One thing I haven't really touched on is how Nostalgia & Comics has changed my reading tastes over the years.
It was here I first read Alan Moore.
Where my obsessional love of Grant Morrison began.
Where I discovered Cerebus, Love & Rockets, Maus, Chester Brown, ,Seth, Grendel, Joe Matt, Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis, Strangers In Paradise, Eddy Current, Eddie Campbell, Kyle Baker, The Hernandez Brothers, Andi Watson, Moebius, Bilal, Dave McKean,
It's been instrumental in shaping me, my views, my outlook and my reading over these years. I've made many, many friends there, customers and staff.
I miss the place.
I realised that more than ever the other day when I took a trip into York and popped into Travelling Man.
Now, please don't misunderstand me here, Travelling Man in York is actually a pretty good store. It's got a fair selection and the staff appear to have put some thought into the shop and what they stock. But it's tiny. So there's no way it can stock as much as Nostalgia does. I found myself scanning shelves and mentally noting down all the things that were missing from them. I even found myself fight ting back the urge to tidy their shelves for them and change the shelf displays.
Then I realised just how much I'm missing a regular hit of my own comic shop. I miss not being able to pop in there and immediately feel like I'm home. I miss knowing the staff, I miss knowing the shelves, I miss being able to tell people what we need to order, I miss knowing what's good, what's bad and what to look forward to in the future.
Nostalgia & Comics. Oh I miss you.....
oh Rich, Im enjoying your blog so much, and its making me nostalgic! For the good ol' days! Yeah like Im that old! But you know, it was different back when I started at the shop, and I thank you for reminding me of it, at this, a time when Im on the course to be leaving soon (ish! As soon as I can find another sap to hire me!).
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