One-Shot Tabletop RPG Games Are Back On!

Check out the new list of One-Shot Role-Playing Adventures

for the month of January 2025!

(The adventures below will be taking place at our Worcester location only)

Pop 45 Countdown!

Moment #30

Zippy Comics and Worcester Diners Day

The store manager, Ken, was a long-time fan of the eccentric comic strip Zippy the Pinhead by Bill Griffith. Griffith had introduced the character in an “underground” comic book in 1971, and eventually was able to bring Zippy to the daily newspaper audience worldwide (through King Features Syndicate) starting in 1986. Zippy the Pinhead is hard to describe. The strip is often full of odd pop-culture references, satire and non-sequiturs. Some people LOVE it, and probably MORE people can’t make heads or tails of it! The King Features website says Zippy’s “mind works in a distinctly non-linear fashion, leap-frogging from one thought to the next, creating a speech pattern that closely resembles the swing of improvisational jazz. Though his behavior may appear ‘surreal,’ he’s really making his own kind of sense of the world.”

Ken had the idea of inviting Bill Griffith to appear at the store. We knew his dedicated fans would come a long way for a chance to meet him! But whenever we’d contact Griffith about coming in for a signing we’d get only a brief reply, like “thanks for the invitation!” After a few straightforward attempts failed over the course of 2 or 3 years, Ken decided to take a roundabout route.

Bill Griffith had been featuring real-world diners and restaurants as settings in the strip for several years. He even put several Worcester diners in there… The Miss Worcester Diner, The Corner Lunch, Boulevard Diner, George’s Coney Island Lunch... it was clear from the beautifully rendered drawings that Griffith was a BIG fan of diners! Maybe instead of inviting him to an event centered on HIMSELF, we should invite him to an event centered on DINERS… and did you know that the diner was actually invented in Worcester?!

Phone calls were placed to Richard Gutman, author of the definitive books on the history of American diners, and Bill Wallace at The Worcester Historical Museum. It turned out both men were fans of Griffith and enjoyed what he was doing with all those diners in Zippy the Pinhead! Both happily agreed to participate in an event we were calling “Zippy Comics and Worcester Diners.” Mr. Gutman would bring copies of his books to sell and sign, and Mr. Wallace would bring rare historical photos of Worcester diners to display and discuss. Now all we needed was Zippy’s creator Bill Griffith to sign on and we'd have a real pop culture event!

Ken contacted Griffith and described his idea for the event. Ken realized he had hit on the right formula as Griffith showed immediate interest! Soon the two were going back and forth on possible dates that could work and finally settled on May 7, 2005. After he hung up the phone, Ken realized that this date was also Free Comic Book Day! That would make a crazy day a lot crazier, but there was no turning back now.

We got the mayor of Worcester to officially proclaim it “Zippy Comics and Worcester Diners Day.” Two newspapers, Worcester Magazine and Middlesex Daily News ran in-depth, illustrated feature articles! We bought some gingham tablecloths and borrowed some chrome napkin holders and condiment caddies from a restaurant across the street, all to set the right kitschy mood. On May 7th, 2005, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m, the fans came out in force and lined up to meet Griffith, Gutman and Wallace, get some signatures, and talk comic strips and diners—an unlikely combination that somehow came together perfectly!

Pop 45 Countdown:

Moment #29

That’s Entertainment Enters the Computer Age!

Back in the stone-age (early 1980s) That’s Entertainment offered a free subscription service for comic book collectors (we still offer a free subscription service for new comic books!). With the help of friend/customer Paul Dinsdale, I designed a big form that listed nearly every new comic book published at the time and our customers would check off whatever comic books they wanted us to save for them each week. We printed these check-lists on oversized sheets of paper so we could easily scan through each person’s entire subscription. From these sheets I compiled a hand-written “master list” adding up how many customers wanted each monthly issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, Batman, The X-Men, and all of the other titles. I would use this information to help me figure out how many copies of each new comic book I’d need to order to fill the “subs” and still have enough for the rack. When we unpacked the new comics shipment, we’d lay them all out in roughly alphabetical stacks, then take each customer’s giant list and “pick” their orders individually, similar to the way you might use a shopping list at a grocery store (so, instead of wandering around looking for soup, we might be looking for Superman). Not very efficient, but it worked!

One day, Peter Faill, a loyal customer, mentioned that he was a computer programmer. After a short discussion he convinced me to hire him to create a customized computer software program that would help with this important information. I didn’t know ANYTHING about computers at the time, but he made it all seem so easy! Personal computers were really just becoming embraced by the public, and they were very limited in storage and memory space. The software Peter created used “DOS” and the information was stored on large floppy-discs! Now, when the new comic book shipment came in each week, I’d insert the floppy-disc and my slow computer (using an equally simple dot-matrix printer!) would print out, one title at a time, an alphabetical list of the customers who wanted me to save each comic book for them. Now we could grab the whole stack of X-Men (for example), walk along the wall of “sub-boxes”, and carefully slide a copy of the comic into the slot of everyone on that particular list. Much quicker! And….we were able to promote our trendy “Computerized Comic Subscription Service” to new customers!

This system worked for a good while but our large number of customers eventually overwhelmed the software. Peter did a major upgrade and that worked for another few years. One interesting feature he added over time allowed us to “link” titles. So, if Spider-Man was a guest-star in the latest X-Men issue, the program would give us a list for X-Men that also merged in with everyone who subscribed to Spider-Man, without duplication. We even have people who are fans of particular artists or writers and wanted anything they worked on. So, they might subscribe to “All Alan Moore” based on their love of Swamp Thing and when new Alan Moore titles like Watchen or Miracleman came out, the comic would be put into their sub-box automatically! Most people were glad that they didn’t miss out on these “linked” issues!

Eventually, one of our staff members (and WPI student), Andy Bucher, built a whole new elaborate system in the 1990s. Among the many innovative features, this system had new ways to analyze sales data, making it possible for us to come up with better estimates of how many copies of each new comic book we needed for our customers. Over time, Andy added just about every useful option we could think of to his program!

Nowadays, we use proprietary software provided by the nation’s largest comic book distributor, Diamond Comics. Our sales data is collected for us right at the registers and our subscription information is compatible with all of their ordering systems.

We can be pretty “Retro” sometimes, but we’re thankful for those two creative guys who wrote our early comic subscription software!

PLAY FOR THE CHANCE TO WIN $10 IN STORE CREDIT!

RULES:

Each week we will post an image with a clue to a pop-culture related item. This item could be a board game, comic, video game, toy, record or band, movie, Pokemon or Magic card, etc...

If you think you know the answer, please submit it to

Dario at dario@thatse.com.

Winners will be announced here in our newsletter!

A winner will be drawn randomly from a pool of correct answers. PLEASE SEND IN YOUR ANSWERS BY

THURSDAY MORNING, 1/2/25!

The winner will receive $10 in store credit.

Please include your full name in the e-mail and please mention at which store you would prefer to pick up your store credit slip.

You will have 30 days from the day of announcement

to pick up your prize.

CAN YOU GUESS THIS WEEK'S TEASER?

The more details you can give,

the better your chances will be for winning!

NEW CLUE

"My work here is done..."

LAST WEEK'S CLUE

"Put that cookie down!!"

Congratulations to Adrik Matys of Worcester for guessing last week's trivia as Turbo Man from the movie Jingle All The Way!

New Records This Week!

Jon Batiste, Adele, Tierra Whack, Boris, Interpol, Beatles, Arctic Monkeys, Green Day, Carole King, Dimmu Borgir, Childish Gambino, Jeff Buckley, Allman Brothers, Alice in Chains, Dean Martin, Boston, Sabrina Carpenter, SZA, Morgan Wallen, Tribe Called Quest, Strokes, Tyler the Creator, Strokes, Dave Matthews, Travis Scott, Shins, Pennywise, King Gizzard, Hozier, Atmosphere, Drake,

 Sigur Ros, Pixies, Police, Metallica, Lumineers, Kids See Ghosts,

Billy Joel, Mitski, U2, Trampled By Turtles, AND MORE!

Star Trek

Wallenburg Class Tug

$54.99

OFFICIAL STARSHIPS COLLECTION: Die-cast ship replicas as seen in the

Star Trek movies and television series.

QUALITY CONSTRUCTION: Scaled replica ship has been painstakingly recreated in die-cast and high-quality ABS materials then hand painted with an incredible level of detail.

AUTHENTIC DESIGN: Based directly on the

original VFX models

created for the show.

GREAT GIFT IDEA: Add this replica ship to your personal collection or gift it to the

Star Trek fan in your life!

1,000 Piece Puzzles

$19.99 Each

Do you often find yourself with nothing to do? Well we have the just the cure for your boredom! Pick up one of our 1000-piece puzzles featuring art from some of your favorites such as, Transformers, Godzilla, the Wolf Man and more!!

Invincible Robot

Deluxe Action Figure

$24.99

Based on the hit Amazon Prime animated series.

Series 2 features Atom Eve and Teen Team leader Robot

Figure is in 7" scale

with over 16 points

of articulation, and additional parts and accessories

Black Angel

$79.99

It is the future and humanity is on the brink of extinction. We have exhausted the natural resources as a direct consequence of our selfish and irresponsible behavior and now our once lush planet is dying. We look up at the stars in the night sky in search of answers and a sense of hope. Forced by the prospect of impending doom, the leading nations decide to pool their remaining resources and knowledge in order to construct the first ever intergalactic frigate: Black Angel. This vessel will carry the human genetic code throughout a journey that will last several thousand years as we search for a new planet to call home.

The Black Angel will be fully automated, piloted and maintained by a collection of artificial intelligence systems which share the directive of guiding the vessel to the planet Spes where humankind can create a new Utopia for herself. In order to safely and efficiently reach this new home world the artificial systems on board the Black Angel will be under scrutiny from the Validation Process, earning them VP. 

Looking at the main board and the vast number of different symbols and icons that it presents through the graphical interface, it is easy to get the impression that Black Angel is a heavy game in terms of rules complexity. There is certainly a lot to digest and mull over so let us start from the beginning. At its core Black Angel is a dice placement game.

Players will use their own and sometimes their opponents dice in order to activate locations on either the main alternatively the space board and perform their corresponding action. The game is divided into two main phases. Sequence A, where players will activate technology tiles on their individual board and then proceed to place a die and perform the corresponding action. And Sequence B, which acts as a “reset and refresh” phase where players acquire new dice and move the Black Angel miniature one step closer to the final destination.

Nightmare Productions

$59.95

Reiner Knizia's auction game about producing movies. In four rounds, players bid on chips representing genuine directors, actors, camera, effects, music, guest stars and agents (or in Nightmare Productions edition: creatures, locations, directors, musical conductors, cameos,

 and contractors).

These all get placed on players' film-strips to complete the movie production. So one movie might need 2 actors (in editions prior to Nightmare Productions), but no music or effects and so on. As films are completed, the points value is marked and another film-strip taken. There are two parties (in Nightmare Productions edition: horror cons) each round where players get to pick from offers without paying anything. There are bonus points for first films completed and best films, best directors (in Nightmare Productions edition: best creatures), even worst film.

The auction is a basic rising offer with passing until one winning bid remains. Players pay into the pot with contracts (in Nightmare Productions edition: money), and the rest of the players share the pot each turn. So it's a closed economy with players trying to time to bid on what they really need to complete films.

Rivages

$24.95

EXPLORE LOST ISLANDS: Rediscover the mythical Myr Archipelago and chart your journey across mysterious islands, uncovering ancient relics, completing quests, and gathering

valuable scrolls.

STRATEGIC

FLIP-AND-WRITE GAMEPLAY:

Each turn, choose a card to cross off symbols on your island map, explore new areas, and pass the cards along to your neighbor—offering high levels of player interaction.

REPLAYABILITY WITH DIVERSE ISLANDS:

With multiple island boards, exploration cards, and unique Tree of Wisdom boards, no two games of Rivages are the same, ensuring endless

replay value.

SOLO MODE INCLUDED: Enjoy the full Rivages experience even in solo mode! The solo version closely resembles multiplayer gameplay, offering the same depth without needing an

AI opponent.

PERFECT FOR FAMILY GAME NIGHT: Rivages is perfect for 1-4 players, delivering an exciting strategic adventure for ages 12 and up. Explore, loot, and outwit your opponents in this captivating island adventure!

The Flash:

Human Thunderbolt

$39.99

The earliest adventures of Barry Allen return in a new comprehensive collection, part of DC’s major new line of collected editions!

Welcome to DC Finest, a major new publishing initiative presenting comprehensive collections of the most in-demand and celebrated periods in DC Comics history,

spanning genres,

characters, and eras!

DC Finest: The Flash: The Human Thunderbolt collects the adventures of Barry Allen, the second and most iconic Flash, from

the very beginning,

starting with his debut in 1956’s Showcase #4 by John Broome and Carmine Infantino! This collection also includes the first appearances of famous Flash rogues including Captain Cold, Mirror Master, and Gorilla Grodd!

Iron Man:

Stark Disassembled

$44.99

One of the most beloved modern eras of Iron Man sees Tony Stark on the run and poised to lose everything - with

an ending that must be

seen to be believed!

He's outrun Norman Osborn and kept the database of superhuman secret identities safe and secure. But in doing so, Tony Stark has lost just about everything: his armor, his power — even his very mind. Now at his absolute lowest point, it will take Tony's last reservoir of will — and allies including Thor, Captain America, War Machine and Black Widow — to keep him from losing it all! But there's a competitor on the scene for Stark Resilient, Tony's new company — a mother/daughter team with a familiar name and their own armor called Detroit Steel! They've started a deadly game of international intrigue that will bring one of Iron Man's deadliest foes back into the fray, and Tony Stark will find out just what "resilient" really means!

COLLECTING: Invincible Iron Man (2008) 20-33, Iron Man: Requiem (2009) 1, Rescue (2010) 1, Free Comic Book Day 2010:

Iron Man/Thor 

Spawn:

The Dark Ages

Complete Collection

$49.99

SPAWN: THE DARK AGES COMPLETE COLLECTION reprints the journey of Lord Covenant, a 12th Century knight killed in a holy crusade far from his homeland, who returns to Earth as a HellSpawn.

As a plague of violence and turmoil cover the English countryside, the Dark Knight must choose whether to align himself with the innocent inhabitants of the once-thriving kingdom or with the malevolent forces of evil and corruption.

Featuring behind-the-scenes bonus art and cover gallery, Spawn: The Dark Ages Complete Collection is the first time the series will be collected in trade paperback, oversized format.

Collects SPAWN: THE DARK AGES #1-28