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

SUPPLYING OUR MARVELOUS TROOPS WITH EXCELLENT COMICS!

ITEM! It’s that time of the month again, heroes! Time to hand out another Excelsior Award for Comic Shop Excellence! While the prior winners of the existential Exy award have been West Coast comic book shops, not this time, Tiger! When we started handing these things out, Ol’ Smiley threw out the challenge to any Mid-Western MMMS members-at-large to report back in to Soapbox Central on any comic book shop that met the Merry Marvel standards for excellence. A couple of weeks ago Yours Truly received the following from MMMS member #7892, otherwise-known-as FedEx Eddie:

“If ever there was a comic book shop that deserves the Excelsior Award, it’s the Bookery Fantasy located in Fairborn, Ohio (right next to Wright-Patterson Airforce Base and just outside Dayton. Their store is so big it’s broken into two shops directly across the street from each other — one for comics, pulps and collectibles, the other for games. Besides having one of the best back-issue inventories in the country, the Bookery is huge on old pulp magazines and genre paperbacks. Last time I was there I was able to grab the Twomorrows’ Kirby Unleashed portfolio, a copy of Blake Bell’s "I Have to Live With This Guy," and that Streetwise book with the Kirby story in it. All that and my regular books!

They have a massive selection of graphic novels, trade paperbacks and collectibles. A few weeks ago I walked in and they were conducting an Iron Man costume contest just prior to the movie premiere (see included photos). If you ever need anything there, all you have to do is ask Jessi — she knows her comics! In short, the Bookery seems like the kind of comic shop you’d find in downtown Manhattan, but it’s right here in the middle of Ohio!

Make Mine Marvel,

FedEx Ed, R.F.O., K.O.F."

Well there yah go, pilgrims! That’s how it works. Congratulations to Bookery Fantasy owner Tim Cottrill and his comic-crazed crew for winning the Excelsior Award for Comic Shop Excellence! Stand a little straighter and walk a little taller, Bookery-ites! Your excellence no longer goes unrecognized!

Nearly every city, hamlet and burg has a good comic shop... but do you have an exceptionally excellent comic shop in your vicinity? Is your rascally regional retailer recognition-worthy? Then what are you waiting for? A Skrull invasion? Send your Exy nominations straight to the ol’ Sock It To Stan emailage box, sunshine! You’ll feel better for doing it!

Excelsior!

Smiley

A PLACE WHERE EVERYONE DARES TO GO... THEY CALL IT ZANADU!

ITEM! This being the week of the big Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle, Yours Truly figures it’s time to hand out another Excelsior Award for Comic Shop Excellence! This one goes to two of the best comic shops serving the West Coast since 1975 — Zanadu Comics!

Zanadu has been supplying the Greater Seattle area with not only a monstrous melange of mainstream Marvel comics, but one of the most scintillating selections of alternative and underground books since Robert Crumb was knee-high to a Yippie. They even sell Brand Echh comics, if you’re in to that sort of thing... While your Uncle Stanley has never been there, I recently had the occasion to send Irving Forbush on a mission there while we were in town. I was on the road myself and without my leather-bound copies of Tales of Suspense, and the boy-chiks at Zanadu Comics (at the hipster University of Washington location, natch) hooked Honest Irv right up with a copy of GIT’s out-of-print Iron Man DVD-ROM collection! 

Irv also brought me back an unsolicited copy of the Jesus Hates Zombies trade paperback ‘cause he thought I would dig the Amazing Fantasy #15 tribute cover (and what can I say... I’m a sucker for the sincerest form of flattery every single time). Did I mention that Irv also brought me back a few choice 1960s Playboys too? Yup, they got those too! Zanadu’s is one of those ever-rare old-school kind of comics shop that has it all, pilgrims.

So congratulations to Perry “Livin’ the Life” Plush and his crew on winning a well-deserved Exy! It’s a virtual award to be sure, but that doesn’t mean it won’t make you the envy of all your fawning fans and frantic friends! Just remember to keep shelving the Marvel and Virgin comics up front where the True Believers can find ‘em! 

Excelsior!

Smiley

EXCELSIOR AWARD FOR COMIC BOOK SHOP EXCELLENCE

ITEM! It’s Face Front Time, heroes! I’ve decided to create both a nifty new award and an incontestable contest all at the same titanic time. I’m calling it The Excelsior Award for Comic Book Shop Excellence... or the “Exy” for short. Periodically, your Uncle Stanley is going to spotlight exciting and extraordinary comic books shops and do what I do best: give back to all the little people out of there who are Making Theirs Marvel each and every day. That’s just the big-hearted and big-headed kind of guy I am.

First up: Congratz to Lee’s Comics in Mountain View and San Mateo, Cali-forn-i-ay, for winning the first-ever Exy! You are now the proud owners of a certain sense of peerless pride that let's the whole world know you're standing a little straighter and walking a little taller... in other words there's no actual prize or award. It's a virtual thing, Interwebites! I should point out that Lee’s Comics is not affiliated with the Smilin’ One in any way, shape or form... unless owner Lee Hester happens to be one of the my many suspected illegitimate children (along with comic book artist/writer Jim “Love Child” Lee). Hey, what can I say? The 60s and 70s were a wild, wild time. You had to be there, Tiger.

Although Yours Truly has never been to Lee’s, I sent Irving Forbush there once to make a book run while I was speaking in Sunny San Francisco. I needed a few key Silver and Golden Age books for a photo shoot and would yah believe they had ‘em? Earnest Irv couldn’t say enough about the selection, layout and staff, though he warned me to watch out for some guy named Ryan. He said that guy was a trouble-maker of Doc Ock proportions!

I did have the privilege of meeting owner Lee “Livin’ Large” Hester at a dinner awhile back. Didn’t think your Uncle Stan’s memory worked that well, did yah? Hey I can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday, but when a guy’s name is “Lee” — THAT I can remember! The Hest was great and laughed very politely at my old-man jokes.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t point out that Lee’s Comics has hosted some of the industry greats, including the aforementioned Jim Lee along with Alex Ross (who designed the Lee's Comics logo), Paul Dini, Brian Michael Bendis and others too numerous to mention. By-the-by — Bendis still owes me money from stiffing me on a dinner check. He ran out of the restaurant screaming something about our waitress being a Skrull. Next time he’s there tell him I said he better pay up before I sick Forbush-Man on him! Or a couple dozen lawyers.

How can your cultural center of all things comic bookish qualify for the next Excelsior Award? Submit your nominations straight to the ol’ Sock It To Stan emailage-box. If you’re located somewhere on the West Coast, I’ll send Irving to go check yah out. If you’re on the East Coast, same thing it just may take longer. If you’re in the Midwest, what the heck are you thinking? Just kidding, pilgrims. The contest is open to any and all. If I have to, I’ll recruit some old MMMS members to go scout out your locale. Some of them are still mobile and driving cars.

Excelsior!

Smiley