Stumptown Quest

My friends in Seattle were part of Matt's new grpahics for Stumptown. I've seen some preliminary work on the comic before this week but it takes several issues before the publishers are ready and willing to distribute the work. So Stumptown was finally ready for release and I went out on the streets of NYC to find the first issue.

First stop - Forbidden Planet in Union Square. This seems to be the mecca for the younger, hipper comic crowd. Sorry, I just can't call it a graphic novel yet. So I walk in, look down teh aisle in new week's releases and can't find it. I ask the 20-something asian guy who can't seem to make eye contact with me. He heads off to the bound books section and I stop him, explain it's a new single issue. He asks what type of genre. Some sort of mystery, noir, murder type I say. Finally I just go ask the central guy behind teh raised circular desk guarded by several computers on the peripheri. He looks it up and tells me they're sold out. He suggests other stores. What stores? It's not like I frequent comic stores. He recommended Time Machine on &th and 14th or St. Mark's. I headed over to Joe's coffee to meet Lisa.

Joe's on 13th has good coffee but crappy decor and ambiance. It's all shitty aluminium faking-to-be-chrome chairs and tables with bright lighting and walls that love to bounce sound in LOUD patterns. Lisa showed up and we just headed out.

Time Machine was the throwback comic shop. It was the complete opposite of Forbidden Planet. No bound books. No plastic figureines. No costumes or paraphanial. Just comics in their little plastic covers and they were everywhere. So there are about 6 people there and Lisa and I were the only customers. You have to take a flight up one set of stairs after ringing for teh buzzer at street level. The oldest guy behind the counter seemed to be in charge. He was sold out but called three shops to find a copy - at the Midtown in Times Square. This guy was so nice but so strange as he kept turing to the gal in front of the counter, asking for the bottle of Jack Daniels. Funny when I asked him what they started with, refering to the number of Stumptowns he had, he replied, "The whole bottle." Obviously they'd been drinking a lot, there was only about an eighth of the JD left.

I left Lisa in Union Square territory and headed to 40th via the 2/3 subway. Again, Midtown was a second floor space but much larger and much cleaner to catter to the mainstream comic fan in his teens. A little less flashy, high-priced, and cool at Forbidden but definitley cleaner and less nostalgic that Time Machine. Who knew there was such diversity in the comic buying world?

So I read teh first issue on the ride home. Interesting story. I like how the main female, who does look like my friend S in Seattle, isn't a bimbette. Only one bikini clad gal is portrayed in this issue and even she looks 'normal', not like some freaked version of a woman - the comic stylized HUGE breasts, big lips, and impossibly placed clothing clinging places despite gravity physics. I thought the palate was monochrome which maybe was the intent give the underworld crime tones. While I may not care too much for the scratchier inked lines, I do like the use of locals and architecture which pulled me immediately to the Portland and Seattle Northwest areas I know so well. The story is engaging but not really grabbing me just yet. We'll see what happens next issue.