Prompt: Comics
Notes: I have never owned a comic store, though I'd love to. Some liberties have been taken, but hopefully not to the detriment of the piece. I really adore Stuart far too much.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fictional parody in no way intended to infringe upon the rights of any individual or corporate entity. Any and all characters or celebrity personae belong to their rightful owners. Absolutely no money has or will be gained from this work. Please do not publicly link, repost or redistribute without letting me know first.
New inventory - the last week of the month always came with a few small boxes of various plush, miniatures, a case of the new Mystic Warriors set that wasn't due out for another week (and Sheldon's freakish sixth sense would be tingling as soon as he walked into the store… just knowing they were there somewhere out of his reach no doubt) boosters and decks, even a few copies of a new GURPS book (who still uses GURPS?), in addition to his weekly new releases selected painstakingly from the list of what would sell and what he actually would people to read. He forced himself each week, three books that appeal to as many people as possible (Big name superheroes; Justice League, Batman, Superman, Spiderman, X-Men, or something with big tits and/or big guns on the cover) for each book that'll probably sell four copies and end up in bin with the Archies and How to Draw Anime Vol. III.
With the calm precision of way too many years practice, he opened the boxes first with his tiny Incredible Hulk pen knife. Plush, a mixed assortment of Nintendo characters to promote what was likely to be yet another party game that none of his customers really cared much about but loaded with the characters they loved. Casually, he tucked one each of the Mario Brothers into his personal stash. Another nifty set of D20 books (really, how many variations of a handful of weapons charts do they need?), a new DnD supplement with a guy killing a big ass dragon on the cover – all of them out on the floor. An assortment of miniature sets, under the glass. Couple new busts to join them. Couple pounds of polyhedral dice. The new t-shirts hadn't shipped, but the distributer had left a handy note kindly explaining there was a problem in the screen printing process that made the green lantern blue – but they'd get them out ASAP. Joy. Cards still not even close to release date – straight to the back room without even a peek.
He paused at the HeroClix, he was late getting them (they were well over a month old) but most of his customers had simply put in the request and waited for him to get around to ordering them… which he did, eventually. The box was set aside to compare against the suggestion cards to pull the ones especially requested – pretty much everyone who put in for them was a regular anyway. Then, the comics. Oh yes, the comics. Graphic novels first – hard cardstock covers mostly, stocked in haste to get back to the smaller sets of new arrivals.
His real babies, bundled together under thin plastic. He cracked the seal and inhaled sharply, the first delightful notes of ink and paper hitting him as hard as any wine bouquet and twice as pleasant. He took his time with them, it was still a hour before opening and people (most of which he only saw once a week) would begin filtering in early to get their fix. Casually, he'd thumb through the very top copy – deep reading the ones he was following and familiarizing himself with everything else… and then that would become his display copy, the others dutifully filed in the rack behind it save for one issue drawn from the middle. The middle issue was his special reserve, immediately tucked snugly with a board inside a proper bag (Mylar, never Poly – only heathens that don't know any better use Poly) and into his box to be archived on his collection spreadsheet later that night.
By ten o'clock, he was riding the high of New Comic Book Day and greeted his first customer with a warm grin. "Morning, Larry – new X-Men today."