When I moved back to the Triangle from Greensboro, I grudgingly closed up my box at Parts Unknown and forgot all about comic books in the hustle-and-flow of the Big Relocation.
Every single time we’ve gone for a stroll down Franklin Street, though, I’m drawn to the big blue awning next to the Mediterranean Deli and Moshi Moshi. The one with the yellow text that says, quite simply, “Chapel Hill Comics.” I always have to stop in. It’s inevitable. The place is just too damn attractive.
I was going to write on how different Chapel Hill Comics is from the other comics stores I’ve frequented in my life. Sure, places like Parts Unknown, the Werehouse in Boone, and the late Capitol Comics of Raleigh have their geeky, dimly-lit, milk-crated-back-issues charm. To be honest, though, they’re not the most inviting environments to those who have never had a marathon D&D session in the parents’ basement, complete with swords hanging from shag-carpeted walls and maybe even a d100 thrown in for good geeky measure.
Anyway, I was going to write about how Chapel Hill Comics is like a Hansel-and-Gretel gingerbread house: bewitching to Franklin Street passersby due in large part to its bright and clean decor, stylish window display, and gracious clerks. A little research into the store’s genesis (reborn from the ashes of my old high school comic book haunt, which fit all the above descriptors to a ‘T’) turned up Alex Wilson’s great journal entry about the store and its move from Rosemary to Franklin, so I’ll just link to it and leave it there.
More or less, the store is a sight for sore eyes, and goes against the grain of your typical comics purveyor. And it’s celebrating its 1st year on Franklin with birthday cake and a really kick-ass comic book sale next Friday, March 24th.
I will be there with bells and whistles (and large amounts of cash money).
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