Can we talk about how comic shops changed after the movie boom?

I used to hang out at a shop on 5th Street back in 2009, and the owner knew every regular by name. We would debate story arcs for hours on a Tuesday night, and he would pull my pulls without asking. Now I walk into the same place and it's all funkos and t-shirts up front, back issues crammed into two bins. People keep saying the movies saved comics, but they changed the whole vibe, not for the better in my book. The new customers ask for issue 1 of whatever show dropped, then leave when we explain it's $800. I miss the guy who traded me a run of Sandman for a stack of old X-Men and a six pack. Is anyone else feeling like the hobby got louder but the community got smaller?

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troy_price1mo ago

Man, that hit close to home. I still remember the old shop where the owner would hold a copy of whatever weird indie book he knew I'd like, just based on our last talk. Now it's all about what's trending on social media, and the quiet corners where you could actually dig through long boxes are gone. The movies brought in a crowd that wants the finished story without the hunt, which is fine, but it killed the part where you'd discover something by accident. I get the feeling we're both just nostalgic for a time when the hobby felt more like a secret handshake than a shopping mall.

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