Brain Soda Podcast - Brian Soda Presents: An Interview With John Cashman

Episode Date: February 21, 2024

On this special episode of the Brain Soda Podcast we're talking with a local business owner who has been influential to countless people over the decades of operation, John Cashman of Cashman Comics in Bay City, Michigan!

Welcome everybody to a really special edition of the Brain Soda Podcast. We're not even calling it that today. Brain Soda presents something special for you guys today. Joining us, a friend of mine, the owner and proprietor of my local comic book store, John Cashman. How you doing today, John? So far so good. Thanks for having me, guys. Yeah, great for you to come on. Now I've been wanting to do something like this for a while and Brad has been nice enough to indulge me in being able to get John on here and

Talk a little bit about comic books, but talk about him overall and in general and I think we're gonna have a really good time doing it now To start off were you born in Bay City, John? No, I was born and raised in the Metro Detroit area, actually, Girls Point Park where I was born. Okay. Okay, I grew up down there too. Oh, well, I mean, I was born down in Detroit. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's that's where I spent my formative years, I guess you could say. Nice. I've lived all over. My father was a Kmart executive. And we did a lot of moving around. And I actually lived in Hong Kong when I was about 13. Yeah, he ran all of the far east operations for Kmart over there. Really?

So I've retailed this definitely in my blood. My brother actually, he was living over in Beijing for a while. He actually just moved back. He's married to someone from China. Yeah, that's pretty crazy. That's funny. Yeah, it's a whole other world. I mean, when I lived there, it was, you know, I'm older than you guys, obviously. But I lived there, it was 1977, and it was still actually a British colony. So. So was that that Walt City still there? Kualun. Yeah. Kowloon, yeah, is across the harbor, I should say, Hong Kong harbor.

Okay, we covered that. Yeah, Kowloon is actually connected to, you know, to China. Because Hong Kong is an island. Most people don't realize that it's an island. Yeah. They think it's just a city. Yeah. And the British took over like 100 years ago or longer, and they actually signed a lease with China, who at that time, you know, probably not very as business minded as they are today, so we say. So yeah, and then the lease ended in like the late 90s. It was a British colony, but it was definitely you knew you were living in an Asian city. Yeah.

But the cool thing about Hong Kong is it's like a melting pot of all the Asian cultures plus all the very international community because a lot of at that time companies had their not headquarters but like people don't doing business there. I've grown up in Detroit. I didn't even know where Midland Michigan was or Dow when I was until I lived in Hong Kong because I never came up this way. So yeah, because I went in Hong Kong because I never came up this way, you know So yeah, cuz I went to Hong Kong International School I went to school with kids from all over the world. So I met this kid from he goes, yeah I'm from Michigan. I live in Midland. My father's a you know works for Dow. That's why yeah

Yeah, well obviously now I know but I've been up here a while though. I moved up here in by 1979-78. Okay. Okay. Shortly after I lived in Hong Kong. Yeah. Okay. So really quick to kind of gear it towards our comic book discussion here. Yeah. It's been away from Hong Kong for so long. Right. Do you remember around the time of in retail when spinner racks and stuff like that kind of gave way to stores like you own at Cashman's? Yeah, I mean certainly when I started my store in 1996 there was still like 7-Elevens and pharmacies and stuff like that had spinner racks. Matter of fact, like if I couldn't find a book that I needed for a customer,

I would go to hit all the 7-Elevens, and you know, certain books that I needed that I couldn't reorder. So there wasn't really comic book stores until like the late 90s? No, I mean, there's been comic book stores since the 70s, but they really didn't become prominent in, as you know, as they are now

And probably until the 90s maybe 80s Okay, they really started popping up when I started in 96 There was six places in Bay City you could buy comics at and three of them were really dedicated actual comic book stores Well the market was way different as well. We'll get into that eventually though, right? But yeah, no, for sure. Like, was this your first foray into like business owning or had you opened something for? No, I've always been pretty self-employed my whole life.

My first actual real job was my mom and I owned a horse ranch and that's what brought me up here is we had a horseback riding stable My parents divorced and I came up here to live with my mom in the late 70s And she was into horses and had horseback riding stable and I would manage it You know and take people out on trail rides and so I definitely got a tach for owning my own business You know right away and then after that then after that, I'm a musician, I mean, music's always gonna be my first love. I played in bands, I was a booking agent for a long time.

So I've definitely kind of paved my own road my whole life. I mean, there was just a few short stints where I actually worked for a company. For the most part, I've always pretty much, you know, done my own thing. So when did you jump on a kit for the first time? This legend has it. My mom tells me that I was pretty much born a drummer. I mean, I've got pictures of me at like three months old and my hands are just a blur with like bongos in front of me. And my dad, my dad was like a big bands jazz drummer. So we always had

like our whole basement and girls point was look like a bar. I mean, it was a bar. It had like a drum kit, upright piano. You know, we had all these different instruments there. And I come from a very musical family almost. Right. My family all plays an instrument. And so I had, you know, drums were just there growing up.

I would, you know, play literally on them, you know, with my bouncing hot wheels off of it and action figures and stuff like that. And then eventually I got big enough to sit behind it. And I would say when I was about seven, I could play a rock beat or I could play a song. So you were starting to really eat, right? Okay.

Yeah, yeah. I don't read music at all. I'm totally self-taught And to be honest my dad was not a Not a huge influence on my drumming when I first started because he was gone a lot and move, you know moving around and he was Was always like what city is he in? Right is he in this week, you know that kind of thing. Yeah. So. So what like, do you play, you play rock and stuff or? Um, I can pretty much play anything, but mostly I've always been in rock games. Yeah.

So with that, um, at one point though, you were actually a retailer working in the store that you now own, right? When did that come about? About 1992, I worked for a gentleman who owned a print shop and the comic store. And I worked in both places. My senior year, I co-opted a print shop, a printing store in operated presses and stuff. So I learned that background or whatever. And then it came to a point where a friend of mine who Opened up a print shop in the building that I'm in today. I've been working in that building since 1988 That was actually a print shop first in the comic book store was across the street Okay, okay at both places and then eventually the print shop was not doing so good But the comic book thing was

taken off. It was the early 90s and would just died. And it was like so. And then eventually the guy that I worked for, once he moved the store into the building that I'm in now, he was called Number One Comics. And he got a job with GM and he wanted to sell. So I crazy as it may seem in the worst time in 1996 in the comic industry. Right. Right. I bought a comic bookstore and I but it was a big year for me. I caught the year I grew up because I

literally started a business bought bought a house, got married and had a baby all in the same year. It's like, let's get all the life stressors out of the way right now. What do you say? So it was a big year as a year I grew up. But up at point I was like working part time and singing for my supper because I right the bands I played in it wasn't uncommon for us to play, you know, 50 weekends out of the year, you know, and to be on the road all the way from like way up in the up down to Indiana. And you have a girlfriend too. So not only do you already have that going on, but you have the at-home stress of like how your relationship is affected. We didn't know each other very long when we found out she

was pregnant. Let's just say we didn't exactly go to Planned Parenthood. Okay. Right. Right. It was like, Zing! You're gonna have a baby. And I'm just static. You know, I'm like, well, then we're gonna get married and I'm gonna do this this. Right. Right. Yeah. So I mean, it wasn't easy. I mean, there was a lot of lean times, you know, especially with the industry going crazy and Marvel going bankrupt. I lived through that the UPS strike. That's kind of wind back to that then. So while you're employed and you're watching this story, are you noticing this influx during the boom

while it's happening? How much are you seeing it as a retailer? Yeah, yeah, the most remarkable thing I ever saw was the Death Superman. That was before I owned this store, but it made national news. It was on the front page of the Bay City Times. People were just jumping into the industry,

buying multiple copies of that book, thinking that they were gonna put their kids to college someday. And it was like that with multiple books though too, right? Like when a new character came in and X-Men. I don't think we'll ever see anything quite as big as the death of Superman. No, yeah.

A lot of other companies tried a lot of the different things. I mean, they tried it within the year with Batman, didn't they? Right? Yeah. Well, yeah. How many times have they tried? You know, they tried to kill Superman again. They got, you know, right. Yeah. Yeah. And then they, so that was like probably one of the first times they killed him or I'm not too familiar with comics, but yeah. Well, we like to call a comic book dead. Nobody ever stays dead very long. Yeah. They got that pot armor. But yeah There was a lot of other gimmicks, you know Absolutely, you know different X-men got married and you know and stuff like that and try to do that

But it's nobody I don't think you'll ever capture the essence of the death of Superman again I don't think no the whole poly bagged issue, the moment and time that it was. No, that was the thing that the predecessor that started off all the, you know, bagged. Yeah, the big events, trading cards, you know, and that really concerns me right now when I look at the industry today. Yeah, Marvel DC and even all the independent companies, they're pumping out all these variants and one for 10, one for 50, one for 100, one for 500. Right. You know, who the hell buys 500 copies of a comic?

I sure as hell don't. That's what I was gonna ask you. Yeah. Mile high and the biggest retailers. Yeah, if you're midtown Comics or whatever, but you know, exactly. Like so all these different, you know, like you got all these different runs and stuff like how do you know what to order and stuff like that? Like I've always wondered that like how do you know? Well, like I guess you know, obviously your regulars and stuff, but or you know, the people

that argue regularly, regularly, but there in lies, the thing that puts most comic stores out of business is ordering and it took me a long time to figure that out And to be honest, I still screw up in order not enough or too many copies of stuff because you just don't know I mean you can base it on artists you can base it on writers like all of a sudden like Tom King The right and Wonder Woman everybody wants a Wonder Woman now, you know, no, I wasn't so guilty Yeah, yeah, Kyle. Well, I know, wasn't that right? But a lot of people were not reading Wonder Woman and all of a sudden, boom, I'm ordering twice as many Wonder Woman books. And then, you know, and then recently, like McFarland actually started caring about Spawn again. And yeah, around issue 300 when he did multiple covers and whatever.

And all of a sudden, he did multiple covers and whatever. And all of a sudden he's doing covers and he's writing and blah, blah, blah. And all of a sudden, for years and years and years. It's 1997 again. Well, I mean, for like three decades, there was Spawn comic. Right, right. Now there's Spawn, Kingspawn, Gunslinger Spawn, Scorched.

They're gonna do a Sam and Twitch mini series pretty soon, you know. And, you know, and he's got the multiple covers, like, you know, on average spawn, there's two to four covers of spawn every month, every book. And there's four titles. So you basically get a spawn book every week now, which is, it's hard to keep up with those trends. And I've learned not to jump on the bandwagon too much. I'll write on the side of it and beat the drum for a while. So do you feel, though, that as a retailer, which I understand you weren't owning the store at this time, but do you feel it's comparable and you're seeing a plateau in?

What realistically is your bread and butter? It's what pays the bills not only for you as an owner operator. You know, my bread and butter is definitely new new comics. And I really, really rely on getting people to pick up their books on a timely basis. And that is like the hardest thing about running a comic book. Right. Because you buy your books every week, you pay cash every week. So you have to sell through X amount of comics every week just to pay for, you know, next week's comics or I don't know, pay your bills or eat, you know, that's right. a core group of people that have supported my store. I'm going on 28 years this year that are there every week and I really rely and I love those guys, engross, because they come in every week

and they're passionate about it and they wanna see the stuff, new stuff and they wanna see the covers and all that. And pre-orders too. When people can let me know before the book comes out, hey, I want to jump on this on issue 87 or whatever. And that helps a lot. But I've talked with other stores, owners in Saginaw and stuff.

And we've all kind of all came to an agreement that, you know, yeah, it's like we really rely on these people and that's the hardest part is getting people to just buy their stuff on a time in a timely basis. Right. Understand when they let their pull box go for two months, three months, four months, you know, I'm tolerant to a certain level and then at some point I'm just like, okay, you're done. Yeah, they're back on the shelf. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. I have what I call the penalty box. It's literally like people whose books have stacked up and I get it. People have, you know,

their furnace blows up or their car blows up or and I'm like last on the list of priorities for people. Right. And I'm not like selling insurance or food or whatever. Sure. It's their entertainment budgets. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But on the other hand, it's, you know, when people come in my store, it's like their happy place. And I love that. That's the thing that probably really keeps me passionate about what I'm doing is people will walk in and literally just breathe in. You know, the smell of ink in the paper, you know, and they're like, oh, I love that smell, you know,

where I'm, I guess I'm immune to it. I don't know. Probably smells like feeding in my store now. No, it's that local business. You know, like, I mean, there's very few of those that really survive and thrive nowadays, you know, because of online shopping and all that. Oh yeah.

The average any business goes out of, you know, if you don't make it after the first two, three years, you're toast, you know? Yeah. But I, you know, my customer, I have a special relationship with my customers. I get to know them. You know, when somebody walks in, it's like, you know, hey, Kyle, you know, or, you know, I'll, you

got to use somebody's name, you know, name recognition goes a long way. It does. When people walk in and they're like, wow, he remembers my name, you know. Yeah. I work in sales too. So yeah, definitely it's important. It is. Yeah. Yeah. And I remember, you know, and I remember what they like, like, like say I got a guy who collects J. Scott Campbell covers, you know, and if it's a title that's not even on his poll list, I will go ahead and just throw one in the guy's box and he'll come right. Oh, wow. Cool. You pulled that for me. I saw that on the internet, blah, blah, blah. How'd you know?

I'm like, oh, I'm just psychic like that, I guess. blah blah blah, how'd you know? I'm like, oh, I'm just psychic like that. I guess. Right. So it's a relationship, you know? And no, absolutely. And it's, you know, not an easy relationship. There's a lot of give and take. Yeah. So it's like, I try to, you know, I create a bond with people. And if you look, you're like, if you go to my Google reviews and stuff like that, well, first thing it'll say is, they got the coolest dog in their store. Yeah. Right, yeah.

Yeah, it's like I was looking at the other day and it was hashtag dog or whatever was like the top thing on my Google. Yeah, the PD brigade running through the Google reviews. Yeah. But I get to know people and I have people that have moved away, Kyle, the same thing, you know that I still ship to you know Yeah, I got a guy down Sterling Heights

It's been with me all 28 years and I should piss stuff to him every other week Well, let me take that opportunity to say I I actually make an hour track when I can and you're right It is hard to always get my books. Right, but I want to go off the point you made too. I do what I can to get it together to get there because when you walk in that door, when you get to Madison Avenue, or when I get to 1018 Madison in Bay City and walk through those doors and I get greeted by PD the Wonder Dog and Mr. Moore and it not even just the smell of the pulpy paper and looking through and seeing what relics that may fit along with the storyline I got or not but just like you said wrapping with John about what books are coming out or Dan or

whatever you know whoever's running the counter, it's typically John. But you know, and PD might not even be in there, but then you've got the customers themselves who bump into them or here in them having their conversation with John, you get this small communal kind of environment that really does feed into that aspect of being in a community.

And one of the things I love the most about being a part of the comic books community is saying my LCS, my store is Cashman's. I've been to Cashman's pretty much since I started reading consistently in 2011, but I told you when I pitched you on this interview, John, that I was gonna tell you a story. When I was 14, I came into your store and I bought a copy of Ultimate Spider-Man from Bendis

and it was my true probably first foray into comic books and I knew I didn't have the scratch or the ability to make the trip and I knew that story though And I've always came back and I've always been happy to and like I'm so glad I've been able to have this experience with you But to continue on and by the way, there's a new ultimate spider-man number one that just yeah Yeah, I saw that too. I was like, oh I could jump on too, huh? Like eight covers, you know, yeah, but anyway, no, no, I appreciate that too. I was like, oh, I could jump on too. Huh? Like eight covers, you know? Yeah, but anyway, no, no, I appreciate it and I you know, it's weird how you Influence people and not even know it like I have people because I've been there so long that people right, right?

You know with their kids, you know early on and then that kid gets into it and and now he's shopping there with his kids You know, it's like it's like the next generation, you know But that that's very very cool, you know, I and people like I've had people tell me oh my god You know if it wasn't for you you were like a dad to me when my dad died this guy told me recently Oh, wow. No idea his dad even died. Right. All I knew was he came in and his grandma would bring him in the store and you know, and now he shops in with his kids. And but just you know, maybe about a year ago, he told me that you know, I was like this

father figure to him. I spent like three minutes with this kid in the store and I was on to another customer, you know, but right, I made that connection, you know, notice him. I spent like three minutes with this kid in the store and I was on to another customer, you know, but I made that connection, you know, you notice him exactly. You meant something to somebody. You notice him as a person. Yeah. So we recently covered Wonder Woman like he got into the thing I wanted to kind of ask you about is at that time, although critically later on after 2011, it was kind of considered a failure as a business. How did not just DC sales, but your bottom line feel from the new 52? It was huge, you know, it was huge at first, but then it was almost like people, oh, well, been there done that. Yeah. You know, oh, gonna another number one, you know, blah, blah, blah. And then DC got smart and went

back to the old numbering on action and in detecting. You know, it was, it was Marvel books too though, right? Because they kind of saw the the blood in the water and what what the all knew all different things. So you you had a little sustained success, but it tapered off a little bit, right? Okay. They're consistently trying to reinvent theirself with the same old stuff. I mean, I hate to say, right? It's a lot of it. It is. And Marvel with the number ones, oh my God, they're getting ready to, you know, or do a ghostwriter number one again. And a lot of

times they'll just start at number one, they have a new creative team Well, yeah Used to be that a comic would just keep going and the creative team would come on on certain story arcs and that sort of thing Just to make you things even more confusing. They'll put you know, it's issue number one But legacy number, you know 407 you know, yeah, so there's two numbers on a book so you get a new reader that walks in the store They're confused. They're like well, isn't this number one? Shouldn't I buy five copies? You know, people still have that state of mind.

And as much as I would love to sell really copies, I, you know, I, Right, you know better. Buy the hand and go, look, you know, this is what's going on. They've been doing this for years. Go with, I always tell people, go with what you like. You know, go with the artists or go with the author

that you like because you'll be a reader and you'll be a customer a lot longer. And that's proven true so many times. Yeah, I, again, guilty. Yeah, I feel that's, that's been me there as well. I agree. And, you know, and new books are not totally, you know, everything to me. I love old comics. And when I get in like that, I feel like I'm, you

know, preserving history every time I bag and board and keep these books in good condition. And I do sell a lot of back issues and stuff too. Especially during the summer when I do I do my anniversary sale every summer, is like probably the coolest sale as far as I'm concerned that any store ever does. I start in on July 1st which is my anniversary of the store and I go all the way to Labor Day where I sell like back issues know, anything up to $4.99 is a dollar and then $5 to $7.99 is two and $8 and up is half off. Is that and if you're buying a $400 back issue and you're getting it for 200 bucks, yeah, right. You're gonna come back, you know, I and I literally have people, you know,

I don't know any other store like I said that does a sale that long and I've been doing it for years But I literally have fellow families that like plan their camping trips around my summer sale Right. Yeah, they'll come to Bay City State Park and go camping And when they have a rain day or you know a day off or something The whole family will come in and hunt for back issues and they're like and they'll walk out with boxes of stuff You know and I it's a great way for me to move product It's a great, you know because the thing about you know Comic stores as you get new stuff every week and if you don't sell through it eventually you start to run out of room

So it's a great way to turn stuff over People get a great deal. It's a win-win, you know, you know, you touched on Dan Brandt that worked for me. Oh my gosh. I would be lost without Dan Brandt. He has worked for me for 25 years and he's been there through me thick and thin. He's come up with different ways to market things. Snazzy little deals on Facebook, deals on the board. Yeah, because whenever he works on a Saturday, because a lot of times in the studio with my band recording on Saturdays, Dan will work for me and he'll always post, come on in, you know, Dan O's having great deals and I don't bring a cookie. Yeah, yeah, bring him a cookie. Exactly. But

I don't care. You know, I don't worry. I never worry about my business when Dan's there. And I can't say enough good things about this gentleman. He's just gone above and beyond and made my story into what it is today. And he was a teacher for many years. So literally on the announcements at school, he would say,

you know, free comic book days this weekend. And, you know, and, and, and, and promote the store and, and brought in, you know, dozens, if not hundreds of kids and people and stuff. That's awesome. And free comic book day. That's a whole another ball of wax. So, oh yeah. For sure.

Yeah, that's that's that's good. Yeah, that's turned into something pretty cool. So you turn into a little medium machine when May rules around too. I got to say, and I love it too. Every time I hear about John hitting TV five and stuff like that, I get a smile on my face for sure. I try to get as much, I start on that in like February. I start poking Adam and go, well, I mean, you probably keep a couple of people

every year, don't you? You probably have a couple made Juniors, I'm sorry, made in July, made in September, there's a couple every year, don't you? Oh, you mean like new people? Yeah, or people who stick around for a six issue arc or something like that, you know? Yeah, you do.

The thing, you know, the publishers have gotten hit to free comic book Day is a great catalyst to introduce new storylines. So a lot of times they'll do stuff like that, like, you know, like a crack dealer basically, we're going to give it away, your kids free. Yeah. For that, you got to get the rest or whatever. But I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm happy to do Free Comic Book Day.

I love it. But there are some people that I see once a year, you know, they come in, how many can I get, you know, and, you know, and whatever, you know, I just smile and say, here you go. And maybe they'll give that book to somebody else that'll read it and enjoy it. Well, and everybody you see, they're having a good time because there's there's five people right I was gonna say there's five people having the best time They're getting art done out on the lawn or they're dressed up getting a picture or something like that It's always a it's gotten bigger and better every year

And I and I partnered with libraries to when I do that I have literally donated thousands of comments when I do that, I have literally donated thousands of comments to, uh, Bay County, IASCO, AirNAC, uh, Akron Fairgrove, and just coming up in May, I'm going to be starting to work with Chihuahua River District Library. Very cool. Pleasant. They reached out to me and they said, we want to do free comic book day two, and they, I mean, they ordered hundreds of books. I mean, I mean they ordered hundreds I mean so that's awesome. I Can't afford I really afford to give away so much stuff Right, you know that I do get them at a discounted rate But it still cost me a lot of money to do this promotion, you know And they're gonna come and pick them up and then I'll get to meet them face to face

It'll be cool. But but like me County. They're they're so good to me. They put in an order every month for comics and graphic novels, a lot of manga. I supply all four branches of the Bay County Library, like the children's room, if you walk in and you see all the comic books in there, those are, they all, they bought those all for me. That's awesome. So yeah, so I'm very, very community oriented and I'm happy to do it. I've sponsored softball teams. I mean, literally, you know, if anybody walks in and they're like, A pillar of the community.

Yeah, well, they're like, hey, you know, we're from the Boys and Girls Club. Can you give us a gift certificate or, you know, I just recently donated a gift certificate to a my friend Kevin Ross who plays in a band too and he was doing a show to to a benefit for the old news boys in Flint. Okay. Right. I'm like, oh yeah, here you go. Here's a $50 gift certificate. You know, there you go. It's not hurting anything. I'm not losing money. I'm getting, it's like, you know, free publicity, you know, right? You know, until they cash the gifts or never get in. But, but still, you know of wrap it up here, I want to get into the presence as a store for a moment here because you talked about

going with what you like and I think it's kind of evident who your favorite superhero is in Green Lantern because that Emerald Store is so awesome. It gives us so much personality and it gives us such a cool theme that I always pop for and like every time I go by it I always kind of point to people and point that out that inside that store is such a cool little layout but I never really took the time to appreciate the ceiling and how you have all of the superhero logos draped across this paneling.

Yeah, well, wife number one, as she likes to be called, we're still very close and good friends. It's not, you know, she's an excellent artist, Suzanne Costner. When I remodeled the store, she made all those and it turns out it actually worked really well when my kids were little. I'd bring them in the store. It was like a game they had to walk around and go, OK, that's, you know, Green Lantern and that's Superman. And, you know, and I still play with little kids if they come in now and they're getting, you know, fidgety and trying to find back issues. Like, you know, think about it and go, look up here.

Look, look up there. OK, do you know what that one is? And, you know, most of them never get Aquaman or Punisher, but that's okay. Right, yeah. Really quick, you know, like we were talking about towards the beginning, you're musically inclined. I know it, and we've kind of brought it up here and there.

But more often than not, if people want to find you, they find you at BMOs, play it with CDF. You got two more years until you've reached the 30th anniversary of being a retailer as a comic book store owner. How do you feel about the industry going forward? I am a little scared with the variants and stuff like that, but I, you know, I've learned to adapt. And I can live through everything I've lived through so far. I've learned to adapt and I can live through everything I've lived through so far. I don't think I'll have any problem.

You know, it's all about customer service, regardless of what the product is. You know, if you, if you give people common courtesy, you get them the books they want, you know, because you know, I go the extra mile. If I, if I can't reorder it, I will just, I'll go on eBay and just buy it and put it in somebody's box and go, here you go, you know, I've got this book for you and I'll take a hit on it. I don't care because, you know, people, they just want the books they want until the next one comes, you know. It's true. So I am just a freak about making sure people get the stuff they want.

Well, I think when it comes down to it, like I was getting at, there's like a communal aspect there, right? Like, even if you don't see me as much, when you see me, you know I'm there and I'm coming back and I've been happy to be there for as long as I'd have. And I hope that any and all of you out there are listening, come there soon. 1018 South Madison, Bay City, Michigan. Yep, we're right on the corner of Madison in 20 seconds. I'm gonna definitely have to go over there. I work right outside of Bay City. So one of these days after work,

I'm gonna have to stop by for sure. Yeah, you can also find John online at www.cashmanscomics.com. Thank you for coming on, man. It was really interesting to hear about your story and everything. Yeah, not a problem. It's been fun. Absolutely. And with that, thank you guys so much for coming here. John, thank you for joining us.

Yeah, Kyle, Brad. It's been a pleasure. All mine for sure. And with that, we will see you guys again here soon.