PHOTOS: spelunking in the most awesome comic shop ever

[thehefner]

In Fresno, a mere block away from where I was performing, Henchgirl and I discovered a comic shop called Wonderland Comics. At first, we thought it was closed, as from the outside it looked rundown and shut up for the day (if not permanently).

But the door opened to reveal the person Henchgirl would later refer to as "The Gnome Man": a squat, large-bellied man with haggard gray hair and a great bushy beard (to be said aloud in your best Jim Broadbent voice). If he had legs--or indeed anything below the waist--we never saw them. The only actual movement he made upon our entrance was to lower his copy of THE COMICS JOURNAL and look over his glasses at us with mild interest that turned into mild disdain when we confessed, "No, we're just here to browse."

Then we saw the shop itself.




He had no new issues. He barely had any trades, and even those were a couple shelves of worn-out old editions of random books. What he had was back issues and used comics. Boxes and boxes and boxes of them, piled one atop the other, with little sense of organization nor care. Some boxes were tipped over, naked comics stacked and spilled over the floor.

Plus, the entire back section was devoted to shelves upon shelves of old sci-fi and fantasy paperbacks, surrounding a haphazard desk section presumably used by the Gnome Man himself, at some point. And there were action figures, some still in their dusty packages, but mostly out of package, far beyond mint, filled inside a large rubber bucket like some child's assortment at a garage sale.

It was as if this was his entire collection, and it was so huge and sprawling that he opened a comic shop to house and show it off. Selling stuff to make money wouldn't be an objection, but it was far from his priority. So why even bother to organize? Why bother to even be clean? This wasn't a shop for your average comic customer. Far as we could tell, it was a shop for people like him. People like us. And it. Was. AMAZING.


Just look for yourself:







If that first photo looks a bit dark, it's because one of the overhead florescent lights was out, so an entire section was enshrouded in darkness. When we came back, I suggested we bring along my camping lantern, and we spent the next hour or so going Comic Spelunking:








Henchgirl came away with an assload of 90's CATWOMAN comics, whereas I got a bunch of stuff which I'll be posting about in the near future. If we didn't have to get dinner before the show (and if the dust in there wasn't killing me, because OH MY GOD SO MUCH DUST), we could easily have spent a day combing through that shop.

It wasn't the BEST comic shop I'd ever been to, in the sense of what I consider makes a great comic shop. In fact, according to my own criteria, it would technically qualify to be one of the worst. And yet, it is almost certainly the most AWESOME one I've ever seen.



Question, comic fans: what do you consider to be the perfect comic shop? What do you look for in a store? Do you prioritize new issues? Graphic novels and trades? Back issues? What about non-comic merchandise, like toys, cards, and/or games? Does such a store exist for you, or has nothing yet lived up to your ideal?

Comments

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

Aw, man. Those pictures make me miss my old hometown comic shop all the more. It was like that comic shop's little brother -- boxes to the ceiling, old issues everywhere, but probably half the floorspace, if that.

What an amazing place.

[kagome654.livejournal.com]

Haha, you and I clearly have different priorities when it comes to comic shops. The disorganization (and talk of dust!) is making me twitch. Not to say I wouldn't enjoy visiting Wonderland (it kind of reminds me of my favorite used bookstore), but I'd probably spend a lot of time saying things like 'Why is this here? It should be over THERE!' and 'Do you think he'd mind if I alphabetized these?'

I like a shop to have loads of trade paperbacks, a nice selection of titles from publishers other than the big two, and a helpful (non creepy) staff.

Heroes Cards & Comics here in London is about as close to perfection as I think I'm going to get. It's clean, well organized, has an eclectic collection of titles and the staff is friendly. It is just a genuinely pleasant kind of place.

They also don't seem to mind that I can spend up to an hour there just wandering the shelves, flipping through everything and treating it like a library.

My only complaints are that some of the aisles are too tight (I can't tell you how many action figures I've knocked to the floor), the t-shirts never come in my size (I want a Green Lantern shirt!) and their back issue selection is unremarkable (though still better than most here in London). It does lack some of the character of the smaller shops, but I do so enjoy that 23% discount I get on everything.

Edited for spelling.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Trust me, this is far from my ideal comic shop in terms of the kind of store I'd want to frequent weekly for the rest of my life. This is more like an epic treasure chest to loot and pillage and get lost in for hours and hours. The kind of shop where you dig through a box and just randomly discover the first comic you ever read, or one of those lost issues you forgot even existed, nestled there amid the near-chaos of comics.

Honestly, he just needs to hire a kid to spend a couple weeks organizing the entire store. It's clear that he absolutely doesn't care. There are boxes of god knows what on the top shelves, completely inaccessible, and boxes of twenty copies of the same issue of WHO'S WHO, in case that one gets sold, I guess.

23%?! Damn, are you a special customer, or is that standard for everyone? I can't imagine the US-Canada monetary conversion works out that your 23% is the same as out 10%, which is the standard discount for subscribers.

[kagome654.livejournal.com]

It does sound like a neat place to spend an afternoon (or two). I have to laugh at all the clutter completely blocking off some of the shelves though. I don't envy the hypothetical kid that has to organize all that (unless he's the type who would leap at the chance to paw through all those boxes and arrange them in some semblance of order).

Well, I definitely like to think of myself as special, but the discounts are actually based on the number of titles you're pulling (it starts at 10% and goes up from there). At one time I was pulling well over twenty titles a month, so my discount settled at 23%. They don't seem in a hurry to adjust it, despite the fact I'm pulling fewer books. It was especially nice when they were charging the American cover prices rather than the Canadian, way back when...

[kingrockwell]

Actually, if I had the time and didn't need any money for a week (or a month maybe), I would love to be that kid! Goddamn that place looks magical.
Scrounging through back-issues is something I really love doing, dust be damned!

Your ideal comic shop actually sounds a lot like mine, only mine would also include a vast amount of back-issues, organized alphabetically by title, and possibly separated by publisher too (and if i wanted to find something i'd never heard of, there could be a specified "misc." section because i love that kinda stuff).

That's actually pretty much what my old LCS was, and would still be if I cared to bus up there each week. The fact that they've got old TPBs on 50% clearance doesn't hurt, either.

man you guys get subscription discounts? i'm jealous
the major incentive at my current lcs to subscribe to a book is that you don't know if they'll order it otherwise (and even then it isn't a sure bet! hi Stumptown!)

[kagome654.livejournal.com]

Well, there you go, finding that kid may not be impossible after all! Someone needs to be organizational minded AND dedicated enough to actually sort those comics (I'm the former, but not the latter. So terrifically lazy...)

I actually take well organized back issues for granted until I randomly decide I need to fill the gaps in my collection.

Ah yes, 50% off trades. They're common in my LCS (which is thankfully within walking distance) as well. I've bought hardcover Marvel Encyclopedias for six bucks before. Fun stuff.

the major incentive at my current lcs to subscribe to a book is that you don't know if they'll order it

Ah. That's rarely a problem at mine. My main problem is when they stick books I have no interest in reading in my box ('Huh? I thought you liked Mark Millar! Okay, okay, I'll take it back')

Now, I'm off to google 'Stumptown' because I've never heard of it before and it's bothering me.

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

Huge collections of Trades and back issues. I gave up on buying monthlies a few years back. So, I know they must be there, but, they don't factor into my thinking. So, yeah, extensive trades and back issues. that's what I'm about.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Back issues used to be meaningless to me, as I put all my stock in collections. But lately, between stuff not getting reprinted at all and DC's current asshattery regarding the way they collect issues (a whole rant in of itself), I've become way more of a monthly-and-back-issue guy than ever.

A year ago, I would have found it inconcievable that I'd buy all of the BLACKEST NIGHT stuff in monthy issue form rather than collection. But that was before I discovered that DC was putting out BL and GL in seperate fucking collections.

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

ASSHATTERY!

[heykidzcomix.livejournal.com]

My God, those pictures almost SMELL.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Like yellowed newsprint and broken dreams. Twas glorious.

[sharkbites.livejournal.com]

Back issues are important to me, that's why I wanted to take you to the Flipside on Ventura blvd. but due to time, ah.....

BTW, did you guys eat at the Mexican truck stop I told you about?

I wouldn't mind being lost in that store.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

We tracked it down, but I completely forgot what we were supposed to order, so we may not have eaten the best they had to offer. The hotchata, however, was indeed excellent!

[kingrockwell]

Wouldn't mind? I can only wish!

[kingrockwell]

He was upset that you wanted to browse? What'd he expect, that you ask if he had something? It's not like he'd be able to tell you where it is.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I forgot to mention that his mood lightened up after he heard us both squeeing like hyperactive children on E as we went through the shop.

[sara-lakali.livejournal.com]

Why? Ohgod whyyyyyy? Why does this place have to be so damn far away? Why can't it be in Chicago? This would be very close to my ideal comic store as evidenced by the many. many nearly-erotic dreams that I have had where I discover boxes and boxes of old comics at a garage sale/flea market. Boxes of comics that contain all the books I once had, but read until they fell apart (or lost because my mother went on a cleaning binge and threw them away) and every book I ever hoped they'd write. If I lived near this store, I'd proabably beg the guy to let me organize it and clean it up just so I had an excuse to be in there for hours and days and weeks (and it's not like I wouldn't go through every single box anyway). He wouldn't even have to pay me.

[badficwriter.livejournal.com]

LOL I wanted to organize and clean it too..:P

[whimmydiddle.livejournal.com]

I'll admit, I've only skimmed the text of the post, but I thought you'd appreciate hearing that I saw that first picture, laughed out loud, and said, "That's Heffy in heaven!"

[fastbak77.livejournal.com]

This post reminds me of the sequence in hip-hop documentary SCRATCH (which is well worth checking out, BTW), where we see DJ Shadow rifling through stacks of used vinyl in search of that rare break or sample. The hunt ever ends...

And to answer your question, I'm going to plug myself and direct you to two old essays of mine that I wrote for Ninth Art several years ago:

Comic Shop Confidential: Unwanted Conversations

A Little Less Conversation

[darkestnova.livejournal.com]

This has made me realize that I get more enjoyment out of alphabetizing comic books than I do from reading them. Thank you for showing me that I'm even crazier than I thought.

[candidgamera.livejournal.com]

Love that first shot. Looks like an NBC Mystery Movie opening.

[zegas.livejournal.com]

There are 2 types of stores I frequent: the new, boutique type of stuff that carries only new stuff and art books... and the old school, down and dirty back issue explosion (usually fro really cheap, dollar bins galore).

The perfect store would be a manageable combination of both. Sometimes I wanna check out the latest and get a hardcover that's still in nice condition, and sometimes I just wanna get a stack of Ostrander/McDonell Suicide Squads for 5 bucks.

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

Hoshit, Fresno.

I want to go there one day. :(