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The Isotope Communique
Daily news and updates by Proprietor James Sime & the Isotope Staff
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Thursday, April 12, 2007
 ThankYouThankYouThankYou
You Crazy Wonderful People!
Forgive me while I gush...
When you get to devote your days to doing something you really, really love life is pretty darn good. Take it from me, I'm James Sime, and I sell comic books for a living in the greatest city on Earth. And thanks to the hard work of my staff and a few close friends I get to do it in a comic store that still takes my breath away. No matter how corny it might sound, getting to meet so many wonderful, inspirational people who walk in the Isotope front door that I already know I share a common bond with is a delight. Having the opportunity to share my appreciation of the artform (both the high art and the low) with so many other people brings a big stupid grin to my face each day. And scrambling to find just the right book for just the right reader is quite honestly the most fun and rewarding job I could ever imagine.
I'm really happy doing what I do. But man, it sure is nice to know you're appreciated in this life.
Something must be in the air, because kind and generous people have been going way above and beyond the call of duty lavishing the love and rocking my world with spontaneous bouts of kindness of late. Between last week's unexpected Isotope appreciation day, several entirely different groups of people randomly buying me lunch, a literal tsunami of pulse-quickening consumer reviews jam-packed with appreciation for what my staff and I do over on Yelp, and a sudden in-flux of sweet phone calls and emails from all over the country the past few weeks... it's honestly been taking my breath away.
In an effort to not bust out weeping tears of joy like Nancy Kerrigan with her first silver medal, I've decided to share one such story with you, and say "thanks" to a friend for doing something that really made my day.
Now my love for the weekly British comic anthology 2000ad is no secret. I'm often heard waxing poetic about how the combination of bad, ugly bands and this weird funnybook from the other side of the ocean warped my young mind just like I did in this column. Honestly, what modern day comic reader couldn't adore the home of never-reprinted early strips by folks like Grant Morrison, Kevin O'Neill, Garth Ennis, Bryan Talbot, Alan Moore, Frank Quitely, Jamie Delano, Carlos Ezquerra, Mark Millar, Steve Dillon, Neil Gaiman, Mark Buckingham, Mike Carey, Sean Phillips, Peter Milligan, Ian Gibson, and Rian Hughes? That's damn good comics, people!
Today my pal Larry Young presented me with the single most difficult issue of this 30 year old series to get. The notoriously elusive and legendarily expensive Prog #2. And why? "Just because I appreciate all that you do, James" was his answer. I told you people were being crazy wonderful nice to me recently!
For those of you out there who know what it's like to feel your heart soar at the sight of crusty old newsprint comics as much as I do, go ahead and click to check out the cover from this classic issue. For your mid-70's nerdly pleasure I've also scanned the free gift... yellowed, three decades old stickers that were meant to be affixed to young British kids arms and faces! It's raw, it's enthusiastic, it's sloppy, it's uncommon, it's sexy, it's adventurous, it's nerdy, it's idiosyncratic, it's meaty, it's quaint, it's kitchy-cool. It's everything good in the world.
  
What can I possibly say? Except "AIEEEEEE! It's... the THING from the HELL PLANET!"
Thank you to Larry and all you other crazy wonderful people who have been so kind recently for making a kick ass life ever better. You rock.
- JamesLabels: thanks
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