EVERYTHING BUT IMAGINARY #272: SEEKING MY COMICS IN LAS VEGAS

[Blake Petit]

Once upon a time, way back in Everything But Imaginary #204, I wrote about visiting the comic shops of my girlfriend Erin’s home town of Pittsburgh. I don’t get to travel as much as I’d like, but when I do, one of the things I enjoy is looking for comic shops in whatever area I’m in – even a place with as much to do as Las Vegas, Nevada. As further proof that Erin is the most awesome girlfriend in history, she indulged me as we visited not one, but three shops in Sin City during our recent visit. Like I did last time, I’m going to give you my impression of these shops, warts and all. A comic shop is the front line in the fight to gain this medium greater acceptance. If people who went wild over The Dark Knight want to look for some great Batman or Joker stories and seek out a comic shop, it’s imperative that experience be a good one. The difference is that between a potential new comic book fan and just another person who walked into a shop, saw a guy who reminded them of the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons, and vowed never to go into one again.

Knowing I wanted to check out a shop or two, Erin and I used the online comic book locator at the Free Comic Book Day website to find out if there were any shops close to our hotel. To my surprise there wasn’t one – there were five. I wasn’t about to drag her to all of them, but two of them were relatively close to each other, so we jotted down the addresses and headed out.

First up was Dreamwell Comics. This is a pretty small shop right at the end of a shopping plaza within sight of the big attractions of the Las Vegas strip. Erin and I walked in to find a very well-stocked store. The trade paperback collection wasn’t great, but there was an enormous selection of back issues. Also impressive, to me, was a very large selection of children’s comics – both new releases and classic issues of stuff like Uncle Scrooge, Casper the Friendly Ghost and Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham. The kids’ comics were not only bountiful, but prominently displayed.

The shop had a good selection of action figures and statues as well, and Erin quickly pointed out some of the ones she liked. The shopkeep was very friendly and helpful, even offering to hunt down any specialty items we were looking for after we told him we were from out of town. He told us that Dreamwell is the oldest comic shop in Vegas. I don’t really know how to check on that, but it’s certainly a good one. Erin picked up 52 Volume Three, an Oni digest that looked interesting, and the free The Stand Sketchbook, while I walked out with recent issues of Hellboy and Power Pack I’d somehow missed, plus an old issue of Peter Porker. And I’m not ashamed to admit it, either.

Just a few blocks down from Dreamwell was Dark Tower Comics. In case you didn’t know, Erin and I met on a Stephen King fan message board, so when she saw the name of this place she knew we had to visit. With a name like “Dark Tower,” you’d kind of expect a cool mural or awesome front-door sign to welcome you into the joint, but as you can see from the photo, the outside of the shop was pretty nondescript. In fact, there wasn’t even any signage outside that indicated the name of the shop, just the generic word “COMICS.” This shop was part of a larger shopping plaza, and in a good place for foot traffic. Erin and I quickly popped in.

I really like the interior of this shop. It’s big, brightly colored, and the merchandise is brightly displayed. The front counter has tons of statues, and right inside the door is a great selection of t-shirts. The guy behind the counter was also very helpful and friendly when I asked about the shirt sizes – they never seem to make these comic shirts big enough. You’d think they’d go for maximum sizes, considering the stereotype of the Native North American Geek.

The bulk of the floor space is made up of wire racks that make a sort of labyrinth of geekdom. If you go down the left side, there are lots of gaming books, supplies, miniatures and the like. On the right, the comics. New releases are clearly marked, but there are a lot of paperbacks and packs of collected back issues, which is something I like to see at any comic shop. It’s sort of an instant collected edition – issues #1-6 of Annihilation: Conquest for one low price! I always like seeing that.

I do have two complaints about this shop, though. First, there’s virtually no back issue selection: just the recent releases and a few older things in the packs. Second, and of bigger concern, is the section of “adult” comics, and I ain’t talkin’ Vertigo. I’m talking books with names like Boffy the Vampire Slayer. (No, I’m not making that one up. It was there.) I’ve got no problem with a shop selling adult comics – first amendment and all that. However, I do think that an effort should be made to separate them from all-ages stuff. The “Boffy” comic and its kin were in a section separated only by an easy-to-see-through section of wire, one that any kid could easily walk through without being in clear view of the front counter. Worst of all, these books and DVDs were right next to a shelf full of X-Men comics. And not the XXX-Men parody either, I’m talking about stuff like the X-Men: Deadly Genesis paperbacks.

Still I did like this shop. Erin got issues #2-5 of The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home (it seemed appropriate) while I picked up the first three issues of the Fabian Nicieza/Kevin Maguire run on Batman Confidential and the newest PVP trade paperback.

This was supposed to be the last of our comic book excursions for the trip, because as awesome as Erin is, I didn’t want to push my luck. On my last day, though, on the way to the airport, we happened to run across another shop, and we decided to pop in and see what it was like. Kool Kollectables has to be one of the most unique comic book shops I’ve ever seen. First off, it’s huge. I mean, I’ve seen big comic shops before, but this is perhaps the biggest one outside of a “superstore” like Mile High. They also have a ginormous back issue section, but they don’t hide ‘em in a bunch of dusty long boxes like most shops. The bulk of the store floor is taken up by racks, like the new release shelves in most stores, but filled to bursting with back issues. They’re arranged very well, too – the kids’ comics are all in the first section, and all the others are arranged alphabetically throughout the store. There’s a healthy selection of action figures – old and new – and a few smaller shelves of paperbacks. Want a sword? There are several of those in this shop as well. There’s a long rack of shirts, all sealed in plastic, and near the cash register there are several $1 bins, filled to bursting with old Valiant comics, which is absolutely awesome.

The thing that makes Kool Kollectables unlike any other comic shop I’ve ever visited? I’ve never before gone to a comic shop that sells furniture.

And I don’t mean a kiddie stool with a Superman logo on it or even an old-school Pac-Man table video game. I mean stuff like secondhand sofas, stacked three high against the long wall of the shop. Apparently, they were having a clearance sale too. So the next time, friends, you’re looking for a sword, a She-Hulk figure from the Hulk animated line, a cheap copy of Archer and Armstrong #7, and a new couch, boy do I have the store for you! Erin didn’t pick up anything here, but I got a few Valiants from the cheap bin, as well as the Archie Comics adaptation of the To Riverdale and Back Again TV movie I wrote about in my last movie column a few weeks back. I wanted to refresh my memory to see if it was as bad as I remembered. Y’know, the movie probably was, but the story in the comic actually wasn’t bad. It would have been a decent place to launch a TV show (as intended) if the movie hadn’t sucked.

So that about does it for our Vegas adventure, friends. There are still two shops on our list that we didn’t visit, and we happened to drive past both of them during the trip, so next time we’re in Vegas (and there will be a return trip), we’ll check out those two. I doubt either of them will be as unique as Kool Kollectables, but it’s always fun to check out a new shop.

Favorite of the Week: July 16, 2008

So let’s look back at the comics I read on the plane to Vegas. What was my favorite? Well, continuing a long run of hogging my “favorite” category, Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins’s return to the Flash universe knocked my socks off with Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge #1. Some time ago, the Rogues were tricked into murdering Bart Allen by his arch-enemy, Inertia. Now, wanting nothing more than to escape and retire, the Rogues decide to go out with one last job – getting revenge on the speedster that screwed them all. One of the things that made Johns’ run on Flash so great was how he gave the Rogues real depth and personality for the first time. This book feels like the natural culmination of that growth and development. It was an awesome start to what I’m sure will be a really exciting series.

Blake M. Petit is the author of the superhero comedy novel, Other People's Heroes, the suspense novel The Beginner and the novel-in-progress ”Summer Love” at Evertime Realms. He’s also the co-host, with the inimitable Chase Bouzigard, of the 2 in 1 Showcase Podcast. E-mail him at Blake@comixtreme.com and visit him on the web at Evertime Realms.

[hurnslice]

Great article, Blake. I've got an awesome gf who humors me with trips to out-of-town collectable shops as well.

Go on vacation again soon and keep hunting!

[ErinPatricia]

Wasnt it Boffy the Vampire Layer?

And according to my step sister that last shop, Kool Whaterver , is an a very very very shady place. Like hookers and drugs shady

[Blake Petit]

Originally Posted by hurnslice

Great article, Blake. I've got an awesome gf who humors me with trips to out-of-town collectable shops as well.

Go on vacation again soon and keep hunting!

Whenever I do, I shall!

Erin -- good thing she didn't tell us that before we went, huh?

[ErinPatricia]

Like that would of stopped you from going to a comic shop

[Blake Petit]

Originally Posted by ErinPatricia

Like that would of stopped you from going to a comic shop

Well, no, but I would have walked in armed with a bottle of Febreeze.

[ErinPatricia]

Please tell me how Febreeze will save you from scary Hookers and Dealers and Strippers and whatever the heck else hangs around that plaza after dark? I mean other than the Comic shop the rest of the businesses were bathhouses and strip clubs...

[Blake Petit]

Didn't you know? Febreeze has the same effect on sleazy hookers that Holy Water has on vampires. It's in the survival handbook.

[ErinPatricia]

you poor poor thing.
who teaches you this stuff?