New around these parts

[Speedy92286]

Yes, if you couldn't tell by the date I joined and post count, I am the new guy I was lurking around here for a month or two before I decided to join. I only wish I joined when the site was a little more active :P

Anyway, I'm a recent fan of comics, so if any of you have AF stories that you recommend(I get a decent paycheck from Gamestop bi-weekly) I might just go out and buy them.

So...how you all doing?

[Dfense75]

Hey there Speedy Welcome aboard.

[Legerd]

Welcome to Alpha Waves Speedy!

[rplass]

Welcome aboard, Speedy, I see you're a fellow New Yorker! Where do you shop for comics?

[Trewqp]

Welcome aboard speedy !!!

[Speedy92286]

Welcome aboard, Speedy, I see you're a fellow New Yorker! Where do you shop for comics?

I've been going to Forbidden Planet with my girlfriend recently, but before that I was a regular at Best Comics.

Do you go to any of them?

Thanks for the warm welcome!

[Dfense75]

Im not to far from you all myself. I live maybe 20 minutes outside of the city right here in northern Jersey. My girl and I go there a few times a month for shows and other fun activities. Whenever we go though I ALWAYS find a way to hit up Midtown Comics. There is another couple of shops in the village that I have checked out that where nice as well. Dont remember their names but one is on Bleeker St.

[rplass]

I went to Best Comics once. I had a fairly negative impression of that store. Here's why: it was on "Free Comic Book Day" and that day, I was totally psyched, going around to many stores in the area, deciding to visit a whole bunch of stores I had never been to. Best Comics decided not to participate in FCBD (it costs several hundred dollars for the store to participate) and instead had some freebies on a table. The freebies were nice but I was all, "WTF, this is a big store, no FCBD???" The selection of back issues seemed to be more oriented to the Silver Age collector, so I wasn't interested. Also I didn't like the way they had their back issues displayed. It's kind of hard to describe but basically the bins were way longer than my arms could reach and I couldn't get to half of the issues!!! They don't bag/board the new comics on display. Instead, they lay them out flat on horizontal shelves, which is a fairly good way to display them. OK so the thing that really got me was the prices. Now sometimes I'm willing to pay a bit extra for a comic that I know is overpriced just to support the store, the small business of comics, it's a few dollars investment in the store, whatever, I'm happy to patronize the establishment. Once at a different store in NYC I paid $5 for $3 worth of back issue comics, whatever, I can afford it and I want the shop to stay open, so I paid it, you know? But this one situation was just bizarre. I was in the market for the sketch variant of Civil War #7 (which has a small cameo appearance of Omega Flight) and they had one there for $100, way overpriced. At the time, you could find one for around $45-$55. I went to Forbidden Planet about a week later and paid $50 for it. So what was that $100 all about?

Then the owner of the store, OK this was really creepy, he started this bizarre conversation with me where he wanted me to "join" his club and get discounts and whatnot. It was a strange marketing gimmick. Look, I go to a store, I buy a comic, whatever, don't make me join your club, what?!?!?

I was all, "Thanks, but I don't really live close to this store, I'm just checking it out today" and I had baby rplass with me and she was running around the store so I grabbed her and split. I probably won't go back.

Up the street from Best Comics in Floral Park is Superhero Comics (ask for Rich) which is a tiny store but is way more laid back and preferable.

Forbidden Planet, what can I say, it's a NYC icon, nothing like it in the city. It's the comic book store I always wanted to go to when I was a kid. It's one of the few places where I will gladly respond to a clerk who asks me if I need help, I always say, 'yeah, I want this or that' and they help me find it. They have everything there, very extensive selection, fairly decent retail prices. You can find variant covers there very easily since they are a huge volume retailer. They literally have a long box filled with variants so it's not a big deal for them to have several copies of the "super rare" sketch variants available.

If you're already in the city, check out a few other really great comic shops:

Cosmic Comics on 23rd St - the owner, Mark, is a self-described schmuck, but despite his acerbic personality, they generally will have all the new comics you want, plus the back issues are fairly deep. They display new comics upright in cubbyholes and retain a good 3-5 weeks worth of older "new" comics on a wire rack in case you miss a week. They give a $20 bonus for every $100 you spend there, not bad! It's clean and well-lit, plus the clerks Mark hires tend to be extremely good-looking!

Midtown Comics on the corner of 45th Street and Lexington Avenue - well this is one of the best comic shops in the world, IMHO. It's clean, bright, organized and professional, almost like a chain bookstore. They also give a $20 bonus for every $100 you spend, so sign up. They are a great place to find variant covers behind the register or on wire racks above the new comics. Their back issues are well-maintained and always jam-packed. I like how they stamp the back issues with a little tag with the issue # right above the price. It's easy to find the comics that way. They display their new comics on wire racks and always have plenty, plenty, plenty of copies of the comics available.

Jim Hanley's Universe - across from the Empire State Building on 33rd St. another great, great, great world-class comic shop, also very clean and professional. Their selection is absolutely unmatched. For most items where you'd have to place a special order with your comic shop, they have 5-6 copies on the shelf already, so don't even bother! Their new comics are plentiful but the back issues are a bit stale. For new and recent released, I've found a few things there that I'd never find in a smaller store. They are very well organized and cover the entire range of comic/sci-fi/manga collecting and I've always been very impressed by their frequent "everything 20% off" sales.

Typically when I go hunting for comics I'll go to the city and start at Forbidden Comics, walk up to Cosmic, walk up to JHU, then go over to Midtown, gee, what's that, three hours or so of walking/shopping and I've set foot in four of the absolute best comic shops in the world and I'm guaranteed to find what I want.

BTW the shop just off Bleecker St was called Village Comics and they are closed.

If you can get to other parts of the city I can fill you in on some shops in Queens and Brooklyn... dunno where you live

Love,
rplass

[Mokole]

I don't go anywhere to buy comics. Gas is too expensive and 2.2 hours to drive...

Welcome, Speedy!

[rplass]

Yar, this is turning into a "Review of NYC comic shops" thread, whatever.

In Manhattan there's at least one other major shop I didn't mention and that is St. Marks Comics down on St. Marks Place. They have a sister shop in Brooklyn, too. I didn't mention it because I have negative comments about it, but here goes anwyay. For new issues, AVOID this place. Here's why: They display new comics in wooden cubbyhole racks, and, despite the fact that the comics won't fall out of the cubbyholes, they put a wooden bar right across the fronts of the holes, so YOU HAVE TO BEND THE COMIC INTO AN "S" SHAPE to get it out of the cubbyhole. Each week when they get new comics and load up the cubbyholes, they have to wiggle the comics around the bar in the front to get them inside which bends up the spine in several places. Needless to say, by the time you get to them, every single one of their new comics is bent to hell and have spine creases everywhere and are just in such a poor condition that I would pass them over in a 50cent box. What's with that bar in front of the cubbyholes? Take it out, you don't need it and all it does is ruin every single comic. Makes me sick.

For back issues they are overpriced but well-stocked. The store in Brooklyn is also well-stocked but they have the same maddening bar across the fronts of the cubbyholes that wrecks the comics at that store too, so avoid getting new comics there. Seriously, unless you're the sort of comic buyer who destroys your comics as you read them (nothing wrong with that if you do, whatever, it's your comic), I can't see why a collector would shop there. Maybe I'm a "condition queen" about my comics?!?, otherwise I'm baffled why they would go out of their way to take a collectible item and destroy them on Day 1 as soon as they get them into the shop.

[Speedy92286]

I've been to all of those except Cosmic Comics and Superhero comics. Actually, I went to like four different stores one day :P Me and my girlfriend had way too much time to kill and money digging a hole in my pocket.

Forbidden Planet is by far the nicest out of all the ones I've been to, but I just hate the way they have their comics on a shelf going side ways. I pull out a comic wrong and the whole thing goes down. Sooo embarrassing -_-'