Comic Shops from the Bubble.... What Did They Become?

[vintagepaper]

During the '80s and early '90s, comic shops proliferated under the speculative bubble and with the growth of the direct market. When the speculative bubble popped, many comic shops went out of business. Some held on and lasted through the '90s but shut down as comic book readership numbers went down.

The thought crossed my mind the other day. I remembered what 2 comic shops in my area became. One was in a downtown area. It was in prime real estate (intersection of 2 major roads, the heart of downtown). It ended up becoming a Starbucks/bookstore combo store, part of a larger effort to revitalize the downtown. The other was in a strip mall anchored by a hardware store and between a drive-thruless Dairy Queen and a hobby shop (for train hobbyists and the like). It became a beauty salon. I figured to ask others, what did comic shops in your area turn into once they closed?

(There seems to be no good forum for this question specifically, so I posted it here since the mission statement of this forum seems the closest to the question's subject matter)

[Jezebel Bond]

I know of one dealer whose family owned a mall which was sublet into several other businesses. He took some spare space on the first floor, opened his comic store and crashed within a year. He was the perfect example of what NOT to do when trying to operate a comic book business. He didn't fall too hard on his ass though, the store space was just absorbed into another business which dealt with car parts and accessories.

Also know of another dealer who rented space in another mall...he would show off his personally autographed copy of Spawn #1 and ask around $150 for it. His business also eventually collapsed and apparently so did the mall, which I think went into receivership. My dealer and myself absorbed about 50-60 customers.

It is disappointing when a comic business collapses...but I think there are quite a number of instances when their clueless owners are directly responsible....

[dupont2005]

The one that used to be out here is a gun shop now
The one by my grandpa's house is still a vacant building, it's tried to reopen a few times but never made it

[grphxkindaguy]

My LCS, which I'd been going to since '88, closed at the end of February.

Its now a Nutrition/Vitamin Store type place.

As a joke a few weeks ago, I went in there, asked if Bob (the manager/owner of the defunct LCS) was working that day and if I can get the comics that were in my pullbox.

[Phil Maurice]

The one that used to be out here is a gun shop now

So they could still move a few issues of PunisherMAX?

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Jerry Seinfeld once joked that there is a place where a business never works and all the former business owners walk out like they have been in the Bermuda Triangle of lost businesses.


Com-X : It was a store in my town. It opened in the mid 90's and actually didn't lose its business due to a bad owner. No ...the owner was a high school kid who had his dads help in opening the business. After 2 years he decided to close and go to college. It was kinda sad...good ran store...just closed for that reason. After it closed a health store opened and soon would close. The building has stayed empty since then.

[kevink31593]

The first comic store I went to when I first started collecting in 1993 when I was 10/11, Comic Source, went out of business by early 1995. Their location was in a strip mall on the main street in my suburban city. Later, the spot reopened as a GameCo. In the years since, GameCo has since moved to a different location and I'm not sure what's in the old Comic Source location now.

Another shop I used to buy comics at in the 90s, Sports Cards 'N More, shut down both of its locations in the late 90s. I did score a huge bunch of Legends of the Dark Knight back issues for 25 cents a piece there shortly before they closed. The location that was closest to me that I went to the most often ended up becoming a travel agency I think. They are located on the same corner as a grocery store.

In 1994, I first visited a comic shop named Elite Comics. They are still open and thriving today. I've been a rugular customer with a pull list since 1998. They're in a strip mall on a corner about a mile down the road from the local community college. They have chaned locations within the strip mall twice. Their original location is a a Little Caesar's Pizza, and their second location was absorbed by the neighboring dry cleaners I believe.

[GavinR]

I haven't been back to my hometown in several years, but I can tell you a sad story about the comic shop that got me really hooked into the aspects of fandom.

I'm from Biloxi, MS and there was a great store run by a guy named Dave in a boutique shopping area. The store started off as one unit on the second floor and word of mouth was a big factor in finding out where it was because it wasn't located directly on the main road running by it. His business was still good enough to expand into the next unit when it became available, and this was during the mid 80's. Eventually a larger unit on the first floor opened up and it was on a corner unit, so it was decent move for him. Then later the boom started to hit and he wanted to move into a place that had a better location. He was going to pay more but it was a strip mall, and he figured it was much more accessible to the general public. Unfortunately, once he signed the lease he learned that the property managers had some strict regulations. One of the first stores to move in was a sports collectibles store and they a huge business in trading cards and there was some type of rule in the lease that certain stores couldn't sell things that other stores specialized in. He couldn't sell ANY cards...even like Marvel or DC trading cards, much less Magic the Gathering.

Eventually he moved to a shopping center which was down the street but it ended up falling upon hard times and most of the other stores closed. So he was stuck in what was theoretically a good location but all the other empty stores made it look like a vacant and derelict shopping center. He stayed there for a few years but by this time it was the late 90's and more people were starting to order online. Eventually he closed that shop and move to a really obscure location which was really small. That didn't work and so he ended up liquidating his backstock and got out of the business completely.

I have no idea what stores are in those locations because I haven't been back to my hometown in years but I do know that most of the locations of the store were completely destroyed or just ended up being gutted because of Katrina. If I ever go back to Biloxi, I'm pretty certain that I wouldn't recognize the place and that makes me sad.

[Kid Montana]

At lest 3 comic shops I used to go to in the Denver/Metro area were in malls that no longer exist. I think that they just shifted locations though. Look forward to the Mega store Mile High opened if I ever get back there.

[MichikoS]

I frequented a place called Clint's Books in the 1970s when I was going to undergrad in Kansas City, MO. It's still there, on Main Street in midtown, now known as Clint's Comics, but moved a storefront or two down from where it was originally. Still going gangbusters. The owner is a guy named Jim Cavanaugh, I believe.

Michi

[dan bailey]

I had lunch Saturday in a Venezuelan restaurant that occupies half the space previously devoted to a comics shop. (The other half is a Hispanic market, I think.) The shop in question still exists, though, having moved about 3 miles -- across the street from the city's other shop.

[Ish Kabbible]

I moved into Manhattan in 1977. I had by then stopped buying comics and had sold my collection 3 years prior. I then noticed a tiny store across the street with comics in their front window. The place was Supersnipe Comics
New Yorks first comic shop. Ed Summer was the owner,George Lucas was his financial partner. The store was extremely tiny,couldn't fit more than 5 customers at a time hence a line outside that piqued my curiosity. I finally went in to check it out and got caught up with the comics bug once again.
They also had a small art gallery around the corner with an original Frazetta painting and production artwork for the upcoming Star Wars film. Roy Thomas lived in the neighborhood at the time and shopped there. Ed Summer introduced Roy to George Lucas and from there they had conversations of Marvel adapting Star Wars before the movies release. Later on , with Lucas' Hollywood connections, Roy and Ed got involved in bringing the Conan property to the silver screen (Ed has a co-producer credit on the 1st Conan film)
What became of the store? The size restraints of the location iM sure hurt business. Ed and the people who worked in the store were not too friendly to deal with. Other comic stores popped up in the neighborhood during the 1980s (at one point there were 4 comic stores within a half mile radius). By the end of the 80s Ed closed shop and concentrated on mail order. He pretty much disappeared from fandom the last 20 years.
Since then the adjoining location knocked down the walls and expanded. its now a 2 Boots pizzaria
But its all because of Supersnipe that got me back to the comics habit and I spent the rest of the 70s and 80s reacquiring my collection which I have to this day

[glue]

The only "comic shop" in my town was actually a comic/sports cards/antique shop. Now it's just antiques.

[pakehafulla]

The only store that ever existed in my home town was during the "bubble", an extra branch that was operated by a larger store in a neighbouring city. They were open about 6 or 7 years, long enough for me to discover,( and therefore restart collecting) Authority, Planetary, and Preacher. Of course the comic book gods decreed that they would shut their doors 3 issues before Preacher finished its run, leaving me hanging for some 10 years til I found the final Trade.

[Mace Dolex]

When I was living in Bakersfield, CA in the 90's my first LCS shop was in a prime spot close to a Chuck E Cheese and Toys'R'Us but then in '93 I moved to Los Angeles and that store must've closed down somewhere in the 90's and since then there isn't a single comic book store in Bakersfield except for the graphic novels section at Barnes & Noble.

But in Los Angeles ever since '93 I've been going to Golden Apple Comics, they moved to a smaller spot a couple of years ago but that's the one well known LCS place that still remains.