For town’s comic ks a milestone
Those supportive customers have helped create more than just a store. It’s a community in its own right.
“We’ve been so fortunate to have regulars who come to collect their comics each week. And many of them have become our friends over the years, sharing their stories and lives with us,” Mr Wong said.
“We also meet up regularly with a group of customers for our monthly Crunch socials for an evening of pizza and drinks, to chat about comics and other geek-related topics.”
The friendly nature of the store means they have held a few signing events which have been popular.
“We’ve had a couple of signings with artists coming to the store over the years. And we’ve worked with a few comics creators to sell their signed books or to set up special bookplates for their graphic novels. And they’ve always been so lovely and accommodating to work with - so we’re going to try and bring in other artists and creators to do more of these things in future,” he said.
While we can think that comics can be for children, Crunch Comics aims to show that there are gripping reads for all ages and tastes. Some might start off with, say, Scooby-Doo before graduating to more mature titles, and the store can support that journey.
“It’s such a great feeling to have our customers share their lives with us through the years: we’ve had customers getting married and some going on to have children - and now some of them are bringing their children into the store to choose comics for themselves,” Mr Wong said.
“We’ve also had young readers come to the store over the years, initially reading mainstream superhero comics from Marvel and DC having seen the movies – and then their tastes have developed to try the huge range of other comics available from other independent publishers like Image, Dark Horse and Boom.
“There are comics available in almost every genre: horror, sci-fi, fantasy, thrillers and non-fiction to name a few, to suit almost any reader. And, of course, manga is huge now especially with the rise in TV adaptations and we’ve seen a real uptake in readers across the age range of all our customers so we’ve expanded our Manga selection.”
■ For more details, log on to: www.crunchcomics.com