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No gaming today, so in between a relaxing morning and a relaxing afternoon, I bopped around Berkeley for a bit.
Stopped by Fantastic Comics for the first time since they opened. They're one of the two successor stores to Comic Relief, and the one that is in the old Comic Relief space. As I always noted when I walked by, it's a wide-open space. I was somewhat surprised that they still managed to have a good level of content.
It was nice to see new comics, as I haven't actually browsed through a comic store in a few months. I even picked up the big point one book from Marvel, as it's supposed to be a nice grab bag for upcoming series, and I thought it might point me toward upcoming cool (though, really, most of my Marvel purchases are based on author name).
Fantastic's TPB stock was a little more ... honed than Comic Relief. There was ... something ... that I wanted to look at, and I was surprised that they didn't have any of it. However, when they carried something, they seemed to do so comprehensibly. Thus, 100 Bullets (the series that made me stop shopping at Comic Relief due to their inability to order the books for me) was covered through all the volumes.
I also noted that Fantastic had all of their trades mixed together, instead of sorting out superheroes, licensed comics, and others. That separation at Comic Relief had always seemed like a good ideas, but I can't count the number of times I walked between two or three of the sections, trying to find a specific series. It was much easier at Fantastic.
I picked up a few trades while I was there, because I have a slight bit of cash right now, and it felt right to support a local business after a bad year.
After a few more stops, I made it up to the ex Sequoia Apartments. The building is an impressively demolished mess, with piles of brick and whatnot heaped 10 or 20 feet. There's just a little bit of facade left on the Telegraph side (by order of the city, who presumably wants to see just how negligent the building owners were, and thus ordered the area where the fire started to be preserved). Thankfully, the nearby streets are now opened; I had feared the amount of economic damage that Telegraph was taking in the wake of the fire.
After a stop by Moe's, I then circled around to Andronico's, who was advertising that they had 80% off everything as the final day for their Telegraph store. I need not have bothered. At least half of the store was closed off and the shelves were just about empty. I really don't know why they were even open.
Oh, wait, there was one place where the shelves were still halfway full: their new double-sized wine and booze aisle. I can't say I'm unhappy to learn that their sell-to-alcoholics strategy didn't work, and that they couldn't manage to peddle their booze even after weeks of sales.
And that was Berkeley for the day.
Stopped by Fantastic Comics for the first time since they opened. They're one of the two successor stores to Comic Relief, and the one that is in the old Comic Relief space. As I always noted when I walked by, it's a wide-open space. I was somewhat surprised that they still managed to have a good level of content.
It was nice to see new comics, as I haven't actually browsed through a comic store in a few months. I even picked up the big point one book from Marvel, as it's supposed to be a nice grab bag for upcoming series, and I thought it might point me toward upcoming cool (though, really, most of my Marvel purchases are based on author name).
Fantastic's TPB stock was a little more ... honed than Comic Relief. There was ... something ... that I wanted to look at, and I was surprised that they didn't have any of it. However, when they carried something, they seemed to do so comprehensibly. Thus, 100 Bullets (the series that made me stop shopping at Comic Relief due to their inability to order the books for me) was covered through all the volumes.
I also noted that Fantastic had all of their trades mixed together, instead of sorting out superheroes, licensed comics, and others. That separation at Comic Relief had always seemed like a good ideas, but I can't count the number of times I walked between two or three of the sections, trying to find a specific series. It was much easier at Fantastic.
I picked up a few trades while I was there, because I have a slight bit of cash right now, and it felt right to support a local business after a bad year.
After a few more stops, I made it up to the ex Sequoia Apartments. The building is an impressively demolished mess, with piles of brick and whatnot heaped 10 or 20 feet. There's just a little bit of facade left on the Telegraph side (by order of the city, who presumably wants to see just how negligent the building owners were, and thus ordered the area where the fire started to be preserved). Thankfully, the nearby streets are now opened; I had feared the amount of economic damage that Telegraph was taking in the wake of the fire.
After a stop by Moe's, I then circled around to Andronico's, who was advertising that they had 80% off everything as the final day for their Telegraph store. I need not have bothered. At least half of the store was closed off and the shelves were just about empty. I really don't know why they were even open.
Oh, wait, there was one place where the shelves were still halfway full: their new double-sized wine and booze aisle. I can't say I'm unhappy to learn that their sell-to-alcoholics strategy didn't work, and that they couldn't manage to peddle their booze even after weeks of sales.
And that was Berkeley for the day.