Third Planet celebrates 45th birthday
Pandemic may have slowed foot traffic, but comics fans still want their heroes
Things are fairly quiet on a weekday at Third Planet Sci-Fi and Fantasy Superstore though two patrons browse the rows of comic books — men in masks thumbing through stories about men in masks.
Third Planet has been quieter over the past eight months than usual, unable to create a proper celebration of its 45th anniversary. Closed in march, the store reopened in the summer with traffic capped at 15, counting employees. Now the store can accommodate 30 people. But general manager Stephanie McFall says the store remains quite busy amid the pandemic.
“There’s a renewed interest this year in a lot of things you can do at home,” she says. “I’ve noticed that with my knitting group. Cooking, baking, home repair …”
McFall says she’s making at least three times as many trips to the post office to send comics, toys and other ephemera to patrons. One day last week, she dropped 10 boxes into the mail.
She also points out Dungeons & Dragons — the tabletop fantasy roleplaying game — has enjoyed a surge in interest.
“This is a good time for comics,” she says. “It’s an escapism into other worlds. So we’ve seen a lot of people doing Dungeons & Dragons with Zoom campaigns.”
Luv ya blue
Dungeons & Dragons was created in 1974, one year before T. J. Johnson — back in Houston after serving in the military and quickly disillusioned by an oil and gas job — opened Third Planet, a little store in a 300-square-foot house on Bissonnet, before moving to a slightly larger space on the same street.
“It was a hobby that got out of hand,” McFall says.
The future and final home for Third Planet nestled alongside the Southwest Freeway at the time was just an empty field Johnson would mow for the owner. When the opportunity came to buy the plot,
Johnson did so around 1985 and created an 8,000-square-foot brick structure painted a bright Houston Oilers blue that gave a neighboring hotel pause.
But over the years, that blue with red trim has become as striking a visual in Houston as Superman’s suit and cape. In a city full of shopping centers awash in muted neutral colors, Third Planet is an arresting sight from the Southwest Freeway, drawing longtime customers and also those passing through town.
“People don’t always know what’s inside,” McFall says. “But sometimes the building just pulls them in.”
As a result, she says, Third Planet has a clientele from “all over the United States.
“We’ll send things to Alaska because oil and gas guys visited and saw the blue store. There are two hotels right there, so when the Super Bowl was here (in 2017), people just walked over. I’m always pleasantly surprised to see who comes in, who’s into comics.”
In her six years working at Third Planet, she has seen lawyers and judges, an MMA fighter, local rapper Travis Scott and comedian Patton Oswalt.
The nature and contents of a sci-fi and fantasy superstore have evolved mightily over the span of Third Planet’s existence. Where comic books had long been a draw for decades, the culture of comic-book stores and conventions has exploded over the past two decades. Comic books alone can’t sustain a store the size of Third Planet.
“T. J. was early as far as diversifying his product line,” McFall says. “He figured if you liked Superman comics, you might like a shirt or an action figure. There’s always another product that will appeal to collectors.”
These days the Funko Pop! toys — big-headed, black- eyed pop- culture figurines — show no sign of diminished interest, populating stores and conventions like wet Mogwai.
Back to the future
McFall’s path to Third Planet started in East Texas, where she entered a comic-book store 12 years ago and was asked if she was buying comics for a boyfriend.
“‘Do chicks read comics?’ That sort of thing,” she says.
As general manager at Third Planet, she says, “What I hope to do here is make it so women, people of color, the queer community always feel welcome and never have an experience like I had. As a woman, I can say it’s better than it used to be, but there are still hurdles. We’re trying to put more emphasis on creators of color. LGBTQ+ creators, that’s the next hurdle we need to address.
“Comics are supposed to be for everybody.”
After 45 years of running the store, Johnson at age 70 is looking to change his role there — not so much retire as to retreat from the store to the various warehouses around town where he stores excess comics, toys and other products, sifting and pricing them for future sale. A recent day found him processing 350 G.I. Joe figures and another 300 Transformers.
“His idea of retirement isn’t somebody else’s idea of retirement,” McFall says. “But he’d rather not make the hour drive from Spring every day. He’d rather dig through boxes and find high-dollar books.”
Johnson’s not-retirement leaves McFall to navigate a tricky immediate future.
Third Planet had to prove particularly adaptable this year as an initial lockdown eliminated browsing traffic. But the store took note of how the culture was responding to the pandemic and ordered products accordingly. Puzzles and model kits were being as sold as quickly as they could be priced.
And Black Friday always marks the beginning of a particularly busy holiday season, which feels a little tenuous right now with the potential for another retail shutdown.
But with mail orders, curbside pickup and even a capped flow of in-person traffic, McFall sees the Third Planet brand as healthy and ever expanding as it heads toward a half century. She balances serving the store’s old guard with those new to the community. So she has her eye on the titles, characters, artists and authors from decades ago with newer stories and newer talents in the field today, a further evolution and diversification of the store’s stock.
“My hope is we can appeal to as many people as possible,” McFall says, “to make sure we’re around another 45 years.”