Come on out Saturday!
This is a week to celebrate all things comics. Not only did National Comic Book Day fall on a New Comic Book Day Wednesday, but we also have the opportunity to celebrate Local Comic Shop Day this Saturday, Sept 28. As both a retailer and a fan it’s one of my favorite days of the year. Unlike Free Comic Book Day, LCSD is less about specific comics and more about the places that sell them, and is less time- and cost-intensive. Planned and coordinated by the fine folks from ComicsPro (the comic retailer organization… if you own a shop, check them out and consider joining.), it’s a day to celebrate everything your local shop and the staff mean to you.
Steven, Shay and Sean, at Aw Yeah Comics, Harrison, N.Y.
If you’re like me and you’ve been getting your comics at a physical store for any length of time, you know exactly what I’m talking about. There’s work, there’s home, and there’s that mythical third place where we’re just as comfortable and welcome. Cheers had it right. Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name… and comic preferences. A wall of new comics, rows of graphic novels promising entertainment and escape, maybe copious amounts of older issues filed in glorious rows, and so much more. Throw in the occasional conversation with friendly staff or fellow customers, and you’re right where you should be.
The owners and employees of these glorious four-color palaces put a lot of time, money, effort, energy, and love into their shops. It’s a rough business. Keeping the lights on takes selling a lot of $4 comics. Like any small business there is stress, worry, and monkey wrenches that appear seemingly out of nowhere. I’ve been a retailer for 27 years, and co-owned my own store for nearly 13. I’ve seen a lot in my time, like all of my retailer friends and colleagues. That being said, I have one of the best jobs in the world.
Over the span of years, we’ve been fortunate to meet people, see kids grow up, and watch teens graduate and move on. (Many of whom have kids of their own that they share this place with). I couldn’t possibly count how many parents I’ve helped pick out comics for their kids for the first time. We’ve been privy to and sometimes parts of weddings, funerals, engagements, anniversaries, bad days, good days, and great days! We’ve hosted some of the best and brightest creators in our industry, bringing them together with longtime fans or acting as a gateway for their work to be discovered and admired. We’ve held food drives, blood drives, toy drives, and raised money for a bunch of causes. Becoming part of someone’s routine, earning their trust when it comes to comics recommendations, and for the store to be a place where they are comfortable and joyful never ceases to amaze me.
For fans, Local Comic Shop Day is a chance to visit your favorite place, even if you were just there on Wednesday to grab your new comics. Go in, see your favorite staff members, talk to fellow fans, pick up a comic you’ve never read. Take it all in, and really see both what the community the shop has created means to you, as well as what the shop means to the local community.
For us, we get the chance to celebrate the thing about a local comic shop we enjoy the most. YOU. Without you, none of us would be here, slinging new comics and discussing who wins in a match between Superman and the Hulk (answer… the winner is the fans!). So head to your local comic shop on Saturday, Sept. 28, and be a part of the celebration.
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MORE
— 13 REASONS the Comics Shop Is the Grooviest Place on Earth. Click here.
— Inside the Mad, Mad World of the Modern Comics Shop. Click here.
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Marc Hammond runs the Harrison, New York, location of Aw Yeah Comics, a string of shops led by cartoonist/writers Art Baltazar and Franco, Archie Comics editor-in-chief Mike Pellerito, our old pal Christy Blanch, Marc, as well as others.
