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| - I'd been to this shop in the past. I was in Arizona for a week and wanted a particular comic that was coming out, but didn't have a free day to make it to the shop until the weekend. Naively thinking, "Heh, it's Arizona. There's no chance this thing will be selling out. I doubt anyone here's even heard of it."
Lo and behold, we pull up a couple days after new comics Wednesday to discover every copy, including ones with the more expensive variant covers, had been sold, and we just left (picked it up later at Golden Apple in L.A.). This was long before my days on Yelp, when I would have at least hung out to get a feel for the place.
So just for you, Yelp, here's my latest visit:
Walked in and were greeted by a small gentleman at the counter who welcomed us with a big smile. He asked if he could help us with anything, and we said we were fine.
The shop is long and narrow, filled with boxes upon boxes of comics - an entire wall of graphic novels to the right, racks of new releases to the left. Glass display cases here and there with figures and rare prints. We were amused to see coffee mugs shaped like the heads of Star Trek: Next Generation and Original Series characters in a case near the Golden Age comics. You can pick up a ready-made collection in a short box for $100-500 depending on your penchant for back issues that might break your bank.
One of the X-Men comics on sale in the case was drawn all over by a kid, with his own personal dialogue bubbles and "colored" in all of the block lettering with a blue pen. It appears to be X-Men #7, the "Return of the Blob," which was the first appearance of Cerebro, the first issue where Cyclops was named leader, and the second time The Blob shows up. Were this comic mint, it'd be worth $1,600 to the right collector (even if it were graded "fair" it might fetch $100), but with all the scribbles on it, All About Books & Comics has it at $30.
Moving on, there's a small room in the back filled with nothing but discount back issues stacked in uncovered boxes on shelves. Depending on whether you're an organization freak or a "treasure hunter," this room could be either intimidating, exasperating, or downright exciting. As far as I know there's no order to where the comics are placed, most aren't bagged and boarded, and you'd have to pull whole boxes from the shelves in order to go through them. Your call.
Near the rear register, there's a rack of clearance items, a chunk of which being old science fiction digests and a few no-name graphic novels. I picked up Sergio Aragones' "Mad About Mad!" and Michael Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist" for 99 cents apiece.
I stumbled upon All About Books & Comics by chance this trip, disappointed with a wasted journey to McFarlane's only to find it closed up on a Sunday. AAB&C definitely put me in a better mood, though.
The bag they give you for your purchases has a sticker on it with their accomplishments: "Arizona's Only Original Comic Superstore," Will Eisner Award Winner, "Over 10 Years as New Times Best of Phoenix & Best of the Rep!" and "over one million comics in stock." Not sure about the others, but that last one's definitely the truth. They're jammed to the gills with comics, and I love it.
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