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Well.

It’s funny if you live out here.

Anyway, I was tooling along on my Yamaha Riva 200, and I got behind some old guy driving his Oldsmobile Delta 88 along like he was being care ful not to run into an iceberg. Usually, I just scoot right by these folks, but I wasn’t in much of a hurry, so I decided to just ride along behind him and enjoy the view of the sea. At every stop sign, I’d look around and see the foot traffic on the sidewalks, the shoppers, the kids skipping school, the old guys sitting in chairs in front of the cobbler’s… Well, Captain Smith finally wrestles his boat up to the intersection of 24th Ave and Noriega, and stops at the stop sign. I realize I’m at the intersec tion where Comics and Da-Kind is, and that I don’t have Eagle Volume 16 yet, so I figure I’ll make one of my yearly stops in and just check out the place. Now, Comics and Da-Kind is a weird sort of store. Saddled with an odd sort of name, ‘Da kind’ means the best, the genuine, the natural thing, the real. It’s Hawaiian and New Age-y all at the same time, which would be fine if that’s the sort of store it is. It mostly features action figures and Pokemon, and ancillary crapola all packed into an oppressively cramped space, and is just basically the sort of store I never go into if I can help it. Except for this one day, where I see from the street that all of the Wolverine stand-ups and Tomb Raider window clings and faded color xeroxes of Lady Death have been taken out of the window, it’s open and aired-out inside, and the walls have a fresh coat of paint, and the whole place looks invit ing to the casual shopper. …the Sunset is like a little suburb all to itself out at the edge of the city.

I emphasize that I saw all of this, at a glance, from the street. That’s how different this shop looked than its usual.

So I parked the Riva and stuck my head in, and there was a lot of bustling going on. Nice glass fixtures going up, boxes being uncrated, shelving being reattached. I looked for the new comics section. There wasn’t one. Quickly scanned the shelves and tried to spot the "New This Week" signs that would give up the new Eagle . Couldn’t find it.

Now I know this is a legitimate marketing tactic, but I didn’t want to make

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