Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: canada, comic book stores, comic shop

Eleven Comic Book Stores Open, Six Close and Two Re-Open

Bleeding Cool tries to mark the passing of comic book stores as well as their opening. Please let us know if a comic store is opening or closing in your neighbourhood.

Back in January, Bleeding Cool reported on the closure of The Spider's Web comic book store on Yonkers Avenue in New York. But there have been some developments it seems. Two customers of the store, Rich Kean and Thomas Ramirez, have bought the shop and have now reopened it. At 887 Yonkers Ave , Yonkers NY. Similar is true of The Secret Lair Comics of East Market Street, Harrisonburg, has new owners and managers in one of its customers, Chris Barcomb and his wife. But we also have news of eleven new comics book stores that have opened up in recent months, or are just about to.

Opening comic book stores

• Arkham Asylum Comics will be opening from the 4th of June, at 2550 South Nova Rd, Unit 8, in South Daytona. "There will be fun activities, raffles, special guests, and more!"
• Zeppelin Comics has opened at 1311 1st St, Napa, California. "Your Destination For All-New Comics in the Napa Valley
  Located just steps off of 1st Street in historic Downtown Napa, Zeppelin Comics features (soon) a wide selection of graphic novels, games, gifts, and over 200 current comic book series from large publishers and small presses alike."
• 3 Goblins has opened at 200-356 George St., Prince George, British Columbia, Canada,
• Atomic Comics & Collectibles is to open at an unnamed address in Logan, West Virginia
• Sky High Comics & Games has opened on 2717 Peters Road Fort Pierce, Florida. "Be ready to join us at Sky High with our selected comics books as well as our section for retro video games. Our video game section will have a large variety of consoles old and new for purchase and play in our store. Alongside our retro games and comics we will have Magic the Gathering and Pokémon games shooting off everyday. Drafting, Commander, Pioneer…etc We here at Sky High cannot wait to see you by!!"
• Route 66 Comics and Collectibles is to open on 17 S. Park Street Sapulpa, Oklahoma. "Hey Sapulpa! We are getting closer and closer to opening. We hope you are as excited as we are! As soon as we have an opening date decided, we will share it."
• I Need That Comic & Games has opened on 199A King street West, Chatham, Ontario, Canada,
• Cozy Corner Comics has opened next to Cozy Corner Books, 31-2300 Alberni Highway , Qualicum Beach, British Columbia, Canada,
• Comics Stronghold has opened in 1906 Oceanside Blvd Suite G, Oceanside, California.
• K & M Collectables has opened at 13414 Hooper Rd Suite B , Baton Rouge, Louisiana. "We buy and sell all types of Collectable Coins, Currency, Stamps, Sport Cards, Funko Pops, Comic Books"
• The Hero's Tale has opened at 634 King St E, Cambridge, Canada. "We are Waterloo Region's newest comic book store (heck, we may even be Canada's newest comic book store!)"

Closing comic book stores

Quite a brace of activity in Canada there, with four new stores. Well, three of the six stores closing are in Ontario…

• Manny's Comics, Cards & Collectables of 200 West Broadway, Monticello, Minnesota is closing. "Sorry to announce that we will be closing the store at the of June. Due to lack of sales. I gave it my best shot but still couldn't make it. I will have things for sale at Mannyscomics.com. Thank you all who tried to support the store."
• Worlds Away Comics of  666 Dundas St, London, Ontario, open for thirty years, closed two years after its owner died.
• Fourth Dimension Comics of 237 Main Street South, Newmarket, Ontario, has closed after 24 years. Owner Steven Gilbert has closed the store "due to what may be realistically described as obscene rent increase demands." York Region reported "As a boy, Gilbert used tip money from his newspaper route to buy comic books at Main Street's now-defunct Comic Wizard store, where he later worked for 13 years before opening Fourth Dimension. The lifelong Newmarket resident's self-published comics have won Canada's two highest cartooning awards for comics — the Joe Shuster Award, named in honour of the co-creator of Superman, and the Doug Wright Award. He created "The Journal of the Main Street Secret Lodge" series, a both dark and lighthearted historical fictionalization of Main Street that he jokes "slanders the good names of all the founding fathers of the town."
• Retrogade Comics, 2612 Kavanaugh Blvd Unit C Little Rock, Arkansas will be closing in June. "Owner said the restrictions during the pandemic pretty much ruined them. They opened up originally right before Covid hit! "
• Back In Time Comics and Collectibles of 111 Sherwood Dr #15, Brantford, Ontario, Canada is closing in June. "It is with great sadness that I must make this post. As of June 1st, 2023, BIT Comics retail location with be closing down. This has been an extremely hard decision to make, but it must be done. I personally am unable to continue to do this without damaging my own health more then it already has. That being said, We are still going to run as an online store for trading cards and key comics. You will still be able to purchase cards and comics through our website and FaceBook groups. All people with cards and comics out for grading will still be returned graded and will still be able to pick them up at the same location. We will be calling all of you in the next coming days to explain further. The location we are currently at will be transformed into an amazing two-story tattoo studio. We are very happy to see the growth of Jinkies Tattoos. For the next 3-4 weeks we will be having weekly sales to clear out a lot of our current inventory. I want to thank every single person and family that has changed my life and helped make a dream come true. All of you made this kid very happy and I will never forget that. From Free Comic Book Day, Halloween and just coming in to say hi has really made me feel welcomed and happy. I have made some life long friends from this business and it truly has been a blessing. From the bottom of my heart….THANK YOU for helping that 23 year old kid live his dream every single day. It has been an amazing 3 years but its time to move onto something bigger and better for my life."
• Collectors Assemble of 7 Church Lane, Banbury, England has gone into liquidation.

Bleeding Cool tries to mark the passing of comic stores as well as their opening. Existing fanbases are likely to make the former more well-known, but please let us know if a comic store is opening or closing in your neighbourhood. Just e-mail richjohnston@gmail.com.

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