The odd comic-combo shop you have run across 2 2

[ADAMANTIUM]

3 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

We know the tattoo shop owner who sets up at shows as he also sells comics and toys.  His artists were fully booked for all 4 days of the Calgary Expo.

Awesome! Glad there is a market for it, I guess there is a who's who of that industry too

I didn't get an end result look at any of them. That would be a neat thread. I really don't mind it, but it freaked my brother out haha cause he wasn't expecting it. He is absolutely still terrified of needles 

[Hamlet]

My original LCS in Lacrosse WI sold coins, sports cards, and Commodore 64 computers and games.

 

 

[ADAMANTIUM]

I've seen comics in my area move back into the movie DVD stores. They've also expanded into statues, guitars, posters, records, t-shirts, and board games....

They always had video games and dvds

I've never really found anything of value though, except a Batman new 52 #1 variant cover priced at $10 back when it first was gaining steam. 

[Mercury Man]

1 hour ago, KryptoMayor said:

Missouri Record and Comics based out of Florida. Was one of the largest collection of Comics out there. They have videos on YouTube showing off their warehouse. Josh is the owner and is a great guy. This was my go to place, unfortunately they just closed their website and soon to be closing their business. 

Yes, that happened quick (I live less than 5 minutes from there).   Josh said he sold his inventory to an 'internet' based seller, loaded up 2 semi trucks, and had a big blowout of what was left.  Sorry to see his stash gone, it was fun sifting through hundreds upon hundreds of long boxes.   He helped me fill some runs over the past year +. 

[01TheDude]

There is a store with music (records/equipment) and comics (and possibly head shop stuff-- can't recall)  in Tampa called Green Shift comics. Used to go there occasionally while I was in college at South Florida. I think the store moved-- it was on 30th street but a recent google search showed it on Nebraska Ave. Still does the comics/music mix plus other cool stuff apparently. I doubt I have been there since the late 1980s. Still going strong from what I read. It was cool back then and I guess the same people are keeping that going.

[speedcake]

26 minutes ago, 01TheDude said:

There is a store with music (records/equipment) and comics (and possibly head shop stuff-- can't recall)  in Tampa called Green Shift comics. Used to go there occasionally while I was in college at South Florida. I think the store moved-- it was on 30th street but a recent google search showed it on Nebraska Ave. Still does the comics/music mix plus other cool stuff apparently. I doubt I have been there since the late 1980s. Still going strong from what I read. It was cool back then and I guess the same people are keeping that going.

Beat me to it. Was going to ask if they are still kicking and per Yelp it seems they are.

[mrwoogieman]

5 hours ago, Mercury Man said:

We all know the popular Sportscard/Comic shop.  Any weird shops in your lifetime that doubles as a comic book shop and something else?

Stinky's in Massapequa used to share space with the sword shop, so you had swords and knives on the right and comics on the left!

 

Tor Comics in Holtsville, law offices in front, comic book shop in back.

[inapicklecomics]

The business my wife and I run might be considered an odd combo.  We're switching up some things later this year, but as of right now and the past few years we're comics and comic-related crafts/accessories.  My wife does handmade superhero-themed aprons, coin purses, etc.  I do Golden to Modern age comics.  Our booth at Comic-Cons consist of her products setup on one side, with my comics on the rest of the boothspace.  It's worked well for us.  We've had many couples where the guy gets to search through longboxes while the wife/girlfriend looks at aprons and chats with my wife.  There's not many places like us where you can buy some great precode horror, along with a coin purse for the significant other.

[punksdropdirtysrh]

6 hours ago, thehumantorch said:

Was at a store today watching someone go through the boxes while his wife patiently waited, thought a hair salon/comic store might work well.

There is a comic shop called Limited Edition in Cedar Falls, IA that doubles as a barber shop. 

[Mercury Man]

8 hours ago, speedcake said:

Beat me to it. Was going to ask if they are still kicking and per Yelp it seems they are.

Still there.  Their back issues have taken a steep fall off from what I can tell.   There used to be a lot more .35 to .60 centers' in their boxes, now not so much.   They have a few mid grade wall books (no real keys), small selection in boxes in the front of older comics, and sell guitars, amps, oddball type toys, and B movie DVD's. 

[nocutename]

I know you are looking for a strange vintage shop set up but I have a modern shop set up that was truly odd to me, Newbury Comics.  It was all pop culture toys and memorabilia thorougout the entire front of the store.  In the back was a vinyl record section that was bigger and better placed than the comic section.  Why does this strike me as odd, because the store has the word Comic in it, yet I took me a few minutes to find the dark little alcove it was shove in.  

If you are thinking Forbidden Planet has this set up, you would be mistaken as they have statues and memorabilia upfront but they have a large wall of new comics and many, many shelves of graphic novels.  I guess that was what I was expecting.  Newbury comics is a mall shop so it must appeal to the masses?

[Martin Sinescu]

13 hours ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

Speaking of which, Fan Expo Dallas is coming up! After they announced comic artists, I noticed they have a space for tattoo artists....they had them last year as well.... I don't like it.... is this a southern thing? Do they have this elsewhere too? 

At Star Wars Celebration several years back, they had a tattoo artist section. I think that was the first year they did it, but it was a huge success, I saw so many people walking around with bandages on their arms, and I believe it gets bigger every year.

13 hours ago, Readcomix said:

A guy I know is opening one with a tattoo artist; books up front and parlor in the back.

I knew a girl like that once, but that's a different story...

13 hours ago, SOTIcollector said:

Wuxtry, in Carbondale, Illinois was my first comic shop.  It was primarily a used record store, but they also sold comic books, back in 1977-81 or so.  I remember sifting through stacks of old books while listening to whatever they had playing in the store.  It wasn't till a few years later that I realized how many times I heard Elvis Costello's "Armed Forces" while digging through old comics.

Weird. There was a Wuxtry in Athens and Atlanta, too (also a record store). I always thought it was purely a local thing. The one in Athens had a comic shop upstairs that I spent many afternoons haunting when I probably should have been writing a paper or something. 

After Oxford Books in Atlanta closed up all of their primary shops back in the 90's (these were pretty big buildings that would rival todays B&N stores), their specialty comic shop managed to stick around. Oddly, the comic shop absorbed Oxford's monthly porn mag section, too. It wasn't even in the back, just kind of corralled by bookshelves near the register. Not sure if the ownership changed hands or what, but I thought it was pretty clever that whoever was running the comic shop saw an opportunity for cross-sales. 

As an aside, I remember back in the early or mid-90's seeing one of those side-of-the-road fruit stands that was also selling baseball cards. This was somewhere in a small rural town I drove through to get back home from school, so not really the kind of place you could open a standalone card shop. Just thought it was funny with the hand-painted signs that were like "tomatoes", "apples", "sports cards". This was really the very peak of the bubble just before the strike.

[electricprune]

I visited a store in a small town in mid Michigan that had records, books, comics, and candy. The candy was bulk type that you’d buy by the pound. Everything else was vintage.

The comic selection was mostly awful. Several racks of absolutely horrible 80s garbage. Some of it was bagged and boarded, some wasn’t. The books were in no order at all. The last rack I looked at had a small group of Bronze Marvel Westerns and Conans, no boards and no bags. Somehow, a few of them were very high grade. I believe they were 20 cents each or 6 for a dollar. I took the nicest Westerns, but passed on the Conans.

[SOTIcollector]

2 hours ago, Martin Sinescu said:

Weird. There was a Wuxtry in Athens and Atlanta, too (also a record store). I always thought it was purely a local thing. The one in Athens had a comic shop upstairs that I spent many afternoons haunting when I probably should have been writing a paper or something. 

It's likely there was no connection between the IL and GA Wuxtry stores.  I got to know Fred Bozek, who owned the Wuxtry in Illinois.  He named the place for the shouts of a newboy way back in the day.  Billy Batson or other newspaper boys would shout "wuxtry" as an alternative form of "extra".  

Fred sold the place sometime in the early 80's and moved away, I believe to Colorado.  According to their website, the Wuxtry stores in Georgia have been around since 1976.  So I think the name shared by the Illinois and Georgia Wuxtry stores just happens to be coincidence.

 

[Readcomix]

@Martin Sinescu

I knew a girl like that once, but that's a different story...

I bet you made her dress up like Black Canary 

[B2D327]

When I was a kid it was fairly normal to go into a Woolworth or neighborhood diner for lunch and grab a comic from the rack or magazine display. As I became an adult (physically), I thought those had gone the way of the dinosaur. I was totally shocked to see books in a deli one morning as I was grabbing a newspaper (ironically, thought these were discontinued too). I looked around to check if I'd stepped into a time warp.

[Fan Boy]

Went across one store that was Comics and Records mixed combo. I remembered went into there, saw wooden bins all over, records on one side and comics on another side. That was in late 1970s, store didn’t last long. 

Another strange combo I went to. It was a pawnshop and comic store in one store. It was strange being in this store because so many stuff were hanging as pawns, stuff on shelves. The owner was selling back issues and books like he know their values. Hard to tell whatever they are “pawned prices” or regular prices? The books were in the back corner there. 

[Martin Sinescu]

1 hour ago, SOTIcollector said:

It's likely there was no connection between the IL and GA Wuxtry stores.  I got to know Fred Bozek, who owned the Wuxtry in Illinois.  He named the place for the shouts of a newboy way back in the day.  Billy Batson or other newspaper boys would shout "wuxtry" as an alternative form of "extra".  

Fred sold the place sometime in the early 80's and moved away, I believe to Colorado.  According to their website, the Wuxtry stores in Georgia have been around since 1976.  So I think the name shared by the Illinois and Georgia Wuxtry stores just happens to be coincidence.

 

Yeah, now that you mention it, I have seen/heard the "Wuxtry! Wuxtry!" since then and realized that must've been where they got the name. Odd coincidence those being the same type shops, but I'm sure you're right that there was no connection. Thanks for the info 

[fullmoon]

Fred Bozek was the original founder of the very first Wuxtry, in Carbondale. Dan and Mark were his employees there and moved to Georgia and opened their Wuxtry shops. Wuxtry was Fred’s vision. 

[the blob]

On ‎1‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 7:40 PM, Readcomix said:

That's what I would think, but I have never scored comics in a record shop. Tried several.

My old comic shop, circa 1999 or so, decided to get rid of his space for 25 cent comics (he had room for about 6 long boxes)  and replace them with vinyl records. He said he was making $5 a week off the comics in that space, it wasn't worth it anymore. He wasn't selling a ton of records, but he was making more than $5 a week from the space. He still sold cheap comics (50 cents each and in grab bags that worked out to 25 cents each) though, just elsewhere. He closed in about a year. He was making more money running 99 cent auctions on ebay unloading former 25 cent books and charging $3 shipping + $1 per extra book.