Life In Morgantown: Comics Paradise Plus 2

On April 6, I got off work early and had some time to kill before I had to meet Angel and Aaliyah back home. I decided to head over to Westover to check out the newest edition to Morgantown’s comic shop selection, Comics Paradise Plus 2. Matt and I had tried to go on a Monday last fall but they were closed. As I previously mentioned, I’m a Gary’s kid all the way, but I’m willing to see what other shops have to offer. It’s located at 183 Holland Ave, just up (or is that down?) the street from the Circle K.

I walked in and it immediately felt like a comic book shop. One of the things I don’t like about Four Horsemen (besides the fact that it’s a gaming shop posing as a comic shop) is the fact that it never felt like a comic book shop. As someone who spent way too much of his 20s working in a mall, I know when I’m in a mall space, a store, or a comic shop. I have never been to their first location in Fairmont, but this place definitely was off to a nice start. It actually reminded me of Phantom Of The Attic, a shop in Pittsburgh that Matt and I discovered when we went to The Blueprint 3 tour in 2010.

When you first walk in, you’re greeted by a ton of toys. Not regular ol’ toys for the uninitiated; action figures, statues, busts, etc. If I was more of a collector of those items, I could have spent 30 minutes in there. Instead, I ventured forward past long shelves containing trade paperbacks (more on that later) and into the main section of the shop. I was greeted by the cashier and I proceeded to turn right towards the new comic book section.

They have a ton of books. While I wasn’t able to figure out the exact sequencing of everything (I believe it was alphabetic order but it was also new comic book day Wednesday, so I didn’t get too upset by it), I loved that there was so many options to look through. Considering my only two pulls (pulls=books you can have a comic book shop hold for you until you come in to buy them. Both Comics Paradise Plus 2 and Gary’s offers this service for free) at Gary’s right now are the new Archie series and Spider-Gwen, I have no idea what’s really going on with Marvel or DC. So I spent some time checking out the new Iron Man series, the new Miles Morales Spider-Man series (I actually purchased this. You can’t spend all that time in a shop and not buy something), and The Dark Knight III: The Master Race.

Not wanting to spend all my time with the floppies (floppies=what we call a single comic book), I headed to the other side of the shop to check out the trades, and just like with the new books, they have a lot of trades as well. These are organized alphabetically, and I flipped through a few of them before I got to The Walking Dead Compendium Three. I own One but I hadn’t come off of the $120(!) to get Two or Three. I decided it was time to finally read issue #100 and no spoilers but… yeah.

They also have a second floor and according to what I saw online, you can do some gaming up there if you’re into that kind of thing. I did ask if there was more books up there while I was checking things out, just in case. Once I got done looking at the compendium, I grabbed that issue of Spider-Man and headed to the register. I was greeted with none other than those Green Lantern rings that DC put out during their Blackest Night event some years ago. They were only a few cents so I picked one up since I’ve lost my collection somewhere in my three recent moves. The cashier was cool enough to throw it in for free for me. Or maybe he only charged me half of the already small price. I don’t remember, it was April! Anyway, I thought the customer service was top notch. As someone who spent way too long in retail, I don’t like for someone to harass me the whole time in the store; on the other hand, I don’t want to be ignored. Even though there was only one gentleman manning the shop, I thought there was a nice balance.

I highly recommend Comics Paradise Plus 2, even if you already have a comic shop that you call your own. You might be able to track down a book you were looking for that you couldn’t find elsewhere. In fact, they only keep 2 months worth of books on the shelves, so they have a massive library of new back issues. So if you are missing a book, it might be easier to come ask for it here.

Unless you’re me, but only because I got a guy (or gal) for everything. Stinson out.

Pro tip: Support your local comic book shops. And I liked Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice. There. I said it.

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