“There he was, standing in all of his 81-Points-in-one-game glory, wearing his blue and red NBA-approved sweat suit. The dimes fell from my hand onto the counter like copper and tin rain as I gasped out a meager, ‘Kobe!’

“Kobe, his one-man entourage and bodyguard all snickered unsurprised at my reaction as I fumbled around the counter to open the door. As I took out my keys I heard Kobe’s friend say, ‘That’s one way to get them to open up.’

“I opened the door and shook the hands of the three men as they entered the store and said, ‘Welcome to Lee’s Comics, how can I help you?’ I must have been working on some sort of autonomous shock setting as I spoke with Kobe, stunned that he was in San Mateo and in Lee’s Comics asking him, ‘So what kind of stuff are you into?’”

Also: A Kyle Baker audio interview.