Bloody Re-Tale, The eXpertComics Year in Review | FPB Episode 33

The Start of Something Good

The original store wasn’t very large, but there was indeed something special about it. Besides, finally having a comic book store walking (wheeling, in my case), from my house...I also was delighted to see that the employees were quite courteous to me and did their best to find all the comics to satiate all my geeky needs.

I even found myself coming back a few times a day if I was out and about with friends. It was finally a local comic book shop in my neighborhood that I loved being in.

And soon enough, I had become a part of the store’s growing Facebook community and my odd and zany sense of humour was noticed by the eXpertComics management, they gave me the classic “offer I couldn’t refuse”...that’s when things got bloody.

I was asked to become a columnist on the eXpertComics website. While I had attempted “web-blogs” in the past and found myself to be a pretty funny writer, I never stuck to it, for some reason. Turns out I discovered what that reason was: I was never offered a discount on comics for writing before! Yeah, if you offer me comics, I would pretty much do anything.

So, I along with the enigmatic Steve Damm, began the early brewing of what has evolved now into what has become the eXpress News page on the eXpertComics website.

What really gave us our first eXposure more than anything was our stand out well displayed booth at the biggest comic book convention Montreal has ever seen...

Con-Sploitation

I had the chance to visit some of the Wizard World cons in Chicago in the early 2000’s, so I totally knew what a big American comic book convention was like. Montreal had never really had a convention that size, EVER.

Until 2011, that is.

MCC 2011 had arrived. And with guests like Stan “The Man” Lee, Neal Adams, Gail Simone and the dynamic duo themselves, Adam West & Burt Ward, there was no question that this was our opportunity to have something of an “unveiling” of eXpertComics store to the masses.

Steve Damm came into town all the way from Colorado to take part and boy, am I happy he did.

He showed me the ropes of how to work a big convention as a journalist like nobody else could and got me some great interviews with Dale Eaglesham, Joe Benitez and Heroes of the North (if you missed those, look into my dazzling archives to find them!), and I found myself taking non-stop pics of Montreal’s enthusiastic and creative cosplay community which developed into a column dedicated to the phenomenon that was still one of my favorites to this day. (the picture provided gives ya a couple of great reasons why!)

Damm himself interviewed Batgirl and Firestorm scribe, the lovely Gail Simone who was nice enough to actually do the interview directly at our booth, which she and her husband admitted a few times during the course of the weekend was the booth they found the most impressive.

They have eXceptional taste.

Montrealers came out in droves to celebrate comicdom, and I couldn’t have been prouder of the turnout, the enthusiasm, and most importantly their interest in eXpertComics.

Even R2-D2 was cool enough to stop by our booth to pose for some pics!

Can’t beat that.

Revolution eX

In November 2011, the Big Cheeses at eXpert decided it was time that the eXpertComics store deserved a facelift.

We moved our location to just a few blocks from where the store was, to a busier street with a much larger store that would allow us to display four times as much geek-centric merchandise including comics, more graphic novels and TPs, apparel, toys, statues, damn, we even got stuff like bottle openers and ladies’ handbags...you can’t enter this store and not find anything you like! I guarantee it.

When you add to all a lounge area featuring awesome some flat screens that are constantly playing the best (and not-so best but still fun to watch) in comic book themed movies and TV shows in history and the comfiest leather sofas ever and there you have it, we instantly became every fanboy and geekgirl’s dream store!

As our retail location grows to monstrous dimensions, our site has evolved in ways that we never dreamed as well.

What began as a simple blog page soon evolved into eXpress News and Reviews! We soon took on such talents as Brandon Rucker (Professor Brand X), Robb Richardson (RobotiX), Lisa McCarty (ComiXbookGurl) and later expanded even more with the additions of Dan Robertson (DXXL) and Mike Ramirez (MJtheMixx) and most recently we have added Brett DaSilva (SanXuary), Ariel Esteban Cayer (FLIX) and the dark and mysterious DarXide (who is she, anyway!?).

These awesome and insightful writers have created a great community in the social network world that I am happy to be a part of (our daily Twitter conversations can get pretty intense...we pretty much talk in our own geeky dialect at this point)!

But 2012 is proving to be an even better year us as we organize in-store events and activities for our loyal customers to enjoy!

Heroes Invade!

When the web-series, Heroes of the North were about to release their first collection of comic stories, we jumped at the chance to invite them to the store for the Montreal leg of their cross-Canada tour.

I mean, the chance to have fully costumed Canadian superheroes live in our store was something of a dream come true for us!

Okay, well for me it was a dream come true.

So, we had some of the great actors from the web-series and the artists and creators of the comic right there in the store posing for tons of pics with fans, signing copies and just making one phenomenal day for everyone!

On hand was the urban-vigilante, 8-Ball (who happens to have one dead-on Christopher Walken impression...something I’m sure The Punisher cannot do!), the deadly anti-hero, Black Terror (who was nice enough to pose with one of our eXpertcomics baseball caps!), the always funny tech-eXpert, Alpha Q, and last but definitely not least, the beautiful The Hornet, who is played by the world-famous cosplayer and glamour model, Marie-Claude Bourbonnais (who was asked to pose for more pics than anyone...I wonder why)!

Even one of the pin-up artists, Geof Isherwood popped in to sign some copies of the comic and enjoy the festivities.

A few weeks earlier than this event, I got the chance to spend a weekend on set with this awesome crew, I will soon have a big column coming spotlighting that weekend filled with interviews, pics, video and a few more suprises!

I had such a blast! Look for that soon!!

Free Comics For Everyone!

Free Comic Book Day finally came along for 2012 and eXpertComics was fully prepared for the onslaught of fans to show up for their free swag! And boy, did they show up!

From 5 year old kids coming for their first comic ever, to longtime fans of the genre, the store was filled to the brim with wide-eyed comic book enthusiasts. We had pizza and soft drinks on hand, I was doing a live web stream where I interviewed fans, and not to mention the free comics! The free comics are the best part! With Free Comic Book Day combined with the opening of the Avengers film last weekend proved that comics have gone nowhere, and are set to rule all forms of entertainment with not just an iron fist but an Infinity Gauntlet!

So, I suppose the next question is with all of the store’s success, where does eXpertComics go next?!

The only way to go is STREAMING up into orbit like a certain red-caped Kryptonian.

We’ve only just begun, Bleederz. With MCC 2012 steadily approaching (Damm will be in attendance yet again!), we are also thinking up tons of more contests with ridiculously awesome prizes and events for our dedicated customers to take part in, just because we appreciate you and....well, you’re our best friends in the world. And we really do love you. We really do. *sniff*

So stay tuned to our Montreal Stores page on the Facebooks! We post all of our fantastical store news and contests and whatever zany things our staff dream up. Every day is an intergalactic space adventure on that page!

So that was my year at eXpertComics! I must honestly say it was one of the most phenomenal years of my eXistance (I got to interact with Stan Lee, ‘nuff said!), and I personally thank the awesome staff at the store for this year and inviting me into their family!

And there’s so many more years to come! Are you as eXcited as us?