The week my local comic shop turned into a nightmare

So last Tuesday, I walked into my usual spot, The Panel Page, and the owner, Dave, looked like he'd seen a ghost. He told me a pipe burst over the weekend and ruined about 40% of his back-issue stock, including a whole longbox of early 90s X-Men I was slowly working through. The place smelled like wet paper and despair for days. It wasn't just the loss, it was watching a guy who's run that shop for 15 years just look completely defeated. Has anyone else's go-to shop ever had a disaster like that, and did they bounce back?

3 comments

3 Comments

sammartinez13d ago

Wet paper and despair" is such a perfect, awful way to put it. I read about a shop in Oregon that flooded, and they did a big fundraiser with other local stores to help them restock.

seanc7312d ago

Yeah "wet paper and despair" really nails that feeling. I saw a story about a used bookstore in Vermont that got hit hard by a burst pipe. All their old history books just turned into soggy pulp overnight. The owner said it smelled like mildew and lost stories for weeks. Honestly it's cool when other shops step up like that Oregon fundraiser, because insurance never covers everything.

brian_taylor1512d ago

Our local record store had a sprinkler go off and ruin a whole wall of vinyl. The community did a pop-up market in the parking lot the next weekend, other shops brought their own bins to sell with all profits going to the owner. It was the only way he stayed open.