Praying my own way

Over the weekend I caught up with family and friends back in my home town, some of whom I literally had not seen in years. I caught up with people who needed to talk about things and made as much time for everybody as I could, and then we all got drunk and rocked out to The Buzzcocks. I had an excellent time that could not have been better, especially when it was topped off with a Sunday visit to Comics Compulsion in Christchurch.

I had money and time and a burning desire to buy something cool as a souvenir for the southern trip. I was horribly tempted by The Writers Tale, Russell T Davies’ ridiculously revealing book about his time running Doctor Who, but that cost ninety bucks. And then, by pure chance I was wandering past the comic shop, and it was open, and all was right with the world.

Comics Compulsion was never open on a Sunday. I’ve been buying stuff for them on a regular basis for more than 15 years, and had never, ever seen it open on the second day of the weekend. There had been days when I’d end up in Christchurch on a Sunday, and I had always wandered past with the faint hope that it might be open, but it never happened.

I would like to tell you how many times I stared into the darkened store with a forlorn look on my face on a Sunday afternoon, but it’s just too horribly embarrassing.

And this time it was, and I had money, and there were comics I could get, and it was good.

Turned out it was only the third weekend it had tried out its new Sunday opening policy. So I timed that nicely, because I got the chance to grab that last Tom Strong comic I needed, as well as another Miller Daredevil to fill in that gap, and Evan Dorkin’s last two fantastic comics, and the last issue of Diggle/Jock’s The Losers, and some 2000ad stuff, and the first two issues of Comic Book Comics, and I was done.

I had to spend the next four hours sitting in airports and planes and more airport, so that worked out nicely for a while. Especially the incredibly dense Dorkin and Comic Book Comics, they filled in a good chunk of time.

Cheers, Comics Compulsion! You made my weekend complete, and brought some joy to this place of despair, for another day or so.