Comments on: On Tuesday I went to the Comic Shop. On Thursday the Comic Shop Was Gone.

By: Comics Should Be Good! » A Comic Nerd’s Hurricane Diary- Reviews, Chris Sims Obession, Comic Con Dissing, And General Trivialization Of A Natural Disaster

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 03:06:42 +0000

[...] gotta come clean; I wanted to do a play on words on this title, but even I found that in poor [...]

By: Skott

Skott — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:06:06 +0000

It must have been two years ago that I was at WonderCon and my girlfriend and I were browsing and ended up at a booth that mostly had CGC books that I wasn't interested in.

I was trying to dig around to see if the owner had anything I was interested in and before I could make that determination, the owner bombarded me with the hard sell about how great it was having books you can't read.

He had just started saying, "If only the victims of Hurricane Katrina ha-" I cut him off mid-sentence, gave him the stink-eye and made it abundantly clear that anything that he could possibly have offered after the beginning of that statement was wholely unacceptable and innapropriate. To this day, my girlfriend still ribs me about that interaction whenever we see people selling CGC books at cons.

Glad to hear that it seems like the chief store in question made it out okay. Living in Sacramento, even though we're on the verge of a drought, we know how bad it is when a city's founders (and ignorant city planners) can put hundreds of thousands in the middle of a flood plain. Hope all are well.

By: Grico

Grico — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:29:15 +0000

That's good to hear the shop is alright.

By: MarkAndrew

MarkAndrew — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:50:07 +0000

Oh awesome!

By: Colin

Colin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:26:25 +0000

I went by CR Collectibles today to see how bad it was. To my surprise, the store was open with no apparent damage. The owner said that the flood waters got up to his street and a little into his basement, but no further. Thank heavens!

By: Craig B.

Craig B. — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:52:31 +0000

You know, I faced a similar issue in the Oakland Hills fire back in 1989 - back then, I was able to get all the long boxes into my car to evacuate, but now, no way could I do that. So I separated out all the "good stuff" into just a few boxes - Golden Age, Silver Age, more modern books worth $20 or more. These are stashed separately from the bulk of the collection. Makes it a lot easier to preserve the stuff really worth preserving in a tough situation without having to try to figure out how to quickly transport 30 long-boxes.

By: Greg Hatcher

Greg Hatcher — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:56:39 +0000

I'm just glad you are both all right. Considering the foofaraw around here the last couple of days it's nice to be reminded of things that actually DO matter.

Although, it must be said, I thought of what it would be like for us if the home library I'm sitting in ever got flooded out and my stomach just rolled right over. I know,. I'm shallow. But oh my God... -- Anyway, it did my heart good to read about someone Saving Their Books.

By: The Mutt

The Mutt — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:50:28 +0000

Citizen!
Is your Comic Book collection Evac-Ready?
How many Long Boxes can your car hold?
Remember, children can swim; Comics can not.
Do your part!
Keep 'Em Dry, Boys!

By: Danielle Leigh

Danielle Leigh — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:30:35 +0000

hi MarkAndrew! Glad to hear you are okay (if now achey-mc-acherson thanks to all the good sand-bagging deeds you have been doing.)

I'm really sorry to hear about CR Collectibles? Do you know for sure if they were hit by the flood or do you just think they were? (And I really wonder about the Cedar Rapids Library....that would be such a hugh loss, I'm so relieved our libraries in IC appear to be okay, even if it might be a while before we can go the main university library.)

By: Alan Coil

Alan Coil — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:55:54 +0000

Sandbags, if there are enough of them, will hold the water back just as a levee does. If there are not enough sandbags, the water still gets into the buildings, but at a slower pace, hopefully causing less impact damage.

I would think it will be more work to remove the wet sandbags than it would be to place them into position in the first place.

By: felgekarp

felgekarp — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:18:59 +0000

We've had a few floods here in the Uk in recent times and they always hand sandbags out but not once have I ever seen anybody on the news say they'd have been screwed if it weren't for the 3 sandbags they'd got on their doorstep. The best comic shop in my area got hit pretty badly in the last lot of floods but thankfully they managed to get back up and running again.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 05:34:28 +0000

Good to hear all is well, Mark (and as a side note to you readers out there, due to this stuff, we'll be skipping the Question of the Month for June, because Mark and Danielle were a bit preoccupied, as you might well imagine!)!!

As for Danielle, she e-mailed me Monday afternoon, and she is doing fine - where she lived in the area did not suffer too much flooding.

By: Da Fug

Da Fug — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 05:29:39 +0000

Good to hear you're OK. And it's always good to hear first hand accounts of major disasters even if some of it isn't on topic for the blog.

By: MarkAndrew

MarkAndrew — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:52:31 +0000

Yeah, CR Collectibles! (I should put that in the piece.) I go up there every couple months and spend an hour-or-so digging through the back-issue bins. (And generally spend 30-50 bucks.)

I HOPE he rescued some of his inventory. He's more a coin store than a comic store, and the coins should be easy to transport, right?

By: Colin

Colin — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:37:20 +0000

Are you talking about CR Collectibles? I live in the area to and I love that place. I hope the owner at least managed to get some of the more valuable stuff moved.

By: stealthwise

stealthwise — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:35:26 +0000

Maybe vampires had taken over, and Swamp Thing had to take you out before it spread.