ANOTHER EXCELSIOR AWARD HAS FLOWN UP, UP AND AWAY!

ITEM! Well it’s that time again, gentle readers... time to award this month’s Excelsior Award for Comic Shop Excellence! And it's congratulations to Up, Up & Away of Cincinnati, Ohio for winning this month's virtuous virtual validation. July’s winsome winner was notably nominated by local MMMS member #7324 L. Starkiller who says to say "hi" to someone at the store named Leia, and then goes on to say:

"Up, Up & Away is far and away the best comic book shop in the greater Cincinnati area. For starters, the owner Kendall Swafford sometimes doesn’t even wait for you to put a book on your pull list. If he knows that you’re a Kirby fanatic for example, he’ll have the next issue of The Jack Kirby Collector saved for you behind the counter before you walk in the door. And if the last copy of something you desperately desire is his personal reading copy, he’ll sell you that one. Now that’s service! Plus he has the biggest selection of comic-related props, statues, t-shirts and other assorted goodies you’d ever want to spend good plastic on. No need to mail-order an Iron Man helmet, he has TWO in stock! They even have a life-size dancing Homer Simpson statue that sings behind the counter. All-in-all, it's a solid 10-out-of-10 on the geek meter...”

So, congrats to the captain and crew of Up, Up & Away! The score so far: two Exy winners from the West Coast, and two from the Mid-West. What's up, East Coast? Great Britain? Outer Latveria? How can your local comic shop qualify for the ever exciting, never biting Exy Award, you ask? It's all too easy, Tiger. The conditional criteria are: 1.) While there are thousands of good comic shops, is yours one of the truly great ones? Do you stand a little taller and walk a little prouder just goin’ into the place? If so, then 2.) Submit your noteworthy nomination to our rollicking review board (that’s Yours Truly and whoever else happens to be standing around at the time). No postage required, some side-effects may occur. Swelled heads lasting over four hours are not normal and you should go see a doctor. So what are you waiting for? I’m not getting any younger, yah know! Send your Exy Award nominations to the ol’ Sock It To Stan email box today!

Excelsior!

Smiley