the Lottery Party XV

the Lottery Party: Nostalgia

posted on February 25th, 2009 in Columns
by Richard Caldwell, Managing Editor

I remember the very first comic book store I frequented- it was called Musabelle’s, and it was then located towards the end of a strip mall in a small town outside of Houston, Texas.
Discovering the store in 1988, when I was maybe ten, the next four or so years that followed I spent as much time therein as any of the full-time employees, whose names time has somehow robbed from me.Musabelle’s was a true comic shoppe in that easily 95% of their inventory were actual comic books, with the remainder being relevant games and toys, manga but no anime. Nowadays it seems most comic shoppes are in actuality more hobby stores than anything else. While there was a single table in the back of the store for gamers, the staff of Musabelle’s catered ONLY to comic book fans, which is how it should be, for an institution to get away with truthfully calling itself a comic book store. To some of you this may be a case of semantics, but a spade is still a spade no matter how many unresolved Marvel plotlines you beat to death with it.
Musabelle’s was special though. What passed for my circle of friends at the time- we would make the walk straight from school everyday, most of us going two or three miles out of our way. In addition to the pull lists, we were allowed to read whatever we wanted, even to shop on credit. It was our library, our clubhouse, our home away from home. Our daily symposium would debate and critique everything on the stands. For guiding honest customers with suggestions to expand their growing tastes, we were allowed to deal with shoplifters our own way.
The owner and I pranked the store once. Spending a fifty dollar birthday check on a set list of comics, the very next day I gathered said books from the racks, from the longboxes, and very publicly ran out the door with my massive stash- seemingly robbing the store blind. I stayed away for a full week, my friends giving me daily updates on how the owner was out for my blood. They were scared at how I would recklessly get myself banned from the shoppe for life. When I finally returned, with the intentions of carrying through with a pre-rehearsed fight, the owner and I- making eye contact amidst a store full of people who were mystified at how and why I had gone so criminal- we burst out laughing so loudly that any newbies to the store must have thought we had gone mad as hatters. Great times.
On a return visit to the area in the mid-90’s, I found that Musabelle’s had changed location, as well as the majority of its staff. There were still a half dozen regulars sitting about like they were at home, but the faces were no longer familiar. The next generation was apparently up to bat, which was fine by me, as I had more than my fair share of past goofy memories. Memories of debating how Charles Xavier HAD to be the X-traitor, of weighing which of the books from this new company Image were really readable (I was a fan of Larsen and Valentino), to guessing where the respective Bat- and Spider- and Super- families of titles were likely headed with the next batch of kooky crossovers. Sharing in kindred geeky awe.
I share this in hopes of expressing how much I feel the comic book shoppe to be a valid link in the chain. Regardless, thanks in part to the growing dependency/obsession on increased technology as well as on the monetary woes of our national (and global) economy, such places are becoming dinosaurs. Everyone has heard of a comic book store, but these days, how many of you truly make use of such a resource? The personable experiences from such Mom and Pop outlets are never so adequately duplicated or matched by the anonymity of chatrooms and forums. And as the larger publishers faded out of the in-house subscriptions over the 90’s, mail order subscription services and pull lists have briefly filled that void, though with more online hosting and distribution, the trade of honest to god salesmanship is becoming a lost art. The comic book store has been and remains the pointman for the industry, the eye on the street and fly on the wall insofar as what the trends and waves are actually impacting.
This industry is still limited by too much of an apparent inferiority complex to ever be more than the sum of its parts, which means that every aspect must be tended to with the utmost of care and respect. The direct market has gone through a series of changes over recent decades, some good and evolutionary, and some merely the whims of greedy money men. Please, do not let the comic book shoppe die, not ever. Support your local store, support your local economy. Start your own damn pull list, and let your retailer know loud and clear exactly which of the plethora of books not Hollywood enough to be acknowledged by the Diamond Comics Distributors (read:motherfuckers) are worth their ordering.Failure to do this will NOT maintain any degree of diversity, not in modes of distribution, and certainly not in terms of creative offerings of what’s on sale every Wednesday.
Take a damn stand already. Create memories for the next generation that can be reached even when the zombies rise up and the internet dies forever.

Comic book stores rock.

richardcaldwell@comicnews.info