God knows I spent money like a drunken sailor in shops that gave great service. There was a fellow named Walt who worked in one store in Baltimore who was getting the shaft by his manager, so he moved to another store and took a great many customers (including me) with him. Our relationship progressed to the point where (he knowing my taste in comics) would pull new books for me that I hadn’t asked, saying “You have GOT to read this. It’s just like you: weird.”
Then I moved to Charlotte to the Big Assed Comic Store, whose clerks could barely remember to pull my comics, probably because it favored Cerebus and Fantagraphics over Marvel and DC. After a few weeks of that, I cancelled my list and dropped by when I felt like it instead.
Well, astro, next time you’re in Vegas, drop me an e-mail. After the traditonal Asbestos Mango Massage, I’ll take you down to Dreamwell. I haven’t asked about pull-list discounts, but I’ve been told by other customers that they are very good about pulling requested titles. Also, they know their product and are very nice. They seem to be out of bags and boards this week though, I hope they get some in soon. They are very good with the recommendations, too. Today when I was sitting on the floor pawing through the cardboard boxes the collected serieseses are in (yeah, it’s that kind of place), I found two likely prospects, held them up over my head and asked which one I should buy. LOTDK- Jazz was what I ended up with. Great story.
Going in on a Wednesday afternoon is a real treat, too. They unpack the boxes right there in the middle of the floor, so you have to climb over the shopkeeper and the boxes to get to the back issues. lt’s great social event if you show up at the right time of the afternoon, because there are usually at least two or three other people climbing over the shopkeeper and boxes, and each other (the store is about the size of my desk) waiting for the boxes to be unpacked, chitchatting about story arcs, why Kyle isn’t as good a Green Lantern as Hal was, lamenting the fact that kids don’t read comic books any more -hell, kids don’t read anymore, playfully offering to fight the twenty-something young woman who is the youngest person in the store for the first copy of the latest Batman out of the box
So, I’m going to stop by tomorrow with my very, very first comic book pull list. I’ll ask about a discount, but if they don’t do that, I’ll still give them my business, because if these guys don’t do pull list discounts, it’s doubtful they can be found in this town, this being Vegas and all.
Dude, if you like taking your mom to porn shops, do me a favor and never ever tell me anything about your personal life again, okay?
There used to be a local warehouse-shaped comic shop in Asheville. My wife and I went there once, looking for bound copies of Sandman–but when we asked the owner if he had any, he went off on us about how inferior Neil Gaiman’s comics were, in art and dialogue, and how he didn’t carry stuff of such low quality, and so forth.
We left pretty quickly, never went back. It’s out of business now. I can’t imagine why.
Other than that place, Asheville has two comic shops. One of them is your typical geekfest: kind of dark, kind of crowded, and there’s always some awkward guy in there arguing with the owner about whether Spiderman 3 ought to have Venom’s suit in it, and if so, Venom from which Spiderman series? It’s kind of entertaining, but the place is out of the way, so I never go there anymore.
There’s a new place that’s opened, with a big room for gaming, lots of well-laid-out comics, and plenty of gaming books, as well as a decent selection of European board games (the kind with innovative rules and beautiful wooden pieces). The place has both male and female employees, and all the employees are friendly and knowledgeable. It’s a fantastic place.
Northern Virginia has a binch of really good places and a couple of “anime huts” like the one described in the OP. The bad places drive business away to the good places and the RPG freaks are basically left to their little clubhouse.
