Meanwhile, on Twitter...

• 10:11 It's World Aids Day. Show your support by using the #red tag to turn your tweets red. #
• 10:13 First frosty day of the year. I was prepared, but maybe too much. My fur-lined hat and gloves may have been a tad much. Looked like a yeti. #
• 10:33 Quite pleased. I've lost 7lb in the first week of my diet. I say quite pleased, I'm very pleased, but trying to sound cool and nonchalant. #
• 13:53 Some people spend hundreds cultivating their hair into that just-got-out-of-bed look. I can achieve the same by just getting out of bed. #
• 18:43 I think I'll be visiting here later: riotclitshave.com/2009.11/3997f32b.jpg #
• 18:44 And for those horrified by the web address, it's not as bad as it might first appear. #

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Twitter or Twattier?

It's one of those weeks, where the Twitter feed updates are likely to take over, just because I don't usually find the time to make extended posts. (IE. It's deadline.) I'm actually starting to wonder about the Twitter feed, though. Is it annoying? Do people read my updates directly on Twitter anyway? Do people miss the random links dump that the Twitter's pretty much replaced? How about a poll?

[Poll #1493431]

As usual, I write this blog mostly for myself, but I do like to hear feedback on content and it's a few months since I last asked.

I know I'm behind on certain things that last poll brought up - I haven't done any comic reviews in an age (mostly because I'm really behind with me reading - there doesn't seem much point reviewing a book that came out a month before, since it'll have already been discussed to death on Scans_Daily and elsewhere) and I'm a couple of days behind on my sales figures thing - I'll try to get to that later.

I think I've been hitting the book reviews quota, though, although now, with Harry Potter out the way, I'm almost out of new material to read - can anyone make any recommendations?

Stay classy, comic store guy

I can't help but wonder if comic store owners, like those cheering on the Scans_Daily troll on Twitter, would have less cause to complain about S_D losing them custom if they didn't insist on pulling stuff like this.

Now I know that this guy doesn't represent all store owners, but it certainly gets me churning over the fact that I've never encountered a single comic store yet that appeared... welcoming. Pretty much every store I've been in has had that "secret club" mentality, and often a secret club with "BOYZ ONLY" written on the door.

And it's hardly an original thought, but it's noteworthy that, while comics retailers are quick to blame a number of things for declining sales in comics over the last couple of decades, the one thing they don't actually change is their own stores. I think it's quite telling that, instead of trying to encourage a new generation or demographic of comic book readers into their stores, this store owner decided that plastering pictures of bared boobs around was the way to encourage people in.

There's been a lot of talk about the publishers running down their own customers (and, frankly, even my own local comic store owner described Marvel as treating their own customers with contempt, so it's hard to argue they don't) but equally store owners also can't seem to get it out of their heads that the only people who they'll ever get through the door is the horny fanboy demographic. Hell, I resent stuff like that. The idea that a flash of some boobs is all it takes to perk my interest is irritating and the sort of mentality that spawned Michael Bay's Transformers and this sort of nonsense.

Perhaps it's not just the publishers than need to change their outlook on their customers.

(And yes, I still recognize the irony of using a Dave Sim icon for any post that touches on feminism.)