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♪ When did I get here ♪

♪ When did I leave the dream behind ♪

♪ Where is the fire, this rebel's turned to ice ♪

♪ Goodbye to ripped jeans ♪

♪ So long to summer battle scars ♪

We appreciate everyone coming out

for another midnight deal.

My name is Jermaine Exum.

Some people call me Lord Retail.

I'm the manager of Acme Comics

in Greensboro, North Carolina.

I've had two jobs in my life.

My first job was changing oil and inspecting motor vehicles.

My second job was, as soon as I got off work at my real job,

I would come around the comic book store and help out.

Does everybody love Superman or is he just kind of okay?

Love Superman? Love Superman?

Just kind of okay?
Yeah.

You are exactly the type of person

that I'm glad you're here.

This week is the week that Action Comics #1,000 releases.

That is the first American comic book

to reach 1,000 issues, which is amazing.

Now something that DC Comics allowed to have happen

is that stores, if they wanted to,

could begin selling that book at midnight.

You don't have to wait until the next morning,

Wednesday morning, new release day,

'cause it's a big occasion.

Do we have enough copies?

No.

Definitive no, we do not have enough copies.

I'm gonna go with a no.

Let's come inside.
Cool.

We're talking to Brian Michael Bendis.

Anybody know who that is?
Ooh! I know who he is!

He's in DC now.

So it is a little overwhelming.

He's such an iconic character, there's so much history,

the supporting cast alone.

There's expectation on Superman, there just is.

Yeah, more people are worried

about how I'm going to write Jimmy Olsen than they are

how I'm gonna write Superman.
(all laughing)

You know, I keep a good poker face on for you guys,

but no matter how many times I do that,

I'm always, like ah!

(all laughing)

I'll start ringing people up.

It will be a super long day for us,

but I think it's pretty cool

to be able to set up something like this

so that Superman fans,

or maybe even people that aren't Superman fans,

just want to see what's going on with this 1,000th issue,

just wanna say that they were out there for it.

Good luck tonight.

Yep, thank you.
Thank you very much.

All right, thanks for coming out, I appreciate it.

(gentle upbeat music)

My name is Anthony Desiato.

For over 10 years, I shopped, worked, and hung out

at a comic book store in Scarsdale, New York,

called Alternate Realities.

I grew up in rural Alabama in the '60s,

so there were no comic stores.

You would just bike from Rexall Drugs to Rexall Drugs

every Tuesday and Thursday and hope for the best,

and you'd run the spinner racks

and hope that something would be there.

I was lucky enough to go to a candy store

down by the corner.

I would scrounge around for quarters, nickels, dimes,

and walk over to the local candy store and luncheonette,

and I would buy comic books, whatever I could find.

This was before comic shops were even a thing.

When I was about 12 or so,

I discovered that there's comic book specialty stores.

It was probably about the mid-70s

that I kind of hit my first comic book shop.

It was in a town called Highland Park, New Jersey.

I remember finding my first comic book store

in the early '70s up in Willimantic, Connecticut,

a place called Ziesing Brothers.

It was called Collector's Comic Book Shop.

The Dragon's Den.

Fat Jack's Comicrypt in Center City, Philadelphia.

Geoffrey's Comics in Gardena, California.

I found Nostalgia Plus on Jefferson Avenue,

and it was the very first comic store I'd ever been in.

It fulfilled all the promises.

Alternate Realities was a place more colorful

than the pages of a comic book.

It was like a second home.

Then, in 2015, after 23 years in operation,

my comic shop closed.

That was really kind of the first time

I was, like, in a place where I got this sense

that there was a community.

I hate to say it, it was embarrassing to be collecting

and reading comic books in the early 80s.

I was sitting in the cafeteria at lunch

reading a comic book, and somebody came up and said,

"Oh, you read those stupid things",

and I said, "Yeah, I do."

I was never shy about it.

I was always proud to be a comic book geek.

He goes, "Oh, what, did you get that

"at the comic book store up the street?"

And I said, "The what?"

I had friends who read comic books,

but none of them to the degree that I did.

Nobody was as into it as I was.

Left the school, ran up Main Street

and walked into Pegasus Enterprises,

and that was the beginning of the end for me. (laughing)

I was like, "Oh my God, that's a comic book store."

And I was five, six,

'cause that's when I started collecting,

so to be in there with a bunch of the older collectors

always made me feel a little bit better

about what I was doing.

We'd take two buses across town to the mall

where the store was and we just lived there.

I would take this back way, and I'd have to climb up

this steep, rocky incline with a bike over my shoulder,

climb, climb, climb, get to the top, ride uphill,

and then I'd have to cross this 100-foot bridge

that with a good, stiff wind

would have blown me right over the side.

My mom said to me,

"Maybe someday you'll have your own comic book store.

If this is what you like coming to all the time,

"all the time, then maybe someday you'll have your own

"comic book store."

And here I am.

Today, my comic shop is history.

But there's a whole world of stores out there.

(upbeat rock music)

♪ Watching the clouds go by as you pull up in your car ♪

♪ It's so amazing how we managed to get this far ♪

♪ This rundown boy, so out of touch ♪

♪ He almost missed his moment ♪

♪ A thousand miles, my busted car ♪

♪ And it's time to head west from here ♪

♪ Let's run ♪

♪ 'Cause I can't stay ♪

♪ And I couldn't bear to leave without you ♪

♪ We're wasting time ♪

♪ And I'm outside ♪

♪ So go pack your bags ♪

♪ Let's leave tonight behind us ♪

♪ Let's ignore time and exit signs ♪

♪ We'll drive off in this dusky summer sky ♪

♪ Let's ignore rhyme and reason why ♪

♪ Don't look back ♪

♪ You can never look back ♪

You have 3,000 stores.

Comic shops aren't a monolith.

They're very different everywhere that you go

and have very different business models.

90% of them, 85% of them

are mom-and-pop operations.

The beauty of comic stores is there's all stripes,

there's all colors, there's the seedy,

dumpy, horrible places

where you wouldn't wanna leave

a nine-year-old unattended to save your life.

This is a very family-friendly, kid-friendly...

You know, anyone in the world can walk in here

and feel very at ease.

A lot of it comes with what we stock.

We have a large all-ages section,

but a lot of it is just

the feel that we shoot for in the store

is it's bright, it's clean, it's colorful.

It doesn't have that old-school comic book feeling

which a lot of stores always had.

I consider The Spider's Web old-school comic book shop.

We have our new releases, we have our current titles,

we our have back issue bins, we have our graphic novels,

we have some action figures, we have some statues.

What sets the old-school stores apart

from the new stores is we're more involved

with the old back issues.

Some of them are a little more of like a boys club.

This is very much an old-school comic shop.

It's the closest you can get

to stepping into a comic shop back in the day.

And there's the really nice, upscale, curated stores

that serve more of a bookstore crowd almost.

Curated makes us sound smarter than we are.

We're just trying to stock the things

that we think are gonna sell.

Putting comics in conversations,

specifically the + Conversation in the name is saying,

"You can talk about

"all those nerdy things that you love here with us."

Every comic shop has got its own thing.

Each store does something uniquely different

to market itself.

There's no rule book, there's thousands of stores

that are doing the same thing

but just with their own spin on it.

And you have people who've done it for a year or two.

You have people who have done it for 20, 30, 40 years.

Over the years, we've had a lot of people ask us,

like, "I wanna open my own store,

what advice can you give",

and our first advice is always, "Ha-ha! Don't!"

The running of a comic book store is interesting, I think,

because the outside perception,

even by your regular customers, is that it's all fun.

Comic stores really do carry enormous part of the burden

in terms of getting your comics

from my brain to your hands.

Comic stores are not only an important part of that chain

but they're the biggest link.

If you're not in it and you're not of it,

it's hard to make somebody see

just how important it is to us,

to the people who come in every week like clockwork.

It's like being a school teacher, man.

You get into it because you love it.

You better love that job

'cause you're not getting rich off this thing.

Our industry is in a,

it's in an interesting place right now

because for 20 years now, we've heard expert after expert

talk about how our industry is dying.

And it's not dying.

It's contracting.

In the 1950s and the 1960s

and well into the 1970s in America,

comic book reading and comic book buying

was a near universal experience.

When I grew up, there were newsstands.

drugstores, 7-Elevens, pool halls.

I used to buy comic books at a porno place.

I mean, you'd find 'em everywhere.

They were readily available.

The first comic shops emerge

about 1968 in California.

The number of comic shops increased

fairly slowly but steadily through the 1970s.

Back in the early '90s, there was over, what,

12,000 comic book stores in the United States

and now there's, what, three maybe, 3,000?

It's a vanishing breed at this point.

(upbeat ambient music)

I think it takes a lot of courage

to open up your own comic book shop,

particularly in this market and in the circumstances

in which the industry is in.

Comic shops are still viable.

They're just, I don't think, primary anymore.

Brick and mortar is not at a great time in America today.

It's not a high-profit, high-margin business.

You win this battle in the comic book world

one customer at a time and one book at a time.

If this was, you know, my main source of income,

there's no way in hell I'd be able to live.

I'd be living in one of these pop boxes, honestly.

There's a transition time, and right now,

I think you're definitely in a transition

going from local comic shops to mass market.

And I don't think local comic shops

are gonna beat Amazon, you know?

Hey! What's up?

Sorry. Customers.

Look, we actually have customers.

It is a broken system.

This is Aw Yeah Comics.

It's beautiful out here in Harrison, New York.

We are one of three Aw Yeah Comics.

There's another in Skokie, Illinois, and Muncie, Indiana.

We're doing a live read-through

of Previews Magazine.

Previews, the monthly catalog that comes out

from Diamond Comic Distributors, are our major distributor.

If you want single issues from any of the major publishers,

you have to go through Diamond.

Shops must order two months in advance.

We have to determine what we feel we're gonna need.

It can be one copy, it can be 1,000 copies.

Getting that Previews catalog,

I call it the Book of Revelation,

and it's the big Necronomicon, thick

phone book full of information.

It's a tedious process, it really is

'cause you got to go through so many items of merchandise.

Ordering comics is difficult.

The good news is there's an enormous range of comics

being published every month.

The bad news is there's an enormous range of comics

being published every month.

You're not dealing with 12 or 13 other comics

you're competing with.

There's hundreds of comics available every single week.

The difficult part is,

you don't wanna run out of something too soon.

This is a peculiar product.

It really matters to the customer

that they get it the first day it comes out.

It's happened, I've gotten jerks in here,

"Well, why don't you have this book?"

"Oh, well, it sold out."

"Well, but why? Why?

Why did it sell out?"

"Well, 'cause we ordered X amount

and then that same amount of people came in and bought it."

Sleeper hit that came out this week

that sold extremely well was "Martian Manhunter #1."

Thankfully I ordered

little bit heavier than I was going to.

Thank God 'cause we would have sold out

if I didn't order the extra copies.

Yet, you don't want to have way too much of stuff.

People don't realize how short of a lifespan

a single-issue comic has.

Like, if it doesn't sell in the first six days,

that's where 90% of the sales comes from.

A lot of the publishing revenue

that all comics print to publishing depends on

really depends on

retailers ordering more than they can sell.

You have to learn your market, and every year,

I have a few more books that I know not to order.

I think that people need to understand

that comic shop retailers, we buy all this stuff.

It is not something that we can

just send back unsold copies.

You know, a standard book store gets returnability

that we can only dream of.

Across the board, returnability

is not part of the comics industry.

All right, so it's Tuesday,

so the new books are coming in.

♪ It's four o'clock and I've had my fill of waiting ♪

♪ It's too late to sleep ♪

♪ Too early to be up and out ♪

♪ This is why I'm such a mess ♪

♪ I'm losing my confidence ♪

♪ Maybe I'm insane ♪

♪ I guess I'll talk a little more ♪

♪ To keep you standing at my door ♪

Wednesdays are new release days.

We've signed up for a program in which case we can receive

our shipment on Tuesday to be able to unpack it, sort it,

check it for damages,

get everything put away for subscriptions

so we're ready to go at 10 o'clock in the morning.

We get a very steady crowd, especially on Wednesdays.

It's almost like a routine.

There's a comfort to it.

Wednesdays, we have a few rushes when we open.

We get that, what's up man, like a early crowd.

You see the same people usually at the same time.

Mike Lopez calls the same time every week.

Thank you very much, have a good one.

(register beeping)

Thanks a lot.
Thanks, man.

See you next week.
Be good.

Here you go, Jack.

Oh, here, you're still waiting on the other

trade for this one, right?

Yeah.
Okay.

So that's the current stuff.

Do you want these on your list, Anthony?

Yeah.
'Cause these are

basically new, that's why.

Yeah.
Okay.

That's fine.

I wanted to take this time in our video today

to talk about our comic book subscription program.

The word du jour is pre-order.

You're gonna hear from comic book creators,

"Pre-order your comic books."

I saw it already, yeah.

Comic stores live and die by what you're going to buy.

But, man, the system of asking customers

to pre-order stuff is absurd.

It's so antithetical to the way retail works.

I don't go into a shoe store

and look at a picture of a pair of Adidas and go,

"Okay, I want those.

"I'll see you in three months."

Not what you do, you buy things

because they're there in front of you.

All right, everything look good?

Yes, will you add Isola?

I thought I did but I think I must have forgotten.

Yes.

I feel like we don't hear feedback

from a lot of people on stuff until a week before.

That's the real hard part is getting people

that actually tell you they want 'em and preorder 'em,

get 'em in your system.

If 17 people are asking for a thing,

maybe that means there's 13 more people

that won't say a word, but if it's on the shelf,

they're gonna buy it.

Maybe I need to order 40 copies,

maybe it's 50 copies.

That's the thing I have to figure out

as I'm going line by line by line.

Ho-ho-ho-ho!

Hello there, Santa just wanted to take a moment

to spread some holiday cheer

in the form of a request

to please pick up your hold books from Challengers

because if you don't,

you may find some coal in your hold box and coal is no fun.

Comics are wonderful fun!

Ho-ho-ho-ho!

When you sign up for a subscription service

at a store, you are basically saying,

"I'm gonna buy these books from you",

so we order those books extra for you.

We were just noticing we hadn't seen you

in a little while, though.

I know, that's why I'm here.

A big, big complaint for retailers, I know,

is people who don't pick up their pull lists.

It's a problem with every shop, no matter how big,

how small, how successful.

Usually after about a month we'll call them.

We just want you to tell us, but people get embarrassed,

or the number of people that move and don't tell you.

And sometimes they do come in, "Sorry, I was out of town",

"Sorry, I lost my license for a while,"

any number of things.

But then you get those people who just ghost,

they just disappear on ya.

People don't realize little things like that

get compounded because maybe that person

is not the only one doing it.

Delinquent customers wouldn't be as much of a problem

if we weren't stuck with all the stuff that wasn't sold.

That's where the system is hideously broken,

has always been hideously broken,

but it just gets more and more hideously broken every year.

(upbeat music)

Back in February of 2015,

was the day I decided I had had enough.

When Steve announced that the store was closing,

it was after a long line of misfires.

Steve had told us for a long time,

"The lease is ending, the store is closing,"

but we would never believe him because every few years,

he would extend the lease, he would extend the lease.

You never quite know if it's going to happen

or if it's sort of just chitter-chatter or anything else.

I guess he figured out it's time,

and he made this announcement on Facebook

where he kind of passes the blame from himself

and maybe his failures of running the business

over the last few years to everybody else

having been the issue.

People who were reservists

that didn't pick up their books.

I don't regret making the announcement.

I know there was a lot of controversy about it

because of the way I said it, but that's the reason I did it

was because people kind of drove me to it.

But as an outside observer looking in

and being intimate with the store

for a very long time, you know,

that store, towards the end, was very sick.

It was not operating 100%.

It was dying.

My own observation from seeing him,

I think he was just physically worn down.

I don't think he had the energy or the spirit

to keep it going.

We had the option to keep going with the lease.

At that point, I said, "You know what?

Enough is enough, I'm tired, it's killing me."

This is kind of like this is his life.

All of his hours, all of his efforts

were put into the store.

While I was surprised more so

that he actually was going to do it finally,

it wasn't one of these things, like, "Holy cow,

I can't believe it's happening."

It was sort of, "You know what?

My friend deserves to have a little bit of peace."

But that doesn't mean that the feeling didn't hurt.

I mean, I definitely, it was very selfish of me.

I mean, it was heart-wrenching to know that, again,

this place that I love so much was gonna be gone.

How's it going, Paul?
What's going on, Edison?

You know, same old same.
Chilling?

Yeah.
All right.

How are you liking your DC books?

They're nice, I appreciate it.

Anytime I'm trying to gauge interest on a book,

just conversation.

We talk to 'em about stuff outside of here,

movies, video games, television,

it's not always comics all the time.

I think being able to connect with people

on a personal level is what this is all about.

So this is your first time to Vegas?

Yes, it is, I just got here last night.

Yeah, Skottie Young, he did an image series

"I Hate Fairyland."

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right?

Which was just crazy hyperviolent,

so they put him on Deadpool after that.

The second issue, which we just sold out of,

has the Avengers literally just do

like a five-page beatdown on him.

I talk to people about comic books

all day, every day.

I start making connections of people who like this,

have a chance of liking that.

My role, as I've defined it,

is not to simply bring up a sale.

It's not to put Spawn back issues

back in the correct numerical order.

That's not the job.

The job is to connect people

to the best stories on the shelf.

It is to get people their very first comic book.

It's a huge responsibility.

If a book is bad and someone says, "How's this book,"

we'll tell them straight up, "Don't buy it."

Like, money or not,

you're gonna walk away and be mad at us.

You try to find the right book for the right person,

and then they have faith in you

to try to find something good.

This person reads nothing but Marvel.

Cool, I want him to read this Dark Horse book this week,

but I know that he likes action/adventure,

and I know what type of movies he likes,

so I can suggest to sell that to him.

This is our weekly live new releases video

where we talk about the things that are coming out tomorrow,

which will be New Comic Book Day.

Tomorrow is the 4th.

For those of you who haven't watched

any of our live new releases video before,

basically, I just talk about the major new releases

for the New Comic Book Day.

One of the big releases for this week is Batman 50.

I think what sets comic book stores apart

from other types of collectible stores

or establishments is you want something you don't know.

I don't think you're really

talking to people in the local supermarket about like,

"Oh, you've got the brown eggs."

When someone calls us "The Comic Book Store",

I say, "No, a store is where you go

to get like toilet paper.

A shop is where you go to look at all the cool things,

and compare and check and take it all in."

Part of what goes into a recommendation

is that I know this person likes book A,

book B, and book C.

And I talk to them enough to know that

this is because of the art,

this is because of the writing,

this is because of the subject.

And then, I pull back

and I look at what else has that subject matter,

what else has art like that?

Something that I actually recommended a while ago for you

was this series, I'm about to have the artist in.

And I hand them 20 things, they go, "Not that,

not that, not that.

Oh, that! Yes, I love it."

And they walk away with it.

It's not like that everywhere.

There's too many people that you're like

"This, this, this,"

and you give 'em a stack of books and like,

"Uh-huh, uh-huh, what else?

Uh-huh, uh-huh, what else?

Okay, thanks."

And then they leave.

Hey, I got a couple things for you.

I believe these are yours.
Yes.

That you asked for.
Yes.

And this I'm giving to you for free.

It's a damaged copy, but I want you to look through there.

That's the one I was telling you about.

The appeal of coming to a comic shop

is the experience.

And I've been to plenty of shops

where they just don't want to deal with you.

And I'll even try to engage in conversation,

and they're just like, "Yeah, cool, great.

Okay, it's $11.75."

Why? Why? I could sit home and order that on Amazon.

Some comic shops if you read their reviews online

on Yelp and Google, and some of the stores

don't always do the best job of that,

of making people feel welcome.

People make assumptions

about why you're there or who you're buying for,

or what you're reading, or asking for something,

and then somebody immediately says,

"Oh, is this for your boyfriend?"

It's unfortunate 'cause it's a definite barrier,

I think, to getting people into comics.

I feel like the very best of it is welcoming.

You do want to tell someone

about this awesome Batman story.

You don't want to penalize them

because they didn't read "Batman: Year Three."

You want to say, "Hey,

I'll bet you haven't read "Batman: Year Three."

You've got to see this."

Every Tuesday night, I take it upon myself

to do homework, to read as much as I can

to know about what's on the shelf,

so Wednesday morning, I know what I'm talking about.

So, this is an example of what I got to get knocked out.

So, I've already read this material.

I got to get this knocked out.

Amazing Spider-Man is in here, I got to read that.

So it's gonna be an even later night.

I think when you go to a comic book shop,

if they don't share that same passion for you,

it really kind of messes up

the entire purchasing experience.

If you put a bunch of people in here

with the same titles who

maybe don't read the books,

they don't know the customers,

you're not gonna get the same sort of feedback,

you're not gonna get that level of excitement.

It's really breaking the fourth wall.

Him and this artist, Greg, are in this book

and interacting with Airboy.

The passionate must-buy

from a comic shop person is gold.

I mean, where do, you can't pay for that.

They call me a dealer in here.

Yes, he is, he's a pusher.

He's like, "Here, try this, read this, yeah."

Read one or two issues, hooked.

And he comes back.
Yes.

What else is good this week?
What's good this week?

I really like Infidel #2.

They want to know from us, "What do you guys know

about all this that I need to know about?

What's good here?

What's good here?"

The thing that makes Infidel effective,

and I was reading it and I was getting super creeped out

and wondering, "Why is this happening",

is that the main character sees something crazy

at the same time that you, the reader, see something crazy

and That makes it super effective.

I work for General Motors Corporation

and in marketing and sales,

and I used to always tell him that his customers

are your best investment.

Yes, I do work at Acme Comics, that's where I work,

but what I'm really doing is I'm working

for the people that shop here.

Tom King's killing it, and Tom tweeted yesterday

that it is man, if you keep taking the stuff out of order,

I'm gonna cry.
Sorry, sorry.

I'm gonna cry.
Sorry.

I'm gonna cry, you'll see big man tears.

My role, any good retailer's role,

is a little bit of a shopkeep,

a little bit of a stock person,

a little bit of a bartender, a little bit of a therapist,

and a little bit of a buddy.

So, the performance aspect of being a comic shop retailer,

it's a real thing, you're in character.

I'm a musician, I've been doing that

for a long, long time, and I know how it is.

You don't feel like doing a gig,

you don't feel like being onstage, guess what?

Shut up, slap on a smile, and get on stage.

It's a performance.

And there's a lot of that here actually.

Matt, the owner, makes fun of me sometimes.

He says, "Well, I know when Shawn has a story

about something, I'm gonna hear about it

seven or eight times in the course of a day."

I'm here to facilitate, I'm here to make sure

they enjoy their shopping experience.

Even the ones I don't like. (laughing)

The comics get them in,

and the retailer gets them back.

And most of them, it's kind of a cult of personality

around the owner.

I'm keeping my comics over here.

You don't get to, you know what?

They have comics on this side of the table, too.

Yeah, we're not to the hardcovers and trades yet.

They even have a poster here.

Marc Hammond is a character.

You talk to most of these people,

they're really interesting people.

Before I did this I used to build houses,

and I blew out my knees.

And my wife asked me, "Well, what do you want to do?"

I said, "I want a comic book store."

I went to school for illustration,

and I have a degree in illustration

and a degree in art history.

I taught for many years before this,

and it led me to an incredibly dark depression

that I could not fight on my own.

This has not! (laughing)

I was working some bullshit job

at a call center doing auto insurance.

Now I'm selling $10,000 Hulk #1s.

Besides being a comic shop owner,

I am also a creator.

I do a comic strip called "Collectors"

which is a semi-autobiographical,

Sunday-style comic strip about my wife and I,

and my comic book collecting, and all the nerdy stuff

she puts up with living with me.

Yes, that's with these local creators this Saturday.

That's from 2:00 to 6:00, and we're gonna be

reconfiguring the middle of the store-

That's awesome.
Hopefully you can make it.

Ralph always talks

as if he's living in East Germany

and he's worried about the secret police

overhearing what you're saying.

It's very hard to get a straight answer out of him.

He gets very nervous.

I used to have a pull box at Ralph's store, all right?

So I have a close relationship with Ralph.

I love Ralph, I love his store.

It is strange today because you're here filming.

Techno isn't pulsing, you know.

He is a bit of a raver on the quiet.

This guy gets up every morning and jogs.

I used to live near him,

so every morning I'd see him jogging.

Every morning he jogs, and that's great.

I mean, this guy's super healthy.

But when he's in the store, it's the same high energy.

For a guy that's vegan,

this guy got crazy amounts of energy.

So, it's hard to kind of keep up with him

in the store sometimes 'cause he's very much like,

"Yeah, yeah, it's over here.

Let's go over here, you want to check this out?

If you like this,

then here's 50 other million things as well."

Oh, geez, the guy is always running around.

You've seen him. (laughing)

Yeah, he's always busy, always helping people,

fixing stuff on the shelves.

Yeah, I'm kind of a hyper person,

but it is kind of, yeah, second nature, and I just been,

yeah, I'm doing this for, well, 23 years now,

so I just love comics.

I love sharing them with people

and finding new favorites for people.

And I just love being at the front of the store.

See you guys next week. -All right, dude, take care.

All right, talk to you soon.
See you, Jermaine.

Jermaine Exum, Jerome X-Man, Jamaican Cowboy.

There are many names that I'll answer to.

Jerome sometimes.

I just stopped fighting that battle.

Someone thinks my name is Jerome, then so be it.

I believe you're asking me

about Jermaine's alter ego, Lord Retail.

Are you familiar with his alter ego,

the other name he goes by?

Lord Retail? Oh, yeah. Mm-hm.

Jermaine likes to say that he didn't give himself

the nickname Lord Retail.

Out of the blue, a customer that I'd known

for a number of years, science-fiction writer,

award-winning writer, M.A. Foster,

one day, he simply started calling me "Lord Retail."

But I would like to point out that he definitely decided

to keep using it and makes sure

that everybody else knows about it

instead of the one person who called him that one day

when nobody else was around.

So it could've stopped right there?

It could've stopped, it could've stopped,

but it didn't.
How did it continue?

I had to pick a name for a message board.

The name does lead in a certain way, it does.

It sets a certain tone.

It's kind of like a trademark sort of a thing.

And I think it helps to sell, and it helps

create a persona,

especially in this setting

'cause it's kind of like having a secret identity

or a superhero identity sort of a thing.

And he's got kind of like the whole iconic look to him

with the fedora.

People, hopefully, have come to expect

an honest answer about a thing from me

as part of the Lord Retail brand.

"Do I need to buy this comic book?

Is this any good?"

An honest answer.

Hey, I have an awesome autopilot.

My autopilot always knows what he's talking about.

But me, personally?

30% of the time.

Okay, what does that mean?

If I'm being candid, that is probably

my least favorite thing about Jermaine

is how cryptic he is,

especially when it's just something so simple

that he can just tell you

without having to unfold the layers.

I don't know if he's trying to use it to build suspense.

Well, I know I never had to order

an "Action Comics #1,000" before.

I've had to order "Action Comics #1" before, through #52,

and other things like that over my time,

but I've never had to quite order

an "Action Comics #1,000."

I know I was doing the order,

I think I, like, texted you guys or called or something,

and I was like freaking out.

In my mind, I'm thinking about our regular customers,

I'm thinking about maybe people that want to see

Brian Michael Bendis' first DC Comics Superman story.

I'm thinking about the people I normally deal with.

In total, maybe had about 250 copies.

I feel like I'm being super clear about a thing,

with your inquisitive mind, you're saying, "Wait a minute.

Let's read between those lines.

Let's peel back some layers."

There's no layers, there's no lines.

When it sounds like you're saying something,

and then I take a beat and I realize,

"No, he didn't say anything",

I might follow up with some more questions.

He is Lord Retail, and I've never seen anybody

who is better at selling comic books than Jermaine is.

I've been trying to figure out for a long time

where is that line between Lord Retail always on duty,

representing the comic book industry,

trying to improve things across the board,

help other retailers.

Where is the line?

And Jermaine the comic book fan.

I don't necessarily separate my life, my personal life,

from the store, and when I'm at home,

I read a lot of comics, man.

I honestly work, like, 80 to 100 hours a week, on average.

And at this point,

it's just what I know.

There's days like where maybe I have like two hours

and I don't have anything to do, and I'm like,

"Oh, I should watch a movie."

I don't know what to do with myself.

Running a comic book store entails a lot more preparation

and grinding stuff in the background

that the customer never sees.

I think there are people that they think

that I have this awesome job because I get to sit around

and read comic books all the time.

There's always work to do.

Everything from general just cleaning and maintenance

to bagging and boarding and pricing back issues,

or doing story packs,

or doing your diamond orders, or...

Well, that's it, that's all of it.

A lot of times I just sit around

and read comics on a Sunday, shh.

It's really hard to like, when somebody asks like

"How much time does it take,"

because it takes all your time.

Whether it's just basic stuff for a comic store,

whether it's sorting, organizing, buying collections,

things like that, that's time-consuming enough,

but you're getting in new orders,

you're putting stuff out,

you're dealing with customers, you're talking,

you're online, you're updating the website,

you're running to the bank,

you're running to Sam's Club to get drinks and snacks,

you're running all over the place.

We do a ton of conventions too,

so now you need to travel halfway across the country

all the time and you're away from home.

It's hard, you question sometimes

like "Why the hell am I doing this shit?"

Like it's nonstop, it's not a lot of gain.

How do you have a million-dollar comic book shop?

You start with two million dollars.

My main business before we opened here,

I own a large tattoo shop locally

and it's pretty well known

and that paid my bills, so we wanted to do this

more as a labor of love, but we were able to do it

because it wasn't our main jobs,

main source of income.

Welcome.

All right, so $37.98.

We've reached a growth period

where we're paying our bills.

I have a great support system outside of the store.

I have a wife who works really hard

and takes care of three children.

I have in-laws who lent me a bunch of money

and whose house we rent.

I'm lucky and I'm privileged to be able to do this.

I don't recommend anyone else do it.

You're buying something, I'm happy.

(laughing)

People don't open stores to become rich.

I'm sure there's a few that have,

but most of us, we scrape by, but we love comics.

I'm usually a very like black-and-white,

ones-and-zeroes kind of person.

If you look at it that way, there's absolutely zero reason

you should ever be doing this.

My name is Lord Retail.

I own a mansion and a yacht.

No, it's not really, not really how it works.

(piano music)

After Steve announced that the store was closing,

I had a conversation with you, Anthony,

about what are we gonna do to help?

It had a lot of components.

We had the statue area, we had the comic books,

we had the graphic novels, we had toys,

we had a back room that was completely full.

We had steel shelving that was still together.

I mean, there was so much stuff

that needed to be assessed.

It was very heartwarming

to see everybody come back and lend a hand.

It was really symbolic of the shop as a whole

because it wasn't just Steve doing it,

and it wasn't even just

the really close friends of the store doing it.

It was just like customers.

I mean, it really meant a lot to so many different people,

and over the course of a full week,

we got that store from

a fully operating business to an empty

four walls and a carpet.

I was stunned when I saw how stark

and barren and empty.

It hit me like an avalanche.

It really floored me.

The slatwall coming off the walls,

that was like the big thing to me

because that's like, okay, there's no going back.

Like everything else that was taken out,

you could sort of put back in if you wanted to.

It lost the look.

We had a very particular look,

and even with things removed from the store,

with that slatwall being up,

it still looked like our store.

But the slatwall coming down and getting carried out,

that was like, "Okay, this really is the shop closing."

It's the end of, like, the gatherings,

it's the end of most of us hanging out together.

I mean, it kind of was.

The very last thing was the sign,

and I didn't even hesitate, like, we had gotten,

the last box left the store,

and I was like, "We're not done yet."

Took the ladder, I went up, and I took down that sign,

and in that moment, just sliding the sign

out of the light box that it was in

was very cathartic in that, it was like it's gone.

We went back inside, and I had Drew take a photo of me,

and it was completely empty space,

and you wouldn't even recognize the space

from a space down the street.

And while I might be smiling in that photo,

I think, inside, it was just complete turmoil,

knowing that this spot, this place

that meant so much to me for so long

was completely gone and it is never coming back.

Y'all can still talk, we're just,

It's just a Facebook Live video,

we're showing all the new releases.

Joe Hill's The Cape: The Fallen.

The biggest challenge that we face,

both our store and I think our industry,

is getting people in the door.

It's the biggest thing going in Hollywood right now.

Billions of dollars being made based on our fiction,

the fiction that we sell on a daily basis.

But what the comic companies sell

is a fraction of what they sell for one movie.

At the end of the day, diamond single issue numbers,

the number one book covers between 100,000 and 200,000.

100,000 people, that's your market?

Used to be that comic books,

if they sold 100,000 copies, they would cancel them.

You're dividing 100,000 people by 3,000 stores.

Are you gonna copy your dad's hairstyle one day?

You can say no, it's okay.

(laughing)

We've always needed to get new readers,

and it's harder than ever to do that today

with all the streaming services available.

As far as video games, books, seasons of things,

people are bombarded and overwhelmed with media.

Oh, right, yeah, they, yeah-

I wonder if they're gonna bring him back

for that all in one.

They might if there's enough of an interest.

But you can't lie, man,

you called everything out though.

Even before it happened, you told me

exactly what's gonna happen rinse and repeat

and they're doing the same exact thing.

Yeah, as long as they do it in a fun way, it's fine,

but then that's when it's time to jump off

and do other things.
I know.

To me, the greatest detriment to the industry

over the years

hasn't been the advent of online purchasing,

hasn't been anything technology based.

It's Marvel and DC Comics specifically.

It's ridiculous that we're supposed to guess

two months in advance what's gonna be hot

with three lines of description.

Could the publishers make it easier?

Well, the main way publishers can make it easier

is by doing their job better.

And speaking as someone who was a publisher for decades,

for the most part, we tried to do our job well.

Just sometimes we didn't.

Marvel, DC, Boom, IDW, Dark Horse, Image,

none of them really owe us anything.

The only compact that we have with them

is that they're going to try to give us

the best quality books that they can

as close to an on-schedule time as they can.

And I think that a lot of the retailers,

including myself at times, are disappointed

because sometimes we don't get that.

There are certain titles that they produce

that does feel like they're kind of phoning it in.

"Hey, we need to pad our sales for this quarter,

we have to have a certain amount

of square footage on everybody's newsstand,

so we have to have a certain amount of titles."

A lot of retailers will take that personally.

All the pressure is on us.

The retailer, they are Marvel and DC's customer.

We are, we are buying from them

and then we then resell to the public, to the fan,

to the end-of-line customer.

There you go, sir.
Thank you much.

You're welcome.
Thank you.

Have a good one, Anthony.
Guys, have a great day.

Thanks, you too.

So you're liking all this DC Comics stuff so far?

Yeah, I notice I'm moving more over

from Marvel to DC, independent.

And this is what they're telling me

when they come to the register,

"I've been collecting comics

for year and years, decades, Marvel.

I love these characters,

but these stories are atrocious."

I had that happen here Friday with like four customers.

I'm one of those people too.

If you run a bake shop, the quality of what you sell

is up to how you bake.

If you run a comic shop, the quality of what you sell

is up to other people.

Even though I own all this,

I'm still a fanboy.

And it kinda bothers me.

They completely lost sight of their core readership.

When retailers gripe,

one day, Marvel's gonna say, "Okay" and DC's gonna say,

"All right, we've done everything for you,

and you guys can't sell our product,

we have to transition",

and I think you see initiatives

to sell to the mass market.

And I don't think it's retaliatory,

I just think it's inevitable.

I think a lot of publishers are now becoming

more cognizant of the fact that they can't just market

to the 30-to-50 white male crowd

that has kept this industry afloat.

They're trying to grow the industries

outside of the comic shops,

and that's important.

And a lot of times, when they talk about that,

a lot of retailers get nervous,

because they feel like they're gonna get left in the dust.

Comics content,

pages that I'm writing and artists are drawing,

the primary delivery to the fans

I don't think is going to be

monthly comics bought in direct market shops.

How do you do business when you're not

the primary channel anymore?

I think it's gonna come sooner than people think

and it's gonna happen a lot faster than people think.

A lot of people see comics in a limited view

because it's never been presented to them

any other way.

Alternate Reality Comics

has more of the bookstore model

to showcase the many kinds of different stories, genres

that comics do represent.

I have no new release wall.

Graphic novels are intermixed with the singles.

I don't alphabetize any of my titles.

So the store is displayed in such a way as to show off

every goddamned thing that's imaginable.

That really means that we,

we change up the displays often,

we keep a lot of books out that are not necessarily

your expectations.

And that's the major spot where we differ

from everyone else.

Well, not everybody's a superhero fan.

You have to cater to as wide an audience as you can.

The layout allows someone to focus on what interests them,

and if they don't know what interests them,

to see how wide a medium it is.

They're a medium.

It's a form of entertainment amongst itself.

If you come in, the first thing I think is not,

"You're a superhero person."

It's my job to try to connect with that person

on a way of something they're gonna like.

We believe comics are for everyone.

We believe anyone can read a comic book,

especially nowadays, everyone's conversant.

What we've found is you get more people

that want stuff because you're offering stuff

that reaches a broader group of people.

The reason why our LGBTQ book section

is so big right now is because people keep

coming in and buying it.

Going to a store, meeting fans, talking to the owner.

I think that's very important for a creator.

Also, sort of seeing how the face of readers

are changing as well.

My fallback is my audience is just like me.

Or my audience is like all my friends.

That's not really the case,

so being aware of that is very helpful.

That's the only way this, I think the industry

will grow creatively

and grow a wider audience.

How come he's?

Because Eddie Brock got the suit

and he tried to destroy Spider-Man.

But he didn't?

Spider Man beat him up?

Yep.

'Cause Peter Parker's a lot smarter.

This young crew here comes in for all of our signings

and they get comic books and they play pinball.

Always there.
They like the Pop! Vinyls.

That generation is who's gonna carry this medium

into the future.

And I think some publishers

are finally starting to get that.

Also, just kids are awesome, man, they're funny.

So what do you all say when you come into the store?

Ah yeah, agents in the house!

It's important that publishers have new and exciting ideas

and not just new storylines but new formats

and new creators and new characters,

and better representation of the world outside

of everybody's windows.

But they also need to let people know

that these exist,

and they need to find those people.

You can have the highest level of traffic

outside your doors

and you could still have nobody come in,

which is honestly a metaphor for our entire industry.

One of the things that we do here is,

we set up at a local theater, it's not too far from us,

anytime there's a big Marvel or DC or Star Wars

or any genre-related film,

while we're there, we're able to hand out business cards

or flyers for different events.

We have picked up quite a few different comic subscribers.

So it'll be 41.

I don't know how many times my wife and I

have gone somewhere,

like a party or a get-together,

and people ask us, "What do you do?"

and we tell them we own a comic book shop,

and then they say, "Oh my God,

that last Avengers movie, oh, it was so great!"

Or "Oh, the Thor movie!

Oh, Thor's my favorite character, I love Thor so much."

And then we ask them, "Well, are you reading the comic?

It's really good, right?"

"No, I don't read comics."

So is this based on the animated movie

that's coming out, then?

Or is the animated movie based on this?

Yeah, the animated movie's more closely based on that

than that is on...

Right, 'cause that came out first.

I think people are expecting there to be

some sort of like lightning bolt,

and suddenly, there's a billion comic book readers

It's not gonna happen.

That's kinda what we're dealing with here.

Just because you like Ant-Man on your movie screen

'cause you like Paul Rudd,

doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna run

to read the comic, 'cause it's a whole different medium.

Everyone knows how to sit in front of a TV screen

or a movie screen and consume.

Some people even, to me,

comic books seem so second-nature to read,

but I've done it since I was five years old.

They're not sure what order to read them in.

Do you read the words first, then the pictures?

Do you read across the page?

Do you read down?

Do you read across the spread?

It sounds insane for me to say that

to anybody in comics,

'cause it's the easiest thing in the world,

but we take that for granted, man,

there's so many adults who don't know

how to read comics.

(piano music)

(keys jingling)

There was closure.

The store didn't get passed on to anybody else,

and so we were all able to just come to terms

with this place, this gathering place

that meant so much to us was now gone.

However, it's being kept on life support.

(lock clatters)

Okay, folks.

Welcome to Alternate Realities.

Steve had plans to dismantle the store,

and I was on board with this idea

of moving everything into storage for a short time

until he was able to figure out

what to do with it.

A lot of you have not seen what we became.

Anyway, don't faint.

Welcome to Alternate Realities.

There's a treasure trove here.

Anyway, you have to be skinny to come in,

but come on in.

But what Steve has done is to set up the store

into two Westy's units.

This is room number two.

This is where I kept the merchandise.

This is actually a huge room.

You can't tell with all this stuff in it,

but when it's empty, it's gigantic.

And in a very real sense, there are elements that,

if you were to squint your eyes,

you would feel like you were back in the comic shop.

He has set it up to look like the comic shop.

And I don't know if that's something

that he needs for himself,

'cause he's having trouble moving on,

moving past the idea of not being an owner of the store

and having this community.

I've been asked, "Why do you keep doing it this way?

You're renting warehouse space, which is not cheap."

I still enjoy it, in a way.

Because for me, I still open up a box

that's buried, and it's like Christmas.

You know, you open it up

and it's like all this stuff from the 60s

that I'd totally forgotten I had.

It's all kinds of what I consider to be

the good stuff.

And we've got a lot of the bad stuff too,

don't get me wrong.

"Angela #1."

These are all "Angela #1s", so,

are these ever gonna be worth anything?

Unlikely.

Unopened, oh, there's a whole case

of "Uncanny Avengers #1."

If you ever need it.

In some cases, we only have one.

In other cases, we have a dozen.

I think a lot of people would say

that it has so little value, why bother?

But I think to myself,

if everything's worth a dollar

and I've got 250,000 of them,

it's silly to just throw it away.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around it.

And the simple answer is,

what he says and what he does are very different.

I mean, he's been saying, "Yep,

I'm gonna be methodical, I'm selling stuff."

But what I did for the past year,

for the past couple years was

I'd take a box, I'd put 'em all in order,

and then I'd label it and put it away

so I knew where it was.

And as crazy as it sounds, it will sell when I put it up.

I just need to put it up.

But it's contradictory,

'cause I don't see the actions to do so.

I really wish that the next time I come to New York,

and I say this every six months,

that those storage lockers will be empty.

Because until they are, the store is still alive.

But it's not the same place.

(lock clicks)

And there you have it, Alternate Realities.

Gone but not forgotten.

(upbeat music)

Pops?

Pops?
No pops, no.

We don't do any of that junk.

I had Pops for two years and I never had the right ones.

Some comic shops,

the comics are almost marginalized.

You've got, and this is not to criticize any other store,

you've got a wall of Pop! Vinyls.

Yeah, so we probably at any given time have like

around a thousand different Pops in stock.

We started by focusing on gaming.

We kinda fell into the Pops, it was something we liked

and we went with it and we ended up kinda

blowing up with it.

I got ones that I care about, but I'm not collecting Pops.

It's a lot, it's the new Beanie Babies.

It's plastic Beanie Babies.

That Beanie Baby thing really gets on my nerves,

not because, 'cause they could've been right,

but honestly, like, it really,

even in the last year you're seeing

so many new people get in all the time.

They're fairly cheap for the basic ones,

and they hit on everything.

They have every license you can imagine.

And I think it's done a lot for the industry

'cause it's brought in all these people

who never woulda bought this stuff before

and gotten them to buy a lot of other things.

But there's definitely the two sides

that really are at war with it all the time.

People come in looking for Pops all the fucking time.

But you know what?

There's a Walmart right there,

there's a GameStop right there,

there's a Michael's right there.

You go to a gas station, you fill up your gas tank,

they give you a free fucking Pop.

I mean, they're just, they're everywhere.

A lot of comic book stores seem to be

becoming hobby stores.

And I think that's kind of a shame.

They'll have the toys,

they'll have the T-shirts, they'll have the posters,

they have all sorts of stuff,

but the comics seem to be a small part of the business,

where to me, it's my major business.

Like really, at what point does a store that carries

that kinda stuff stop being a comic book store?

Well, the name of the store

is Parts Unknown: The Comic Book Store,

and it's "The" Comic Book Store.

All we sell is comics,

'cause that's where my passion is,

that's the stuff that I really love.

And there's something original about it,

there's something American about it.

I think it's just short-sighted for any shop

to not diversify what they sell.

I came in as a purist, I'm just comics,

but I kinda warmed up eventually to Magic,

I even play a little bit now,

and I see the importance of not being set in your ways

as fandom or geekdom is only one thing,

because there's all kinds.

It's the older mentality that's just like

they're set in their ways and

"This is not what a comic store was",

and they don't adapt.

Markets are cyclical,

and I wanted other lines that maybe didn't correlate.

And I think it really smooths out your sales a lot.

We've made it over 25 years selling comic books,

and those other stores will die.

To your mind, it dilutes the concept of the comic store,

which is very pure, it's very tribal.

I get that, I really do.

And if that's a viable business model for you,

that's terrific,

but I think you're in the minority.

The stores that are gonna be in trouble

in the coming decade

are the stores that refuse not just to change

but even to consider to change.

They are only looking at how

they've always done it,

not realizing that that is not going to work anymore.

Brick-and-mortar retail is so tough,

and I think you're seeing a lot of stores kinda revert

back to, maybe everything's a cycle, right?

Where a lot of them are focusing on back issues

and collectibles and the hard to get stuff

and interactions with creators, which are great.

Right now, I think what could save comics

is the collectability of it.

The collectability is what drives most people, I think.

I do have a customer that told me when he reads his books,

he puts on white museum gloves

to not get oils and stuff on there,

which I thought was insane.

And then that night, I'm at home and I'm reading a comic,

and I could feel it,

I could feel my oily fingers on the book,

and I said, "Oh! Maybe he's got a point."

Collectibles, even though people

are selling them for next to nothing online,

the condition's so important.

So I think, for myself and a lot of people,

being able to pick it up, have it in your hands,

look at it, that makes a big difference

and people are willing to spend a little more.

(upbeat music)

Whether we admit it or not,

but we were collectors as soon as we got our first toy,

put it on a shelf, put it away.

I pretty much collect a little bit of everything.

My main love is G.I. Joes.

A child of the 80s.

It goes deeper than comics, it's more than that.

There's something totemic about having

Batman action figures.

The stories are the central part of it,

but then you want to experience it

in different ways.

That's part of the appeal of all of this stuff,

is that it's a really tangible way

to celebrate something that you love.

As a kid, I didn't have a ton of the figures.

My neighbor had most of 'em,

so I got to play with them every day,

but then I went home without them.

So, you don't think about it much as a kid,

but at the end of the day,

you're left without any figures.

As I got older,

when I came across them, I tried to pick 'em up

whenever I found 'em.

I didn't anticipate that it would get

as large as it did.

Some I've got nine or 10, some I've only got one.

It almost became an obsession.

Part of the thing about being a comic book fan is,

and I consider it to be kind of the eternal struggle

of a fan is the whole completist nature.

You wanna make sure you get complete runs.

Whether that run is 12 issues or 24 issues or 50 issues

or whatever it is,

you always wanted to be involved

in however long that run was gonna be.

It keeps the drive,

and I think it continues the hunt,

and I think the hunt is probably the best part about it.

I used to get everything.

If there was 10 different colors of something,

like I needed 'em all.

And the companies prey upon this,

this is how they survive.

The great irony is that you look at a room like this

and you'd think that I'm a completist,

when in fact, there are what I would consider to be

huge gaps in my collection.

If you had infinite space,

every collector's just doomed.

It's not even a money thing,

'cause you'll make it work, you know?

For a small room, I got a lot of stuff.

Moneywise, probably I have spent

$40,000 to $50,000.

It's funny, because I say that to my mom,

because she always gets freaked out

by the amount of money that I spend.

I said, "Listen, I could be smoking crack."

I instantly go to crack,

like that's probably a terrible place to go,

but my hobbies can consist of other stuff

where there's no return from.

The statues are gonna range between 360 to 550.

It becomes, like you gotta make sure

you got your ducks in a row, because if not,

you'll definitely be sunk.

I was a big fan of Power Girl,

and it was important to have the Trinity,

and that's kind of where the DC stuff ends.

Everything is at least with like stuff.

I can't just randomly put stuff together,

'cause that would drive my OCD crazy.

You may think it's a toy room,

but for me, it's a memories room.

Batman really was an escape for me.

My parents split when I was very young,

it was kind of a rancorous upbringing.

And so it kinda started out as this place that I could go

where the rules were very simple:

the good guys won, the bad guys lost.

It grounds you.

You can disappear into a world that would not have existed

if you did not start collecting before.

Preserving it is what drives me,

because I think it's great to hold a toy

that's 30 or 35 years old.

There always seems to be a human interest

and a need to collect things,

and people are interested in old stuff and rarities.

(crowd chattering)

Need any help?

I'm just looking at some of your stuff up top here.

If you need help, just let me know.

That one's 20, which is a lower grade copy.

It's 20 bucks.
Sure.

But it's a first print.

If you want a little like a mid grade,

a little higher grade, that'd be like 40 to 150.

Yeah, do you have that here?

Yeah, you wanna see them?
Sure.

♪ I left the show tonight ♪

♪ I feel hopeful once ♪

♪ Another chance, another life ♪

♪ This lack of sleep ♪

♪ These lack of worlds that are unique ♪

♪ Oh, bottle, keep me warm tonight ♪

This is the store in Jersey I'm always showing you.

It's the life of a comics slinger.

Zapp! Comics has always had a focus on back issues.

I've been doing this for 25 years, and before that,

I had about eight or 10 years of buying back issues

as a teenager.

Back issues encompasses all different levels

of price point,

all different levels of interest in buyer.

Me, I deal mostly in comic books made

from the 1930s up until the 80s,

but we still deal with comic books

from the last 20, 30 years as well.

There it is, the Holy Grail of Holy Grails.

"Action Comics #1" CGC-graded 8.5.

We just auctioned this off last week

and it sold for $2,052,000.

That's a great business model if you're like,

"Sure, here's our showroom of CGCs.

They're behind a locked door,

and I'll escort you around and show you

our 'Uncanny X-Men #1 9.7.'"

Terrific! That would be awesome.

I kind of would love that.

(key clattering in lock)

Kind of the atmosphere we have

that we're creating here at Torpedo

is one of a premier, premium actual comic book store.

Torpedo's owned by John Dolmayan,

who's the drummer for System Of A Down.

So our Fortress of Solitude here is,

these are kind of our mid-range CGC comics.

We also have in the vault itself

about $2 million worth of incredibly high end

CGC books as well.

That's the big-boy room.

That's the no joke,

swipe your credit card as you go in kinda room.

It's set up to look like a vault.

You can see in here that it all looks like

safe deposit boxes,

but this is like the Holy Grail room.

That's where the "Batman #1" is,

that's where the "Action Comics #6" is.

Anything that's about $3,000 to $175,000,

$200,000 books are in there, properly displayed.

We're all about showcasing these books to people.

Everything is bagged and boarded in this store,

absolutely everything is.

New books on the wall.

Back issues have two boards in 'em.

It looks like a museum but it's not.

Everything here is inventory.

Everything here is trying to churn and burn

and rotate out of here.

388.14.

How much is this?
300, here, look.

What do you think?

I'm getting Dark Knight, four of 'em, that's-

You're getting four of 'em?
Yeah, all four.

Well, you can have this for 275.

Oof.

Nah, nah.

No?

I would probably say the thing I find interesting

about the back issue market at this point in time is

it's never been hotter.

There's such an interest in it.

It is shocking to me

how even being in this for over 30 years,

seeing how incredibly aggressive people are nowadays.

You got some new stuff in?

We got crazy new stuff in.
I saw the video.

Mysterio, gone already?

Yep, five and seven are gone too.

(phone rings)

Zapp! Comics.

Yeah the 90s stuff is usually bulk.

If you want to bring them in, I can take a look at 'em.

I don't know if we're gonna take 'em.

Because we have so much of the 90s stuff.

We have one main warehouse,

which is right down the street from our shop here in Wayne.

We almost view it as like owning

a piece of real estate,

and it keeps paying dividends over and over.

I have to keep feeding the beast, I call it.

You just gotta keep feeding it.

I'm constantly seeking some new, fresh collections.

They're turning over so fast, I can't keep enough in stock.

I just got it yesterday, so I'm not in a hurry.

I would do 140 even,

is the very best I would do.
Okay.

Here's some advice:

Get rid of all that "Walking Dead" shit

and buy that Flash 105.
Yes, yes.

Because in five years,

you can buy that "Walking Dead" shit

all over again for dirt cheap.

All over again.
Yep, for dirt cheap.

Most comic book stores in this country

are either not willing to, unable to,

or just don't care about doing high-end back issues.

Back issues in general,

even though people can buy most of the stuff

on websites and eBay and everything,

the demand is still there to buy back issues in person,

and whether it's here or at conventions,

people still love to dig through back issues

and see what they're buying.

They love the haggling, they love grabbing up the books.

They love the fetishization of the object.

They have some type of connection from their childhood,

there's a nostalgia there.

It's a wide range, it's a huge spectrum.

It could be, we get doctors and lawyers.

People who are blue collar workers,

white collar workers, billionaires.

The one thing that is the common denominator

is people are passionate about these characters.

Comic books aren't just for kids.

They've shaped the lives of hundreds of thousands

of people around the world.

I've met customers who became lawyers, doctors,

police officers, and firefighters

because they were inspired by superheroes

to try to do good.

So I think that's a really important thing to remember.

The idea that I wanna be a hero to my kid

comes from that.

The idea that I wanna be a hero to my students at school

comes from that.

Everything that I do kinda stems from that place of

comic book superheroes and those archetypes of superheroes,

and I just try to live up to them.

I think really the best part,

more than me buyin' a book here,

is really selling somebody that book

that they wanted their whole life.

It really is fun to see the expressions on people's faces

when they come up to the booth and go,

"Is that a reprint of 'Action Comics #1?'"

and I say, "No, no, it's a real copy",

and their eyes get so big and bright

and their jaw drops and they're

"Oh my God, I can't believe this is 'Action Comics #1!'"

And they go crazy.

Is it okay if I hold it?
Yeah, sure.

Ah.

And it's wonderful to also expose people

to these vintage comic books that they might not necessarily

have seen anywhere else before.

These are books that have survived

multiple presidencies.

They've survived world wars,

they've survived paper drives.

We are a custodian of the past, of high-end books,

of the importance of comic books

before they disappear.

Thank you so much.
Sure, my pleasure.

We're here at Aw Yeah Comics,

and we're gearing up for our big

"Action Comics #1,000" signing from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.

You see we got some balloons going on.

All right, so let's go inside.

I have an interesting ritual when it comes to any big event

that we do.

About a week beforehand,

I will start having anxiety dreams

that no one is coming.

The only things I think about are

how much money we have into it,

how much money we have to make that day

to break even.

I will stress out right until about

the first 20 people show up.

To create community,

you have to host community.

That's where the idea came from,

it was just like, "Well, man,

what if there was a comic book store

that was also that community space?"

It's not so much that they're setting up

a coffee shop and store.

Yes, they're doing these things as two retail businesses

that sort of play into each other.

But it's bigger than that.

They're making it a go-to destination.

People my age have gone to comic book stores forever.

They go there because it's comfortable,

it's something they've always done,

it's like a habit now.

But millennials are buying experiences.

Not just having a special sale,

'cause anyone can do that,

but having a signing, having a book club,

having some type of experience interaction

where you are a part of something,

where you're connected with something.

The key is to remain part of people's routines.

So the signing that we had in April, gosh,

honestly, it was one of the biggest ones

we've ever done, it was for "Action Comics #1,000."

So it was Peter Tomasi,

who was at the time was writing

Superman and Super-Sons,

Jerry Ordway, major Superman artist,

Walter and Louise Simonson,

Louise also wrote quite a bit of Superman,

and we had a special surprise guest,

the former publisher of DC Comics

Paul Levitz showed up, so that was pretty cool.

They got a really large audience

for a store of their size,

I was really impressed by the marketing effort

and success of that.

By far the biggest, like the most people

we've ever had for a signing at this store.

Not every signing's gonna be a line out the door.

Sometimes, you have a signing,

it doesn't matter how great the person or the book is,

10 people show up.

This is what matters! (laughing)

It was a great experience

seeing those folks there,

being able to talk to them,

thank them for, I guess, a great childhood

and great stories that they in a sense read to us.

Mr. Levitz, a pleasure, sir.

I don't know if you can see them,

but there's a young man standing at our counter

and this is his very first comic book.

Can I get a round of applause?
(crowd applauding)

These guys as well?
Yes, please.

I want people that are seeking out doing

different events with us that aren't necessarily signings.

We did an album, we did a record opening

for a local pop artist and it was great.

We had DJs and dancers and drag queens

and it was ridiculous,

and it was something I've never, ever seen

any other comic store do.

I believe that Amalgam's still fulfilling its goal

even if every person that walks out doesn't become

a comic book person,

they still become a part of our community.

(piano music)

There was a lot of hope that these friendships

would last and persist forever,

and I'm not saying that they won't

and they haven't,

but it has not been as easy as it was.

The store closed and obviously,

there are certain people that I see,

I can't say just as often, I'm not gonna lie.

The store was a gathering place.

My routine typically was to come in and spend

a sizeable amount of Saturday in the store.

There were tons of people.

There were times six or seven of us

would meet for lunch,

or we'd meet and go to a movie

and then go to dinner.

You didn't call up anybody more or less and say,

"Hey, I'll meet you at the store."

You'd say, "You know what? I'm gonna go to the store

and see who's there, and I know so many people

and I'm friends with so many people

that I'm going to run into someone there

that I can have a chat with, that I can talk with,

maybe grab dinner with, whatever."

I don't see that happening now.

I mean, I don't even know

when we try to get all together at all.

We still have beautiful, strong, solid friendships.

But for whatever reasons, you know,

life is getting in the way now.

People are moving on, people are moving away,

people are getting married,

and it's getting very difficult to now pick up the phone.

The AR crew is definitely fractured.

I feared most losing that kind of sense of community,

the ability of the store to bring everybody together.

One thing that I've done less shopping,

I've gone less frequently to stores.

But I'll usually go to Fat Moose

and pick up some stuff.

The fascinating thing about Fat Moose is

the whole atmosphere is tremendously similar

to what we all experienced at Alternate Realities.

But I still feel like an outsider,

it's not the same, I'm still conscious

that that's their club and I'm just a visitor.

I got something else to talk about.

Uh-oh, what do we got?

(laughing)

Why I gotta get the shitty one, man?

What happened?

Look at all that.

You know Justin does your pulls, right?

(laughing)

As soon as I said something to Justin,

he was like, "You know, Matt pulled out the binding, right?"

Wednesdays at Fat Moose,

it's a gathering.

We have X amount of customers who just come in.

They want their books,

they say, "Hey, how are you, good to see you",

and they're out.

But then we have my favorite people,

who come in and hang out.

Hang out so long that their wives are calling them.

How was the spine on this one, sir?

Acceptable?
I checked the rest out.

Okay, good, good, good.

The rest of them are accept or adequate.

Good, good, good. (laughing)

We're on the second floor, above a dry cleaner.

Our entrance is in the rear.

If you don't know we're here,

we're almost impossible to find,

but that's kinda fun because it's a destination.

I get calls all day of people going,

"I'm looking for your store and I can't seem to find it",

and I say, "Well, where are you?"

"I'm outside of a dry cleaners"

and I say, "Okay, look up."

And they look up and I'm leaning out the window.

"We're up here, the door's in the back."

Yeah, hold up.

Who's a real comic book fan in here, yo?

In here? Comics are for nerds.

(guys laughing)

Best Batman, Adam West, no?

Adam West.
Best Batman, Adam West.

Everybody's really gotten to know each other,

and we've got everything from middle-aged lawyers

to young guys right out of high school.

It's a bit of a gang, it's a bit of a club,

and it's a very open club.

If somebody comes in for the first time

and they're looking for something specific

and I'm busy,

one of my customers will take them around the store.

You all set?

I got the DVD.

Thank you very much.

I still prefer to go to the store.

I still prefer to have the hard copy.

I still prefer to have that feeling

of going to the store,

and part of it is replicating that excitement of

being a 10-year-old, a 12-year-old.

It's not just because that's the only way to get it,

'cause it's not the only way to get it,

but I choose to do it because I like that ritual of it,

and the store really kinda plays into that.

And part of that comes from what we sell is escapism.

And we sell fiction,

and people want not just to read a good story,

but sometimes they need to unplug from life

for a little bit

and this is one of the places that they come.

My weeks revolve around it.

I mean, it's like Wednesday is the best day of the week.

I mean, in the last 11 or 12 years

that I've been coming here,

I've maybe missed three Wednesdays?

And had to come on a Thursday or a Friday.

I've built a really strong friendship with Ralph

over the years too.

This countertop is like a confessional.

I don't know what it is about working here

and about this countertop,

but people come in here and they just unload their bullshit.

There are so many people that are comic fans

and that read comics regularly

that may not have anybody else in their life

who has the same love for the medium that they do.

And as a human being, we want to relate to people

by the things that we like,

and if we like something, we want someone else to like it.

You ever watch the show "Cheers"?

A lot of shops use that analogy of "Cheers", you know?

And you build up over years where there's a comfort

and there's a friendliness.

It's nice, it's like a clubhouse.

There's a lot of people here.

The conversation usually goes through the store,

'cause most customers, they don't know each other

but they see each other enough.

He didn't even have any powers.

Batman sucks.

What?
He's the most ineffectual

superhero of all time.

He's terrible.

Batman has had hundreds of writers and artists

and most of them were awful.

Most of them were average or awful.

There's very few heights.

There's very few high peaks.
Listen.

When Ruben comes in, Ruben talks to anybody,

so he kinda gets everybody going.

Says the guy with the Plastic Man T-shirt.

Yeah, Plastic Man, that's good stuff.

Like the worst superhero out of all of them.

I'd rather read a Plastic Man than a Punisher.

Are you serious?
Yeah, absolutely.

You're making that up.

No!
You're lying.

No, I'm not.

You ever read the original Plastic Man?

No, 'cause I'm not that, you know...

No, Plastic Man?
You're not that what?

Plastic Man is like a comic comedy thing,

it's not a superhero.
It can be,

but it can be dark also.

They were a lot darker than I expected.

Plastic Man cannot be dark.

You've gotta be outta your mind.

Listen.
Outta your mind.

Hey, there's a Punisher shirt right there.

There's two shirts in your closet,

a Plastic Man shirt and a Punisher shirt.

What are you wearing?
Plastic Man all the way.

Probably Plastic Man.

Really?

The amount of-
Do you guys know each other?

(guys laughing)

Thanks, man.

Have a good day, fellas, see you next week.

The comic shop is something special.

There's nothing else like it,

there's no other store like it.

I have no formal business training.

I'm sure that there's people that they spend

billions of dollars trying to figure out

how to duplicate this.

"How do we duplicate this in a laboratory setting?"

I don't know,

but it's been happening in Greensboro

over my 22 years, I'm a result of it.

I just wanna show you these beautiful treats

that Angelo bring us.

See? Look at that.

Isn't that beautiful?

From his father's place.

Say I post at four o'clock on a Thursday

that we're closing early.

I will have customers immediately assume

that I must be sick,

and they will call to see if I need anything.

They check on me, like they adopted me.

Aw, what?

They made me a birthday card!

Today is my birthday

and I've had two separate groups of kids

come in and bring me birthday cards today.

And that's awesome.

Those connections are, for me,

a majority of the reason that I do this.

A lot of the customers I've known for most of their lives.

Since they were in middle school to now

when they're bringing their own kids in,

since I've been here for so long.

When I would read something awesome,

I would want to tell somebody about it.

Now I get to do that for a living,

I get to tell somebody about this cool thing

that I saw in a comic book.

After all those years of being a kid,

of being just alone with my comics,

now I have this whole world of different people

with different perspectives.

That means everything to me.

If you didn't have workers at the comic shops

who genuinely love the material,

so much of what has happened in the field

would never have happened.

It's a lot of saying, "I hate this place,"

and also remembering that I wouldn't trade it for anything.

It'll break your heart and also make your day,

you know?

I think I've spent my life well.

I'm one of the lucky ones

that got to live out their dream.

There's a human element, I can't quite explain it,

but there's a human need to want to be

physically out there with other like-minded people.

Already, we are in the minority.

I mean, yes, we're less the minority

with each passing year,

but we're still iconoclasts,

we're still, we're looking for our own kind.

Everybody's looking for their own tribes

and so are we.

(shutter snapping)

It's weird, it's almost a self-validation.

Like there's a place set up specifically

for something that I love,

therefore what I love has value

because there's others like me out there,

which is not something you get

when you bicycle from drugstore to drugstore

but something you get when you go into a comic book store.

If that's what's going on,

then I think that the comic book store can endure,

because the comic book store has a place

that cannot be duplicated by "add to cart."

The space that a comic shop occupies

can be many things.

A third place between work and home,

a time capsule,

a clubhouse,

a community,

or even a cherished memory

of the best afterschool job a shy kid who loved comics

could possibly ask for.

(soft rock music)

♪ I need to start again ♪

So why do I wish the store was still around?

The store, see, like that's the thing.

It's always referred to as "the store."

I miss saying "I'm going to the store"

and everybody would know what you mean,

you know what I mean?

I think a lot of my friends,

a lot of the friends associated with the store

will tell you that the most important thing

about the store was the friendships

and the fun that we had, right?

I don't even have to think about that.

It's our friendships.

The legacy of the store is nothing to do with

the comic books themselves or the physical location.

It's just a building.

What AR symbolizes is the relationships

that were built out of that.

The crew, the AR crew, is really the legacy

of Alternate Realities to me.

I definitely know that there are a number of people there

who I became friends with because of the store,

and I'm still friends with to this day,

and I figure I'm gonna be friends with

for the rest of my life.

I even officiated your wedding.

And I met you at the store! (laughing)

So there you go.

I'm not heartbroken the store's closed.

The store itself?

I don't miss the store itself.

I miss the people in it.

One of the regrets that I had was that

I didn't make an impression on the world.

It was after we closed the shop

and I sat down and I realized

it's like being a teacher.

And suddenly, your old students come by and say,

"You had an influence on me."

It's a good memory for a lot of them.

And that's all I needed to do.

And I believe that's true, but beyond that,

it was a physical space,

and everybody should remember that

or remember what that place meant to us.

It was like lightning in a bottle.

The second I walked through that store,

I was transported back in time,

and the time that I was transported back to

was when I was a kid working at that store,

and I think that was one of the best times of my life,

but not being able to go to that store,

for me, it's now I'm like displaced in time,

so to speak,

and I'm kind of like spiraling out,

looking for something again, like an anchor

to who I was at one point in my life.

And so the store as that location was everything.

(piano music)

I visited 20 comic shops across nine states

to make this documentary.

And everywhere I went,

I wore an Alternate Realities shirt

bearing the crest of my fallen store

to remind myself that I come from a place

of great friendship and fun,

and to bring a little bit of AR

to each store I visited.

My comic shop is history.

But through the symbol we wear,

the memories we keep,

and the stories we tell,

my comic shop is everlasting.

And I still have one more stop on my journey.

♪ Heavy heart out on the road ♪

♪ Long time ♪

In the world of comic books stories,

death holds little power

over the heroes and villains on the page.

In the world of comic book stores, however,

a shop that closes almost never comes back.

But what if it did?

Alternate Realities served its purpose

and earned its rest.

But what if there came a day when AR was needed again,

to reignite old friendships and forge new ones?

Perhaps, one day,

people driving along Central Avenue

will turn and see a familiar sign once more,

up in the sky.

♪ Feels like I'm running back to you ♪

(upbeat rock music)

And I'm outta gas.

(laughing)

How 'bout now?

Will they be in frame now?

Wow, that's a brutal question.

Don't put that, don't put that in.

(laughing)

Sometimes, I can't think of the right words

to fill sentences.

I'm just hoping I can get to the end of the sentence

with enough words that it makes a complete thought.

You still have it?
What?

(laughing)

There we go.

Ow! (laughing)

What the hell is that?

(soft strings music)