sloangods's Comic Book Blogs

I've been buying comics at LCS for about 35 years now.  It seems like in Las Vegas, comics shops are thriving, and that makes me happy.  When I was a kid and lived in Northern California, I think there was only one in the entire (densely populated) county.  

The only shop I could get to without driving 25 miles was run by an Italian man who never seemed to really like comics.  He only saw it as a business I believe.  He never talked about books, characters, artists, etc.  There was never anybody in his stores most times, and I wondered how he stayed in business.  He even had 2 locations at one time.  To my 8-years-young eyes, it just seemed like he had the greatest job in the world, and it brought him no joy.

Later on when I could travel, I found shops in Berkeley, Oakland, SF and the peninsula.  Most of them were either combo bookstore/comic shop, or college-type with a more mature slant.  I only found two they I really enjoyed: a touristy-shop at Pier 39, which seemed to have an awesome back issue selection, and high prices; and a hole in the wall in Burlingame that was run by a guy who always seemed to be on the brink of financial ruin.