Five Best Ways to Get Comics with Out Having to Visit Those Pesky Comic Book Shops
As a comic book writer I often hear from friends and relatives that they dislike comic book shops and thus can not find any good comics. I regularly tell them to visit these five places.
5 best places to get your comic books(with out having to go into one of those rotten comic book shops)
Comic shops suck, but I love comics. See, my biggest gripe is that comic shops focus too much on the idea that comics will one day be collectable. They aren’t. They never will be again. Not unless you get some super rare Superman from before World War Two but you know, that isn’t going to happen.
Another thing I absolutely hate about comic shops is the outrageous Boys Club feeling. I’m a guy, hetero too, but I hate seeing life sized cut outs of women with breasts as large as a Volkswagen, a waist the size of next to nothing, and an ass that won’t quit(another thing I never understood, how come these women always stand showing both their breasts and their asses?) and the severe lack of customer support.
Comic shop employees are often rude, know next to nothing about the obscure comics and look confused if you ask if they have a certain title in stock. The owners and other customers often smell like they don’t wear deodorant, and they look at me weird because I’ve never watched Star Wars.
There is an alternative, though. Five, actually, and they all rock and often go unrecognized!
Keep in mind though, this is for READING books not collecting.
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Borders/Barnes and Noble (and other large chain book stores)
Most large chain book stores have a Manga section and a graphic novels section, stacked high with classic books like Watchmen, The Sandman library, Sin City and so on. They feature superhero books, indie books and everything in between. They often have a rack of the monthlies available, and if you look for them in the right places you can find books like Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis.
It’s also nice because my ex girlfriend currently works for a borders and special orders what ever I want.
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Amazon
Buying used books rock. You can buy a used graphic novel for pennies and pay $3 something for shipping and guess what, it’s still way cheaper than the $20 price at the book store, or the comic book store for that matter. It takes only a few days to a week to get the book in the mail and I’ve never once had problems with quality.
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Online comic shops
These include comic shops like Torpedo Comics, which I admit is kind of a cop out because it is a typical comic store, but online, and it doesn’t need to be Torpedo Comics, any will do. Many of your local comic shops also have pages online, or on eBay or even Amazon.
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Buy Direct
Yep, if you happen to know what it is you are looking for, you can simply look up the creators or publishers and buy from them using pay pal. Sure, it costs a bit more but the money goes straight to the people who made it, not to comic shops who stored it for a while. Buying direct is my favorite way to buy indie comics.
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Your Library
The best place to get a great comic book, at a low cost? Your local library. Sure, you can’t keep it, but you know, comics are books and you can read the most amazing ones, for free, bring em home and read em and take em back to get another. Some of my favorite comics are by people who I had never heard of, but happened to see their books sitting in my local library. Another really awesome thing is you can have more than one library card. If you live in a densely populated area, you can have several. I have three.
Anyway, these are just 5 of the most unused resources for getting comic books. Put them to good use!
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A lot of comic shops have trading card game stations because it creates a reason to return to their store. It’s actually a brilliant marketing campaign but it pushes the comics to the back sometimes. At a store they used to have in our mall, Dungeons and Dragons took over and it became a Wizards of The Coast, eventually. Then it closed.
One of the comic shops in my area actually has online gaming set up to be used FOR FREE, so teens will come in. It works out well for them but again cuts the space for comics.
The problem is, people don’t go to comic shops because they are out dated and comic shops have to fight for a way to get return business. What they need to do though is stop with long, time honored traditions in the comic world, like the wonder woman cut outs and the “collectable” mindset.