Comic Book Stores That Settle

I haven’t added this stuff in awhile, but Substackers seem to do it often, so here goes:

“What should we watch?” - This is the question I ask my wife almost every night we eat dinner at home. It is literally the most difficult decision we have to make all day. Here’s what we have been deciding lately:

Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Season 2 - My friend Mike recently posited that Star Wars is great when it does not revolve around Jedi. He was referring to Andor, but I think it applies here, as well. I don’t personally have anything against Jedi as people, but when I look at the more recent offerings (Rogue One, Mandalorian, the afore-mentioned Andor, and Solo is the exception that proves the rule), which do not feature Jedi as the main focus, it’s hard to argue. So if you’re not watching Bad Batch, the premise is a rogue squad of clone troopers that were genetically altered so they’re not actually clones at all, and they are basically the A-Team, going around the galaxy, getting in adventures, fighting the forces of evil. Definitely worth checking out if you liked the Clone Wars series. Season 2 just dropped this week, so there’s plenty of time to catch up.      

Read ‘em and Weep: I read stuff sometimes. And you should too:

The Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee Book - Ok, I admit, I have not read this book yet because I received it as a gift from my friend Claynferno (More on him later), but I am very excited to read it. If you are a fan of the show, or comedy, this looks like a fun read. 

Various Other Stuff: If you’re still here, I’ve done a lot of podcasts, a few comics, and I have a Teepublic store, so check all that out, if you please. And now, on to the ramblings…

At the end of this month, my regular comic store, New England Comics in Harvard Square, will be permanently closing its doors. The email they sent out claims that their rent has risen, but their foot traffic has lessened since the pandemic, and without people coming in off the street to look for comics that are based on a show they just streamed (or whatever brings people into a comic store other than weekly comic nerds, like me), they can’t make enough money to survive. They stopped receiving new arrivals at the end of December, and are having what they call a “HUUUGE clearance sale with insane bargains” until the end of the month. Of course, we all know what that means; they’ll probably be selling the fixtures by the 20th and the whole store will just be sad to look at. I actually ventured in for what will most likely be the last time on December 28th, and bought my new arrivals, and said my goodbyes. There’s a very slight chance I will go back in sometime this month, but probably not. I don’t really need anything there, which is part of the problem. 

I’m not going to get into the history of comic book retail, from spinner racks back in the day to dumpy stores loaded with back issues to stores holding Magic: The Gathering tournaments in the basement to get people in, to digital distribution and the pandemic causing stores to close (Well, ok, I guess that is the history in a nutshell), but on a personal level, I have been going to this particular NEC nearly every Wednesday for the past few years, and New England Comics in general pretty much since the 80’s. Even before I lived in the Cambridge area, a visit to Harvard Square always included a stop in to NEC Harvard. So, for that reason, I'm a little sad.

 

However, if I’m being perfectly honest, that’s not the only reason I’m sad about this store closing. Yes, I have over the years befriended many a New England Comics sales clerk, but as I have changed apartments over the years and clerks have changed jobs and stores have closed, I have just moved on, because sometimes life happens. I must admit, the opposite has also occurred. There was once an employee at a New England Comics several years ago that I found so annoying that I made a commitment to order the majority of my comics through the mail and vowed never to go in when they were working. Eventually, they left and I returned to my weekly visits, but it was an interesting time of my life.

Comic book stores are not unlike other retailers that people visit regularly. I’m not a coffee drinker, but I know that there are baristas that have memorized the drink orders of their regulars, and they make chit-chat and know about each other’s lives. I even remember in my video store days getting to know certain customers, learning their tastes in movies and even their customer numbers. And membership indeed has its privileges, as I would occasionally hold a movie for a favored customer, despite the fact that it was against store policy. And as karma works, I have gotten similar deals at New England Comics over the years. It is one of the aspects of our culture that I actually like, and not just because I have gotten more than a few free beers from nice bartenders over the years, but it is definitely starting to become passe’.   

As I have gotten older and the world itself has changed, I have discerned the real reason that I am upset that this particular store is closing, and that is simply that it is the most convenient comic book store for me to go to. Sure, I don’t want people to lose their jobs, and I don’t want the comic book industry as a whole to lose fans based on it, but personally, I guess I’ve had it pretty easy for a while. For probably close to twenty years now, I have had a New England Comics located very convenient to me, usually within walking distance or at least on the way home from work, so I never really had to go out of my way to get my comics. I must admit, there have also been stores located so conveniently that I could go during my lunch break, so I was basically getting paid to shop for comics, and that really made it easy to be a fan.

Before I get too “woe is me” about comic book store convenience, I should point out that there is a comic book store in my town, and there will still be at least one in Harvard Square (The Newbury Comics will also be closing as they prepare to demolish The Garage.)  There are also two that are convenient to where I work. However, while I don’t want to rag on anyone’s favorite comic book retailer, I have tried these other stores, and I’ll just say that not all comic stores are created equal. I realize that these small operations don’t always have the funds to buy several copies of every book every week, but I went into one a couple months ago on a Wednesday afternoon (new comic book day, for the uninitiated) looking for the latest issue of Batman and they didn’t have it. I know I’ve been spoiled all this time, but how can any store that sells comics not have fucking Batman?

I could ask one of them to special-order the comics that I buy regularly, and most likely establish that rapport that I have had with previous retailers, but I have reached a point in my life where even reading comics has started to feel like homework, let alone buying them, so having a store order them for me seems troublesome. Seriously, I wanted to read more books this year (like, actual books, with words), but I found that when I pushed aside comics for actual books, all I ended up with was a huge pile of unread comics, and I only read 3 books in 2022. I used to sell a lot of comics on ebay or Facebook marketplace, basically to make room for new ones, but even my personal sales have slowed down considerably, probably for the same reasons that actual retailers' sales have: digital comics and lack of interest. Even my good friend and fellow SubStacker Claynferno has forsaken physical comics for digital ones, and he says he’s pretty happy.

Clay and I outside NEC Harvard one Free Comic Book Day! Go read his Substack! It’s way more interesting!

But I am not ready to not be a comic book guy yet. It has been a big part of my life since I was a little kid, and having that raison d’etre every Wednesday for most of my adult life was kind of cool. I used to have a weird rule for myself where if I was only buying two comics, I would try to find a couple more to make my haul at least four. This wasn’t so much to support the store, but just because I had to make it worth my while, and it just seemed strange to walk in there, make small talk with the employee, and leave with only two things. And even stranger; I have only very rarely left a comic book store without buying something, even if there was literally nothing that I actually wanted. All because it seemed odd to me. And thinking about this, I now seem odd to me.

So, to save me from that embarrassment, and some gas money, I have decided to return to the mail-order route. The shipments will most likely only come every couple weeks, and sometimes they will be wrong, as I have experienced, and occasionally I will forget to cancel some comics, and will continue buying something that I don’t even like anymore, but I will be ok, because at least I won’t have to go anywhere.

Maybe I can use that time to read more books.