The Tale Of My Comic Book Artist Alter Ego Back Issue

Due to a few problems I took today off from drawing or doing much other than the previously posted item about bagging or not bagging my zines.  But I did take the opportunity to catalogue my comic magazines like Alter Ego.

I had Alter Ego volume 2 on Standing Order (SO) at Forbidden Planet but after one excuse after another it was not until I told the then manager that I'd contact the guy who owned FP (I'd only met him twice but it was a good bluff -hey, I worked in the comics industry) my SO started with No.9. I'm not kidding.

Thereafter it was an on-off fight to get the damn magazine.  All the usual "distributors fault" and other excuses.  "I have it on order so we need to wait for it to arrive".  Next week I asked and the man checked but no issue was on order. 

The same happened with Back Issue, Comic Book Artist.  Now, remember these were ALL on SO and I was literally pestering every week to make sure I got a copy though I did get really **** off when I was told my copies were sold to someone who walked in and asked about the titles.  Not even a regular customer.

The list tells the story so:

Comicology
#3   #4
Comic Book Artist
9    12   13   14  15  16  17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24  25 (last issue and the fight to get #23-25 was near titanic!)

Back Issue
2   3   4   5  6  8   9   12   13  14  17   18   19   21   23   25   26   27   29   32   34  38   40   41    42   43   44   45   46   48   49    50   51   52    53   54   55   57   58   59   60   62   64

Alter Ego
9  10  11  12  14  15  17  18 19  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  40  41  42  43  44  45  46  47  48  49  50  51  52  53  54  55  56  57  58  59  60  62  63  64  65  66  67  68  69  70  71  72  73  74  75  76  77  78  80  81  82  83  84  85  86  89  90  91  92   95  96  97 98  99  100  101  102  103  104  105  106   107  108  109  110  111 113  114  115  116  117

Now those are some weird gaps and I only found out later that friends of people working in the stores (yes, we are talking three different stores each promising that they "will guarantee" that I never miss an issue again!) got my copies because something in it interested them.  Now that really does make a mockery of the prominent sign:

      "Standing Order -NEVER miss an issue again!"

Horse shit with flies to that.

So why did I stop at Alter Ego 117?  Well, I could no longer stomach what Marvel and DC were churning out so stopped buying.  But at least I'd get my mags.  No.  What?  Well, it was made very clear to me that if I was no longer going to have a comics SO then they could not guarantee my magazine SO.  WHY? All I got was a shrug.

Seriously, comic shops want to survive then they need to treat their customers with respect. 

These are a lot of issues and I doubt I'll ever get the ones missing which is a pity as I loved Alter Ego in particular.

But one thing I did think while going through these: if anything the UK needs a Platinum and Golden Ages publication.  Never know, it might happen!