All About Books and Comics to close in April
After more than 38 years in business, the owners of Phoenix’s longest-running comic book store will retire and close their doors in the last week of April, when the lease ends.
Marsha and Alan Giroux said they would like to travel and spend time with their grandchild, who is due in June.
“I’m not in a desperate mode to close, but it’s just time,” Alan Giroux told The Arizona Republic. “It’s time to live life and not worry about making the almighty dollar.”
The Girouxes also shared their news on their website, with a pep talk for fans.
“Thirty-eight years ago, we never thought that comic books and pop culture would be as vast as it has become today,” the Girouxes wrote on allaboutbooksandcomics.com. “There will always be a comic book market, so for anyone that has always wanted to own their own comic book business, from Millennials to Generation Y’ers to
Z’ers, then live your dream.”
The uptown store is closing but the Girouxes still have 1 million comics in their back-issue inventory to unload, according to their website. They plan to liquidate their stock by holding a 25%off sale on merchandise and comics dated July 2019 and earlier through their closing date. They will continue to carry new releases through March 25 and sell some comics on their eBay store.
“It sounds egotistical, but we’re sort of an institution,” Alan Giroux said.
Regulars were quick to come by the store after reading the announcement Tuesday.
“Yesterday was major in terms of all the emotion and the amount of people that were in the store,” Giroux said. “I had one customer that came in; he happened to come into our store on Dec. 1, 1981, the fist day that my wife and I (opened) the store.”
“A couple customers sobbed on my shoulder,” he said.
Fans say goodbye
Longtime customers and friends expressed their gratitude to the couple and congratulated them on their retirement.
Michael Weaver, a student at Mesa Community College, has been visiting the store for 10 years and credits All About Books and Comics with his love of creative writing, which he is studying. Though he lives 30 minutes away from the store, he remains a regular customer and picks up new issues on Wednesdays.
Years ago, though he’d saved months’ worth of allowances, Weaver came up short at the register when he was buying a bundle of new comic books. Rather than turn him away, Weaver remembers, Alan Giroux gave him a discount so he could take all the books home. Sometimes, if an issue were damaged, Giroux would let a customer take it home for free, Weaver said.
“It’s much more of a community. I never went in there thinking they’re just trying to sell me something,” he said.
“Alan had a knack for finding interesting collections,” said Jeff Caslake, who worked for the Girouxes for several years. He first came across the store in the early ‘80s, when it was at Seventh Street and Camelback Road.
That was the Girouxes’ second location, and the first time they used the name All About Books and Comics. They had purchased A Little Bookstore from another couple in December 1981.
“Back then the shop stock was 90% used books with some comics on spinner racks,” Caslake said.
Customers’ appreciation extends to the store’s other staff. Even after Weaver took a break from comics, he said, manager Eddie Armendariz still remembered his name a year later.
Phil “The Professor” Mateer is also lauded by customers for his impressive memory — one that Weaver would test with pop quizzes about comics.
“Through it all Phil was the master of the backlog and could be depended on knowing off the top of his head whether we had nearly any comic book edition in stock,” Caslake said.
“What I’ll miss the most is the people at All About Books and Comics,” Jaryn Dominique said. “I’ll never forget when we showed up to major sales, the store would be packed, but the general manager always spotted my husband and (me) and pulled out X-Men comics specifically for us to browse.”
“In my opinion, it’s the best comic book store we have in the Valley,” she said.
Details: Noon-6 p.m. Monday-Tuesday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Thursday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday. All About Books and Comics, 24 W. Camelback Road, Phoenix. 602-277-0757, allaboutbooksandcomics.com.