Comics writer Chip Zdarsky has launched Zdarsky Comic News, a four-page print newsletter that he plans to publish monthly. He sent out the first 50,000 copies for free this week, but he hopes retailers will be willing to pay for the next issue. “I’m hoping you see the value of this as a giveaway in your shop,” he wrote in an e-mail to retailers. “I managed to cover the printing costs of issue one by doing things I’m not proud of (writing the gritty reboot of ALF™ for Skybound™), but future issues will only cost your shop twelve American cents each! If you can spare a couple of bucks here and there to bring joy to your customers’ faces while also hopefully increasing sales in your shop, I’d really appreciate it! I also won’t tell anyone if you charge $100 for it with a 9.8 CGC grading. Look, we’ve all got to do what we’ve got to do to make ends meet.” The newsletter will be competing with the venerable Comic Shop News, which changed hands in 2022 (see “‘Comic Shop News’ Has Been Sold“) and is still going strong.
The Million Year Picnic, the oldest comic shop in New England, celebrates its 50th anniversary this month, and owner Tony Davis talks to WGBH’s The Culture Show about the history of the Harvard Square store, where Marvel Direct Sales Manager Carol Kalish once worked (see “Carol Kalish, a ‘Great Force for the Comics Industry’“), and his plans for marking the special day.
After thieves smashed in the front door of Gamer’s Gems in San Antonio, Texas, for the third time in four months, co-owner Anthony Collazo decided to run a “Stop f*@#!ng Robbing Us Sale” to help defray the cost of repairs and increased security. Collazo told KENS that he doesn’t want security to interfere with the store’s welcoming atmosphere: “This is supposed to be a place to relax, have fun, enjoy,” he said. “If you have bars on a window, that kind of doesn’t create that space.” In one of the earlier thefts, the thieves shattered the store’s door with a BB gun but didn’t take much, apparently thinking the store sold video games and would have more than the small amount of cash they found. “Game stores don’t make that much money,” said Collazo. “It definitely is more of a hobby than a side hustle.”
Comics Plus in Macon, Georgia, is closing its doors after 35 years. Current owner Jennifer Berkner told WMAZ “I thought I could juggle a business and school but it is too much for me.” Still, she said, “I will certainly miss everyone and I am glad kids nowadays no longer have to worry about getting bullied for reading a comic or playing games.”
Patrick and Kate Hetland met in a game store, and after the couple married, they decided to start one of their own, opening up Wanderer’s Haul in Fairfield, Iowa, with just $3,000 worth of stock. “We had like, four boxes of Magic cards, some (card) sleeves and a few dice, and almost nothing else,” Patrick Hetland told the Southeast Iowa Union. “We were spreading product on the shelves to make it look a little more full, because it just wasn’t enough.” Now the store is doing well enough that it has become Patrick’s full time job, the shelves are full, and it’s the center of a thriving gaming community.
Employees of Missy’s ComiX Shop in Dothan, Alabama, are salvaging what they can after a fire broke out in the store on Saturday, July 13. “There are some things towards the back that we will possibly be able to salvage [but] the front is a complete loss,” an employee named Cherry told WDHN. The family-owned store offer has started a GoFundMe to help the store and staff get back on their feet.
Jeff Broad and Paul Slann tell CityMag that their new Table Top Warfare store in Adelaide, Australia, is a welcoming space for everyone, including people who are neurodiverse or have social anxiety. “For some people, and particularly as you go through high school, some people just don’t find a home or a place where they belong,” Broad said. “And we offer that for people that don’t play footy on Saturday, you know? We offer that for people that might not have developed really strong social skills over their formative years, but they come here and then they absolutely love the people that they’re playing with.” The pair also are willing to take the time to teach newcomers how to play the games. Local nonprofit Renew Adelaide helped them find the space for their new store, which will open on July 20.
A quartet of gamers, Steve and Janet Wallace and Steven and Lee-Ann Baze, have opened up a new Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy store in San Marcos, Texas. Their plans for the 2,900-square-foot store include Magic: The Gathering pre-releases, paint-and-take miniature nights, social gaming, and events for children and teens.
Manga Manga, a Japanese bookstore in the College Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati, has doubled its inventory in the two years since it opened and has become a destination for local otaku. The owner, filmmaker C. Jacqueline Wood, tells WCPO that the films of Hayao Miyazaki got her interested in anime and manga and ultimately led her to open the shop. She got a boost from the local urban redevelopment corporation, which assists owners of small businesses by offering them low rent and also helped Wood move to a new location to increase her foot traffic.
Short Takes
WISH TV profiles Ramone Edmondson, owner of Prideland Comics & Collectibles, who divides his time between the store and his day job as an assistant principal.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution offers a guide to the tabletop gaming scene in Atlanta, Georgia.
New Realities Gaming in Salisbury, UK, is celebrating its first anniversary, and Salisbury Radio has the story of its founding (by the family of a bored 16-year-old) and its success.
Source: ICv2
