SR 1 PAGE NINETEEN

Hey, this page looks kinda cruddy, huh? 

I don’t mean the drawing is bad (MUST RESIST URGE), I mean it’s kind of low-res and blurry, just generally unsuitable for human eyes. That’s because the proper eye-appropriate version was lost.

I have like a dozen copies of this page on various CD’s (Compact Discs, a file storage format briefly considered impressive), but every one of them is 72dpi. Which is gross. I’m sure I just had some output setting wrong at some key point 20+ years ago. Which normally wouldn’t be a big deal. Just re-scan the page, redo the lettering, bingo bongo.

But I sold this page over a decade ago. GYYYRFFGHHHGH

Anyway, I still like the “Hypocrisy does not invalidate a point” line. Always save versions of your files, everybody.

SR 1 PAGE TWENTY

Right, these are those CD’s I was talking about. Real big deal in the music world for a while!

Cruel World is basically my idea of the coolest store imaginable ca. 2001. Not sure why there weren’t more combination comic/music stores back in those days. Seems like a pretty natural fit? I remember you could buy comics at Virgin Megastore for a while, but that’s about–

WAIT, NO! HOT TOPIC! You could buy comics and music at HOT TOPIC!

This is as good a place as any for the Hot Topic story. Did you know you could buy Serenity Rose #1 at Hot Topic back in, like, 2004? I thought that was pretty cool! It was a slightly different version of SR #1 than you’d get at comic shops, though. No, it didn’t have a variant cover or the store logo on it. It’s what it didn’t have that was interesting: the word “WITCH,” anywhere in the issue.

Now obviously the store selling “Juggalo For Life” t-shirts and nipple barbells isn’t freaked out about witchcraft. But apparently the people who own malls often are. Which tracks. I can’t imagine the mall-ownership demographic is one I’d want to hang out with. (Probably have to be way more into golf and fascism.) Basically, whoever was buying comics for Hot Topic back then was afraid of incurring the wrath of their landlords.

So that’s how SLG put out a special witch-less edition of Serenity Rose for Hot Topic. Hey, if you’ve got a musty old copy of SR #1 in a box somewhere, go dig it out! Maybe you’ve got a “witch”-less version yourself (value: PRICELESS). Not sure when Hot Topic started carrying Harry Potter merchandise, but clearly it wasn’t 2004.

Sera is insanely short in that middle row of panels. Maybe she’s hunched over?

NOTE: A “sylph” is a male nymph. I know this because an employee of my father’s introduced himself as one. No further questions at this time.

BACK TO THE PRESENT!

Let’s see, what’s been going on this week… Not much! Bunch of Christmas shopping, saw an adults-only puppet show at the Jim Henson studio… Oh! And I almost forgot to post this newsletter! So that’s where my brain is right now.

NEXT WEEK: “GIRLIE MAGAZINES.“