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Underground > Comic Books >

Whats yer local like?

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Goodness Gracious Meme

14:40 / 20.01.03

Hmm. we only have *one*, a piffling, one comic shop in Brighton, can remember when there were three or four but the rest have died.

So we have David's Comics. I like it, its small and friendly, and I'm not a difficult customer, I generally have £3 to spend on comics and am only ever reading a couple of things at a time so it does me fine. I also like it 'cause someone I know works there, so comics day is a good excuse to catch up with her.

Yes, you read me right, they employ a female, commonly known as a woman.

Admittedly a couple of the staff do fall more into the stereotypical comic shop assistant mould, but no-ones perfect.

The bad side is that she's very good at pointing out things that i've never heard of, spend five minutes reading, and instantly *need*. Which never happened in Forbidden Planet.

Aside from that, the next best option is an Oxfam shop which seems to get shedloads of comics dumped in it reguarly.

Pathetic showing, given that this town's stuffed with the perfect target audiences.

14:46 / 20.01.03

My local's not bad. When I lived in Tulsa, I used to have to endure a shop that was filled to the gills in only T&A rags; Marvel, DC and Image (and some Dark Horse for the "non-mainstream" stuff. We're pushing the envelope, eh?). It was a nice shop, good folks working the counter, but the selection was always crap. Ironically, when I was there for X-mas break, I noticed they'd expanded. Into... yes kiddies... even more room for crap.

But now, having moving to Boulder, I rather like my Time Warp Comics. It's a cozy hole-in-the-wall shop that has an old Star Wars arcade game (the vector graphics one with the Death Star mission) always running near the back issue stacks and a decent selection of indies along with all my usual gotta-haves. Granted their toy and merchandise selection almost overwhelms the comic shelves but I likes it. Better than my old standby.

The best I've ever been to though was Planet Comics in Norman, Oklahoma (I think they were part of a CBLDF case once that entailed them selling some risque comic to a minor). That was a dream store of indies and undergrounds galore.

yawn - thing's buddy

14:50 / 20.01.03

yeah, I've heard good reports on Gosh! (here and elsewhere) but I'd say Mega City was the one to produce 'treats'

15:18 / 20.01.03

Ah comic shops I have known...

Actually on Bengali's notion of women working in comicshops being in some way a rare thing, I can think of a fair few comic shops that have female staff, Including Gosh and Forbidden Planet. At one end of the spectrum there are places such as Abstract Sprockets In Norwhich is usually staffed by the very friendly and helpful Lisa, while The cartoon shop of Basildon is usually staffed by women over the age of 50. Strange but true.

16:14 / 20.01.03

Haus has nailed the London shops perfectly, especially as regards FP, which is surely only a bead of sweat from being closed on public health grounds.
I'd vote Gosh for preference, but Comic Showcase for opening times if necessary. The staff in Gosh are friendly and clean, and will look out for stuff for you and order stuff and the like, which is always a good thing. Not a bad advert for the medium, I guess, or for how to run a shop generally.

DBC

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

22:18 / 20.01.03

my local shop in albuquerque is about to lose me as a customer
for 4 years i have been shopping there, even after i moved to within 2 minutes of another shop i drove the 25 to Noble, the problem is that the guy who managed the shop quit, and its gone to shit since
I still dont have the last invisibles trade and new xmen 136 wasnt there when i went in yesterday, and everyone here seems to have read it already.
This town kind of sucks, and I hate moving my subscription list due to fear of losing out on issues in the interim...

23:09 / 20.01.03

I have several "local" shops available to me...
As I live abou 30 mile north of where I work.

The Comic Depot is localted about a mile from where I work. This is the shop I hit regularly, on my lunch break on wednesdays. It's alright, there's a high school prettymuch across the street from the little shopping plaza it's located at so there's often a hord of highschoolers milling about in the parking lot, outside the donut shop a few stores down. Only 2 students are allowed in at a time "to prevent shop lifting I figure" the little sprats!!!

Mostly traditional stuff with a small Manga section, a counter containing cards and figures... it does alrght.

Now... down the road from where I live is...
Comic Releaf locaed right in Downtown Berkeley. This plase is classic Berkeley mellow combined with an excellent shop. It's usually open 'till 8 or 9pm. Music playing and cats roaming the isles freely... this is really their shop I suppose. This store has everything, Lots of out of print stuff... Foreign books, lots of rare finds with knowledgable staff. The "new Books" are in the back, the Adults books are in the back around a corner, there's a counter at the front for buying and a counter at the back for selling. There's plenty of minatures, toys and that sort of things as well as a section for Books of a large and hard to find variety. It's Sooo easy to spend money there & the owner while of the bearded variety is always super nice and will randomely cut deals with you. Bought the hardcover of Joe Sacco's Save area Grorasda a $30 book for half price 'cause when I mentioned I was curious about sacco's work he noticed that one of the hardcover's dust cover had a small rip. He handed it to me and said, "half-price." That's cool... he was more interested in getting a reader into something new... I've noticed him do that sort of thing on several occasions.

Mister Six, whom all the girls

15:41 / 29.01.03

Million Year Picnic is your bedroom with a bunch of comics in it... so... it's your bedroom. It's downstairs in Harvard Square and staffed by a guy with scary hair and another dude with a COBRA tatoo who call me Mr Lee. They're very great and make you feel okay about buying comics rather than the other store that plays Japanese Wrestling and Weird Al tapes that make you want to renouce comics altogether (this other store is New England Comics and is just around the corner strangely enough... Ben is a great great guy, but the store is really a killing jar for the soul).

MYP has a large indie section with adult stuff teenage boys can be caught gawking at. Along the walls are new comics, and in the center are a few bookcases with graphic novels, more indies, etc. The best part for me is that they play the best music. Almost always indy tunes, and the staff are always great.

Brigade du jour

22:09 / 30.01.03

Angel and Superman cardboard cut-outs in window, which doesn't exactly draw me in off the street. Not fantastic efficiency on the 'getting new releases in' front, a few toys, t-shirts and other gubbins as well as actual publications, nice mixture of stuff for casual observer and dedicated nut fanboy/girl.

But friendly, helpful service and that counts for a lot these days.

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