By Ben “Zombie” Bedgood

Comic Shops are a dying breed. Now, after reading that statement you might be sitting there thinking “No they aren’t! There is that shop down the street, the new one across town, and the one in the mall!” In order to understand this statement, we need to look at what makes a Comic Shop.

What makes a Comic Shop? Comics? Graphic Novels? Action Figures? The Atmosphere? Well, all of these things, but to different degrees.

The atmosphere is essential. There are a number of local shops in my area that I don’t shop at simply because I had an unpleasant experience there. So, having friendly knowledgeable people is key. Action figures, posters, and other comic paraphernalia can also go into creating that friendly comics atmosphere.

What about Graphic Novels? Well, these help but I don’t find them that important in creating a good Comic Shop. The truth is, I can get Graphic Novels anywhere, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or even toy stores.

This brings us to the Comics. When I visit my local Comic Shop I usually go to grab the latest issues of series I’m reading, but I’m often looking for back issues, as well. I have been in shops where, when asked about back issues, they reply, “We’re not a store for collectors…” Well, don’t Comic Collecting and Comic Reading go hand in hand? Even the most casual of Comic Readers has a small collection of the comics they have read. If I was only looking for the most recent issue of a comic, just to throw it away later, I could find that at toy stores, online, or even Barnes & Noble on a spinner rack in the magazine section.

Not to mention the nearly therapeutic value of spending an hour (or six) digging through a store’s archive section. There is nothing quite like being able to sit and flip through old back issues while chatting with the shop employees until you find that “One” issue you have been needing to complete a run, or coming across that “Gem” you didn’t even realize you were looking for. Or the experience, as you flip through issue after issue in a long box, of coming across beautiful and unique cover art that you may not have previously thought about reading and have now thrown in your pile.

Furthermore, so many comics stories are intertwined across time and universes that backstory becomes essential. I mean, how can you appreciate Azreal showing up in Batman & Robin Eternal if you never read Batman Sword of Azreal, or Knightfall? How can you appreciate the new Spiderman 2099 series if you never read the original Spiderman 2099 from 1992? You can certainly try, but it’s not easy. So, how can a store that refuses to carry back issues call themselves a Comic Shop? How do they say “We’re not a store for collectors…” yet offer polybags and boards at checkout?

These stores that will only carry the most recent three issues are what I refer to as Comic Newsstands: places that are no different than the literal newsstands on the streets of the city. They are a machine shop just turning out the most current issues with little to no concern for the history behind them. Or, for another comparison, the only difference between these shops and the spinner rack in the magazine section of Barnes & Noble is size. For me, I have somewhere around 15 “Comic Shops” within a 40 mile radius of me. Out of those, maybe five would be what I consider actual Comic Shops; the rest are Comic Newsstands.

So how can we fix this? We can start by encouraging these Comic Newsstands to start carrying more back issues. Now, I’m not expecting miracles. I know I’m not going to walk into one of these Comic Newsstands next week and see comics all the way back to the golden age. What I would like to start seeing is these stores carrying more of the back issues of what they are already carrying, even if it’s just 6 months to a year worth.

I also understand that this is something that would need to be built up progressively over time; but it has to start with us. As readers and (more importantly) customers, we have to express interest in this change. We need to let them know that not only do we want to see these products but that we would actually buy them. Knowing of those potential sales would give these Comics Newsstands a reason to make the investment. Only then can we expect some of these Comic Newsstands to start changing into the Comics Shops we really want to see.