought in that matched what Michael had reported to the police and insurance company as being stolen?

The store was in a strip mall, just like Neptune is. We hear all kinds of noise from both of the businesses on either side of us, and I am sure they hear us as well. One of the store owners next to Comics World was interviewed and said she'd often heard Michael and Barbara arguing, and on the day of the murder they'd had a rather loud argument earlier. Didn't anyone hear the gun be fired? It was fired twice, after all. No one heard the robber demanding goods or Barbara asking for help? Things being knocked over - a struggle and then silence?

And how about the husband, Michael George. The police said he knew his wife had been injured in the head before they told him. How did he come to that conclusion? Several people reported that he never cried - was he just in shock? After the murder Barbara's family searched to find the killer, but Michael did not. Why wasn't he interested in who killed his wife? Then he left town with Renee and started a mirror life in a new town. Why did he leave so quickly, never looking back? Was Michael just too sad to look back on that time and place in his life? Or was he running away from the scene of the crime? Renee seemed more than willing to run away with Michael and begin their lives together. Did Renee, the new wife then girlfriend and store employee, know the truth about the murder? When the police came to question Michael before they arrested him in Pennsylvania Michael had said that the murderer was probably someone who had vendetta against him, not Barbara, and that Barbara was just an innocent victim of someone's hatred against him. If that was the case, why wasn't Michael afraid for his life after the murder? Or his children? Or his girlfriend/employee Renee? For that matter why wasn't Renee afraid to work in the store? If there was an armed robbery at my store I'd be afraid to be there or have anyone else close to me there - and that would be if there wasn't a murder. I would move the store or if that wasn't possible increase security in the store - none of which Michael did right away. If someone was killed there I would be even more worried and would probably close the store for good.

The story is a curious one. Michael and Renee both strike me as behaving rather oddly considering what happened. Yet there exists no real evidence to prove either of them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, in my mind. At least not from what was presented on TV and in the news reports. Barbara is dead, has been for 18 years. Is her killer now in jail, or is the guilty party still roaming free? Did Michael need to start a new life so badly that he would be willing to kill to do so? Or was this really a robbery that went bad, resulting in the death of a woman who most people adored? Clearly, while Michael is now in jail, there are still plenty of questions surrounding this case.

Oconocon Sketches

As many of you know the 1st Oconocon was this past Sunday. Something that I have been slowly getting into is getting sketches from artist that are at these Cons or come to the store for a signing. Well this Sunday I got 2 new sketches for my book, and I thought I would share them with all of you.

The first one is a head sketch of Wolverine done by Mr. Andy Parks. I told him to draw someone that he is not sick and tired of drawing. He chose Wolverine. Thanks to Andy for the time.


Second sketch is done by good friend of Neptune Comics Mike Norton. Mike just came out with Green Arrow/Black Canary #7, and will be also working on DC weekly series 'Trinity' this next year. Be sure to check it out. So to get him warmed up I needed some DC character sketch. Totally forgot that he just got GA/BC I told him I would like a Green Arrow sketch. Here is what he did:




I love both works by these 2 very nice guys. Thanks Andy and Mike!

Craig

Multiple Cover Maddness

How long has it been since I've complained about a comic book having too many covers? It feels like it's been a while. Too long, I guess, since it looks like the publishers, well Marvel to be specific, have stopped listening to me, or they've forgotten.

Pictured above are the six, yes that's right, SIX covers for the Invincible Iron Man #1 comic that came out today. Why six? Why not I guess. Three limited variant covers, the movie variant cover and the two regular covers. The Avengers/Invaders book put out by Marvel & Dynamite Entertainment had three covers, a regular cover and two limited variant covers.

I had the morning off from my job as a banker at the bank (because I got a perfect score when I was shopped) so I came and helped Craig with the new books. There were many, many variant covers today. Just too dang many, OK. Some of the other Marvel books had what they called a "skrully" variant, there was a DC Ran Thanagar War variant (who even WANTS a variant on that??) an Angel sketch variant, a black and white Logan variant cover... you get the idea? Just too darn many covers for the comics.

While a cool cover is nice, we don't need six cool covers for one issue of one comic book. REALLY, we don't. Save those nice covers for upcoming issues or something instead of flooding the market with three or six different covers. Yes I'm talking to you publishers. Lay off the variants! I prefer the comic book to be good ON THE INSIDE. If the best thing about the comic is the cover then you can keep it. If we have to resort to flashy variant covers in order to increase sales, let's redevelop the business plan and marketing plan. Sure, I do have some customers that like variants, but they are getting to be fewer and fewer. Would those customers continue to buy comics if there weren't variants - probably yes, as long as they could still enjoy the comic itself.

I don't know yet if the Invincible Iron Man comic was any good - I will have to read it in the next day or two and see. But I do know that six covers is unnecessary if the comic is good and unforgivable if the comic stinks and the covers are the only way to sell it.