THE ROAD TO WHO KNOWS...

I'm back with an update to my previous blog. Saturday Sam and Von dropped in for a visit and brought his graphic novel "The Road to Who Knows..." and just thrilled the heck out of me!

We actually started selling them very well from the first hour they were put out on the counter - no special display - just this really neat looking book with a catchy cover that made you want to pick it up and scan it. If you did that you were hooked! And if you did NOT do that but I was up front and started to tell you a bit about the book then you were absolutely hooked!!

Before Von left the store several hours later he had been interviewed by the Mirror and had to replenish my stock!! (no pun intended)

As stated in my previous blog, I am no good at reviews so here is a link to a great review of the book. I don't know if the link will be clickable so you might have to paste it to your browser but that will work fine too.

http://www.mentalhealthportland.org/?p=3731

Remember though that this is not your run-of -the-mill type comic. It deals with a difficult topic (schizophrenia) in a very sensitive way. Please do read the review as it will give you a very good idea of what the graphic novel is about.

-Betty

Something GREAT to read...coming soon to our store!!

Hi again everyone

A while time ago I met a lovely couple from Ottawa. His name is Eric Von Allan and hers is Sam. (He gets his full name printed because of the following) Eric had just finished working on an absolutely wonderful Graphic Novel "The Road To God Knows…" that I have been longing to see in print. Well it is finally happening due to their hard work and never quitting! The book is coming to Astro shortly and if you want to pre-order it just speak to us and we will be glad to reserve a copy for you.

Let me just say that the book is well written, sympathetic without being maudlin and the artwork absolutely fits. Now I don't do reviews well and usually end up rambling on so I took the liberty of copying the review below so you can get some idea of what the book is about. Please read on:


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The Road To God Knows…

There are times when I have to get briefly self-absorbed and marvel at the fact that I get so many free comics in the mail, and the fact that so many of them are so incredible. Hell, Von is from Canada, it’s entirely possible that if I was just living my life without this website I would have never even heard of this comic, or so, so many others that are listed on this site. Hey, it’s Thanksgiving, please forgive my brief sentimentality. This is the story of a young girl in junior high school and her life with her schizophrenic mother. She (Marie) is thrust into the role of an adult far too early, having to essentially take care of her mother when she’s not hospitalized with her illness. Marie is also missing a few days of school in trying to cope with this life, and is confronted with teachers who seem determined to make an example out of her without any interest in what she’s actually going through. She does have a few bright spots in her life, as her best friend lives right across the street, her dad is at least occasionally around to help out (it’s never explained, but her parents are at least separated), and a wrestling show is finally coming to her hometown. Much of the book is spent with Marie trying desperately to have a normal life with her mother unwilling to tell what past trauma has put her into this state, while being unable to get past it and move on with her life. Von has an explanation of sorts on his website about why he wrote this book, and it turns out that he has personal experience in the matter. It shows with the conversations, which are about as real as you can get about schizophrenia, and with Marie clinging to the few things she can count on, like new Star Trek episodes and wrestling on TV. This is set around 1991, and I’m able to narrow that down so closely because Marie mentioned that the wrestling champ at the time was Savage. Yes, I am enough of a dork to remember when Macho Man was the champ. All told, this is a remarkably insightful and honest book. The helplessness of Marie’s friend to do her any real good, her dad being unable with work to be any kind of full-time father to Marie, her alienation from kids at school (and even the teachers), all of these things would be bad enough. Throw in a mother who may or may not harm herself or Marie at any moment and who is incapable of being any kind of authority figure in Marie’s life and well, I’m impressed. There are all kinds of ways that this comic could have gone wrong, and Von managed to cut through it all and make an outstanding graphic novel. It looks like he has at least another project in the works, and judging from the quality of this book I’d say he’s someone to keep an eye on in the future.



And Von was on the radio again today: http://trtgk.vonallan.com/2009/11/ckcu-sound-mind-interview.html in Ottawa... with more notice of this new book coming soon...

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There's a dedicated website for the road to god knows... with quite a bit of support material. http://trtgk.vonallan.com/ (I tried to make this link clickable but it did not carry. Just cut and paste to a browser). This site is actually meant for retailers but if you click on the interview you will see a lot more information about the book - done by Eric himself, as well as being able to see pages of artwork from the book.

Do remember that Christmas is coming and this would be a lovely gift item. It is sometimes a sad read but NOT a depressing one.

Happy reading everyone!

Bits 'n Pieces

Hi Everybody and welcome back!

Just a quick note to update you a tiny bit.

Paul is coming in to the store pretty often these days. He stays for a couple of hours to advise me on how to do certain operations and to help us out with the computer stuff. As a result of this, as you may already know, we now have back in operation:

1. ASTRONOTES (done by Ray) which is back up on line

2. QUESTION SHEETS done by Paul and I which you may already have gotten!

3. OUR 25th ANNIVERSARY SALE which was thought up by Paul and is being implemented as we speak.

So things are coming together. Some things are changing and some things are coming back but we just keep on going and going and going....

Also - because of a relief of the strain on me I am able to do more on the site and we have a few changes that will be taking place there too....actually, Dan has helped me put up a new "splash" page that details the sale that will be taking place shortly so click over to the home page and take a gander!

See you all soon

Betty

Thank you to all of you

Hi Everyone

I just want to thank each and every one of you loyal customers who have stayed with us through a very very trying time. All of us (including me) relied heavily on Paul being at the helm and when he suddenly took sick it threw all of us for a loop. Both he and Mary were taken almost completely out of the picture and it fell to those of us who were left to "pick up the pieces".

Ray pulled many nights where we worked right through until morning to get you your comics and Martin delayed moving on to a much better job so as to help us through this rough patch. We now have Paul's two sons helping out, a 'newbie', Mitch, and a fill in on Wed. -Greg.

Paul and Mary are back part time so that is helping tremendously.

But it all hinged on your understanding - which was tremendous. I screwed up often and you people hung in there while Ray fixed it up front with you. I think that if any store has a great bunch of people that come in it is ASTRO. And that goes for ALL our customers - comic people, book people, and card people. I find it unbelievable that in spite of the rough patches we only lost ONE customer because of my goofs! Absolutely amazing!

A great big THANK YOU

I have one more big thanks and that is for my computer Guru. We call him Computer Dan. We all have friends and relatives who try to help us out. Well my computer Dan DOES help out. Even to the extent of going to the hospital to see Paul but also, and importantly, to try to "pick his brain" because I did not always understand what Paul was telling me to do. He was there at all hours of the day when I needed to understand how to get something working (we work in DOS - not always easy). Last Sunday he gave up his Sunday for me because my Hard drive on the main machine was dying - not many people who would do that for you!. My Computer Dan does support professionally and, as you can see, comes highly recommended. Call him if you need help at 514-522-9131 or call the store and we will be glad to give you the information. By the way - he is COMPLETELY bilingual.

May I say again - one more time THANK YOU ALL for hanging in there.

See you at the store

Betty

Paul is Gone to Texas

Hi again everyone!

No one can accuse me of blathering on or never being quiet now can they?

Paul and one of his sons were off to Texas for the DC Comics RRP meeting. They decided to do it as a car trip instead of flying. Yesterday it was 80 degrees. Lucky bums!

I know that they have seen the Alamo and Graceland and that they picked up a lot of new information on up and coming projects. If Paul shares his information with me, and I am sure he will, I will try to include some of it on the site.

A few hours ago they called from the Cleveland, Ohio region on their way back so I gather they will hit Montreal late tomorrow or early on Wed. depending on the weather.

Drive safely guys!

More later folks

Great Job!

It is always great to hear about people helping people! Our customer who was doing the fund raiser blogathon for the Children's Hospital raised over $1400 by himself in one day! Next year he will do even better (he already said he will be doing it again)and, if he sends me the info a bit earlier, I can help him get more sponsors too!

Great job sir - do it again! I just love our customers...

GOOD JOB!!

It is always great to hear about people helping people! Our customer who was doing the fund raiser blogathon for the Children's Hospital raised over $1400 by himself in one day! Next year he will do even better (he already said he will be doing it again)and, if he sends me the info a bit earlier, I can help him get more sponsors too!

Great job sir - do it again! I just love our customers...