Ever since I read the final issue of Comic Book Comics last week, I’ve been thinking about the stores that kept my habit afloat in the eighties and nineties.
Strictly speaking, I didn’t buy my weekly books from a “comics shop” as a kid. There was a used bookstore in my neighborhood that sort of slowly, accidentally transformed into a comics shop like The Fly as the nineties dawned. This kindly old couple had a little storefront buying and selling Harlequin paperbacks from housewives, and at one point one of them said, “Maybe we should put some Batmans in the back by the magazines.” By the time I was in junior high, the entire back half of the store had been swallowed by back issue bins and New Release shelves, with a special spinner rack just for the Star Comics. It was obviously not their first love; we’d all bike over there on New Comics Day and hang around them like mosquitoes, whining, “Are the comics here yet? When are you gonna put out the comics?” and the old lady would gaze heavenward and think, “Ugh, Christ, what have I gotten myself into?” She knew which side her bread was buttered on, though, and before long it was buttered almost entirely with that sweet, sweet Death of Superman money.
That store always had customers in it when I was a kid, customers of every age and gender.
I dropped out of comics for most of the nineties. When I went back to my old neighborhood in ’99 and tried to stop in, the place was vacant.
When I read about The Bust again in Comic Book Comics, I thought, “We always talk about all the stores that closed when the market crashed, but nobody ever has any examples. I mean, I can think of a bunch of comics shops in my life, and… oh, actually, all of them blinked out of existence in a five-year span. Now that I think about it. Whoops.”
My first shop: the kindly old couple took advantage of the biz, and the biz took advantage of them right back. Vacant.
The “memorabilia” store where I heard about Todd McFarlane’s Spider-Man for the first time: liquor store now.
The Android’s Dungeon where I bought Marvels in college: gone for more than ten years. It’s now what I can only call a college freshman store, full of blacklight posters, Bob Marley t-shirts, and those creepy little Grateful Dead bears. I heard the owner moved out to the exurbs and opened an anime store in a mall.
I won’t even get into the Waldenbooks where I saw Heroes Reborn and Star Trek vs. X-Men. That mall doesn’t even have a bookstore in it anymore.
Granted, there was a certain amount of Darwinism at work, and the strong survived. A block east of that old Android’s Dungeon is now one of the biggest, best comics shops I’ve ever seen in my life, and I can think of at least three more great stores within a reasonable drive from my house. Still, I find myself fixated on what it must have been like to be making your living on comics when the Image Era gave way to the Marvel bankruptcy, when distributors suddenly started dropping like Highlanders.
Imagine what it must have been like. One day, you’re selling polybagged Death of Superman and black armbands to a line that started an hour before the store opened, fielding questions from reporters from News Channel 5. Next thing you know, half the store is full of trading cards, you have to close the shades to keep from being blinded from the sunlight glinting off the holofoil covers, and unsold Spider-Clone back issues are starting to pile up all over the stockroom. Within two years, you’re managing your father-in-law’s real estate business and dodging creditors, feeling like you got blindsided by a truck.
Am I the only person fascinated by these people’s stories? I would love to interview a former store owner– or even a clerk, really– who went through the boom and bust cycle of the nineties. It’s not (solely) out of morbid curiosity; I feel like there are lessons from that period that a lot of people failed to learn. I’m still seeing a lot of variant covers. I’ve bought more polybagged comics this year than at any other point in my life. I’ve seen my shop’s manager field quite a few calls from looky-loos about a “Death of” issue that was announced to the mainstream media via press release. I don’t know anything about anything, but I look at The Way Things Are at this exact moment and think, “I have a bad feeling about this.”
I didn’t directly experience the nineties bust– having dropped out of comics for most of that time, I guess I helped cause it– and I’d really rather not live through the sequel. If you have any memories of that era, feel free to share them below in the comments. And needless to say, if you had a store back then (and don’t have it anymore) I’d love to pick your brain for a future column. Maybe you can help save us from ourselves.
Jim Mroczkowski still somehow ended up with all five X-Men #1 covers and the first appearance of Deadpool.
Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Some rights reserved.
First the comic pirates and now the lcs owners/employees? What is this, is Jimski on a quest to slowly interview everyone in the comics industry from the ground up?
It ends with me sitting down with President Obama to grill him about how he liked being on a Spider-Man cover.
Gotta do something to get that Eisner nom for Best Comics Journalism…
I experienced the fallout of a couple of stores in my small town of California City during the ’90s. I was in my early teens when that happened but it never occured to me that it was mainly the comics industry going south. I thought it was mostly my small town couldn’t support the comics/trading card/arcade games store.
At one point there was two seperate comic shops that rose and fell within the same office space. I was sad that I didn’t have a store near by anymore and would have to bug my mom to drive almost an hour away to get my comics. Then another store popped up and all was right in the world, but I couldn’t help but think, how long will this one last?
It didn’t last long and as far as I know, since I moved out many many years ago, there hasn’t been another there since.
This store came to be and not to be within an 8 year span.
I hope the industry has learned from the past but like you mentioned with all this multi-cover (I’ve noticed Dynamite doing this a lot, especially on the Kirby: Genesis comics)and polly bagged issues it seems that maybe they haven’t.
When I lived in Queens during high school (1991-1995) there where three comic book shops in walking distance from our apartment and two more in short driving distance. I believe that by the time I graduated college they were all gone.
Which ones were they? I live in Queens now and for about 4 years there was comic shop sign still up in Ridgewood, with no shop there.
They were all in Forest Hills.
Well, Hurricane is now Montasy, and that’s still there. Royal Collectibles is also still there. Was it either of those?
Nope.
As a kid, I collected baseball cards. There was 2 card shops that I could ride my bike or walk to. Sports cards had a 90’s book and bust as well. They did the exact same thing as comics in over-producing and going all variant crazy with many of the same methods (die-cut/hologram/rarities). Shortly after they over-inflated the market, most of those places started carrying Beanie Babies and Pokemon cards just to stay afloat. Pretty much all of them went out of business. Now days, if one does exist, it’s an extreme rarity. At least there still are comic book shops. For now.
The 90s didnt kill the comic shop, it was (and still is) their inability to adapt to the constantly cycling demands of their revolving door patronage. The industry changes every month, judging by the inch thick layers of dust and cobwebs over the Grendel trades in the back corner of my local comic shop, or the Black Light Spawn poster that still hangs above their chack out register, most of these stores havent changed a thing since 1993.
PS: dropping off like Highlanders! brilliant
Village Comics R.I.P
Yeah. Remember when it was in the back of Bleeker Bob’s for like five minutes?
You just reminded me that Star Trek Vs. X-Men was a thing and because I have no impulse control, I bought it off of eBay. Thanks a lot, Jim.
It wasn’t a random thing brought upon by Jimski’s article. It’s all somehow part of his nefarious plot.
who do you think was selling the Star Trek/X-Men?
Yeah, you could’ve had mine. It’s not exactly an annual reread.
No, no. I’m glad you still have your copy, Jim. That way we can have a book club discussion about it and its novel sequel Planet Xover the holidays. FYI: Attendance to said book club is mandatory. There will be a quiz.
My first comic shop that started off in a little crap hole above a chinese takeout place in the suburbs of DC now has expanded to several locations and owns the region…sadly its on the other side of the country from where i live. It was cool because during the Death of Superman fiasco, when all these bankers were coming in buying 20 copies at a 300% markup on the day it came out, he charged the kids cover price….with a wink and smile…we got the secret discount. Good stuff.
If you can swing it you should ask Dave Wyndorf of the band Monster Magnet. Before his band got a record deal he worked in a comic book shop during that era.
There used to be a comic book shop in a nearby mall. It opened right after the Image boom. What I noticed over time is gradually the comics were pushed to the back of the store to make room for action figures, t-shirts, and statues, all of which they had a rough time selling. I believe they closed before 2000.
So now if I see a comic book store in a mall I start to worry. To me it means that comics have reached the absolute peak of their popularity for a given decade, with just enough readers to justify expanding into more mainstream markets. However, when that popularity wanes for any given reason, those outposts are the first to go because they occupy the most expensive real estate and probably do the least business.
It’s a little different for me because I didn’t know any of the comic shops near me in Philly or when I moved to Jersey. Except for the one that was in the mall I would go to (Deptford). I always remember walking past it as a kid, with my parents, stopping every time because they had a gigantic poster of the Electric Blue Superman hanging by the glass. It always got my attention and every time I walked in to check the place out.
Now it’s a Municipal room and just as many go in it as when it was a comic book store. Thankfully there was another comic shop near me, which I go too now, otherwise there would be no where for me to go.
I grew up in west London and there was place called Fantastic Store on the Portobello road, round the corner from my house. There was also a news agent further down the road that sold the Marvel UK comic Overkill which I loved. I stopped reading comics once the news agent stopped selling overkill and Fantastic Store closed down. I never new why at the time, I was a naive 10 or 12 years old and only realised later. I didn’t come back to comics fully till about four years ago.
Just to clarify, I was 25 four years ago so a good 13 to 15 years before I started reading comics seriously again.
First time I bought a comic was at a Waldenbooks. That was one of my mainstays until I learned about New Comics Wednesday. Since I was only buying three books in high school, I only trekked in once in a while (I didn’t follow Previews or anything to know when each issue would come out, so I’d just keep popping in and seeing if they were there). There was Mavericks, which is now Queen City Comics, and there was a little store near me (that sold me all the back issues of X-Stinction Agenda and Infinity Gauntlet for way more than I should have paid for them right before the collected editions came out) where I did most of my shopping. That store opened in ’94 and was closed by summer of ’98. In college there was a store that opened in my freshman year, changed locations by my sophomore year, and closed before the end of my junior year. Many of these stores were also into RPG’s, so the comics bust combined with the bankruptcy of T$R did them in.
I would love to hear from some of the LCS owners that went out of business as well. My small town had a shop that would close and pop up in a different location every couple of years throughout the 90s. They recently reopened again in their 4th location and just have tons and tons of back issues in the basement-It’s like stepping into a time machine to 1992.
First place I ever bought a comic was a local pharmacy in 1989. Pretty soon after I convinced my mother to drive me to the only LCS in Rhode Island at the time (it was twenty minutes away, so literally all the way on the other side of the state). I stopped collecting in the early 90s and just picked it up again a few years ago. I was shocked that this shop is still in business, it’s pretty awesome to get the newest issue of Uncanny from the same guy who sold me issue 250.
We used to buy comics from a guy in our neighborhood. He had new and old comics in his basement. He also sold illegal fireworks and ninja stars and knives and the like. Looking back, it probably wasn’t smart going in there.
This is the funniest thing I’ve read today.
the ol’ ninja stars, fireworks, comics store in a dimly lit basement! any of your friends ever go missing?
We had one of these guy’s in the neighborhood I first grew up in at a very young age. Then we moved and around 3rd grade in an entirely different place there was another one! Their is apparently an entire chain of these dudes.
Yeah looking back it’s creepy to think about, but I had a Ninja Star at the age it matter most! So those dudes have my eternal respect!
Was it called “Uncle Touchy’s Puzzle Basement”?
@Josh- It was in New Hampshire by the way, where I grew up. Ahh, memories.
No shit. My shop seems a lot safer than that, but I’ve never been in the back room where they do the “gaming.”
Yeah, those Magic the Gathering folks give me the heebie-jeebies. Do I have enough manna to say that?
Never really went to comics shops as a kid, and never really experienced “The Bust”. The few comics I did buy were from the grocery store. However, my brother was a collector, and there were these two stores he always went to that I vaguely recall. One was behind, or somewhere near the Food Lion and was two stories tall, and had a Street Fighter arcade unit. The unit is literally all I can remember about it. Been replaced by housing units for a long time now. And the second one he went to in a local shopping center has long since been replaced by a hair saloon.
In the early 90s I became friends with LCS proprietors, nice people who couldn’t see the forest and all that because they relished in the immediate profit of the polybagged/ variant/ tin foil covers until they went out of business in the late 90s. The spot is now a kind of 99 cent store and as such it has thrived.
The county I grew up in had at least 6 comic stores that I can remember. Now only 1 remains and they sell mostly collectible card games and toys. I think honestly these places just got too big for the products they were actually selling. Except for the guy at Adventure Ink who jacked up prices as soon as books came in because they were “hot” and had a penchant for age-inappropriate anime movies involving tentacles. He lost his business on account of dickishness, creepiness and his employees constantly stealing from him.
I had a comic shop run by a family, with the older husband and wife owning the store and usually working there, and even their son worked there a lot too! It didn’t hurt that the owner and his son had the same name as me. It was a relaxing place, while not being the biggest store, they always tried to get anything I wanted. There were tons of great discounts for having a pull list, and every 5th trade I bought was 40% off. They were really friendly, and the owner was a Vietnam war veteran. I remember there were health complications with the owner starting around a month or two before it closed down, and I hope hospital bills weren’t their downfall. After a while they stopped getting shipments from Diamond for some reason I had no right to know, I had to find a new store until they got back on their feet. When I checked back a couple months later, the store was no more. It was my first comic store and I’ll never forget it. I have to go much farther now for my comics, but thankfully my new store is great as well.
I grew up in the megasuburb that is Long Island, and let me tell you, central Long Island was (and to a point still IS) the holy grail for comic book shops. In Holbrook, Super Sports Cards had a Mortal Kombat machine. When they went out, we went to Bush’s, following him through two locations in Ronkonkoma. After he stopped selling new books (but had a MASSIVE EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING is a dollar sale, which made me ever so happy) we hit the corporate Planet Comics. They were owned by Gamestop, so I have to wonder, has anyone outside of Long Island ever seen one? After they stopped getting comics, basically not caring if they filled your pulls (eventually they became a Gamestop themselves), I moved on to Golden Memories in Selden, which I’ve heard has moved for the 3rd time. Once I had a license (and even before if my parents were amenable), I traversed the Island hitting every comic store in the phone book. In all that time (almost 15 years), only maybe two stores of note went out of business, one in Hauppague when the owners retired and one in Massapequa. There was one guy who attempted at least three locations, but failed at each. I guess Long Island was a great place to grow up, at least comics wise.
The shop I frequented as a kid is now pretty much all gaming stuff. Surprised it’s still there, actually. Went in around July this year and the entire comics section was one pathetic rack. Nothing there to buy really. But a great place if you wanna play Magic with some 19 year olds. I’ve seen stores die, and I’ve seen stores survive. It happens.
I used to live in Perth, Australia, when I first made the move from grocery store Transformers and GI Joe comics to the big Leagues there were three stores in town. Only one of them, Quality Comics, has weathered the tough times and today remains largely unchanged, other than a managment change at one point.
I’ve had to move out to a regional area for work but I recently decided to get back into comics, largely thanks to the recent Marvel movies getting my kids excited about comics (proud of my 12 year old boy and his sketch pad full of Scott Pilgrim doodles). I called Quality Comics and sorted out a pull list and once a month they post me my stack, which is all together awesome. My first parcel should be in my mailbox today! Yay!
I think if they want to avoid another bust, get the kids, get em young and get em hooked. I always thought they should send a whole bunch of Free Comic Book day books to school libraries to give out to kids, or to cinema megaplexs for families going to see stuff like Cap and Thor. Imagine if every kid who attended the Avengers got a little cheap show bag with a few intro comics in it, a few stickers, maybe trading cards. It would certainly translate to more readers than giant comic con booths and celebrity panel speakers.
Jim, I’m seriously curious – this is not a troll question. In these days of trade paperback reprints and digital comics what makes you buy a polybag comic? thanks.
The recent Ultimate #1s were all polybagged, and since the digital and paper were the same price and I was in the store each week anyway I figured I’d throw my guy a couple of bucks.
I think he’s talking about that Death of Spider-Man issue, Fantastic Four #587, and the like. Marvel did it several times this year.
Thanks, makes sense.
UK shops I lost.
2 in wrexham north wales, but they were poor, unwelcoming and unreliable.
Trowbridge wiltshire, – again, unreliable and ended up owing me money when they asked for advances then never delivered comics.
Shops we should have lost ; Swansea, south wales : Spent a fortune there over the years: Visited with my wife and kids recently and found them rude, unwelcoming, dismissive, sexist and anti-kid.
Shops I’ll remember for ever: grey & pink in Chester: Friendly, easy going, welcoming owner, great selection, and sadly missed.
Well, if you are talking about re-living the 90s mistakes, look at DC’s editorial staff and artists you might as well get McFarlane in it and call it Image.
I don’t know who exactly you’re talking about, and I ask the question for the sake of argument, but do you really think all those people learned nothing about how to make and sell comics in the past 20 years?
I think you could argue that those are precisely the people you’d want handling a publisher when they are attempting to create waves in the industry (like Image did). These are the people that tried it, had some success, and then failed, allowing them to learn some important lessons about how NOT to do things.
I watched the number of comic shops in a nearby city drop from 4 to 1 during that time. It’s also the only point in my 30 years of reading that I grew tired of the industry and took time off.
The brick-and-mortar comic book shop is passe.
That may be, but they’re still necessary to keep the industry from totally imploding into a direct patronage system.
Has anyone (outside of Marvel/DC corporate) done any forecasting on what would happen if ALL brick-and-mortar comic book shops (and/or Diamond) closed up (due to debt or what have you) in a short period of time?
I know it’s unlikely, but we’re comic fans, we love “What if?”
The digital market is developing, but is not yet a replacement for Diamond. Would mail-order services like DCBS fill the void? Would Diamond fulfill orders for individual customers? Would Marvel and DC push harder for mail-order and digital subscriptions? Would every indie comic be a Kickstarter-funded project?
I’m full time DCBS. My local shop doesn’t give discounts, doesn’t pull books for you and shrugs their shoulders when you’re looking for something they’ve sold out of.
Personally, I’d prefer everything to be issued in trade format. Single issues need to die. Small limited series should go direct to trade – its ridiculous to me that stuff like Criminal is not published in trade format first.