The Little Comic Shop

Tonight is my last night in Phoenix, and I've never been happier. The city is just so huge, and I will always be a small town boy at heart. The city just always seemed to tower over me. I am used to walking into a store and having the owner recognize my face, and most of the stores around me have owners that live in mansions on the East Coast.

I have discovered just how many places you can get comics, even Walmart carries comics. Just about every bookstore has a shelf that is dedicated to roleplaying books and graphic novels. When I was a little kid, I used to get them at the supermarket and convenience stores.

A habit I got into in Tucson that has stuck with me is doing all my comics, roleplaying, and anime shoping exclusively at small comics shops. I always feel more willing to shell out a couple more bucks when the owner knows me by name and knows better than to ask the question, "Can I help you?"

There was a little comics shop by the University of Arizona where I spent a good deal of my Sunday afternoons. I would just pop in, check out the previews, and chat with the owner or whoever was working. A couple of the people who worked there used to joke about the soap opera that was my life. It was a rare occasion that one of them ever recommended a comic to mr, but when they did, I would buy it without a second thought. They were my friends, and they knew my tastes.

I felt I could trust them.

When I walk into one of the huge bookstores, and they suggest something, I get a little leary. I worked retail, so I had to sit through "How to be a better salesman" speech. It is filled with all kinds of suggestions to get people to buy more and lists of hot items that salesmen are supposed to push. I don't resent the salesmen. They are just doing their job. I rather like working retail myself.

I just can't trust them, because I never know if they are sincere or not. Besides, I don't feel comfortable having someone that just met me make a judgment on what I would and would not like.

Small roleplaying shops seem to place the subculture concept of being a gamer in the spotlight. They are normally filled with many "squatters" who just enjoy talking about gaming. (The downside of this is that you will have to deal with a lot of people that will prattle endlessly about their twink characters and hack and slash games.) The small game store can help someone feel like they are part of another world, a world populated with people who have the same interests as them.

One of the biggest benefits of the small store, however, is the selection. Small stores are normally more eager to carry the more controversial, adult, and obscure titles. Walmart will never carry something like Omaha the Cat Dancer or even Strangers In Paradise. They like to stick to high selling corporate comics.

One of the things I know that is waiting for me when I finally come home to Tucson is the comics shop that I have frequented for the last year. I cannot visit Tucson without stopping in and buying something or the other. I know that I will be stopping by before the week is over.

Before I get a lot of email telling me where their are small comics shops in the Phoenix area, I should mention that I found one. Every shipment day, I would walk the extra half mile past the big book stores to go to it. It was a little oasis in the back of a strip mall surrounded by larger building and more profitable enterprises.

It cannot be doing too bad for itself.

It is there after all, surving against odds.

I am glad to know that I am not the only one willing to travel a little extra to help the little guy out.