She Geek Critique – No Place Like Home

They say there’s no going home and it’s true. Not in a physical sense, of course, presuming the place in question is still standing. But life brings change and people are never the same as when they left. So home, as you remember it, no longer exists. But sometimes there’s nothing quite like visiting old haunts. 

I recently had just that opportunity as I headed north of the border for a couple of weeks. One place I made sure to stop was The Comic Room, the spot of my first real foray into comics. I’m lucky enough that the shop, located in the basement of a used bookstore, is still in operation. And, amazingly, it’s still pretty much the same as I remember it.

When I was a kid, my grandmother lived near the used bookstore and I would go with her when I was over. I got a lot of books that way! But I didn’t notice the sign at the back for “Comics” with an arrow pointing to the stairs until I was a pre-teen. Yes, I was already reading comics by then (mostly of the Archie and Disney variety), but I would get them at variety stores.

That first trip down those stairs was a revelation. I turned the corner and got one of the best views of my young life: walls full of comics, with long boxes full of more comics down the middle. It was like my own version of the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. And this time, all these years later, I still love that sight… which hasn’t changed! It’s no wonder those are my favorite kinds of comic shops – long box filled, slightly crowded, full comic book immersion experience. Seriously, I am not a fan of clean shops with extra room to move and lots of extra space for the comics.

So even though it’s been something like 30 years since I first walked down those stairs to The Comic Room, the fact that it hasn’t really changed was comforting. I may have changed, my reading choices may have matured, I might be a lot more Marvel than I once was… but comics have been pretty much a constant in my life since I was a kid. So this kind of going home again works for me.

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