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Favorites of Walt: The Comic Shops #2 – Comics & Collectibles

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Walt

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Not long after discovering Capp’s Comics, my friend and I discovered another store that sold comics–Comics & Collectibles. This store was in a back/side area of a local shopping plaza…rather out of the way, and if you weren’t looking for it, you wouldn’t even know it was there.

It had many of the newer comics–like Capp’s did–but seemed to have a much different sort of selection of back issues. The quantity was less, but unlike Capp’s, this place had a couple tables with boxes both on and under the tables full of comics for $.25 or 5/$1. There were also boxes of "sets" and "grab bags" for good prices…and for awhile at one point, there were several boxes of old STAR comics and Archies for $.10/ea.

The store owner even had a weekly column about comics in the local paper, which was very cool to read at the time.

It was this comic shop that my friend and I would primarily geek out on back issues. Poring over our back issue guides, and then being amazed at all the great deals we found in those bargain bins (never mind that the condition of the issues wouldn’t always be pristine, or that we later realized that just because an issue had "Sub-Mariner" in the title did not mean it was the series where the issues were "worth" $75+ apiece…just as it never occurred to us that no comic shop owner at that time would even consider putting such valuable comics in a bargain bin).

A couple times, Dad paid $25 to give me a "credit" with the shop for the bargain bins. It gave me a sort of "Tab" so that I could walk in and pick up some bargain issues, without having to spend "new cash." Made for a pretty sweet deal.

As new issues go…it was at this store that I first saw something called "Batman: The Vengeance of Bane" and thought it looked stupid and pointless–and I passed on it. I picked up the first issue of something called Batman: The Sword of Azrael, but thought that it was boring so never picked up the other issues. (To my regret when Knightfall rolled around). Also got my first issue of Spider-Man 2099 here.

And it was–in the heart of that collector mentality that I’m somewhat afraid to admit I was victim of at the time–at this store that my mom, my friend, and I waited in THE hugest line I’ve ever seen at a comic store, for the chance to walk through the store to purchase a single copy apiece of the black-bagged Superman #75.

I recall a few bicycle rides out to this store–about a 40-45 minute journey each way, but highly worth it. Once such journey was where I picked up something called "Kingdom Come," with art by the guy who did that Marvel series–Marvels. (The names Kurt Busiek, Mark Waid, and Alex Ross didn’t mean much in and of themselves to me yet–I followed characters, not writers or artists. Though Alex Ross was the first artist whose work I distinctly recognized).

And it was partway through high school–1996 or 1997–that Comics & Collectibles closed its doors. I still had other comic shops to go to, so it wasn’t a huge loss, except in that sentimental sense.

NEXT WEEK: Fun Stuff Cards & Comics.

Filed under: Favorites of Walt, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Comic Shops | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

Favorites of Walt: The Comic Shops #1 – Capp’s Comics

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Walt

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Capp’s Comics was the first comic store I ever experienced. I recall being amazed at its very existence, as well as the selection of comics available. There was a long row of tables covered with stacks and stacks of new comics. There was an aisle-length upright, double-sided rack of new comics. DC and Marvel on one side, Image and other smaller publishers on the other side. There seemed an endless selection of comics in boxes along the outer walls of the store. There were comics and the walls.

I’d never seen such a place. They had recent Superman and Batman comics, like what they’d have at Waldenbooks or Finast. They had older issues, including issues I’d missed years before. They had early issues of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, and they even had some of the Mirage-published issues.

After being introduced to Capp’s, Waldenbooks and Finast seemed second-rate. I preferred to get my comics at Capp’s…and over a period of several months, started going there more and more (thanks to Dad driving me, and buying my comics for me).

It wasn’t too long into going to Capp’s that The Death of Superman was announced. The store owner was offering a pre-order deal…you could pre-order however many copies of just "the death" issue, or the whole story. Dad pre-ordered 2…one for us to read and one for putting away. You could also choose to pick the issues up as they came out, or at the end–we opted for "at the end."

That’s how it happened that that day in November 1992, the family had one of our quiet nights in–and Dad and I both read the entirety of The Death of Superman in one sitting. Since the issues had been pre-ordered (and, I believe, pre-paid-for, too) we had no hassles with getting any of the issues.

I became a definite "regular" at Capp’s. Dad would take me most weeks, and I’d get a few comics. The latest Superman issue, definitely, and a bit of whatever else I was following at the time.

In 1999 when I went off to college, I started a pull box, and maintained that throughout my college career, even when I wasn’t following much.

And it was with a definite heavy heart of disappointment that I discovered one evening in early 2004 that the store had closed its doors permanently, after several years at a new location.

The comic shop was a regular part of my life for almost 12 years…at the time, that was almost the entirety of my comic-reading/collecting life. I went to that comic shop nearly ever week for nearly seven years, and on a regular basis those next five.

Now, occasionally I’ll bump into the store owner at local one-day comic events, and we’ll chat briefly; the usual sort of pleasantries.

Capp’s Comics was my first comics "home," and remains one of the most significant comic shops that’s been a part of my life.

NEXT WEEK: Comics & Collectibles.

Filed under: Favorites of Walt, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Comic Shops | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

Favorites of Walt: The Comic Shops #0

Posted on January 29, 2011 by Walt

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When I was introduced to comics in late 1988 and early 1989–ages 7/8–comics were found in a pretty fancy spinning thing at Waldenbooks at the local mall, or in a "traditional" wire spinner rack at Finast (later became Tops), the local grocery store. My grandfather and uncle could get comics at a local drug store, and Kmart occasionally had bags of comics. Hills, a local department store, also occasionally had shrink-wrapped 3-packs of comics.

A couple years later, I discovered a mail-order company that specialized in comics. I’d receive their monthly catalogs: Entertainment This Month, where one could pre-order new/upcoming comics. And American Entertainment, where a select quantity of particular comics was available at marked-up prices.

Back then, I loved getting to stop in Waldenbooks to look for new Superman and/or Batman comics. Sometimes I got a couple issues with consecutive numbering…but in many cases, I’d be missing a "middle" issue. It was just an accepted thing. There just weren’t other outlets for finding those missed issues. Frankly, I don’t think I even fully noticed that. I mean…I was only vaguely aware that Robin had died–and I got that from The Mud Pack chapter 3, where Batman’s confronted on the cover by a ghostly image of Robin, and the story had him referring to Robin being dead. And I wasn’t even sure what was going on with Superman–he was in space and needed some sort of breathing apparatus, while someone was struggling with who they were on Earth and became Clark Kent.

One of my friends was also "into" comics at the time, with a similar background. During the summer of 1992, he’d obtained a Superman #1 comic, and it was really thick. It was about some guy possessing people, starting an even bigger story. Turned out it was Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #1, part of the Eclipso: The Darkness Within crossover.

There was a store in the same mini-plaza where his mom took him for a haircut that sold comics. Like…the store itself was basically selling nothing but comics, and some sports cards and such. It was a comic store. Which was quite the amazing concept to me at the time. Who ever heard of a store that only sold comics and the like?

I was 11 at that point, and was standing on the edge of a whole new world…a world I live in to this day, despite all the twists and changes and events that have happened since then. But it seems most probable that it was my introduction to the Direct Market, to comic shops, that took what I often imagine my parents figured for a casual hobby and turned it into a regular part of my life, that has in one way or another informed much of my life for the last couple decades.

Over the next several weeks, I intend to share a series of short posts about the various comic stores that have been any significant–or at least, a repeated–part of my life. Some are still around, others are long gone.

This weekly journey begins Friday, February 4th with Capp’s Comics…my first comic shop.

Filed under: Favorites of Walt, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Comic Shops | Tagged: , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

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