Comments on: 2008 Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award Finalists!

By: Tungsten Man

Tungsten Man — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:28:45 +0000

That’s correct – right next to Ham’s, I believe.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:31:55 +0000

It’s moving seven doors down. Same street, same area… just a few yards away, to a bigger space.

By: CBrown

CBrown — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:40:35 +0000

Tungsten Man, where is Chapel Hill Comics moving to? Isn’t it already right on the main drag through the UNC campus?

By: Richard Pachter

Richard Pachter — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:16:53 +0000

Congrats to Tate’s! Terrific store with great stuff and a very helpful staff.

By: Lee

Lee — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:10:37 +0000

By an odd coincidence, I just happened to stop at Casablanca Comics on a recent vacation to Maine (the only one of the finalists I have ever visited). I was immediately impressed by the store, with a great selection of TPBs covering the walls, and a large, clean, well-lit store made the excursion from the normal travel plans well worth it. It made me wish that it were closer to my hometown of Boston, even though there are plenty of great comic book stores here.

Anyway, as I was completing my purchase, I said to the young lady behind the counter, “What a great store you’ve got here.”

She mumbled, “Yeah, gee, thanks,” in a less-than-enthusiastic tone. That was the only bad experience I had in the store.

Anyone in the Portland area (or just visiting) should stop by!

By: Greg Burgas

Greg Burgas — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:12:38 +0000

Cool! Thanks, Alex.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:43:01 +0000

Greg-

Here’s how it works… First, a store gets nominated. Anyone can nominate a store. I’m not sure if you need X amount, or if it only takes one, but it’s an open nomination process.

Then the nominated stores have to create a presentation. A five-minute video showing your store, a stack of very specific photographs, and a collection of press, special info, whatever you think is important.

These packages are reviewed by a selected group of judges, all industry types. Usually they have the previous year’s winner, a distributor, someone in publishing, and a writer or artist. They select six finalists, and the winner, on a point-based system. Points are given for specific categories, like Variety of Product, Community Involvement, etc…

And that’s how it works!

By: Tungsten Man

Tungsten Man — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 07:12:44 +0000

My vote for Chapel Hill Comics, all the way. This place has kept a clean, wonderful, growing store that’s about to move to a new location (!) even closer to UNC’s campus, and they’ve done it the best way possible: friendly, helpful staff, reliable service, and great relations with the community.

I’ve moved over twenty miles away, and even with gas prices as they are and my local store giving discounts on every new issue, I’m willing to haul ass to Chapel Hill to support hands-down the best comics store I’ve ever patronized. These folks got me back into comics as an adult and they did it in NORTH CAROLINA of all places.

By: CBrown

CBrown — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:27:09 +0000

I’m familiar with Rocketship and Chapel Hill Comics. Both are great stores. I live in Brooklyn and visit Rocketship fairly regularly. My mother lives in North Carolina, so when I’m there I make my way to Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill used to be a more standard LCS with a HUGE section devoted to sci fi novels. It was a good enough store, but I was pleasantly surprised a year or two ago to discover they’d completely transformed themselves into a more graphic-novel oriented store; actually, a lot like Rocketship is.

By: Greg Burgas

Greg Burgas — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 03:30:12 +0000

Does anyone know how these stores are selected? I don’t know any of them, so I’m not being snotty, but does someone nominate them? How do the voters vote for them? This seems harder to pick than the comics, because what if the voters can’t get to each store?

By: Du6bipR

Du6bipR — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 01:00:18 +0000

Brave New World is a great store. I’ve visited it a few times, as its not in the vicinity of the 6 plus shops in my area. Very cool shop with a great staff. Congrats to its win

By: James

James — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:54:38 +0000

No problem. If you watch 24, we were the town that got exploded by the nuclear bomb, and they got our city name wrong.

There was actually a Facebook group devoted to it: “24 Blew Up my Hometown and Got the %^$ Name Wrong!” or something like that.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:38:05 +0000

Not a jerk at all, James! The name of the store’s city is a pretty big deal! Thanks for correcting the typo!

By: James

James — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:32:29 +0000

Oh, okay, don’t want to be a corrective jerk…

…but Brave New World is in Santa CLARITA, but it’s close enough to Santa CLARA that it’s forgivable.

BNW is a great store, with great owners. They really do care about the customers, and they do a whole crapload of events for our entertainment.

Also, thanks to them, I don’t have to drive to Sacramento or something to participate in “24 Hour Comics Day”. Yes!

By: Random Stranger

Random Stranger — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:43:53 +0000

I’m not sure how this award is selected but I have personal experience with one of the finalists and they had a terrible store and the owner was one of those sleazy comic book store guys who give the retail end of the business a bad name.