Waiting for Christmas, Thirteen Times a Year

Since at least eighth grade, I went to my comic shop once a week. In the early years, during the mid-seventies, there was rarely a chance that a comic would sell out, so I could wait until Saturday morning and take the hour or so bus ride to my shop. As I got older, the number of comics being solicited by the Big 2 and innumerable independent companies increased dramatically. Of the latter, my shop ordered one or two, at best, so if I wanted something like Justice Machine, I had to be there on delivery day, starting a decades-long routine. That routine only came to an end about 18 months ago when I found myself unemployed and short of cash. My shop didn't take credit cards--if it had, I would have stayed with it--so, I had to find a new source.

That source was Discount Comic Book Service. I been buying action figures from them at a discount price since 2002, but my comic-shop loyalty kept me from doing more than looking at the discounts DCBS offered. Anyway, come 2005, I submitted my first DCBS order, thus beginning my monthly comic delivery, or as I call it, "end of the month Christmas."

The only problem is is that DCBS can tease me. Usually, the last Wednesday of the month DCBS sends me an auto-generated message informing me that a DHL shipping label has been created, which means my order will be shipping. However, when it will ship, I can never know. With real Christmas, there is never a doubt that come December 25 so will Christmas, but come the DHL shipping label, you can't make as firm a declaration. Sometimes the box shows up on Friday, sometimes the next Monday or even Tuesday. On rare occasions it is the Thursday after the e-mail. So, here I sit, wondering when August Christmas will happen. I'll let you know.

To pass the time, here is a list of what comics I expect to be in the box:

Action Comics ##853-855
All New Atom #14
All New Booster Gold #1
Alter Ego (Aug.)
Amazing Fantasy Omnibus, vol. 1
Amazons Attack ##3, 5-6
Amelia Rules #18
Annihilation Conquest Star Lord #2
Archie & Friends #112
Astonishing X-Men #22
Avengers Initiative #5
B.P.R.D. Killing Ground #1
Bart Simpson Comics #37
Batman ##667-668
Batman Strikes #36
Big Bang Comics Presents Agents of Badge #6
Birds of Prey #109
Brave and the Bold #6
Captain America #29
Clockwork Girl #0
Countdown ##39-35
Countdown to Adventure #1
Daredevil #99
Dynamo 5 #6
Elephantmen, vol. 1 Wounded Animals
Essential Daredevil, vol. 4
Ex Machina Special: Masquerade
Fables #64
Fantastic Five ##3-4
Fantastic Four ##548-549
Fantastic Four and Power Pack #2
Flash #231
Green Lantern #22
Hellboy Darkness Calls #5
Immortal Iron Fist #8
Irredeemable Ant-Man #11
Jack of Fables #13
JSA Classified #29
Justice League of America #12
Justice League Unlimited #36
Justice Society of America #8
Last Fantastic Four Story
Legion of Super Heroes in the 31st Century #5
Maintenance #4
Marvel Adventures Avengers #15
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #27
Marvel Adventures Hulk #2
Marvel Adventures Iron Man #4
Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #30
Marvel Masterworks Golden Age Sub-Mariner, vol. 2
Metal Men #1
Mice Templar #1
Mouse Guard Winter 1152 #1
Ms. Marvel #18
New Avengers #33
New Avengers Illuminati #4
New Universal, vol. 1 Everything Went White
Nightwing #135
Nihilist Man And His Amazing Friends #1
Nova #5
Omega Flight #5
Oz-Wonderland Chronicles #2
Powers #25
Previews, vol. XVII #9
Shadowpact #16
She-Hulk #20
Showcase Presents Wonder Woman, vol. 1
Simpsons Comics #133
Spider-Man Fantastic Four #4
Super-Villain Team-Up Modok’s 11 #2
Supergirl #20
Supergirl and the Legion of Super Heroes #33
Superman #666
Supernatural Law Wolff & Byrd: The Movie
Teen Titans #50
Teen Titans Go! #46
The Order #2
The Spirit #9
Ultimate Fantastic Four #45
Welcome to Tranquility #9
Will Eisner’s The Spirit Archives, vol. 22
Wonder Woman #12

And here are the non-comic items:

Classic DC Character #4 The Flash
Comics Gone Ape!
Justice League of America Ser. 1, Black Lightning action figure
Justice League of America Ser. 1, Red Arrow action figure
Justice League of America Ser. 1, Vixen action figure
Marvel Zombies Minimates Box Set

Like I said, "August Christmas."