Comic Book Store moving

Independent bookstores are fast disappearing from the U.S. So are comic book stores, which are by their nature independent. But there are no equivalents of Borders or Barnes & Noble in the comic book industry, and Amazon has not yet bothered to touch the low-volume, fast-turnover business of comic books. So it's important for comic book fans to hold onto and support those stores that still do exist.

I first went to Max Saturday's (aka Fanmax) last year for Free Comic Book Day. On my own I would never have gone to the place - it's fifteen miles from my house, so any trip there is a commitment of thirty miles, an expenditure of about three-quarters of a gallon of gas. But a friend of mine knew the place, and wanted to take her son there, so I went along. This happened to coincide with the release of the first issue of Adam Felber's Skrull Kill Krew, and I was able to set up a standing order for that limited-run series. I picked up a few books there, regular ones as well as the free comics, and I was impressed enough with what I read by Brian Michael Bendis to become a regular reader of his New Avengers and Dark Avengers series.

I've become a regular there, stopping by every two weeks or so and redistributing a very small bit of wealth in exchange for some really excellent entertainment.* Yesterday I stopped in for the first time in over three weeks. I had my nephews along for the ride, and I wanted to gauge their interest in the upcoming Free Comic Day on May 1. As I came in, Sam Charge, the proprietor, informed me that the store would be moving in two weeks - just before Free Comic Book Day. The new location will be 506 Luzerne Avenue in West Pittston, PA (hmmm, according to this site, the former location of Scheetz's Grocery Store) and the phone number will be 760-6720. I don't know if the new store will be called Fanmax, or Max Saturday's, or something else - we'll just have to wait and see.


A few weeks ago a profile of Sam Charge and Fanmax appeared in, of all places, the periodical newspaper Good Times for Seniors (March/April 2010.) I've had the paper floating around for a while, and I finally scanned the article to preserve it. Here it is, in three pieces. (Even after you click on them you may still need to zoom a bit to read the text.)






*And before you sneer at comic books for being silly and childish - did you hear the one about the magic island that travels around and can cure cancer? And it has polar bears and a smoke monster and evil twins and stuff? Yeah, you have. Of course, you can't just pick up Lost any time you want and flip through its pages to the parts that struck you as exceptionally well-written.