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!

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!