It’s been a while since we’ve offered any kind of a deal on VIDEO GAME trade-ins, so this is the week!  Now until Saturday, (Tuesday, June 26th until Saturday, June 30th), you can bring in your video games and trade them in at a CRAZY 80% trade-in value!  This means that if you bring us a game that we will sell for $10, you’ll actually get $8 worth of store credit for it – this is by FAR the best deal you will get trading in video games.

Depending on how recent the game is, Gamestop will typically give you 10-30%.  Our normal trade-in rate at Clem’s is 60%.  But this week only, you’ll get an EIGHTY PERCENT trade-in rate for your games.  Please check this page on our website to make sure your games are eligible – we are currently only accepting games for certain systems, and remember that your cash value of your games will remain at 30%.  But if you’ve got some video games sitting around the house that you know have served out their purpose, THIS WEEK is the week to bring them in and turn them into comics, games, whatever you want!

Also, for those of you who have been waiting to place your votes for our Avengers Vs X-Men contest, in the AvX Versus series, they are now posted!  Head over to our contest page and pick who you think will win the head-to-head matchups in Avx #4, #5 & #6!  Every two fights you pick correctly will gain you another raffle entry in our $50 store credit contest!

Wednesday, June 27th – New Comic Book Day! – Creator-owned properties are becoming more and more the “way to go” in modern comic books.  When Clem’s opened its doors in Lansing in 2001, almost everything that wasn’t published by Marvel or DC was commonly referred to as an “indie”.  Image Comics had established itself as a superhero publisher in the 90’s, but those sales were lagging.  Beyond those 3, if it wasn’t a superhero title marketed by the big boys, it had a relatively small readership.  Watchmen was enormous for DC in the late 80’s, and a genre-changer in many respects, but you can see how that battle over creator rights has played out – DC still owns and markets the property as its own.

Man, how the tide has changed.  Today, “creator-owned” – in which the originators of a story are allowed to maintain creative control and all future licensing rights – is the way to go.  So much so that Image Comics has turned from a superhero publisher, to almost entirely publishing creator-owned material, and making a killing at doing it.  Marvel has started a sub-imprint, in which creators can create new properties and tell their own stories, and still benefit from the marketing arm of Marvel.  Ed Brubaker, a stalwart of superhero comic book writing, announced this week that he is leaving Captain America to focus on creator-owned stories.  Big-name creators like Robert Kirkman are cashing in when their creation (Walking Dead) is suddenly “discovered” by Hollywood, and this is spurring even more creators to consider their futures.

Another such Hollywood story is Mark Millar, who has already had two stories developed into major motion pictures, Wanted and Kick-Ass.  Now Millar has become one of the hottest properties in both comics and movies – his previous works Chosen and War Heroes have both been optioned by Sony, and the sequel to Kick-Ass is already picked up to be distributed by Universal.  Now this week we get a new original mini-series, spinning out of the world of Kick-Ass.  Hit-Girl will be written by Millar and drawn by his partner on the previous Kick-Ass comics, John Romita Jr., and will run five issues.  The series will chronologically take place between the two Kick-Ass volumes.

As Millar, Kirkman & Brubaker (whose creator-owned work Fatale releases its first graphic novel this week) are finding greener pastures as they own their own work, will more creators migrate to this type of work?   Marvel & DC will always remain attractive, not only because of the established properties like the Avengers and Batman, and the chance for writers to write the characters they grew up reading.  They also offer steady paychecks and guaranteed benefits to creators – most creator-owned comics only pay the creator to the extend that the comic book actually sells for the publisher.  But it’s comforting to know that there is clearly a market for writers and artists who have ideas that fall outside of the superhero sandbox.

Wednesday,  June 27th – 6pm & 7:30pm – D&D Encounters – We’re officially into Season Seven of Encounters!!  A new format of play for D&D that has really been a hit, the Encounters experience allows you to essentially “drop in” on Wednesday nights for a quick, one-hour D&D encounter that is not part of a sequential story.  In other words, you don’t need to worry if you can’t make it every week, because the experience is setup in a way that whoever shows up each week will not need to have participated in anything prior.  If you participate regularly, you can bring back the same character that you begin with since week 1, but character progress is well-paced enough so that you can show up for the first time in week 7 and not be totally outclassed with your brand new character.  Each Encounters season lasts 13 weeks, and is supported by our RPG Reward Points program.  You can also read more about the Encounters program here, on D&D’s official website.

Additional notes for this week:  due to the pending July 4th holiday next Wednesday, we may be looking at double sessions to keep pace, either this week or on July 11th.  The jury is still out – be prepared for a potential extra hour of fun this week if necessary!

Thursday, June 28th – 6:30pm – Magic the Gathering Standard tournament – Avacyn Restored is here!!  We run fully sanctioned Standard tournaments for Magic every week, starting around 6:30pm, and you can now incorporate some Dark Ascension cards into your deck.  We also support these tournaments with great prize support using our Magic Reward Points program.  Of course, for these tournaments to be sanctioned, we need 8 participants – most of the time, that’s no problem, but sometimes during college finals or bad weather, it can be a stretch, so make sure you call around and get your friends to come with you!  Make sure you come in and trade in the cards you’re not using anymore and get ready to pick up a box or two of the next set!  Check out our current stock online, and figure out which cards we’re taking in.

Thursday, June 28th – Wicked at Wharton – Frank Baum’s “Wizard of Oz” has been the gift that has just kept giving to pop culture since the book first arrived in the year 1900.  We at Clem’s are pleased to continually find an audience for the comic-book adaptations of his Oz work, which was of course given a much wider audience by Judy Garland & company in 1939.  And in 2003, one of the highest-grossing stage productions in history, Wicked, was born, lending a back-story to the good and bad witches of Oz.  It’s currently the 12th-longest-running show in Broadway’s history, and this week, the production comes to Wharton.  It’s been in Lansing before, but it’s been a while, and these shows will no doubt sell out quickly.  If you can’t get a ticket, and the scalpers laugh haughtily at your black-market offer to get in the back door, you can always come to Clem’s and grab some of the graphic novel stories of the Wonderful World of Oz!

Friday, June 29th – New Movies – Ted – The key names to know here are Seth McFarlane, Mark Wahlberg, and Ted.  Seth McFarlane is the creator of Family Guy, as well as the voice of half the characters, and was also the co-creator of American Dad! and the Cleveland Show, all popular animated prime-time comedies.  Mark Wahlberg is probably one of the most versatile actors in Hollywood today – from action movies to dramas to comedies, and the producer behind popular HBO shows Entourage and Boardwalk Empire.  Ted is easily the most offensive stuffed bear since Teddy Ruxpin, is best friend of McFarlane, and is voiced by McFarlane.  McFarlane’s Family Guys gives us just enough of a geek-culture tie-in that we can urge our audience to check out this movie.  Besides, look at our calendar – there’s not much going on this weekend!

Saturday, June 30th – 10:30am – Heroclix tournament – Every Saturday at 10:30am, the longest-running game at Clem’s gathers, the time for Heroclix.  Ever since this game released, we have had a sure and steady cast of players, and it shows in our weekly turnout.  We’ve hosted pre-release tournaments, marquees for every set, special tournaments for promos and big-figure sets… and the best is yet to come!!  Typically, though, every Saturday is a constructed tournament, with details being released on our message boards usually within 5 days of the next tournament. The tournaments are all in good fun, and are supported by prize support from the game’s manufacturer, Wizkids,  who send us limited-edition figures to give away each and every Saturday.

The new Galactic Guardians sets are in-stock, and you can use those figures in our tournaments!  Plus the new “Avengers Movie” Heroclix – there’s a lot of fresh figures around here lately, making our Saturdays even more creative.  Plus, if you’ve entered our Supremacy League (or if you would like to), you can usually get in a few of those games on a Saturday here too.

Monday, July 2nd - 6:00 pm – Crossroads Church board game club – Crossroads is a new non-denominational church that recently moved to downtown Lansing, actually, just around the corner from us!  I spoke with Noah, the preacher / organizer for their organization and he wanted our customers to know that they have a pretty large gathering of people to play board games once a month at the Grand Traverse Pie Company, also right down the block from us (corner of Allegan and S Washington).  So if you want to check that out, head down there on Monday at 6:30pm (they recently moved it from Thursday nights).  You’ll probably even see some Clem’s demo games down there! They have a website, and a page for their Board Game night, here.

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