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There are many things that will make you pause and reexamine your comic collecting. In my mind there are three things that dominate such a situation coming about. The first is money. If you don't have much, it's difficult to engage in the hobby. The second is an owner flaking. In my experience this tends to result in the loss of "the" employee that knows the customers and comics. Soon after that employee leaves there is a mass exodus of customers from the store. I've experienced this a few times. The third is the loss of a shop. This can come from moving to a place where there is no shop, or from a shop closing. Right now I'm dealing with the third as the local shop has abruptly closed.
I didn't have an opportunity to actually buy comics from a comic shop regularly until I was 15. For my first seven years of comic reading I bought off the racks of supermarkets and minimarts. I only had the opportunity to go to a "real" comic shop twice in those years. Needless to say, once you have the opportunity to go to an actual shop on a regular basis, it's difficult to do otherwise.
Luckily, things have changed since I first started reading comics, so that now I can still get my comics via online retailers. Actually, I could even avoid that and go digital for many comics, but I like my print copies. So, online retailers it is for me. True, there is practically no chance of buying comics off of a non-comic store rack in today's market, but there are certain stores where you can. However, even if that was an option I wouldn't use it because of the damage the comics would likely experience sitting on racks in such stores.
The most difficult part of the local shop closing is that I'm losing a place to go and actually talk to other comic readers. While I don't talk to all other comic readers, I've always found people at a local shop that it's nice to talk about the hobby with. Plus, it's a great way to get turned on to new comics and to get other readers turned on to comics I'm reading. It helps the shop and it helps the industry. My focus with the shop that closed was being a good customer not just so I had some place to go, but so that others did too. I've always been such a customer, but it was a serious focus for me with this shop.
An unfortunate side effect of this recent closing also resulted from how the store was closed. The closing was quite abrupt and a number of customers were left unable to get the comics they ordered for the last three weeks of February. During this time I found out that there had been another local shop here years ago that also closed under less than "ideal" circumstances. So, now there are not only customers that are feeling suddenly abandoned, there are also a number of customers that have found old wounds reopened.
There are other shops in nearby towns, but due to the expense of gasoline, the time I'd have to spend driving to them, and their customer service, I've decided that going online still makes more sense. In an interesting spin, I have found myself working with others to figure out how to get a store back here. Yes, that even includes perhaps stepping up and being someone that gets a new shop going myself. So, as with the recent themes of DC and Marvel, it may be time for a different kind of relaunch/reboot. Not one of a comic or universe, but rather that of a comic shop. A large undertaking, but one that I feel is worth it.
Hopefully something will develop soon, because the reality is I find myself unable to really think about much else in the world of comics this month. This month has not been about Marvel, DC or independents in my mind. This month for me has been about the industry as a whole. While comic shops are just a piece of it, a consideration of the whole industry must be given to create a viable shop. Next month I hope to have a comic-based rant for you, but my goal with this column has always been to be able to talk about various elements of the comic industry, and not just the comics/characters themselves. Perhaps I'll be able to speak to how a shop develops in the future. While this is real life and not a comic, in many ways I find myself believing just about anything is possible right now. Hopefully a new shop is one such possibility.
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