Comic Book Shops and Me

Recently there have been some articles and some very well drawn comic strips about girls and comic book shops. The comic book shops or rather the employees don’t come off looking that well or even slightly professional.

I have worked in a couple of comic book stores over my lifetime. In both cases I was the first female to work at the store and I was hired because I knew my comics and fandoms not because I was a girl.

I started getting my comics at the Book Nook in Atlanta when I was a teenager. It was a group of us and we were a mix of genders and ages. Maybe because I was part of the group, I never felt like I was being marginalized there. While in college I went to either the Book Nook or Oxford books, which at the time had a comic book section within the used book store. By that point I was a known customer who was knowledgeable in both mainstream and independent comics along with games and toys.

While I was at the Yale School o’ Drama, I worked for product at Whirlygig Comics. I couldn’t take a job outside of the dear ol’ YSD but we worked out a deal that I could earn comics and gaming supplies. They dealt with my crazy schedule. I had a lot of fun there. That’s where I first met Neil Gaiman and a number of other comic book creators. I also saw people that I had known from conventions down in Atlanta. I made it a point to make sure that women felt comfortable in the store. It was right next to Yale so we had a mix of locals and college students. Everyone was treated as an equal and everyone was treated with respect. That came from the owners down.

After settling back in Atlanta, I needed a job for in between stage management gigs and just to make up the difference of living expenses. I applied various places. I had gone to Oxford Comics, now in its own space under Oxford Used Books, and lamented to the owner that it was hard to find a job that allowed me the flexibility that I needed. He was short handed at the store and decided to take a chance on me since I already had comic book shop experience (Thank You Whirlygig). I don’t think he ever regretted it and in fact over the years he has had more women than men working in the shop.

Oxford Comics was known for stocking the independent comics that other stores might not every take a look at. Also the owner was very toy savvy and collectibles were his specialty. He appreciated the trends I saw and pointed him towards as well.

I made it a point to talk to the girlfriends and wives of the customers who would just be standing around. I asked them what they would like to read and give them some comics that I thought they might like. Quite a number of them became regular customers. All the employees (well with two exceptions and neither of them lasted very long) tried to make the store inclusive.

My parlor trick for the store is that I could run through the “history” of the X-Men from the beginning through the current issue. People use to bring their friends in and have me catch their friends up on the story so they could start reading X-men again. We had someone else who could do that with some DC characters as well.I could also talk about Dr. Strange but fewer were interested.

The only time I tried to dissuade anyone from any comic was an issue of age and some comics that were a little on the mature side. There I would inform the parent about the content and let the parent decide whether their minor should be able to buy it. We also had an adult section that was separate from the rest of the books so that children couldn’t just “run across it.

I know I was lucky in my choices of comic book stores and that the owners saw women as other paying customers not some exotic creatures that were rarely seen. But then I tended to gravitate to those sorts of stores.

Comic book readers are comic book readers be they men, women or small creatures from alpha centari. And customers are customers and need to be treated with respect and good service.

Fourth World Comics is our go to shop out here on Long Island. It is run by a family that recognizes that readers come in all kinds of forms. They have a section of comics for younger readers. They have a magnificent manga and graphic novel selection. They treat everyone as a paying customer. They have a lot of independent and I have seen them help people find what they like to read. They are very family oriented and it has paid off that they have families that feel comfortable bring the children to this shop and finding books for everyone to read.

And that is the experience that everyone should have in a comic book shop.

I am grateful for all the comic book shop owners I have known over the years who got it right.