Comic Book Heaven

[samurainoir]

[cockyhoskins]

That takes me back! Why was it that every comic book store seemed to be run by that same crotchety old man? LOL

It was a simpler time. We can debate all day what killed the comic book store, but for me it was just as much on ebay. Half the fun of collecting was the actual collecting (the pleasure of the hunt)! Now, if you need Amazing S-M 127, you just pop over to ebay and choose from the 125 different copies for sale. That's just not as satisfying!

Oh, well! Thanks for posting. I enjoyed the movie!

[ubermanx]

This is EGGSACTLY what it would look like if my Dad worked at my current comic shop. Crotchety curmudgeon in a **** hole comic shop.



- Marty

[palitoy]

Reminds me a bit of House of Fantasy in Niagara Falls.



Dude's a bit....crusty. I remember he used to just smoke right at the front counter and magazines sat at the front for 10 years plus.

[madmarva]

Comic shops are great, but, you know, I liked it when comics were in grocery, drug and convenience stores. You could get them just about anywhere.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I still think the comic industry screwed up when the abandoned the newsstand. I know the newsstand eventually died off, but the grocery aisle is still there, and DC and Marvel should have dug in and held on to the digest market. If Archie can still have a presence there, you know the multimillion dollar making super heroes could take up some real estate and sell.

Chris

[Blue Meanie]

The comic industry screwed itself when it let Diamond become a monopoly. Very few of the comic store owners challenged Diamond. Only one failed lawsuit was ever filed against them. Diamond controls everything when it comes to distribution...if that's not a monopoly I don't what is.

[madmarva]

^the blame falls on Marvel by attempting to be its own exclusive distributor by buying Heroes World, which couldn't handle the work load. It was just a stupid move that just about crashed the whole industry.

Diamond outbid Capital City for DC, image, Archie and Darkhorse in response. When Marvel's gambit with Heroes World went under, Diamond was the only logical option left to distribute its books.

[palitoy]

Diamond's stranglehold on the industry has resulted in a slight homogeneous look to most newer shops these days, it's all the same stuff, merchandised in different fashion.

While I think most newer comic retailers are cleaner and often friendlier than days past, they are kind of boring....

[Mr.Marion]

Are we really waxing poetic for smoke covered comic book shops run but crusty old men? Was the scene ever really anything special to begin with? I think the comic book industry is still a novelity business. The real irony is the characters are more well known than ever, but comics are less mainstream because of distribution.

[palitoy]

Are we really waxing poetic for smoke covered comic book shops run but crusty old men? Was the scene ever really anything special to begin with? I think the comic book industry is still a novelity business. The real irony is the characters are more well known than ever, but comics are less mainstream because of distribution.

Mileage varies, I am very good friends to this day with the owner of my local shop. He is crusty but he has a real passion for connecting folks with solid reading material. His store doesn't have the toys and other merch that the so called "Mega Store' downtown has but he also has 100% less a-hole hipster clerks texting and ignoring you.

However, there were some real nightmare stores back in the day, messy, smelly holes in the wall with misanthropic weirdos at the helm. I don't miss those except on a kitsch level.

[Figuremod73]

What I miss the most is the 25/50 cent bins. I use to go into a shop that had a room filled with just those. I could always find a good months worth for ten bucks, and it was good comics to, even if they were a little bad condition wise.

[FETT1]

GREAT VIDEO...GREAT ol GUY ...AWESOME and SAD at the same time !!....I usually pick up my file ,check the newbie releases and gone...under 10 minutes !....Back in the day we would bus it to downtown ...hit the arcades and then the comic shops ...dang those were GREAT DAYS !

[Earth 2 Chris]

I definitely don't miss the Baseball card/Comic shop. The first comic shop I ever frequented briefly turned into this in the early 90s, and the baseball guy was an obnoxious cretin who disdained all comic buyers. When that shop went out in the 90s backlash, it didn't surprise me at all.

Chris

[palitoy]

I definitely don't miss the Baseball card/Comic shop. The first comic shop I ever frequented briefly turned into this in the early 90s, and the baseball guy was an obnoxious cretin who disdained all comic buyers. When that shop went out in the 90s backlash, it didn't surprise me at all.

Chris

We had a bunch of those here too (although Hockey cards were the big seller) and yeah, there seemed to be this conceit that the comic guys were geeks and the card guys "jocks". It was silly, the only way you could tell the two groups apart were their shirts.