Y'know, that not-paying-attention-tax is a real bitch. I went out for a walk today, and stopped at the magazine shop right beside the CHIN building. I got the 20th anniversary issue of The Wire (with a double CD sampler), the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Asimov's, the Computer Paper (okay it's free, but it's a shoutout to SeannieC!) and a comic book, Buffy the Vampire Slayer "Tales of the Slayers" #1.

Now, I've not bought a mainstream comic book in decades, but it was Buffy, and I thought, let's see how mainstream comic books have changed. Usually I just go to the Beguiling and get some Alan Moore, or Peter Bagge or Los Bros Hernandez or even Post Brothers. But mainstream comic books? Nope.

I wondered why the bill was so much, then I got home and noticed the Buffy comic cost $6 canadian! 32 pages, sure, four colour, slick paper, but Six fucking dollars for a comic book! The January issue of F&SF is 164 pages and costs $5. Buffy is into stroke book prices, and is written for kidz.

I tell you what, since comic books went off the pop bottle standard, they've gone right to hell. Used to be, I could scrounge six pop bottles and the deposit on them bought one comic book. Now look at what we've got, I could have bought half a DVD of Buffy episodes for one comic book. And I don't think it is an especially good comic book. I haven't read it yet, because, frankly, I'm afraid.