Why Are Comic Shops Occasionally Controversial?
As befits a system of independent retailers, many comic book shops have a somewhat intimate, slightly at-odds relationship with some comics readers. For a period of time in the 1980s and 1990s comic shops were the overwhelming major retail option for comics fans. Therefore, their unique shortcomings both individually and as a group reflected on the medium perhaps more than record stores and bookstores reflected on their respective media. A common complaint is that many comic shop owners have a very focused interest in superhero comics, even certain kinds of superhero comics. Fans of other kinds comics may find these stores largely useless or even detrimental to the art form in their monomania. I personally love all comic book shops, sometimes against my better judgment. When I was a kid, all comic books were purchased at a newsstand. This had been the primary system for the dissemination of comic books since 1938. The best comics selections in my Indiana hometown were at branches of Ro
