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Showing posts from September, 2006

Events Galore

Besides the fact that it's everyone's birthday this coming month, we have events up the wazoo!

The Last Bout

In case you missed it, or you've never been to Roller Derby, The Sun does a pretty good job of giving you a taste with a mini documentary about the Championship Bout. Just click on the photo gallery on the right side.

Reading Club Moves

The discussion for Our Cancer Year , our selection for September, will be at atomic POP, 3620 Falls Rd, instead of Frazier's, tomorrow night at 7pm!

Got Stickers?

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We have a magazine rack at atomic POP that we'd love to cover with your stickers! Send us your stickers! 3620 Falls Rd Baltimore, MD 21211

WOO-HOOO!!

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photo by Randallart

Awesomest Weekend

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photo by Superchou That's your new Hampden Idol, Tony, giving some one on one attention to his fans. So many great things happened this weekend: Hampdenfest was amazing. Thanks to everyone for coming out and to all the supportive vendors and Hampden Merchants and superb bands for creating another great Hampdenfest. We had a little rain at first, but then the sun came out and so did the fun. Thanks to everyone who came out and saw our new shop, Atomic Pop. We'll announce our grand opening party soon! Oh and we also saw Mary Alice, from Ace of Cakes . Their show was renewed for another season! Our roller derby team, The Night Terrors, won the Championship yesterday!!!!! It was the most exciting roller coaster bout ever. We are the Champions!! And they'll also be in an upcoming issue of Gothic Beauty . We'll have a magazine/victory party for them!

Our First Pop Customer

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Brian Ralph was our first! His son brought his own balloon for the occassion.

Love Pop

We are not ready to open Atomic Pop...but we will! You have to open sometime and a store is always a work in progress. Nothing is ever done, ever finished. So why not open tomorrow, at Hampdenfest ? And we have a special present for the first 50 customers! You get a Dunny Series 3 figure free with your purchase! Who knows, you may also get a golden ticket and win the coveted Love Dunny. Who will be our first customer?

Talk About The Weather

This is the time of year when we watch the weather . Cross your fingers, kids! Hampdenfest goes on rain or shine.

Like Action Figures?

The question we've been getting a lot lately, from people who aren't familiar with the concept of our new store, Atomic Pop , when we say that we're carrying more art toys is: "Like action figures?" No. I think the most distinct difference between the action figure and the art toy is that action figures are mass produced licensed characters from some other medium (tv, comics, movies, etc). Art toys are simply creations/characters unto themselves. Sometimes they expand into comics and books of their own, but they didn't start there. They are made in much smaller quantities, some made partially or even all by hand. Of course there are always exceptions to the rule and we are by no means shunning action figures . They're just going to stay at Atomic Books.

Craft

From the creators of Make comes Craft ! We'll have the premiere issue when it debuts in October. It's one of those is-it-a-book-or-is-it-a-magazine type publications with a heftier price, but it's like a who's who of today's craftsters with a ton of interesting projects that you'll want to keep as a reference forever. I. Can't. Wait.

Friday Review - Just The Ls

Lisa read Little Lulu Color Special by John Stanley and Irving Tripp: That Little Lulu! She's quite a character. She's sassy but not obnoxious. Clever but not infallible. And, although she clearly is not a modern creation (I mean, Lulu and her friends run all over town unscheduled and unsupervised), her stories are just as amusing now as they must have been when she debuted 60+ years ago. And Lulu's world is presented in gorgeously vibrant color in this special collection. Wearing her little red dress and pushing her ever-present doll carriage she invents her way out of scrapes involving her nemeses but also best friends in the boy's only club and real, incompetent truant officers and imaginary, incompetent witches. She's not the smartest kid in school and she owns up to not being a beauty but she is resourceful and confident and mostly kind to her friends. I keep thinking that having Little Lulu on his side would have done the main character in the last book I rea

Hampden Idol Tryouts Cancelled Tonight

Keyboard Man has come down with the flu! So tryouts tonight at the Hon Bar is cancelled. Get better KM!

The Labbits Don't Stop

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Still busy working on opening the new store.

Plastic & Plush

Along with the current art toy explosion is a parallel boom of art toy books! We can't wait to get our hands on these, all of which should be out this Fall/Winter: I Am Plastic Dot Dot Dash Plastic Culture Friends With You Visionaire #50: Artists Toys Also, Vinyl Will Kill is now available just as a book. And if you'd like a smaller catalogy overview type book Toys: MTV Overground V3 is a great place to start. Since most art toys are made in editions of just a few hundred to a few thousand, these books are a great way to get a piece of even long sold out toys.

Just Like That, Summer's Over

We will be closing early tomorrow, for Labor Day. 3 pm! This month's Reading Club pick is Our Cancer Year and is as always 15% off for the month.

Friday Review - Back to School

Winning Catalog Review is from Nolen for B. Krigstein Comics : B. Krigstein has been an overlooked master of the comics medium and Fantagraphics really does him justice in this hefty volume. This is one of the best comic reprints I've seen, because the stories have been (for the most part) reproduced with the original colors and not redone digitally, so the pages look how they did originally. At a quick glance, his art seems typical, but upon a closer reading, individual panels, or sets of panels, could easily stand as a masterpieces on their own for the composition, rendering, and emotional impact. Well worth the price." Eric read Blindness and Seeing : I've been reading at a madman's pace this year, and my most shattering discovery has got to be Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago -- particularly his mid-'90s masterpiece Blindness. Blindness immediately thrusts us into the action: an unnamed European metropolis falls prey to a mysterious plague of blindness, begin

Long Ago And Oh So Faraway

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Ok, not so long ago , we started getting excited about the fact that we could finally get in some of the super cool little toys from Asia, made by comic artists and other visionary creators. Even before we opened the store in Hampden (2001) we would see the craziest, cutest toys...but only online or on ebay. Importing was difficult and expensive. But not anymore! Not only is it easier for us to get the cool toys but some of the companies are finally marketing and distributing to America themselves. Re-ment's Puchi Petites, the American version, has just launched, and we're the only East Coast store to carry them right now. Unfortunately, we're not allowed to sell them online, but soon! What are they? They're a collectible art form: scaled down fake foods and accessories, individually handpainted! Great accoutrements for your Blythes and Pullips, or simply just for admiring. Because who doesn't love fake food?