Here in Bourbonnais, there is one comic shop: The Comic Outlet. It's a small store, smaller than what I'm used to, anyway. However, the owners are a father and son who genuinely love comics, which is always a plus. The walls are adorned with autographed comics, like
Captain America #1 signed by both John Ney-Rieber and John Cassaday. There's also a large section of back issues in the center of the shop with newer comics placed in bins around the room. While the owners don't really talk a lot with the customers, once you visit enough, they are actually quite friendly. When
1602 #2 came out, I went in the next day to pick it up, but they'd already sold out. When I talked to the owners, one of them (the father) pulled
his own copy off the shelf behind the counter and gave it to me. That made a believer out of me! :)
For the harder-to-find comics and TPBs, my buddies and I make about a bi-monthly trek to Frankfort, Illinois to visit
Amazing Fantasy. I don't really talk to the staff much, but this place is
loaded with everything from comics to RPGs to videos and DVDs. We took a little trip up there for Free Comic Book Day this year and got a bag of proverbial goodies, including some books that they just were looking to get rid of, like
Harley Quinn #2, as well as some lesser-known titles, like some pretty decent Moonstone books. A friend of mine has taken to their indy section pretty well, finding a place in his heart for the generic
Comic Book, of which he has (I believe) the first four issues. It's also a good place to pick up older comics that a lot of other stores have sold out of. I went and bought
Batman #614 around the time that
Batman #618 was getting ready to come out. They also have a large selection of TPBs, toys, and RPG books/miniatures. This place has just about everything to keep a fanboy happy. A really good place.
Back home, I used to go to a place called Consignment Comics and Collectibles. The owner was a really nice guy who kept AWESOME hours (often staying open for
hours after he was scheduled to close) and sold all of his back issues for a dollar. He mainly catered to gamers, though, and eventually went out of business, sadly. However, a new gaming place just opened up there, so I dunno if he opened that himself or if someone else did. But as I'm not much of a gamer, I doubt I'll be heading over there.
Now I head to a pretty average comic shop, called Comic Carnival, which has three locations in Indy. The location I go to is known for their collection of a lot of non-comic related things. They have toys, posters, T-shirts, bootleg movies, manga and anime up the wahzoo, soundtracks from the old Supergirl movie, etc. I went in once to see them handing out free buttons for the Indiana Jones DVD release. The staff is pretty cool, but are pretty damn nerdy. They play Magic over the counter (like Walt and Steve-Dave in the deleted opening scene in
Chasing Amy), argue frivolous continuity points, and talking about which creators they like/don't like. Plus, the staff draws little charicatures of certain authors and put them up by displays of books by said author (the Alan Moore one was friggin' hilarious!).
Those are my four 'main' comic shops, though I'd assume it'd only be three now. At any rate, I haven't found the
perfect comic shop yet (though the place with the free bags and boards sounds pretty damn close, TK). I've always wanted to visit Jay & Silent Bob's Secret Stash out in Redbank, NJ, just 'cuz I'm a big Kevin Smith fan. I've also wanted to visit the "comic shop of the stars" that I read about in
Wizard a few years back, frequented by people like Samuel L. Jackson and others of his ilk. (Can't for the life of me, remember the name of it now, though...)
