Our schedule will be kind of wacky around Christmas.  To help everyone out, here's a summary:

Monday, December 24th (Christmast Eve) - Regular Hours
Tuesday, December 25th (Christmas Day) - Closed
Wednesday, December 26th - Regular Hours, but No New Comics
Friday, December 28th - Regular Hours, and the New Comics Arrive
Tuesday, January 1st (New Year's Day) - Closed
Wednesday, January 2nd - Regular Hours, but No New Comics
Friday, January 4th - Regular Hours, and the New Comics Arrive

That's right, on both the week of Christmas and the week of New Year's, the comic order will be arriving on Friday, not Wednesday.  Make sure you don't get messed up by this really weird holiday schedule!

...and still counting!  We're adding a ton of new sets.  A lot of them are on the spin racks, which you're likely familiar with, but there are two other places you can find sets: there's a display in front of the front counter on the other side of the partition from the checkout, here:

We've also added boxes of comic sets under the back issue boxes (specifically the area under the X-Men back issues):

We're adding new sets every week, so definitely keep checking out those boxes and spin racks!

Here's some of the stuff we've put out on the shelves recently:

Amazing Spider-Man: #83, 86 (Reintroduction and Origin of Black Widow with New Costume), 90 (The Death of Captain Stacy), 91, 93, 94 (Origin Retold), 107-111, 113 (Frist Appearance of Hammerhead), 120, 123, 129 (First Appearance of Punisher), 149 (Spidey Clone Story Begins), Giant-Size #6
Ghost Rider (1973 Series With Johnny Blaze): #1
Conan the Barbarian: #3 (Low Distribution), 4, 5, 7, 8

40-inch Lamp: $255.00
20-inch Lamp: $50.00

Have you ever seen the film A Christmas Story? Or, perhaps, you saw the fancy little play that's been showing in the area? Well, here's one of the more iconic images from the film as a whole, a little piece of tacky Americana that makes a great gift for anyone who enjoys tacky Americana.

Comes in both a 20" desk size and a 40" full size!

Welcome to Tranquility isn't just the best comic to come from the WildStorm relaunch.  (Well, tied with StormWatch PHD, I guess.)  Heck, it isn't even just the best comic Gail Simone has ever written.  It's probably one of the top 5 comic books to come out in 2007.  Follow the tales of a bunch of Silver-Age Wildstorm greats (who, to my knowledge, have never appeared outside of this book) who are now part of a superhero retirement community.  It's got drama, mystery, romance, and action, all elegantly woven together with great characters who are all fascinating and appealing by the end of the first issue.  Add in Neil Googe's pitch-perfect art, and you've got one of the best new superhero comics in years.

My personal favorite action figure series is back with a second wave featuring Batman, Martian Manunter, Dr. Fate, and the Flash!  Darwyn Cooke's simple, elegant designs lend themselves really well to an action figure line, and these figures really bring that home.   I mean, look at them.  They're awesome!

Dang, it's hard to write stuff about Action Figures, even when it's the ones that I like.

Well, if you happened to somehow not read any of Ultimates 2 to this point, it's time to change that.  The "summer blockbuster" of Ultimate Marvel is available in a fancy oversized hardcover that has every single issue of the comic and probably some other stuff.  Oh, and the series is pretty amazing, with Mark Millar doing what he does best (making you say "holy ****!" even if you're all alone) and Bryan Hitch makes it all look pretty as you could possibly want.

Have you read Uncanny X-Men?  Daredevil? Captain America? Iron Fist?  Odds are, you have.  Well, if you liked the writing in any of those, then you will like Criminal.  The first volume was probably the best heist movie to come out in the last ten years (it just happened to ba a comic book) and this second volume is the best noir movie to come out in the last ten years (once again, it just happened to be a comic book instead of a movie).  Seriously, if you have ever liked any crime or noir stories in any form, this is the comic for you.  It's got awesome writing, amazing characters, and perfectly gritty art by Sean Phillips.  You know all those great comics that I listed at the top of this paragraph?  Criminal is better than all of them.

Well, except for maybe Iron Fist.

This week, I want to highlight some good gifts for gamers. The problem with gamers is that it's hard to pinpoints someting specific for them within the game that they play. If they're like me or most of the gamers I know, they're always tossing around different army lists or decks in their head and their specific needs vary from day to day, so it's hard to find something good unless you also play the game they do. Sure, for players who play games that come in sealed, random packs, like HeroClix or Magic: The Gathering, they can almost always use a few boosters of the latest set as a good stocking stuffer, but there's probably something else you could pick up that would make a good gift that they don't already have. I think that gaming supplies are generally a good gift.

While some of these are specific items, they're generally part of larger lines with different products that have varying costs. Because of that, I'm not going to sort them by price range. As usual, all of these supplies are something that I personally think it would be cool to get.

Dice

Any gamer who says he has enough dice is lying. You can always use more dice, no matter what. There are a few different ways to buy dice, and there will probably be at least one that fits your specific needs--all of them make great stocking stuffers, though.

Dice Sets

There are three different ways dice sets are sold. There are the numbered 7-Dice polyhedral sets, which are primarily good for players of Dungeons and Dragons and other d20-based systems. They come with a single 4-sided, 6-sided, 8-sided, 12-sided, and 20-sided die, and the set also has two different 10-sided dice--one is numbered 0, 1, 2, 3, etc. and the other is numbered 00, 10, 20, 30, etc. so that way a player can easily generate any number between 1 and 100 by using the two dice in conjunction (one die is the tens digit, the other the ones digit).

There are also blocks of 6-sided dice that come in two sizes. Both sets are good for players of miniatures games like Warhammer or Warmachine. The smaller size (12mm) comes in blocks of 36 dice, and the larger size (16mm) comes in blocks of 12 dice. Which size you want depends largely on how many dice you're going to be rolling at any one time--Warhammer battles generally involve rolling at least one d6 for each troop in a unit, and which means you'll probably want the smaller dice so you can roll more at once without it getting cumbersome. Barring certain ridiculous circumstances, a game like Warmachine usually tops out at four dice on any one roll, so a set of the larger dice is perfectly appropriate in that instance.

There are also packages containing 10 10-sided dice. These are mainly used for roleplaying games from White-Wolf, like Vampire or Exalted, which almost exclusively use 10-sided dice.

If you know what the gamer you're shopping for plays, then it's fairly easy to track down what dice they might want--and they come in a wide array of color schemes. If you don't see a scheme you like, ask to look at our dice catalog--we can order any dice style you find in it.

Novelty Dice

Maybe "novelty" isn't exactly the right word, but there are a couple of types of dice that most players don't use or need, but are cool to have. One, there's the big 100-sided die which is almost like a golf ball with numbers on it. Honestly, it's probably usually better to just roll two 10-sided dice, but there's something cool about rolling one of these. There's also the oversized d20, which is more or less self-explanatory. It's a 20-sided die, but larger! This makes a great gift for D&D gamers, since the 20-sided die is the one die type they'll roll more than any other.

The POUND OF DICE

If you don't want to choose between different types of dice, just buy the POUND OF DICE. It's got so many dice, whoever you're shopping for is bound to find something they can use out of it. Also, there's a special 7-die set that's a style that can only be found in the POUND OF DICE which adds a little bit of a collectible aspect to the whole thing.

Chessex Battlemats

Any role-playing gamer who uses minis for their game can use one of Chessex's battlemats. They can be easily drawn on with water-soluble markers, wiped off with a damp rag, and used over and over. There are versions with square grids and hexagonal grids, and I would suggest getting the double-sided one that has both square and hexagonal grids on the flip sides of the mat. Also, if you're looking to save money, I would suggest checking out the irregular mats that Chessex produces. The only problem with them is that they're a little miscut, but they're just as usable as any other gaming mat, just slightly less aesthetically pleasing.

Ultra Pro Deck Box Zippered Album

Any card gamer can use one of these. Most card gamers don't take the time to spend their money on a decent transportation solution for their cards, opting instead to use whatever's around that fits and the cheapest deck box they can get their hands on. This Ultra Pro Zippered Album is a pretty awesome way to transport your card materials, though. It has four pockets for random gaming crap they might need, like tokens or dice, a pocket for pens and pencils, two pockets for deck boxes, and a three-ring pinder that can hold 9-pocket pages. It also zips up and has a shoulder strap, making transporting your card gaming stuff while keeping it organized a breeze.

ArmyTransport Platoon Carrying Case

For miniatures gaming, I think that Sabol's ArmyTransport cases are some of the best there are. The Platoon is one of several varieties of ArmyTransport cases, but the reason this particular model makes a better gift than some of the others is that it's versatile, comparitively inexpensive, and it also interlocks with other ArmyTransport Platoon cases, so, even if the gamer you're buying for already happens to have a Platoon case, they can just snap the two together for twice the carrying capacity as one but just as easy as two. You'll also probably want to pick up a gift certificate that your gamer can use to buy some foam trays to fill the case. They come in different thicknesses that fill different needs, so it's probably best to let each gamer choose his or her own specific trays.

All in all, supplies are generally the way to go for buying stuff for a gamer--of course, there's always gift certificates, too!

BONUS: All-Purpose Home Remedies!

SYMPTOM: I have Diabetes.
REMEDY: Dang, that kind of sucks. Be sure to watch what you eat!

Be sure to befriend us on MySpace to get a weekly sneak peek of the upcoming Tuesday Specials!

Right now, we only have one big gaming event coming up, and that's a 750 point Warmachine/Hordes Steamroller Tournament this Sunday, December 16th at 3:00 PM. The tournament is free entry with 75 minute timed swiss, and then the top 2 play it out for the prizes:

1st Prize - $50 Store Credit
2nd Prize - $25 Store Credit

It uses the standard Steamroller rules available for download at the Privateer Press forums.  You have to register to download them, because, for whatever insane reason, they don't seem to want the official tournament rules for their miniatures game to be available to anyone.

We've also changed up our tournament schedule, adding some events here and subtracting some there.  The current schedule can be found at our Game Room Page, so check it out!

As usual, a great many comic books have been pushed back to a later date. This news is so shocking that we are now developing a weekly section where we announce comic delays, so you can better know when your favorite books are coming out. Or when the next delay announcement will be, whatever. We'll also include other schedule announcements, like different products coming back in stock, second printings, and the like. But this is the comic industry, and we all know which type of announcment we will see the most.

Changed Release Dates

	OLD DATE	NEW DATE
Demons of Mercy #3 (MR)	01/09/07	02/06/08
Marvel Holiday Special	12/12/07	12/19/07
Ultimate Spider-Man: Venom Prem. HC	12/12/07	12/19/07
Daredevil by F. Miller Omnibus Comp. HC Reg./Var.	12/12/07	12/26/07
Yoshitaka Amano Coll. Art Vampire Hunter D Slipcsd.	12/12/07	12/19/07
Halo: Uprising #3 (MR)	12/19/07	01/30/08
Giant Size Avengers Special #1	12/19/07	12/26/07
Countdown to Mystery #4	12/19/07	12/26/07
Captain America #33	12/19/07	12/26/07
Thunderbolts #118	12/19/07	01/02/08
Powers #28 (MR)	12/19/07	01/02/08
Spirit #12	12/19/07	01/02/08
Astonishing X-Men #24	12/19/07	12/26/07
Onslaught Reborn #5	12/19/07	12/26/07
Kabuki: Reflections #9 (MR)	12/26/07	01/09/08
Powers Encyclopedia Vol. 1 (MR)	12/26/07	01/09/08
American Virgin #22 (MR)	12/26/07	01/02/08
Demons of Mercy #2 Free Copy (MR)	12/26/07	01/02/08
Penance: Relentless #4	12/26/07	01/09/08
Countdown: Lord Havok & the Extremists #3	12/26/07	01/02/08
Essential Captain America TP Vol. 01 New Ptg.	01/02/08	01/16/08
Dominion TP 4th Ed. (MR)	01/02/08	12/26/07
Spirit #13	01/02/08	01/23/08
Amazing Spider-Girl #16	01/09/08	01/16/08
Iron Man/Power Pack #3	01/09/08	01/16/08
Iron Man Enter Mandarin #5	01/16/08	01/23/08
Spirit #14	01/16/08	02/13/08
Halo: Uprising #4 (MR)	02/20/08	03/26/08

Well, it turns out that the drinking contest mentioned in last week's newsletter actually did happen, albeit after I left for the evening.  Nobody mentioned this to me.

What happened, you may ask?  Well, have you ever seen Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark?  Think of the opening scene where Karen Allen is facing off against some sort of giant Tibetan man/woman in a drinking contest.  Thomas is Karen Allen, and Sam is the giant Tibetan man/woman.

Just for fun, let's say that Jarvis is that Nazi guy with the sinister coathanger.