Comic Shops: Big, Little, and Just Right
Earth-2 Northridge is the comic book shop that I most frequently go to. It’s the one I’ve been going to get my Storm comics as well as a couple other series that I started reading. However, when I went to visit my mother in Lancaster, I decided to pop by a couple of the comic shops there.
The one I went to as a high school student has since closed, which I was pretty sad about. I liked the staff that worked there and they had a wide selection of new comics and the back issues. They also sold a lot of different comics, anime, and video game merchandise.
Sadly, the shops that I was able to visit in Lancaster were not as enjoyable as the shop I used to go to. One was rather small, while the other was incredibly big.
I’ll start with the larger shop. The shop itself, Bases Comics, overlooks the 14 freeway. I thought with the massive visibility of the location that it would easy to get to. Despite this, though, it was actually very hard to get to. I had look up a map to find the series of back streets it took to get to the shop.
When I finally managed to find Bases, I found it to be a massive store. I suppose they must be easier to find for others or else have a very loyal customer base, because otherwise, I wouldn’t know how such a big store could stay in business. It was almost like a warehouse in terms of size and the amount of merchandise that it housed. Impressively, I could see that they were also expanding into the space next door. I moved to the newsstands running around the walls, which looked like they held the newest comics.
I have to admit the size of the place was rather intimidating, as was the sheer number of comics. I moved through the rows of newsstands (staggered, to allow space for even more comics), trying to find anything that caught my interest. It was difficult to look through everything, due to how much of everything there was. They even had a stand of indie comics, that I think must have been locally written/print, since they were on a very different paper from the other comics. I felt like there was too much for me to sift through, and frankly, it made it hard for me to find anything.
Occasionally, I would glance back at the employee sitting behind a glass counter. He hadn’t once looked up at me since my coming into the shop. While, I don’t fault him for being distracted, I feel that for a store of that size, more than one employee should have been present in the store.
However, I felt less charitable when a group of other customers came in. They seemed to be regulars and he immediately gave them his full attention. As a new customer, I didn’t find this very encouraging. Being wholly ignored and then seeing regulars dotted upon, does not really make me want to go back to that shop.
I went later to a smaller shop, closer to my mother’s house. I liked this one more, because it was easier to navigate and the employees were friendlier.
However, I don’t believe that comics were the main income for this shop. While they had a newsstand of the latest comics and a small side room with back issues, the most prominently marketed thing in the store were table top roleplaying games and accessories to go with them. I saw a lot of Pathfinder, and Dungeons and Dragons, and other fantasy merchandise in this shop, and not so much superhero swag.
The bigger shop was definitely focused a lot more on superheroes than the smaller shop was. I saw a lot of action figures, wall hangs, posters, and other collectibles displayed prominently around that shop. At the smaller shop, comics seemed to be more of an add-on. I have the feeling that it must have started as a game and hobby shop, expanding to include comics simply because many of the D&D and Magic: the Gathering crowd also enjoy reading comics.
Despite this, I liked the smaller shop because I wasn’t left feeling overwhelmed and intimidated. The staff was welcoming and chatted with me about what I was looking for, offering their opinions about what I checked out. Furthermore, the area that the smaller shop was in was a lot easier to find and was in a nicer area of town, making the trip there a lot more pleasant.
I prefer Earth-2 to both of these shops though, since I feel it combines the better qualities of each. While they have a wide selection, it is easy to look through and the staff is helpful and nice.
