Comic Book Men

Last night AMC premiered it's newest show Comic Book Men. In what can only  be described as sheer brilliance, they're even running it directly following The Walking Dead, which as we all know is based on a comic book of the same name. That's right, a COMIC BOOK, not "the series of graphic novels" as the credits to the show declare. Fuck that shit, I can't even believe Kirkman is cool with that line being in there, but that's a whole other argument for a whole other day. Anyway, Comic Book Men is a show about Kevin Smith's famous "Jay and Bob's Secret Stash" comic book store in Red Bank, New Jersey, and stars Smith himself alongside his friends who actually run the store. Kevin plays a minor role, basically existing only as a bit of a narrator as a member of the group as they record their podcast, talking about comics and the things that have happened in the store that day/week.

Little bit of a side note, and some personal history about myself and Secret Stash, when I was getting married and my ex and I were doing all that oh so fun planning and such, I only had two small requests. One, I did NOT want Lynrd Skynrd's Sweet Home Alabama played at the reception as just because that's where I'm from does not mean I love that song, the fact of the matter is I hate it, and two, being that the honeymoon was in Pennsylvania in the mountains, and it was likely to be the closest I was ever going to get to Red Bank, I wanted to take a day and go to the Secret Stash. As it turns out, Sweet Home Alabama did get played because to people who aren't from Alabama, playing it whenever people who are from Alabama are present, it becomes hilarious. And yep, you guessed it, my trip to Red Bank got shot down before it was ever given much consideration. Apparently going that far to a comic book store was out of the question. Is there any wonder why this person is now my ex?

Back on topic, I'm always skeptical about shows like this which feature "my people". We comic book readers are more often that not portrayed in a not so glamorous fashion to say the least. I had hopes though that with Kevin Smith being involved, knowing he has seen the exact same thing over the years, maybe this show would be different. The result lies unfortunately on both sides of the fence for me. I was pretty disappointed that less than five minutes in these guys are already talking about which female comic characters they want to bang. Seriously guys? After that though, the show turns out to be somewhat of a clone of all the pawn shop type shows that are all the rage these days. I don't watch any of those, but being that this is a comic shop, and the things people are bringing in to sell are almost all comic book related, I ended up enjoying it. It's not the greatest thing every by any means, but I'll keep watching. I've embedded the first episode below from AMC's website, give it a look. Recommended for comic book fans, and most Kevin Smith fans will find at least a little something to like as well.