Comicscape - November 9, 2005

By: Kurt Amacker
Date: Wednesday, November 09, 2005

I stared at the sporadic Uptown traffic on Oak Street through the open, boarded-up door of More Fun Comics that overcast Sunday afternoon. Two months ago Hurricane Katrina decimated the Gulf Coast, leaving hundreds dead and even more homeless, displaced, and unemployed. In the aftermath, most people don't worry about comic books when they talk about recovery and "the new New Orleans." Store owner and manager Steve Thomas and D.C. Harbold (respectively), returned to the store only two weeks ago. D.C. looked at me from behind the counter that day.

"Are you guys going to make a go of it?" I asked.

"We're going to try," he replied. "We're only ordering for folders nothing for the wall. There's no subscriber discount. Store credit's on hold. Everybody seems to understand, even the guys that spend $150 to $250 a week on comic books. I'm still going to try to make people happy, but my 'small penis' customers have suggestions of their own that I have a file for," he said, pointing to the short, black garbage can in the corner.

As the hurricane tore through the Gulf of Mexico towards New Orleans, Steve and his daughter, Alexis, fled to Dallas. D.C. abandoned his aging Chevy Beretta in favor of one of Steve's pickup trucks, driving to Memphis with one guitar and his burlesque dancer girlfriend, Spooky Le Strange, riding shotgun. Unbeknownst to him, my wife and I had already arrived in a rundown chain motel in East Memphis. I'd already grown out my sideburns. D.C. and I accidentally met at Sun Studios on Union Avenue and hugged like long-lost friends. A few days later, D.C. and Spooky departed for Philadelphia to live with his mom for the next six weeks. My wife and I left for Summerville to stay with her parents.

When the Seventeenth Street Canal broke, both men lost their homes. D.C.'s apartment on the grounds of Lakelawn Metairie Cemetery flooded, ruining everything he owned. A torrent of water dark with cemetery dirt ruined a lifetime's worth of comics, band recordings, Star Wars action figures, and guitars. The waters of Lake Ponchartrain filled Steve's house to the roof, taking with it everything he owned, save his comic collection stored offsite. When I spoke to him from Summerville, he said he wouldn't return to New Orleans or to the comic shop. Still unsure of the store's future, D.C. e-mailed More Fun's subscribers and asked for their pull lists. After about 30-40% of the subscribers responded positively, he transcribed their requests from e-mails to sheets of notebook paper in a red binder. Without the computer lost at Steve's house, he had to assemble a new subscriber list for an initial Diamond order from scratch.

When Steve decided to return to the store, he quickly bought a house in his hometown of McComb, Mississippi only 110 miles away while D.C. moved into Spooky's Uptown apartment. The day D.C. returned, he opened the store to survey the damage. After Katrina tore a swath of destruction through the city, looters had descended on Oak Street like a swarm of locusts. Uptown's own Gothic Eagle Scouts, John and Chris Parker, had grabbed their machetes and chased away some of the thieves in the 10$ General Store across the street, but not before a few smashed the glass door of More Fun Comics and stole a power drill, a Playstation, and all but one of the porn DVDs behind the counter. Later, three different comic-reading police officers had boarded the door. While minor flooding ruined a few boxes of free comics, the store's inventory survived.

At first, Diamond Comic Distributors didn't know what to do with More Fun or any of the other stores reopening on the Gulf Coast. D.C. would later call their store Diamond's guinea pig for account reactivation. With their preorders for the past few weeks cancelled, D.C. talked with Diamond for hour-long stretches to manually reorder what books remained available for the coming weeks. Steve and D.C. knew they needed an airtight budget no comics for the store wall and only subscribers could get new issues. Few customers complained, as most were just happy to buy comics again. More Fun was (and is) one of the only comic stores remaining in the Greater New Orleans Area. Nearby Metairie mainstay BSI Comics closed after the storm, and the future of the Lakefront's Crescent City Comics remains unclear. Besides More Fun, comic fans have only the odd gaming shop or bookstore to get their fix, and between employee shortages and erratic UPS shipments, even that seems uncertain.

That Saturday afternoon, D.C. leaned back in his chair and said, "This is in no way gloating over the loss. There's stock that was lost and livelihoods that were lost. I like the guys at BSI and Crescent City, besides the gossipy rumors I'd hear about the store. That's just shop stuff, though." While a natural showman and performer, D.C. always concealed his realism and humility beneath a veneer of bravado. Though most of his rock star charisma came out on stage with his innumerable bands, he exuded stoic irreverence behind the counter at More Fun Comics. I realized that I would have enjoyed the dearth of competition more than he did. He just accepted it as the bright side of otherwise dark circumstances. He said, "This is a matter of obligation, because we took on so little damage and they took so much. We'd be foolish not to try."

His stoicism notwithstanding, the other shops' former customers still pour into More Fun with their pull lists. Customers that lost their entire collections arrive to rebuild. National Guardsman and emergency workers flip through the back issue bins for reading material, buying comics that have sat unwanted for years.

Despite the prospect of a hopeful future, D.C. and Steve remain cautiously optimistic. In the "new New Orleans," nothing is certain. However, in a city rife with misfortune, More Fun's reemergence is nothing short of a miracle. If all continue well, the store will celebrate its tenth anniversary under Steve Thomas in spring of next year.

D.C. said, "We're going to do something at the Big Top Gallery and try to get some of our local artist friends to do comic-related art. And, we're all in bands, so we'll all play for all of the people that have supported us over the years."

"Strippers and beer?" I asked.

"Yes, strippers and beer," he said. "And a chimp act."

More Fun Comics is located at 8200 Oak Street in New Orleans, Louisiana. The store can be reached at (504) 865-1800 from Wednesday through Sunday, 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. D.C. can be reached at mfcnola@yahoo.com.

New This Week
By Al Brown and Kurt Amacker

DARK HORSE

Blade Of The Immortal #107 (MR) $2.99

Super Manga Blast #57 (MR) $5.99

DC COMICS

100 Bullets #66 (MR) $2.75
Al: Another day, another friggin awesome cover.

ABC A-Z Greyshirt And Cobweb $3.99

Action Comics #833 $2.50

Aquaman #36 $2.50

Batman Cataclysm TP $19.95

Batman Legends Of The Dark Knight #197 $2.50

Batman Officer Down TP $12.95

Batman Strikes #15 $2.25

Breach #11 $2.50
Al: Final issue! Now I feel guilty because I never checked this out. I think I heard that it didn't suck, too. Oh well: too late now.

Danger Girl Back In Black #1 (of 4) $2.99
Al: If there's one thing I never miss, it's another Danger Girl outing. How many comic books, TV shows, movies and deodorant commercials have ripped off the idea of a sexy James Bond chick? Danger Girl is one of the ones that works. I mean, not as high art or anything, but as really entertaining cheesecake. Here's hoping newbie artist Nick Bradshaw draws some nice ass.
Kurt: Because the world can always use more nice asses.

Danger Girl The Ultimate Coll TP $19.95
Al: And for those of you who are thinking "Hey, I like cheesecake! How come I've never tried Danger Girl?" Now's your chance.
Kurt: I like cheesecake when it has that Oreo crust you can get at the grocery store. You know what I don't like, though? Clueless people.

Day Of Vengeance TP $12.99
Kurt: That was fast.

DMZ #1 (MR) $2.99
Al: With much of our military tied up in what's helpfully referred to as "military adventurism overseas", the Michigan Militias of the country decide to have a revolution and get bogged down in Manhattan. This series is told through the eyes of an embedded reporter covering the war at home. Awesome concept, and writer Brian Wood (Demo, Global Frequency) is generally interesting.

Fables Vol 4 March Of The Wooden Soldiers TP (MR) $17.95

Gotham Central #37 $2.50
Day of Vengeance tie-in.

Hawkman #46 $2.50
Al: Wait, this is a prelude to the Rann/Thanagar War? Um...bit late, ain't it?
Kurt: Late like your 12-year-old girlfriend Al! What'd I tell you?

JLA #122 $2.50

Losers Close Quarters TP (MR) $14.99

Majestic #11 $2.99

Manhunter Vol 1 Street Justice TP $12.99

Musashi #9 Vol 5 $9.99

Nightwing #114 $2.50

Sandman Vol 4 Season Of Mists TP $19.95

Kurt: All right, you just can't go wrong with Sandman. Go buy it if you don't already have it.

Scooby Doo #102 $2.25

Testarotho Vol 2 (MR) $9.99

Transmetropolitan Vol 6 Gouge Away TP $14.95
Kurt: Gouge away? That's what I told my wife last night. Man, did that suck.

Wildcats Nemesis #3 (of 9) $2.99
Al: Oh my God, this isn't dead yet? Does it feed off the blood of virgins or something? Someone needs to grab some wooden stakes and fight this thing.
Kurt: Kind of like Keith Richards, eh?

IMAGE

Age Of Bronze Vol 1 A Thousand Ships TP $19.95

Age Of Bronze Vol 2 Sacrifice TP $19.95

Arthur Suydam Poster Book $38.99

City Of Heroes #7 $2.99

Mora #4 (of 4) $2.99
Al: "First act" conclusion, so somebody thinks there'll be more.

Sea Of Red #5 (MR) $2.99
Al: This book is approaching Ultimates-level lateness.
Kurt: Isn't this, like, the third time this has been listed?

MARVEL

Book Of Lost Souls #2 $2.99

Cable Deadpool #22 $2.99

Captain Universe Daredevil $2.99
Al: Captain Universe apparently can't think of anything more important to do than give Matt Murdock his sight back. This should be a fun issue though, since if it's anywhere near realistic Matt will spend the entire book telling Captain Universe to shut the hell up while he checks out like twenty years' worth of asses.
Kurt: Yeah, I guess it's kind of hard to fantasize about nailing Elektra when you don't even know what she looks like.

Daredevil Father #4 (of 5) $2.99
Al: Dude? Too late, nobody cares.
Kurt: Oh, I'll buy the poor little guy. I mean look at him it's not his fault Marvel neglected him. It's like sponsoring one of those kids from Ethiopia that Sally Struthers keeps talking about.

Daredevil Vol 5 Out TP $19.99

Decimation House Of M The Day After $3.99
Al: I know I'm not the first guy to note that, since virtually nothing of importance happened for the first six-and-a-half issues of the House Of M series, it might have been possible to wrap the story up without an epilogue. Perhaps more storytelling during the event itself. Unfortunately neither of the Big Two companies appears capable of doing this. Tragic.
Kurt: I am not buying this. Enough is enough.

Drax The Destroyer #3 (of 4) $2.99
Al: Hard to say what's more fun here: the fluctuating intelligence of Drax, the matter-of-fact brutality of his fellow escaped prisoners or the completely sociopathic teenage girl who's messing with all of them for no reason other than boredom. Why is it that all Marvel's least important series are the most fun?

Essential Spider-Man Vol 6 TP $16.99

Exiles #72 $2.99
Al: Beginning the three-part "World Tour: New Universe" arc. Apparently over the next year or so, the Exiles will be visiting several of Marvel's alternate dimensions, with the 2099 universe coming next. I don't care about the 2099 universe, but I'm friggin' psyched for New Universe, man, because you know what New Universe could mean: friggin Kickers, Inc. HELL YES. Okay, DP 7 was fun too.
Kurt: What is the sound of one dead horse beaten?

Fantastic Four Iron Man Big In Japan #2 (of 4) $3.50

Fantastic Four Wedding Special $4.99
Al: If I were still trying to play Susan Storm as a MILF, the last thing I would want to do is remind everyone that they got married 40 years ago.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #2 $2.99
Al: Is "The Other" the worst crossover storyline of all time? Seriously, I know invoking the Clone Saga is the Spider-Man equivalent of bringing up Hitler in a political discussion, but I think "The Other" is shaping up to give it a run for its money.
Kurt: Dear Marvel: Because of your decision to stage yet another ridiculous crossover, I have dropped Amazing Spider-Man from my folder. Good going. Sincerely, Kurt

Ghost Rider #3 (of 6) $2.99

Incredible Hulk #88 $2.99
Al: Apparently this arc is already laying the groundwork for next summer's Planet Hulk event. Now, extrapolating one possible plot point from the title, let's discuss who would be the most fun if they Hulked out every time they got cranky: Daredevil, Deadpool or Wolverine?
Kurt Definitely Daredevil blind guy on a rampage. It doesn't get much funnier.

Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #6 $2.50

Marvel Knights 4 #24 $2.99

Marvel Knights Spider-Man Vol 4 Wild Blue Yonder TP $14.99

Marvel Masterworks Golden Age Human Torch Vol 1 HC Var ED $54.99

Marvel Masterworks Golden Age Human Torch Vol 1 New ED HC $49.99

New Excalibur #1 $2.99
Al: Oh hooray, Chris Claremont gets to resurrect Excalibur yet again. This time they've given him Captain Britain, Juggernaut, Pete Wisdom, a pink-haired Dazzler and what's-her-name, the chick Nightcrawler. Man, Marvel isn't even pretending to give Chris anything but F-Listers, are they? Just as well, since I wouldn't buy this no matter who was in it. Put the Care-O-Meter on zero and wake me when someone kidnaps Storm.
Kurt: Dracula made Storm a vampire a while back. I think it's all been downhill for her since then.

New Thunderbolts #15 $2.99

New Thunderbolts Vol 2 Modern Marvels TP $14.99

New Warriors #5 (of 6) $2.99
Al: Am I the only person who doesn't think this book is as clever as it thinks it is?
Kurt: Anything that tries to be clever rarely succeeds. "That's clever. How's that working out for you?"

New X-Men #20 $2.99
Al: Here we go: The New New New Mutants! New creative team Craig Kyle & Chris Yost and Mark Brooks get to take whichever New X-Men characters they want, probably depower and ruin the rest of them, and go in a brand-new direction that will probably involve less talking. And, judging from the cover, more trying to ram X-23 down our throats. (Dude! She's lame! Give it up!) Anyway, the lineup now apparently includes telekinetic guy, guy made of rocks, and chick made of Mercury, all from the Hellions; golden guy who makes out with teachers and electric homeless chick from the New X-Men team; Grant Morrison's Dust; and the aforementioned former hooker with claws. (I actually do know their names, but you may not. I thought this would be helpful.) Seems like a random lineup, except that I kindof agree that the Hellions were more fun than the actual New X-Men team. With the glaring exception of Rockslide (that's the rocky guy - also, his hands come off!), whose generic jokey guy personality has never made him the least bit interesting. Anyway...well, we'll see how this goes.
Kurt: Dude, X-23's a teenage Japanese chick, just like all those kids you keep in your basement! You should be all over it!

New X-Men X-23 Variant #20 $2.99
Al: Dear Marvel, shut up. Sincerely, Al.

Pulse #12 $2.99
Kurt: The baby finally gets here. Now, whose powers will it inherit?

Scorpion Poison Tomorrow Digest TP $7.99

Thor Blood Oath #4 (of 6) $2.99

Toxin The Devil You Know TP $17.99
Kurt: I thought it said "Toxie" at first, as in The Toxic Avenger. Ah, well.

Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think at comicscape@cinescape.com.