Thursday, July 17, 2014

The Comic Book Store

You’d think as a 34 year old man I’d scoff at the idea of going to the comic book store.  That as a guy that plays hockey and teaches karate and ‘does fitness’ I’d be more in the group of folks that mock those that traffic the comic book store.

Quite the opposite.

I think now that I am who I am, I am even more confident about being in there.  But I also wonder if that idea that like fat, lazy, lonely guys are the only ones that read comics is gone thanks to fact that movies about comics have pretty much taken over the theater and are generally seen as awesome.

The Store I go to on the regular is Dixon’s Books.  It’s an older couple that owns and runs the store and they are nice and welcoming.  Jeff’s cards and comics one street over on the other hand seems completely unwelcoming and in fact a bit condescending.  Dixon’s has my business, Mrs. Dixon (I assume) seems to be about 80 and she chats me up like my grandma would, is eager to give me things that are on the counter and generally makes my experience enjoyable.

To be fair I haven’t been actually going to the comic store for all that long.  I mean I have been into Silver Snail in Toronto a few times a year since I was in University (so about 15 years now).  most of the comics I have now are volumes of the New 52 from DC that I bought from Chapters online because it’s a 34% discount!  It’s kind of a pain to be about 6-8 months behind the monthly printed version, but far cheaper.  I do get Batman and Nightwing (now Grayson) in the mail each month though.

I didn’t make a point of going to the store until the guys that made me love The Flash, Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato, started working on Detective Comics. With how good their run and the Flash was (and still is for me since I’m months behind as mentioned above) I couldn’t wait that long to get me hands on their work on the Batman.

I really don’t get why comics get a bad rap, that people scoff at them as ‘just for kids’ or at least that has been the case in the past I guess.  they have such amazing and varied art styles!

3456253-dcnew52_07_batman_-_greg_capullo

04-05

cliff_chiang's_wonder_woman

dc-comics-essentials-justice-league-1

And they have really great, fun and intelligent stories.  Pick up any book by Scott Snyder, or Geoff Johns and you’ll see what I mean.

There is such a variety of comics as well.  If you are not into superheroes there are still westerns, romance, mystery and comic versions of best seller books and movies as well. 

They are a fantastic tool for learning to read, or learning a second language, in fact it’s how Jim Lee, artist and now Co-publisher of DC learned how to read English (he’s from Korea)!

Comics are great! And you should go to the Comic store, and if you are in Peterborough, you should go to Dixion’s Books!

5 comments:

  1. I transitioned to digital comics on the ipad a couple of years ago and have never looked back. Less messy, easier to keep organized and (with cloud storage) easy to carry your entire collection around with you.

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  2. One reason graphic novels might be seen as juvenile is that a LOT of them, such as the ones featured above, are very much middle-school boy level regarding women. Look at the featured pic - all of the guys are completely covered, as is reasonable when needing protection from lots of burning things, etc. The woman? Yeah, not so much. While this doesn't OFFFEND me, it also doesn't really ATTRACT me to read them. Just some food for thought. ENJOY your comics - really not trying to take that away from you!!!! :-) Deb

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    1. Have you seen the new Batgirl outfit? http://www.tencentticker.com/projectrooftop/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/BATGIRLMODEL2.jpg Super cool and not objectifying at all really. As much as I can think of the comics I read Wonder Woman and Supergirl are pretty much the only ones without pants. I agree that it's not that practical, but when you are a descendant of Zeus or basically a god from another planet, are pants really that necessary? :)

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    2. Nope, haven't seen Batgirl. I don't read too many graphic novels and the ones I do are usually not superhero. Maybe I'll have to try some, and I'll use your link to check the outfit. The outfits don't bother me, and WW was my HERO in the '70s!! And she is still cool, ha! I have to say when watching "descended from the gods" movies, I do enjoy The Rock in less then full coverage. :-) Deb

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    3. Just checked out Batgirl. Happy to see that the cape unsnaps at the shoulders, as The Incredibles illustrated exactly why that is important, ha! Deb

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