Walking around Chicago Comics, it doesn’t take much time to understand what sparks a comic book collector’s mania. From Mighty Mugs to magazines, busts and figurines, the place has more trinkets than Ariel’s hidden grotto. There is barely enough floor space to feasibly maneuver around the racks of books and tables of action figures. The pillars at the front of the store are completely covered with posters, and there is a toy pterodactyl skeleton hanging from the entryway. Talk about eclectic.
Just a few blocks away from the Belmont El stop, Chicago Comics is the go-to store for experienced collectors and comic book virgins alike. The 16-year-old store is like a time warp, littered with both modern and vintage merchandise on every tabletop and corner. With child-like features such as the inflatable Spider-Man figure crawling on the ceiling and the neon Superman symbol behind the counter, it’s easy to appreciate the store’s charm.
Like the store itself, general manager Eric Thornton also has a genuine charisma about him and is more than willing to offer his services to help you “get your geek on.” Sipping his coffee in the back corner, the animated Thornton explained the store’s survival through tough times and the comic book medium’s growing popularity.
“Oddly enough, we’re doing better than we did last year,” Thornton said. “Even though sales are down, we’ve just tightened what we get in more than we used to. We’re not taking as many knee-jerk risks.”
That kind of endurance comes from the years of experience Chicago Comics prides itself in. According to Thornton, the store has more space and variety than most others of its kind, but what really separates Chicago Comics from similar stores is the way they know comics.
“We know what you want before you do, in ways,” Thornton explained. “We know the ways a reader ‘grows’ and are able to fill a lifelong love of the genre within our four walls that would give you enough material to teach a college class on the medium in its entirety, instead of just, say, Marvel, DC, and Image.”
Thornton’s expertise comes from 13 years in the comic book business and a sincere love for comics that he has carried since his youth. Throughout his years at Chicago Comics he has seen trends come and go and has managed to build a strong collection of his own.
“My house is full of junk from this place and it will only get worse and worse as time goes on,” Thornton laughed. “But that’s just part of it. You just collect, collect, collect. I’ve got all sorts of Space Ghost figures now that I’m like, ‘Did I really need to buy an entire line of Space Ghost figures?’”
But when you’re surrounded by everything you’ve been obsessed with since you were 10 years old, it’s hard not to go crazy, even as a grown up. Chicago Comics, with its color and character, has become a sanctuary for the devoted comic book nerd. While Thornton recalled the days where keeping your comic book habit “in the closet” was the norm, he described the medium’s new niche trendiness that has undoubtedly been brought on by its surge of prominence in popular cinema.
“Now I see groups of kids coming here who are high school age or early college age,” said a pleased Thornton. “It’s really grown as a medium into mass media as opposed to a small segment of society, so that’s great. I mean, it’s something that I honestly never thought I’d see.”
This growing popularity has mostly stemmed from pop culture’s “merging with the comic medium that didn’t used to be there like 10 or 15 years ago,” according to Thornton, and it seems to be gaining momentum.
Of course, these theatrical adaptations can both help and hurt the industry. When super-flop Catwoman came out in 2004, it cut the associated comic book’s sales in half, Thornton said, attributing the decline to the response of ashamed readers to an inaccurate cinematic representation of the vigilante they once adored. And, after the flood of sales this year’s Watchmen brought, Thornton still worries the movie’s mixed reviews will stifle long-term sales.
“If the movie is bad it can hurt the comic,” Thornton explained. “I mean, it’s a kind of branding. If you damage your brand, it affects it across the board.”
But if comic book heroes have really infiltrated pop culture the way Thornton says they have, then Chicago Comics will keep its cluttered yet colorful spot on 3244 N. Clark St. for another 16 years, serving the residents of Chicago their daily doses of truth, justice and the American way.