What to Expect When Expecting (A New Comic Book Store)
Because life likes to F with you like this, my (amazing) (supportive) (crazy patient with my bull$#!&) wife is due to give birth to our 2nd daughter about 26 days before the ideal opening date for the store. Exciting, right?! I know! And as excited as we are and as stressful as the idea of a new addition to our family is, the idea of adding a brand new business to the mix at essentially the exact same time is just an eensy weensy bit overwhelming.
That said, we've come to terms with what we *think* our new life is going to look like. We got plans. We got systems. We're all over this.
What has been funny is observing the parallels between my wife and I over the last few months. She's about to have a bouncing baby girl and it's starting to feel like I'm about to give birth to a bouncing baby comic book store. For example, we're both completely preoccupied with what we are about to bring into this world. We have conversations every day where she tells me about the new bottles we are trying with baby, to which I respond about how many copies of the new Invincible Iron Man I'm going to order. She comes back asking me what I think of new biodegradable diapers and I quickly answer that I really need to decide how much Magic the Gathering I'm going to dedicate space to.
It's not just us though. Many pregnant women will tell you that all they talk to anyone about for a solid 10 months of their lives is how the pregnancy is going, what plans for baby are, how the partner dealing with it, etc. Well I tell you what - it's the same for new comic shop owners. I'm starting to get super self conscious about it! All I have to talk about is comic shop stuff. It starts to dominate conversations in group settings and it's a tiny bit embarrassing, but in the best way possible. Everyone I talk to, though they often don't understand how I expect to make a living selling funny books, could not be more excited for me. And that feels pretty damn good.
So in the words of my (lovely) (awesome) (did I mention super patient with my bull$#!&?) wife: "Get this baby* out of me!"**
*insert "comic shop"
**Pretty sure she never said this