A quandry
Okay, here’s my problem.
I moved from a city (well, suburb, really) where I used to have to drive about 25 minutes to get to a (by my standards) good comic store. This wasn’t a huge deal. I’d take some time, grab my son from school, get a double chili-cheeseburger and chili fries from Tommy’s and then hit the comic store. Which in this case was Comickaze (best of my choices for current comics in San Diego). Now, given circumstances, I couldn’t get out there every week. Sometimes I skipped two weeks in a row.
However, since I’ve moved, things have changed. A lot. El Dorado Hills, which is a (mostly) lovely community in the Sierra Foothills. Go to Folsom and you can get decent Mexican food, a little further and you can get Mediterranean, as well as Mongolian BBQ and the best hot dogs you’re likely to find in California. There’s used bookstores, a variety of useful and sometimes necessary commercial establishments. Not much culture to speak of, but whatever. In short, a decently-sized city. Go to Sacramento (about 30 mins, give or take) and you get into a good-sized city.
Now one thing I haven’t found yet is… You guessed it, a decent comic store. Granted, I haven’t had time to really prowl Sacramento (and really, it’s a bit far to have to drive just for comics.) However, even when I was in San Diego, I had to drive a significant distance, too. And San Diego is either the sixth or seventh largest city in the US.
Sure, you can get (a selection, sometimes a good one) of graphic novels/trades in most bookstores. Though those have their own pitfalls, and unless they’re serviced by someone who knows the field, it’s going to be a painful mess. Monthly comics, however, are all but gone from the big stores. And they don’t seem to have much of a street presence here. Like any. I know, I’ve already railed at the weaknesses of the floppy; I’ll refrain for now.
But it appears that the public (or the folks who sell to the public) isn’t all that interested in the format. Now, maybe Brian Hibbs is right and if we had a comic store on every corner (okay, I’m exaggerating), things would pick up. As it stands, comics are a niche market. Which is interesting, because according to most folks, we’re in the middle of a boom. Boom and niche don’t seem to mesh real well in my mind.
Anyways, unless I find a decent store within a half-hour driving distance, I’ll be forced to do one of two things:
1) Drive into San Francisco once a month or so (which may mean getting a pull list to make sure that I get the things that I want). Granted, this possibility has some appeal. SF is a great place to spend a day, and that’s not even counting the friends I have there. There’s three comic stores that I can think of off the top of my head that are likely to have most of if not everything I want.
2) Get a subscription at one of the shipping services like DCS. Which removes almost all of the human/geek contact out of the equation. And means I have to plan ahead of time. Which I’m not big on. I suppose this wouldn’t be so bad, but it’s not an exciting possibility for me.
It’d just be easier if a store opened. Preferably nearby. Wonder how many customers it takes to keep the doors open on a decent store…