McKay's and Snake Eyes Comics

Back in January, before everything went to sh*t, I took a quick trip over to Knoxville, a trip that would end up being my last for a while, which of course I didn't realize at the time, but who knew that things were going to get so bad, so fast!

Had I known that I wouldn't be going back for months(?), I probably would've tried to squeeze a few more places into the trip, as such I only ended up going to McKay's (heaven for lovers of physical media), which is always a must when going to Knoxville, and then hit up Snake Eyes Comics for the first time.

Other than finding lots of neat, cheap, stuff, the trip was pretty uneventful, so I'm just gonna jump right into the goods, starting with McKay's:

As per usual, my second stop upon entering the store, after the wall o' action figures, is always the huge section of $1.95 and under DVD's and Blu-Ray's, which by the way was pretty heavy on the Blu-Ray's this time. And as per usual, all of my movie purchases ended up coming from this section!

I've owned The Dark Crystal on video for what seems like forever now, but have longed for an upgrade, I just hadn't ever come across a cheap copy on DVD, until now of course. This film was considered essential viewing when I was a kid, I would imagine that that's no longer the case for today's kids, I suspect that it would end up being a little too complex for most of them.

Obscure 1970's television documentary about cryptids? Hosted by Peter Graves? I think that my young inner self is still recuperating from the shock of this find!

This one was completely new to me, and I absolutely loved it! This film has many twists and turns, and is nearly impossible to talk about, without giving away spoilers, so I'll just have to highly recommend it -- especially if you're the sort that likes a good story, great acting, well orchestrated action sequences, and plot twists.

As an aside, I don't watch a lot of newer films, and when I do decide to give something a go, I tend to not like it more often than not. That being said, in the last decade or so, I've seen more good new films that have come out of South Korea, than I have Hollywood. Not that this is all that surprising mind you, especially given that 25-50% of everything that comes from Hollywood these days is made for the Chinese market, and is sort of expected to be bad, but still, you'd think that something would occasionally come out of the other 50-75%. Assassination was a perfect example of pretty much everything that Hollywood doesn't do right, I'd suggest that some of the higher-ups watch it and take notes, but that wouldn't do any good, as they'd most likely end up just trying to remake it instead.

I've mentioned a few times in previous McKay's posts, that one of the nicest things about the store is that they will actually lower prices on items that aren't moving, unlike a lot of places where stuff will just sit and collect dust if it's priced too high, and they will put the new price sticker over the old one, so it's always fun to come home and see what the previous price(s) was/were, Assassination was a perfect example of this:

This is what I paid (for a still sealed Blu-Ray BTW), and this is what the previous price had been:

Pretty big drop, eh? This game is even more fun when there's three or four labels under the current one.

Trollhunter had been on my to get list for, well, for what feels like forever now, but it's pretty much always $10 or more everywhere, so to be able to finally find a sealed copy in the cheap stuff was pretty great. I can't remember when or where I first saw this film, but I'm fairly sure that I saw it early (at least by U.S. standards), because I can remember going online after watching it, and couldn't find any sites here in the States where people were talking about it. The "found footage" genre isn't usually one of my favorites, but this movie was so original, that it really does surpass said genre. I remember hearing talk of Hollywood trying to remake this, but thank goodness that seems to have fallen by the wayside, because this does NOT need some crappy remake, or as it's often now called, a "reimagining".

Just for sh*ts and giggles, here's another example of prices being reduced:

What I paid vs. the original price:

Not quite as dramatic as it was with Assassination, but I'll take it!

I only vaguely remember this show, and until coming across this (sealed) DVD set, had honestly forgotten all about it. The 90's were a hotbed for these sorts of shows, most of which I watched at the time. They all seemed to be trying to recapture the greatness that was In Search of..., unfortunately the majority of them didn't even come close, and it's been my experience, that after all of these years, most of them don't hold up very well. I haven't cracked the seal on this set yet, so I can't whether it's held up or not, but even if it does end up disappointing, I'll have no regrets on using $1.95 in credit to do a little time traveling.

I never thought the day would come when I would be so out of the loop that movies could come and go without me ever having heard about them, I mean there was a time when I saw/watched every single trailer for upcoming features, and would often even read reviews even for stuff that I had absolutely no interest in - just so I could know what people were talking about if the film ever got brought up - but those days seem to be long gone, because I am constantly coming across new(ish) things that I am not familiar with in the least. Although after watching The Raven, it's not hard to see how this could happen, and it's not that it was that bad, but it could've been a lot better, and I'll have to agree with the consensus online, that Jeffrey Combs should've been cast as a Poe, as John Cusack is a little too John Cusack-y here to be believed as Edgar Allan Poe. Thankfully this sealed copy was only $0.95, otherwise I might've felt ripped off.

Think what you will, but I love this movie, and have since it came out. It's fun, and wasn't afraid to switch things up, which I appreciate. I've had it on VHS for a long time (although I have the sequels on DVD), and just figured it was time for an upgrade.

That was it for the movies, but I did grab a couple of books too...

Given all that's happened since January, I'd love to be able to lie and say that I bought this because I some sort of notion as to what was coming, but the reality is that I only got it because it was cheap, and I hadn't ever read too much about the Spanish flu -- unfortunately, even after trying to read this, I'm still left saying that I haven't ever read much about the Spanish flu!

I saw someone praising this book recently, and I couldn't help but wonder if that person and I had read the same book, as praise is not something that I would heap upon this book (speaking of heaps...). For better or worse, I tend to be a bit of a scatterbrain, whether talking or typing, I'm prone to bouncing around from topic to topic, but this author makes me look like, well, I don't know, I can't think of a person who's renowned for their laser focus right now, but whoever that might be, is who this author makes me look like. The book starts off by giving us a biography of some doctor, that's about 25 pages right there, then the next 60 or so are spent talking about the history of John Hopkins University. Admittedly I skipped some of the JH stuff, as I bought a book about the flu, not a university. Anyways, at around page 85, we finally get to the flu, for five whole pages, then were whisked away to learn about another doctor, then a few more pages of the flu, then another doctor... and that was about all I good take! I was like halfway through the book, and there was maybe ten pages so far about the actual flu. There may have been more afterwards, but my patience for this book was officially gone. I guess one of these days I'll have to see if anyone else wrote a book about the Spanish flu, so I can get it, and then maybe I'll be able to say that I've read a book on the subject, because I certainly can't say so after this last one

I still haven't cracked this one open yet, so I can't comment on it here today. I'm already pretty familiar with a few of the players in this one, but am hoping that they'll be some tidbits that I don't already know.

So, that's it for McKay's. I came home with a fairly decent haul, and as per usual, I've got a bunch of store credit there, so none of this was out of pocket, which is always nice.

My second, and final, stop of the day was at Snake Eyes Comics, which is a place that I've wanted to check out for literally years now, but don't ask why it took me so long to do so - especially given that it's less than ten minutes from McKay's - because I will not have an answer for you.

This place was little hard to find, and ended up being a bit smaller - in size and selection - than the online reviews led me to believe.

One thing that people reviewing this shop always mention, and was my main reason going, is the large selection of cheap books, allegedly all under a dollar. This ended up being a tad misleading, as granted there was a decent amount of cheap books, but the majority, say fifteen boxes worth, were a $1 each, and then the fifty cent stuff (maybe five boxes worth), were tucked away under a table, and weren't exactly easy to try and look through.

I basically just ended up going through the dollar boxes, and can honestly say that most of that stuff should've been priced much lower, but I had to look anyway, just in case. I never read The Defenders when I was younger, so even though I was coming across quite a few issues, they mean much, at least not until I saw #114 here, what with the Lovecraftian baddie on the cover and all. Apparently, Null the Living Darkness, was primarily a Defenders villain, and despite being a somewhat interesting character, didn't appear in too many books. As for the book itself, I don't know if I'm going to be reading too many more Defenders stories, seemed like a bit of a clusterf*** with all of the characters involved, but I will probably try to find the other couple of Null issues at some point though.

The only other book that I found, or at least the only other one that interested me, was this beat-to-hell copy of Forbidden Worlds. This copy has clearly been through the ringer and back, since it's '63 publication, and probably wasn't worth the dollar that I paid for it, but it was the only horror-ish book that I came across in those boxes, and I really wanted to read it. Oh, and that 5¢ is written directly on the cover, in grease pen no less -- would've been interesting to know when that sale was, and what else could've been had for a nickel.

I did look around for a bit more after finishing up the dollar boxes, but there wasn't anything else for me, a lot of stuff from the last decade or so, aka stuff that I don't really care about.

After wanting to go there for so long, I have to say that I was a little (or a lot) disappointed, although I don't blame the shop, or the owner, for this disappointment, so much as I do the online reviewers for hyping it up the way they have. I can't imagine that I'll ever be going back, but I guess if someone's in the area, and you just so happen to be interested in the newer books, then this shop may be better suited to your tastes then it was mine.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.