When I was 12 years old, so over so 20 years ago, I discovered that I was a nerd.
This was not a shock to me, it was just nice to have figured it out.
I figured this out by walking in to Mayhem Comics and Games for the first time. I bought silver surfer comics drawn by Rob Lem, and then any comic with Silver Surfer in them and any comic that looked drawn by Rob Lem. I then discovered RPGs, and purchased my first RPG book there: it was the Vampire: the Masquerade guide to the Sabbat.
Over the 20 years that followed, I have spent tens of thousands of dollars at that store, on everything from comics to games to magic cards to backpacks and statues and everything else they sold. Hell, I even bought that hideous japanese bubbly soda that was imposible to pronounce or open.
I have worked for them thrice. Once to help them out when they were in a bind for someone to do back issues and trades (I was called and begged to come in the next day to start). Once they helped me out when I was out of work, and once because my job allowed it and I could do the job they needed done (RPGs, which, by the way, still haven't been dusted since last I did it).
I have donated literally thousands of manhours to Mayhem. I have marched in parades in costume and not in costume. I've worked sidewalk sales (and sold out of them). I've done emergency moving when flooding was eminent and cleaned up after the flooding. I've run demo games, I've promoted the store to friends and acquaintances. I've grilled for movie tailgates. I've given them DVDs to play in their store. I've fed the pig hundreds of dollars just because. I've cleaned the floors because the guy they paid didn't show. I've taken out trash because I had a spare ten minutes. I've worked loss prevention. And none of this have I ever been compensated for. I was given an employee discount whenever I was an employee, and I was given store credit for a lot of what I did, but I've never used it. I have, at last count, 11 mayhem gift cards with god-knows-how-much-credit on it. I didn't spend it, and I donated the time, because I believed in Mayhem. I liked the guys there, and thought that I owed it to Mayhem and the city of Ames to do my part to keep the store great.
This is to say, Mayhem has been good to me, and I've done everything I can to be good to Mayhem.
I loved Mayhem more than anyone should love a store. I loved the people in charge as well. Rob and Dave the owners, they were friends and I would have thrown myself under a bus for them. In fact, I literally threw myself under a van with comics in the windows for them once.
But a few months ago, the owners of mayhem made some pretty questionable calls, ethics-wise. I'm not going to go into them, they feel they were justified and in the right, I do not. That's a difference of opinion, and neither of us will ever convince the other we're wrong.
But these calls left me pretty disenfranchised. The politics of being a nerd had just gotten to be more than I wanted to deal with.
This moment also co-incided with my magically becoming involved with a wonderful woman who, at the time, lived 5 states away. My money got really really tight.
Also, I'd become disinterested in the dirrection that Dungeons and Dragons had gone, had once again fallen off of the comic bandwagon, and White Wolf stopped publishing books I wanted to buy.
This is all to say that my buying habbits in my nerd-hobies took a drastic downturn, which was ok with me, because I was having a hard time reconciling the professional actions of the men who owned Mayhem with the personal experiences
I had with wonderful men I called friends. I took the chance to take some time off.
Let me be clear: I took time off from Mayhem because of Mayhem and the owners. I am not downplaying that at all. It just was made easier to do because of my financial situation and my declining interest in my usual hobbies.
Since January of this year, I have bought a grand total of 10 comics, two of which were from Mayhem. I have also purchased 3 gaming books, all three of which were from Mayhem.
So, a week ago (maybe 2), I went into another comic shop and picked up a couple of the new DC #1 titles. I picked up Batwoman, Demon Knights, Green Lantern, and Red Lanter Corps. I liked 2 of the 4 (GL was not a starting off point, and RLC should have been a 0 issue, not a 1), which were good odds. So yesterday I contact that same comic shop and ask if he'd hold back a couple more of the new #1's. They told me that they were out of Batgirl and Batman.
Well, I wanted to read those books, and I figured I was ready to go back to Mayhem, so I took my lunch break today to run to my old other-home and pick up the books. I was going to pick up a bunch more of the #1's while I was there.
I found Batgirl and Batman no problem, but couldn't find the other three books I wanted, so I went to check out. I asked Rob if he had any copies of them, and then something astounding happened.
Rob started to yell at me, right there in his store. Apparently the proprieter of the other comic shop had been in trying to flesh out his shelves with some of their excess copies, and Rob thought I was in cahoots with this guy.
Without even asking me a question, Rob accused me of trying to steal from his business, and then threatened to ban me from a store that I've... well, read the above.
Then the unthinkable happened.
He took my money (although he threw my change at me after slamming the drawer closed so hard it rocked the monitor on the register), and then told me, and I quote here:
"If I find out you're doing this for ______, your *** is grass. I will kick it so hard.... " and then informed me that I could get out of the store, asked me (well, told me) not to come back, and told me that my buying comics from him was "********".
I write this note because, it is absolutely salient that the day I decided to go back to a place I loved, the owner does this to me.
As of 1:00 PM, I am no longer a customer of potential customer of Mayhem Comics and Games. I am no longer a friend, either. I have cut up those unused gift cards (so, no need to worry about that credit being used, guys). I will no longer send friends to that store, and I will be actively attempting to steer friends away from that store.
This is not a threat, I know you don't really care. I'm just a little heartbroken that it came to this.
As an aside, I read those two comics you sold me. They were ok, not wonderful, but not nearly as bad as GL and RLC. I then subsequently gave them to a friend. I was not compensated in any way. They were simply given to a friend who likes comics and dislikes going into Mayhem as much as I now do.
This was not a shock to me, it was just nice to have figured it out.
I figured this out by walking in to Mayhem Comics and Games for the first time. I bought silver surfer comics drawn by Rob Lem, and then any comic with Silver Surfer in them and any comic that looked drawn by Rob Lem. I then discovered RPGs, and purchased my first RPG book there: it was the Vampire: the Masquerade guide to the Sabbat.
Over the 20 years that followed, I have spent tens of thousands of dollars at that store, on everything from comics to games to magic cards to backpacks and statues and everything else they sold. Hell, I even bought that hideous japanese bubbly soda that was imposible to pronounce or open.
I have worked for them thrice. Once to help them out when they were in a bind for someone to do back issues and trades (I was called and begged to come in the next day to start). Once they helped me out when I was out of work, and once because my job allowed it and I could do the job they needed done (RPGs, which, by the way, still haven't been dusted since last I did it).
I have donated literally thousands of manhours to Mayhem. I have marched in parades in costume and not in costume. I've worked sidewalk sales (and sold out of them). I've done emergency moving when flooding was eminent and cleaned up after the flooding. I've run demo games, I've promoted the store to friends and acquaintances. I've grilled for movie tailgates. I've given them DVDs to play in their store. I've fed the pig hundreds of dollars just because. I've cleaned the floors because the guy they paid didn't show. I've taken out trash because I had a spare ten minutes. I've worked loss prevention. And none of this have I ever been compensated for. I was given an employee discount whenever I was an employee, and I was given store credit for a lot of what I did, but I've never used it. I have, at last count, 11 mayhem gift cards with god-knows-how-much-credit on it. I didn't spend it, and I donated the time, because I believed in Mayhem. I liked the guys there, and thought that I owed it to Mayhem and the city of Ames to do my part to keep the store great.
This is to say, Mayhem has been good to me, and I've done everything I can to be good to Mayhem.
I loved Mayhem more than anyone should love a store. I loved the people in charge as well. Rob and Dave the owners, they were friends and I would have thrown myself under a bus for them. In fact, I literally threw myself under a van with comics in the windows for them once.
But a few months ago, the owners of mayhem made some pretty questionable calls, ethics-wise. I'm not going to go into them, they feel they were justified and in the right, I do not. That's a difference of opinion, and neither of us will ever convince the other we're wrong.
But these calls left me pretty disenfranchised. The politics of being a nerd had just gotten to be more than I wanted to deal with.
This moment also co-incided with my magically becoming involved with a wonderful woman who, at the time, lived 5 states away. My money got really really tight.
Also, I'd become disinterested in the dirrection that Dungeons and Dragons had gone, had once again fallen off of the comic bandwagon, and White Wolf stopped publishing books I wanted to buy.
This is all to say that my buying habbits in my nerd-hobies took a drastic downturn, which was ok with me, because I was having a hard time reconciling the professional actions of the men who owned Mayhem with the personal experiences
I had with wonderful men I called friends. I took the chance to take some time off.
Let me be clear: I took time off from Mayhem because of Mayhem and the owners. I am not downplaying that at all. It just was made easier to do because of my financial situation and my declining interest in my usual hobbies.
Since January of this year, I have bought a grand total of 10 comics, two of which were from Mayhem. I have also purchased 3 gaming books, all three of which were from Mayhem.
So, a week ago (maybe 2), I went into another comic shop and picked up a couple of the new DC #1 titles. I picked up Batwoman, Demon Knights, Green Lantern, and Red Lanter Corps. I liked 2 of the 4 (GL was not a starting off point, and RLC should have been a 0 issue, not a 1), which were good odds. So yesterday I contact that same comic shop and ask if he'd hold back a couple more of the new #1's. They told me that they were out of Batgirl and Batman.
Well, I wanted to read those books, and I figured I was ready to go back to Mayhem, so I took my lunch break today to run to my old other-home and pick up the books. I was going to pick up a bunch more of the #1's while I was there.
I found Batgirl and Batman no problem, but couldn't find the other three books I wanted, so I went to check out. I asked Rob if he had any copies of them, and then something astounding happened.
Rob started to yell at me, right there in his store. Apparently the proprieter of the other comic shop had been in trying to flesh out his shelves with some of their excess copies, and Rob thought I was in cahoots with this guy.
Without even asking me a question, Rob accused me of trying to steal from his business, and then threatened to ban me from a store that I've... well, read the above.
Then the unthinkable happened.
He took my money (although he threw my change at me after slamming the drawer closed so hard it rocked the monitor on the register), and then told me, and I quote here:
"If I find out you're doing this for ______, your *** is grass. I will kick it so hard.... " and then informed me that I could get out of the store, asked me (well, told me) not to come back, and told me that my buying comics from him was "********".
I write this note because, it is absolutely salient that the day I decided to go back to a place I loved, the owner does this to me.
As of 1:00 PM, I am no longer a customer of potential customer of Mayhem Comics and Games. I am no longer a friend, either. I have cut up those unused gift cards (so, no need to worry about that credit being used, guys). I will no longer send friends to that store, and I will be actively attempting to steer friends away from that store.
This is not a threat, I know you don't really care. I'm just a little heartbroken that it came to this.
As an aside, I read those two comics you sold me. They were ok, not wonderful, but not nearly as bad as GL and RLC. I then subsequently gave them to a friend. I was not compensated in any way. They were simply given to a friend who likes comics and dislikes going into Mayhem as much as I now do.
