#I also picked up the first Tokyorev omnibus and a graphic novel

[thus-spoke-lo]

I just adore my local comic book shop so much. The store is just chaos (a lot of their inventory is in cardboard boxes on the floor in front of their shelves, which I kind of like?), and there’s only like two employees I’ve ever seen there, and I think one of them is the owner, and the store just kind of feels like you walked into someone’s garage or basement storeroom but like… it’s perfect. I’ve only been in a few comic shops on my lifetime (I used to just buy manga at Borders cuz that was my option in my small hometown), but I always kinda felt unwelcome in them? Or at least like walking through the door meant I had to already know stuff about comics (and usually they felt a little anti-manga tbh).

But walking in here, I usually see some parent and kid talking to one of the employees and trying to find the kid a comic series or manga, and they’re always so patient (last time I was there, they ended up helping a very sweet tween girl walk out with the first few volumes of Demon Slayer and it made me happy to see lol), and I wished more places made an effort to show a vested interest in helping kids discover new media to consume.

Anyway, I went in today for exactly one thing and walked out with a few books, including the first two volumes of the republished Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon that came out this year. I got to the counter and the dude asked if I’d ever read the manga before, and I’m just so trained to bristle when guys ask me if I’ve read whatever manga or comic before, so I kinda cringed when I said no, but I’d grown up watching the dubs on TV as a kid. And his eyes got super wide and he just goes “Well then you’re in for a real treat! It’s a really beautiful manga, I think you’re going to love it. And volume 3 comes out soon too!”

And that was it. There was no litmus test, no making me feel weird for not having read a pretty seminal manga. Just a guy being happy for me getting to experience a book for the first time. It reminded me that there are people who really just want other people to enjoy stuff and don’t have some sort of ulterior motive of proving they’re the smartest nerd in the world.

There’s no real point to any of this except to say, when possible and reasonable, support your local bookstores and comic book shops, especially ones that really feel like they want to make comics and manga accessible and fun for everyone.