I feel the same about books, My friend runs a tiny bookshop on a cobbledy street in the oldest part of the town where i live, medieval, going in there is like entering alladins cave, bookshops sit there quietly being a mecca like gift for us all, shelves of journeys to other lands and realities, opening a book is like opening a door into another dimension... but most people in his business is really suffering. although I link to books online sometimes, it is not as substitute, there is nothing like the feel and smell and experience of the thing in your hands. I should imagine all i just said applies to comic books and comic book shops also. I feel the same about vinyl too..i also have a friend who owns a record store, lol, no comicbook store friend though... guess the diehard record fans who know what they want will always know where to go so his business is still doing well. Anyway I am digressing ans it is just a short snippet so here it is!
Stars come to Comic-Con to sell their movies. And certainly Oscar winner Nicolas Cage is no exception, as he arrived primarily to stump for the un-sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, which opens next February.
But at the same time, the well-known comics aficionado also plugged the industry – and particularly the printed page.
“Do go to the local boutique comic book shop,” he told journalists assembled at the Bayfront Hilton near the San Diego Convention Center, “and don’t buy your comics online because those guys are going to go extinct and we want to have those experiences with our kids.”
I love bookstores, your friends' store sounds like my cup of tea, Lula! I think some of the specialty book stores do okay because they also offer online services in their business, but a regular little book store really has a lot to contend with, the big box stores ( like in Who's Got Mail ) and online shopping, it really makes it hard for them. And, I agree, there is nothing like holding the book in your hand, makes all the difference to me. I especially love second-hand book stores, you just never know what treasures you may find there, older books have so much character anyway. I have been known to buy books just becasue I like the look of it.
I am not into comic books now, used to buy them when I was a kid and loved Superman, but also the Archie ones! Now, too confusing, I wouldn't know where to start even if I was interested now.
Glad Nic put in a plug for the comic book store owners, that's cool of him.
I too love book stores and the old ones is great to get bargains. I used to collect comic books as a kid too and my sister. We were about 5 years apart so she collected ones she was into and I was into Richie Rich, Little Lu Lu, Casper, Windy, The Archies, Spider Man, and The Fantastic 4. Just to name a few classic comics. I now collect more paperbacks and into Romantics, Biography of artists (stars), into The Harry Potter series and have all the books and movies on both Video and DVD.
Ooooh! Would LOVE to visit your friend's bookshop. Thank you for the visit I had in my imagination. Your description transported me, as always - such a good writer!!
Does your friend's bookstore include a cat? Any really good old musty bookstore must have a cat to guard the books and greet visitors!
Alas, no cat Lady Grace! a great image! but there are some very old and very dusty books..... Have you seen The Sorcerer's Apprentice? It is a bit like the Arcana Cabana ...except..smaller...and less...magcal artifacty...and no Balthazar..though my friend does have a goatee and accasionally wears fingerless gloves....and i was for a brief time his apprentice...a job as a student but more of a chance to just be in this very cool atmosphere in an ancient part of town!
Lady Trueheart, Nancy and Lady G, if ever we were to all meet up from our varous parts of the world, a visit to a comic book store and a second hand bookshop has to be on our itinery!!! :hghfive:
Indeed, we must, Lula! Have you ever heard of a town in Wales where the shops are all bookstores, can't recall the name of it now, but appaerentlky it is famous. Probably wouldn't be able to pronounce it anyway if I did recall the name. I have always thought I would like to go there someday.
And another great thing about Google, just from this search I found two book blogs that look really interesting, and found out that there is a town right here in Canada, albeit across the country from me, that models itself on the Hay on Wye. Hope we can all meet there someday too!
What an amazing place, I could spend hours there! Wales is beautiful...it is there that i began writing. there is an energy special to Wales that makes you think in glorious prose and poetry, perhaps not so magnificantly as Dylan Thomas ! lol! Notting Hill is in London Lady Grace, great film. I know the assistant editor so i am biased of course.
I would love to visit this Comic book Store 'Secret Headquarters' in LA
and here is an interssting wiki entry on the rose and fall of the comic book industry, and comic book collecting..and just to bring it back to Nic, he is listed as a famous collector:
Actor Nicolas Cage, who changed his original last name of Coppola (part of an extended family working in film, including his uncle Francis Ford Coppola) to the stage name "Cage", based on the Marvel Comics character Luke Cage, to avoid the appearance of nepotism[14] when he entered the film industry. A longtime comics fan, Cage amassed an impressive collection over the years, but in October 2002, he auctioned off most of his collection for combined proceeds of over $1.68 million[15] through Heritage Auctions. Heritage sold Nicolas Cage's remaining comics privately over the next year for approximately another $325,000, and in 2009 they also auctioned part of Cage's Movie Poster collection.
I bet he had some awesome movie posters, too! I feel my fingers tingling, movie poster collecting would be right up my alley, I love the art work of some of them!
Me too Lady Trueheart, but most especially vintage movie posters! I do not know much about them though, Nic is obviously a connoiseur and collects/ collected what he knows about with his comic and movie poster collection, now mostly sold I believe.
Nic has some awesome movie posters in his collection, including a 1925 one-sheet poster of The Phantom of the Opera, a 1938 reissue one-sheet of Dracula, and a 1938 reissue three-sheet of Frankenstein.
I would have loved his Dracula one..it would only set you back a cool £300,000 or so...
and also i would really love ( possibly moreso actually ) an original vintage 1920 Jekyll and Hyde movie poster, if such a thing exists! The film, well John Barrymore's performance, always reminds me of Nic as Peter Loew in Vampire's Kiss, which is a fave Nic movie of mine, and it was a thrill when I finally got to hear the Vampire's Kiss Audio commentary to hear nic say that he had used some of mannerisms and movements...it's the hunch shoulders the wild eyes, the fingers...i think i posted that elsewhere so i won't bore everyone to tears!
-- Edited by Lula Argante on Wednesday 3rd of August 2011 12:47:52 PM
I love the vintage posters too! I like film noir movie posters. It appears that collecting would be beyond my means, even if I wanted to get into that, but I like that you can collect the images and save them in your computer! Lots easier to store and cheap too, lol!
Just had a look on google and there sure have been a lot of versions of Dr. Jekyll made, wow!!!
I saw these two versions of Barrymore's movie, don't know if either is original though. Very cool.
Even though I do have a Kindle, and love it just as much as everybody else, I still like to go to Books-A-Million and my local comic book store, because I think it's more of an exciting experience to go into them and be able to touch and hold an actual book, which is something that I think a Kindle could never replace, so it's great to hear Nic supporting the book stores.
-- Edited by Quazie89 on Saturday 3rd of September 2011 01:56:46 PM