9 Unique Comic and Toy Shops to Visit in Northern California
As recommended by a veteran Sacramento comics-store owner
Superheroes are currently dominating the pop culture landscape. Each movie attracts large audiences and become the talk of the town until the next one comes out. Outside of the movies, where else can people gather to learn and discuss superheroes, or perhaps even delve into the comic book medium? What are the most unique comic shops throughout northern California that anyone is welcome to check out?
Big Brother Comics [920 20th St., Sacramento; 916–441–6461], is a prime example of a comic shop to check out for anyone who’s curious about the culture. I spoke with Big Brother owner Kenny Russell about the greater comic culture throughout northern California, and where aficionados can journey around the region to get their comic fix.
You run one of the best comics stores in Sacramento. Beyond here, from comic shops and comic culture to the wider nerdy pop culture of board games, cartoons, and TV shows, what are some other notable shops that specialize in this stuff?
Local to Sacramento, A-1 Comics [5361 Auburn Blvd., Sacramento; 916–331–9203] is awesome. They’re big — it’s a big store. It’s pretty mainstream. A lot of comic books stores are cookie-cutter, they all have the same thing. That’s not my favorite type of store. A-1 doesn’t do that; they’re huge. They kind of have everything. Empire’s Comics Vault [1120 Fulton Ave., Sacramento; 916–482–8779] is dedicated towards just the comic book itself. They’re very focused on that. They have really good back issues and a really good layout. They’re super focused, which I also really appreciate. Being a super focused store makes you really good at that one thing.
Obviously Oblivion Comics & Coffee [1020 11th St., Sacramento; 916-329–8839] has mixed the comic culture with hangout culture. Talking about movies, coffee and the like. They’re more like the “hangout and talk about comic culture, movies and books [place].” That’s definitely more of a neighborhood type store, which is cool. And there’s a full toy store in Arden, called Toy Fusion [2230 Arden Way, Sacramento; 916-565-2546]. They do 90 percent vintage toys. There’s some modern stuff, but it’s a vintage store. I love it; I wish they were open more.
How about places outside the city?
If we’re talking Nor Cal, there’s a bunch of [comic-related] stores in Berkeley and Albany. There’s another focused comic book store in San Francisco called Isotope Comics [326 Fell St., San Francisco, CA 94102, 415-621–6543]. That store is super unique. They do nothing but current comic books, they barely carry trade paperbacks, but they get all the creators in. The owner is so good at networking with writers, artists and people in the industry that he gets them in to do signings. He’s on this rare side of that spectrum where you have to be super personable and be in the know. He, the owner, is so good at it that he’s drawn into so many comic books. The people know him and say, “Oh I’m going to draw you into this comic book.” He’s a villain in “Invincible”, he’s a zombie in “The Walking Dead.” It’s pretty awesome. He’s super focused.
Whenever you’re traveling throughout Nor Cal, what’s usually on your itinerary? Do you have comic culture on your mind whenever you’re going places?
Yeah, one of my favorite things to do when I’m on vacation or visiting another city for whatever reason, I do like to see [comics]. I’m into all this stuff, so maybe there’s some things people have that I didn’t get to get. The current stuff I can just get, but there’s stuff that other stores get from buying collections from people — toys, games, all that stuff. Sometimes you get to see stuff that’s out of print and old and you wanted it. I have a big list of stuff that I’ve been looking for forever. If I come across it, I buy it, so I like to look at those stores. See what they got going on. I also like to look at the stores to see if they have any ideas that I didn’t have. There’s a store in Reno that has about eight pinball machines. I’m in love with pinball. I could never do it here, I don’t have the room. This comic book store that has eight pinball machines is really cool to me. Growing up, I went to a comic book store in Lodi that had a bunch of arcade machines. It was such a good mix to me, I loved it.
What stores are those?
The Lodi store is Comic Grapevine [920 S Cherokee Lane, Lodi; 209-368–1096]. It still exists, but it’s different. It has different owners and a different location, but it might be rad, I haven’t been there yet. As for the Reno store, it’s Comic Kingdom [595 E Moana Ln., Reno; 775-823–9074].
Anywhere else in San Francisco?
I do want to see it. I would love it. There’s also kind of an ’80s nerd store in San Francisco called Super7 [3253 16th St., San Francisco; 415-374-7190]. It’s all new stuff, but they take ’80s toys, TV, and cartoon culture, and make a bunch of stuff. They make t-shirts and toys. That store is rad. They also sell vintage ’80s movie posters, also the old “Godzilla” and “King Kong” posters. They sell “Masters of the Universe” wallpaper, it’s great.
