The Adventures of Mark Wins 4: The Hunt for Issue Number 226

It's been a bit since I went on an Adventure due to work.. *silence* at work... but yeah, kinda sorta been on one over the past two days. And it all started mostly because of this...

Well, I don't think that's how it started, but that right there was the main driving force of this adventure...

Like, my dude Jacko tells me via FaceBook that he has Issue #226. Obviously, I must collect it as well. It's not about 1-uping him. No, not at all. It's about being a Sonic fan and having Sonic Genesis as a part of my admittedly not-so-popping Sonic item collection. So I make it my goal of getting it. 

And I see the issue in the flesh too. I spin through a couple of pages but I don't actually read anything because I wish to read it myself when I own it. So I look, I gasp, and I put it down.

Said adventure actually kinda sorta starts due to being invited to go see the Green Lantern movie on a Monday night, which I felt just wasn't really good. It had its moments, but overall... it just wasn't good. You have a hero with a green ring that can pretty much do whatever the hell he wants with it, and like... I dunno, I feel like they didn't try hard enough. Whatever. 

So we come back home and I play Super Smash Bros. Brawl and I dominate... Which is good for me because I'm trying to go to Apex, a national Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament, and the fact that I'm still leagues better than my friends let me know that my skills still have some kind of merit. In any event, after winning all but maybe 4 or 5 games, I play the Sonic Generations demo (see what I think about it here). Overall, I'm loving it... I just want more. I make a few more jokes about life, and then I leave for the night.

The next day (which would be yesterday), I wake up and run a few errands, including food shopping and stuff like that. After the food shopping, I go to Borders, looking for Issue #226. It's not there. Needless to say, I'm pissed. Sonic comics are there chilling, forever, but now everyone's a Sonic fan and wants Issue #226? Blow me, you're lying.... you're doing it for the money, but this is my life. And I'm upset. So boom, I'm about to make an emergency trip to the city to locate Issue #226, because this has to be in my possession, period.

Jacko decides to tag along as another friend of mine drops us off on the Ave, and we take a train from there. First, we end up at Midtown Comics, secretly located in the heart of Times Square. I search for Issue #226 there, but I find nothing. So I ask for help. They put me in the direction of the Sonic comics, but there is no Issue #226 in sight. Bullshit. Whatever.

We trek out to St. Mark's Comics, which is on St. Mark's Place, where almost everything just so happens to have my name on it. 

See?

Anyway, we get there, and I still can't find Issue #226. Sure enough, I ask for help finding it, and apparently it's "sold out." What the fuck. I don't understand why everyone's a Sonic fan all of a sudden. Whatever. 

So as Jacko is buying a few things out of the store, I take a look at Issue #225, however, and in the back of it, it clearly states that Issue #226 goes on sale the week of 07/05/11. In other words, Jacko got it early. Wow. So here I am, blowing blood vessels trying to find a comic book that shouldn't even be on the streets yet.... typically amazing, in my opinion. I resolve to snatching this comic up early next week. No games.

Afterwards, I show Jacko a video game store that, apparently, is called "8 Bits and Up." I had been here before, but I didn't realize that this was 8 Bits and Up, a gaming store that I had heard so much about. It easily lives up to its rep, ousting GameStop as the better video game store easily. The store has games from all eras. All eras. We saw SNES games, Genesis games, Atari 2600 games, and other shit that we couldn't even identify. We're definitely going back next week... well, I am, and if Jacko's available, he's surely coming along... and I'm gonna get Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 and Virtua Fighter 4. Yes, on PS2. I'm not getting a PS3 yet, so relax. 

After that, we had an okay trip home. Upon the trip, Jacko let me have Issue #225, and I'm kinda mind blown by the result of that Issue... wow. I also read the beginning of this graphic novel involving Spiderman, Human Torch, and Iceman. Shit's hilarious...

And then I come home, back to regular life...

The End... for now...