It's time to celebrate comics once again with the results of another contest. A couple of weeks ago I asked people to send me photos of their favourite comic shop. Specifically, themselves holding their favourite comic in their favourite comic shop. Or their favourite comic shop employee holding their favourite comic. Or whatever.
Here's what I got!
Chris Haley sends photos of Comics & Collectibles in Memphis, TN. (Oh Memphis, how I long to visit you). As Chris notes in his email, the shop uses the classic Fantastic Four font. Nice!
Here's Chris holding All-Star Superman:
And here's his favourite shop clerk, Sean, holding X-Factor:
They are dressed the same. I can't help but notice that.
Dave Prosser wrote a lovely tribute to his favourite shop in this blog entry. It's Bizarro Wuxtry, in yet another legendary music town, Athens, Georgia.
Sadly, Dave had to move away from his beloved comic shop. It looks like a seriously hip shop.
Kevin Johns takes liberties with the definition of "comic shop" by sending a photo of himself and Z-Cult FM. That's not even an online store! That's an online stealing place!
Anyway, he likes Daredevil. Stolen Daredevil.
Christina sends photos of Acme Superstore in, I believe, Orlando Florida.
Here she is reading Transformers under a big Spiderman.
I like the look of those barstools. I could loiter for hours on one of those!
Here's her friend Colleen holding Sandman, under a giant Batman.
Ivonne likes Runaways (and punching):
And here's all three of them, with some more fave selections:
Jurassic Park comic! Awesome! (Man, someone was asking about those in the store the other day).
Oh, and Cuddle Pillow Batman likes Countdown, because, as Christina says, "it's how he keeps up with Joker."
Heather did a livejournal post about her favourite shop, Comic Oasis in Las Vegas (Man, does everyone live somewhere cooler than me?). You can read it here. And here's some of the pictures:
Her favourite comic is Spider-Man Loves Mary-Jane (yay!):
Here's the owner, Derrick, and some of the staff (Charles, Holly and Margo).
And another interior shot that shows the vastness of the Comic Oasis:
Mike, (Batmanisgrim) sent some pictures of Bullseye Cards and Comics, which is sadly now closed. I believe it was in NYC, but I'm actually not sure.
Here's the owner, Rich:
It looks like they had a lot of selection:
Mike also says that his very favourite store was called The Memory Bank, and he wrote this about it:
The best comic book shop I have ever been to and ever will were owned by two sisters. They were around for twenty years and at one point they opened a second store and each sister ran each store. The store was called The Memory Bank and the reason for that was for they would give you coupons based on how much you spent. Those coupons could be used to buy anything in the store. I was really close to the sister that ran the store near me. I was one of her better customers, so she would give me free boxes and good deals on items. I considered her to be a friend. When the new comics would come in, she would even call me to tell me so. When I first started going to the store, it was at a time when comics would come out on Tuesday and Wednesday then it went exclusively to Wednesdays. Then one day Vicky called me from her home and it wasn't Wednesday. She was in a car with her sister, Mona, and a drunk driver hit their car. Vicky had broken her leg and she watched her sister die beside her.
The reason she was calling me was to tell me that she would have the comics when she recovered. Of course I told her that she had more important things to worry about and that I was loyal to her. The second store had to be closed and four months later I went back when the original store had reopened. On that day I purchased four months of comics in one day. Add this to the fact that I also bought my friend's comics it was quite a comic book bill that day. The only comic I missed was Nightwing Huntress #1, which I did purchase a few months ago at the NY Comic Con.I went to the store for another four years and that was how long it took for the lawsuit against the drunk driver to go through. Once she received her settlement she decided it was time to close up shop. Once that shop closed, that was the end of the greatest comic book shop I will ever know. Before I went to her store she used to have art contests among the patrons. The winner of one of her contests was Joe Madureira. She gave me the winning entry.
And finally, we have the winner of the contest, which was scientifically chosen by drawing names out of a hat. Jon Hex sends photos and writes about Big Monkey Comics in Washington DC.
Here he is, being indecisive and holding Batman and All-Star Superman (I guess he's deciding on Grant Morrison).
Nice shirt!
Big Monkey Comics is owned by Scipio of The Absorbascon. Here he is hosting a Quiz Bowl:
From what I can tell, Big Monkey hosts lots of things, like Heroclix tournaments and podcast recordings.
Here's another pic from that Quiz Bowl that shows the store manager, Devon, who writes the Seven Hells! Blog:
And here are some of the staff recommendations, nicely presented:
Congrats, Mr Hex. You have a copy of The Spirit #1 a-comin' your way, signed by Darwyn Cooke! It's compliments of Strange Adventures.
Thanks everyone for sending me your photos and sharing. Yay for comic book shops, a safe haven for nerds everywhere! Possibly the only place where you can go and confidently think "Well, at least I'm not as nerdy as that guy."
I don't even know anyone who is buying the issues.
A little something to spruce up the ol' steam room. (I wish I had a steam room).
Here's another beauty (The Spirit #10):
Here is what they are saying about Aquaman #56:
There's a lot of awesome ahead from DC, it looks like (and I don't mean those action figures above). I am especially excited about the amount of work that J. Torres is going to be getting. Having him write a new Wonder Girl mini-series? Brilliant!
