Bad salesmanship in the O.C.

Last Thursday I was flipping around the channels and happened briefly upon the O.C.. I've caught the show maybe 2 or 3 times previously. Enough to recognize the "nerdy" best friend of the lead. Who now apparantly runs a mall comic shop. And the scene I manage to hit is one where he sends a young girl (who looks to be about 7-9) running from the store in tears. And why has he reduced this young lass to weeping flight? Because she dared, DARED to ask if their were comics based on the X-Men movies...

Now at first maybe the hard-core comics nerd in you might think this is a good thing. After all who could possibly be stupid enough not to know that the X-Men were comics first? And to that, I'd answer, a small girl who has never been in a comics shop before. So strike one on young Nerd Friend character, he made a little girl cry. Strike two, he drove off a potential customer. And strike three, he drove off a potential comics fan. Good job dumb-ass. I wanted to reach into the screen (as I so often do) and slap the stupid out of him...

If your job is to SELL comics then when someone unfamiliar with comics comes to your store YOU HELP THEM. You do not mock them. You do not treat them like morons. And you sure as fuck don't send them away in tears. Being reduced to tears makes it unlikely that they will come back and GIVE YOU MONEY...

What truly annoyed me about the scene was that I've heard about and even on rare occassions seen clerks and owners act this way to comic-book virgins. Not in stores I shop at regularly, because they're run and staffed by people who like having pay checks. But the smug, poorly socialized comics nerd is a stereotype for a reason. I've also known people who are even more misanthropic than I am, who manage to bury that when someone, no matter how out of place they seem, comes into their comics/games/book/whatever store. Seems they like making rent more then showing their superior nerd knowledge...

So remember, that clueless eight-year old is your potential 20 comics-a-week shopper. So leave the smug attitude on your online forums and take the little kid by the hand and introduce them to mystical realm of comics...

Sunday Game, Star Wars

This week the players began to have their characters work off their debt to Jurgan the Hutt. Well, Falken and Griffen's debt. The wookie and Basso seem to be mostly along for the ride. The group went to steal a sample of a new drug from one of the Moff's couriers. Along the way they scammed computer systems, got in a fight with a swoop gang and were interogated by the local police. They did succeed in getting the sample though (and captured the courier)...

Of course to do that Griffen and the wookie had to abandon the others in police custody. But Jek Falken and Basso got out thanks to their lawyer droid. And then Jek firebombed the headquarters of the swoop gang they ran into earlier...

Heh. Brendan is hoping to have Basso become a Jedi, but he's got no teacher and he hangs out with the protoform of crime gang. I'm looking forward to seeing how far the players will go down this path...