The forth installment of Untidy Secrets includes storytelling from:
Melissa Fossum
William Wonderful
Russ Kazmierczak, Jr.
The theme this month is “First of The Gang To Die”, storytellers interpret this theme however they see fit.
Untidy Secrets exists to encourage literature through alteranative means (storytelling, small press, self publishing, zines, and more). If you’re a writer, bring your work to swap and connect with others.
This event is all ages and BYOB. Ash Ave Comics has some chairs available at first come first serve basis, feel free to bring your own chair or stand.
If you’re interested in telling a story at a future Untidy Secrets event, contact Sarah Richie-Rich.
Hey folks, it’s crazy how time flies, but January 2, 2016 is our 13th anniversary as a comic shop. To thank all of you, we’re holding an anniversary sale from 11 AM to 8 PM on Saturday, January 2nd. Everything in the shop will be 20% off with the exception of consignment items or items previously discounted.
Last year was awesome, we had great growth in sales and in our customer base as the industry continued to impress with scores of new titles bringing in new readers and bringing old readers back as well. We gave away thousands of comics for the wildly successful Free Comic Book Day, had a hit with Local Comic Shop Day, and gave out hundreds of free titles for Halloween Comic Fest. We comic conned.
We were voted “Readers Choice” for Best Comic Shop by readers of the Phoenix New Times. We attended Image Comics’ Image Expo in San Francisco. We visited comics shops in Greece and Turkey to see a very different comic industry, but also a very familiar one.
Our afterhours programming continued to be a hit, we held three storytelling nights in collaboration with Untidy Secrets, and our Comic Book Club discussion group met 22 times(!) this year to discuss monthly picks and for longer reads such as The Invisibles and Preacher. There’s more to come this year as we hope to offer more programming at the shop, in addition to our usual engagements. Thank you to everyone for the support this year, and over the years. We hope to keep providing you all with a great selection of comics in 2016.
2016 is just around the corner, and with it comes two Ash Ave Comic Book Club meetups for January. The first discussion group is Sunday, January 3rd at the shop where we’ll be gathering at our usual time of 6 PM to discuss Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine. One week after that we meet again to discuss volume 4 of the Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon series Preacher, that meeting will be held Sunday, January 10th at 6PM at the shop.
Coming up in February, 2016, we have Neil Gaiman’s legendary Sandman coming up and we continue our reading of Preacher with volume 5.
A reminder that our current Reading Club titles are 20% off of the listed price, and we encourage anyone interested in attending the reading group to pre-pay for the next monthly title a few weeks ahead of time. Check out the cover images and summaries of our next titles below.
Here’s our schedule for the next two months, all reading groups meet at 6 PM at the shop.
Sunday, January 3rd:Shortcomings
Sunday, January 10th:Preacher vol 4
Sunday, February 7th: Sandman vol 1
Sunday, February 21st: Preacher vol 5
Shortcomings, Adrian Tomine’s first long-form graphic novel, is the story of Ben Tanaka, a confused, obsessive Japanese American male in his late twenties, and his cross-country search for contentment (or at least the perfect girl). Along the way, Tomine tackles modern culture, sexual mores, and racial politics with brutal honesty and lacerating, irreverent humor, while deftly bringing to life a cast of painfully real antihero characters.
This title spotlights Jesse Custer’s battle with the Saint of Killers and the forces of Starr originally presented in PREACHER #34-40. Also included: the PREACHER SPECIAL: ONE MAN’S WAR, PREACHER SPECIAL: THE STORY OF YOU-KNOW-WHO and PREACHER SPECIAL: THE GOOD OLD BOYS.
Ash Ave Comics will be closed on Thursday, November 26 for the Thanksgiving holiday. We will be open our regular hours on Wednesday from 9 AM to 9PM, as the Thanksgiving holiday will not impact our shipping schedule.
Our doors will open at 9 AM on Friday November 27th with extended hours for Black Friday sales. We’re offering 30% off storewide from 9 AM to Noon, and 20% off from Noon to 8 PM. If you know the shop, then you know we have tons of great gift ideas for the holidays and something you’ve wanted to add to your own collection as well.
Finally, Saturday, November 28th is the first ever Local Comic Shop Day, and Ash Ave Comics is one of only 3 participating retailers in the valley! We’ll be opening our doors at 10 AM, all items are one per customer, and some of the LCSD exclusives have been allocated and will not be cover price. For a complete list of what we’ll have available for purchase, check out the LCSD website. These titles will be first come, first serve, so make sure to hit the shop early on Saturday.
