I’m back again with another recap of the only show that takes you behind the scenes at a comic book store and shows you exactly how the dork side lives and kinda works, ‘Comic Book Men’. First of all, I apologize for missing last week’s episode. I’ve been away from my TV for the past 11 days because of the Philadelphia Film Festival, but now I’m back to business as usual.
In this episode, things at the Secret Stash started to get strange. It started like any other day with a customer, this one bearing a Star Trek tech manual and blue prints from 1975 that showed fans things like how to make their own Starfleet uniforms. The book had belonged to the customer’s Dad who passed away. When asked why she was selling it, the customer said that some supernatural things started to happen around her house where her dad’s collections were kept. After a few years, she started her own paranormal investigation group to get to the bottom of things and decided to start selling the collections.
After settling on $15 for the book, Walt shared a story about hearing voices in the basement one night while closing up, complete with an overdramatic reenactment like in those paranormal investigation shows. Luckily, the customer had some of her equipment in the car, so she, Ming, and Walt went down to check if there was, in fact, spirits in the basement of Jay & Silent Bob’s secret Stash. The trio got some very strong reading in the basement near some boxes of comics. The customer determined that the spirit wasn’t malevolent and just wanted to enjoy the comics. Walt says as long as it stays in the basement and doesn’t scare customers, he can stay and read as much as he wants.
The next customer comes in with a box of loose Thundercats action figures. While he was looking for around $500-$1000, Walt explained that loose figures don’t hold the same value as if they were still mint on the card. Since most buyers are looking for figures that are NRFB (or never removed from box), the customer had to settle for $45 for just Lion-O & Mumm-Ra. Later, a young customer comes in to buy the Thundercats figures from earlier. Walt wanted $50 for Mumm-Ra & $75 for Lion-O, but the customer settled on $72 for the set and walked away happy.
These toys sparked a discussion about their favorite cartoons from when they were kids. Kevin said that his favorite was ‘Superfriends’ because of the Legion of Doom and their cool looking base. Walt unexpectedly said that ‘Josie & the Pussycats In Outer Space’ was his favorite. Although Bryan said that it was like “the Spice Girls in space”, I’m gonna go ahead and side with Walt on this one. They may have not been my favorite (I was partial to reruns of ‘The Impossibles’ and ‘X-Men’ when I was a kid.), the Pussycats had a pretty good show.
Rob Bruce visits the store and starts talking monster books with Walt, who is a huge fan of them. Kevin says that Walt introduced him to the tale of Jersey Devil, which Walt then shares with everyone again. Rob saw the devil once and shares his story. When Ming doesn’t believe that the Jersey Devil is real, Walt proposes that they go out there to look for it. Ming’s up for it and agrees, but when he walked away, Walt suggests a little plan to freak out Ming.
Walt, Ming, Bryan, and Mike head out to hunt for the Jersey Devil. Rob followed them up there, followed close behind the group, and messed with Ming by jumping on him, all while dressing up as the Devil. Ming was scared shitless even though he denied being phased.
Not a bad episode to show the weekend before Halloween. Overall, I enjoyed it, although I would’ve liked to see a bit more of the gang’s hunt for the Jersey Devil. Bryan isn’t the only one who finds enjoyment in Ming squirming uncomfortably, so I think the editors should’ve kept in more of that. At least a little bit more. And next time I visit the Secret Stash, I gotta remember to ask them about how their ghost is doing.
Check back next week for another recap of one of the only reality shows out there today that I actually enjoy watching. In the mean time, feel free to check out my recap of episode 1 of Season Two or my interview with the cast from New York Comic Con.
