Thursday, November 3, 2011

November Has Come: Seattle Comic Stores

City of Cards C2.8: Here!

I have access to a scanner, at least for the next couple of weeks, so I managed to color something for November. Ace's birthday was the first of the month so I changed the voting incentive to a picture of how I imagine Ace would have likely celebrated. To see it, Vote Here.

I'm still in the middle of job-hunting so a lot of my free time is being eaten up by that, but I also have a lot of drawing work being planned.

One of the first things I did after arriving in Seattle, literally the day after I arrived, was to check out the local comic store scene. I hit every Comic Stop and chatted with some of the nice staff at each of the locations as well as The Dreaming. What's nice about each of the stores is that while distance wise they're not terribly far apart they have their own personality.

The first location I hit was Redmond, attached to a nice outdoor mall and a good location if you want to pick up your weekly mainstream comics while sipping coffee at the Starbucks across the way. Stephanie there was really upbeat and nice to chat with as well.

Next I hit Lynwood, which is the original Comic Stop location and the largest of their stores. It has a fairly good selection of mainstream trade paperbacks as well as the best selection of single issues of all the locations, especially if you're looking for stuff by Image or other non-Big-Two publishers like 215 Ink. I picked up the fourth Popgun anthology while I was there and they're ordering in a copy of Finder volume 1 for me even though it's out of print. All in all I'll definitely be back.

The third location I hit was the Everett location which was inside the mall there. Much like the Redmond location, a good place to go in and buy your weekly comic. Pretty low-key, but for a mall comic store I was very impressed.

Day two my first stop was The Dreaming in the U-District.  It's a nice little independent shop, especially if you're into horror. If you're a fan of Lovecraft or b-movie horror you'll definitely want to check this place out. Again, very nice and welcoming staff. This seems to be a trend amongst stores here and I think it's great.

My final stop was the U-District Comic Stop. I'm glad I saved this one for last because this is also where a friend and fellow CCS alumni has his books up for sale. So if you're there, look for Grump Toast by the amazing Ben Horak. If you're a fan of indy comics in general you should also check it out. Once I figure out a printing set up I may consign my work there as well. I picked up Michael Kupperman's Mark Twain book while I was there and as a big Twain fan I will definitely have more to say about that later.

So in two days I hit up five great comic shops, each different enough to cater to any possible comic enthusiasts needs. Seattle is truly fortunate to have such a strong and positive comics community from what I've seen thus far and I look forward to getting to know it better.

2 comments:

  1. There's a Comic Stop in the U-District? :O

    I used to live in Lynnwood, until we moved to Renton. That Lynnwood Comic Stop was the /best/. Our Renton shops aren't nearly as good. Very small, very little selection. Sigh. :(

    Bellevue's is good though, as is Federal Way's.

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  2. @Cayt

    Apparently the U-District Comic Stop is pretty brand new and it's really nice. Good people there, I definitely plan to go back.

    I want to do more comic store visiting so if you have any places you want to suggest please let me know!

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