I was short a back issue of Buffy Season 8 because I've been a delinquent comics buyer and Newbury, a shop I like less and less, did not have it. Fine--it's not their responsibility to have two months ago's single ish. But this story arc ("Wolves at the Gate") has had one MAJOR BOMBSHELL already and I neeeeed every ish. So I went to Comicazi in my neighbourhood and they also didn't have issue 14 on the shelf. At Newbury, which I'd been growing very cool about lately, I would not have asked the staff for help because, ah, they are not fanboys and the store stocks too much general stuff for me to think they care about finding me one back issue of Buffy for $2.99. They cop the kinds of attitude I used to get from the kids at Reckless (but never got from the staff at Laurie's Planet of Sound, which is why I love Laurie's with the burning fire of 1000 of your Earth's yellow suns. That and I think Laurie's could read my mind: if they didn't have something one week, I'd just think to myself "gee, I wish they had That One Album," and it'd be there the next week, without fail).
But I asked the guy at Comicazi about issue 14, just in case, and lo! he went behind the counter and pulled out a stack of every Buffy single issue, every Buffy trade, every omnibus. "This guy asked me to hold these for him, and I've held every one, but he's never shown up to buy them and I never see him. I'm going to sell 'his' 14 to you. If he were a True Believer, he would have come in for them, and you should have this."
So I totally did not deserve this, because even though Comicazi is my most local shop I've only been in a couple of times. And I'd been a bad fangirl, and I'd bought issues 15 & 16 at Newbury. But this guy dipped into another bad fanboy's stash for me, and I will henceforth work to deserve that.
End nerdery. Go about your business.
I don't read Buffy. I guess Whedon just finished up his run on Astonishing X-Men but I don't even know if he writes the Buffy comic, truth be told. Actually there is precious little on the stands right now that I care about -- I'm still digging Grant Morrison's Batman R.I.P. and that's pretty much it, I can't even get excited by Final Crisis. It's a far cry from the good old days of '01-'04 when there were at least three or four books I could get excited about every month; Milligan on X-Force and Human Target, Ellis on Planetary, Morrison with WE3 and Seaguy and Seven Soldiers, Brubaker on Sleeper.