Timmy’s Washington Comic Crawl: PART 3
Back in June, I wrote about a "Comic Crawl" that I along with my friend Chris Murray did. The next month we did PART 2! It was great, I spent a lot of money, good times were had by all (except my bank account). You maybe asking yourself, what's a "comic crawl"? Well, if you've heard the term "Pub Crawl", then you have a good idea. If you have NO IDEA what a pub crawl is, It's where you and a buddy (possibly several) start your night off at a bar, then you drink and move onto another bar. Then you drink, move on to another bar. Then you drink and move onto another bar. 2 weeks later you wonder why you're broke and have several weird voicemails. Well, a comic crawl is kind of the same thing, only difference, less booze & more money spent. Oh it's called a crawl in both instances because you end up on your knees. In the pub version, it's because you're too drunk to walk, in the comics it's because you're 40 years old, and your begging your wife for forgiveness because you spent WAAAAAAY too much money! The first time we hit some shops in Federal Way, Tacoma & Ellensburg. Part 2 took place in the Tri-Cities. For my 3rd (and biggest) installment of my Comic Crawl series, we went back to the west side and visited Shoreline, Seattle, Kirkland & Bellevue!
We ended up hitting 7 stops on this crawl. Our first stop was at Phoenix Comics & Games located at 113 Broadway E, Seattle. Big store, lots of graphic novels/trades/tpb (a group of comics in a single story arc all bounded together) and some pretty high-end statues and areas for people to gather and game. The staff at every place we went were friendly, but this one was the top. Probably because the manager stood around with Chris & I and "nerded" out with us. I picked up a couple mystery comic packs and a few of their discounted trades.
Our 3rd stop brought us to Dreamstrands Comics & Such (Collectables) at 115 N 85th St #106, Seattle. This is one of the cooler shops that I've been too. Very well organized and very clean! I was able to find a single green lantern issue that I had been looking for for the past couple years! When you're dealing with back issues of comics, it can be like a needle in a haystack. I bought a Deadpool Comic Storage Box, some discounted tpb's and some other random single issues, including that Green Lantern.
Hitting the halfway mark of our crawl for the day, we stopped at Chris's favorite shop. One that he actually does a lot of mail order stuff from. Arcane Comics and More at 15202 Aurora Ave N Suite A in Shoreline, Washington! As you can see from this store, lots of trades and games. The store, I was told, is actually double in size, but thanks to COVID, half of the area is still closed off. The half that I didn't get to see is designated for table top gamers etc. I probably spent the least amount of money at this place. Mainly because it was pretty crowded (I was doing my best to not get people in my pictures) but also, the way they had things arranged, I'm sure there's a rhyme and reason for it, but I wasn't there long enough to learn it. I bought a mystery batman statue and the trade "Something Is Killing The Children" Volume 2. Side note... their Funko selection is on point!
Stop five in our third comic crawl brought us to Bel-Kirk Stamp Coin & Comics. I have a feeling this might be me when I retire. The older gentlemen (3 of them) who were in the store behind the counters were all busy looking at the news paper, messing with stamp collecting, and almost didn't even know we were in there. Mainly because Shelves in this store (located at 11232 120th Ave NE Suite 107 in Kirkland) are stacked almost to the ceiling with long boxes. This store was so crowded with boxes upon boxes, that as a fat guy, I really couldn't walk around. Plus the boxes were only organized by letter. Making what you were looking for a little more of a challenge. Chris had some great luck finding some #1's of books by Image. I, like normal, found the discounted trades section and got a few.
While we were in Kirkland, we stopped off at 12832 NE 85th St, the home of Amazing Heroes. This was a cool store, very well organized. The bad part about this store is, the owners know what they got. Everything is well organized and priced accordingly. Meaning, if you're the type of comic hunter that goes into shops looking for a first appearance of a character and hoping to get it dirt cheap, you won't find it here. That being said, the prices were reasonable and the staff was pretty awesome. Lots of neat toys, and I can honestly say, this trip, they got the most money out of me. Mainly because I was searching for certain single issue, 20 year old comic books to fill holes I had in my collection. THEY HAD THEM!
Last but not least in the Comic Crawl Part 3, is a cool little store, inside The Marketplace at Factoria aka a mall at 4015 Factoria Blvd SE, in Bellevue. The store is called Mighty Moose Comics. I really liked this store. It was standard mall shop size. Nice mixture of comics, trades and collectables. The vintage stuff they had to offer was probably the smallest I've seen in every store that we've visited in all three crawls, but the stuff they did have was well organized and priced accordingly. Being in a mall, this store had lots of traffic in and out, so I really didn't get a chance to comic dive and look around. I ended up only getting one trade from here, the book "We Only Find Them When They're Dead" from from BOOM! Studios.
I think I might have one more comic crawl in me (i.e. in my wallet). The next one will probably head up towards the Spokane area of Washington, and who knows, maybe one day we'll cross a border into Canada or more likely Oregon! Only time will tell. Until then, here's a picture of my haul... and yes, i had to get my wife flowers as an apology/thank you!
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