My First Trip to a Comic Shop

On Friday I visited All Star Comics here in Melbourne. I'd walked past it several times on my lunchtime walks, plus my best friend has his comic subscription there, so I thought I'd check it out.

I love the mixture of different architecture styles on Queen Street.
Now, I might lose some friends by admitting this, but I'm not into superheroes. I also don't like the thought of having to go in and buy new issues every week/fortnight: I'm impatient and I want the whole story now! I'm also a completist and couldn't stand to start reading a story part-way in. So you might be wondering why I'd be interested at all in going to a comic shop. Some of my friends read them, and also writers of several of the blogs I read, and I'm open-minded, so I guess I was curious. I've also really enjoyed reading some graphic novels in the past (e.g. Maus and Sandman) and I was hoping they might have some.

The place covered two levels, and it was enormous! I didn't take any photos of the inside, but I was impressed with the set-up. All of the current issues were on the ground level, as well as indie and local sections. I was very interested by the local section. Many of them reminded me of zines, but in the end I didn't select anything from there -- this time. I saw a couple of comics that seemed interesting (e.g. Lumberjanes) but I was too shy to ask about how the whole system worked. I ventured upstairs and found the graphic novel section. There was a large selection but, again, I didn't really know what to choose.

In the end I went with what I knew and chose these adaptations of classic novels:

Manga Jane Austen and Proust's In Search of Lost Time. The latter has been on my list of books to read for a long time, but its 3,000-page length and reputation as one of the best novels of the 20th century has always made me hesitate. Perhaps this will help ease me into it, though it only covers the first out of the seven volumes!

As for the Manga version of Pride and Prejudice, I felt a little guilty purchasing that, but I've already read the original, so it's not so bad. I figure, I'm a big fan of Manga Shakespeare, and it's only a little different. (In fact I think manga, being a visual form, is the best way of depicting plays in print, but that's a post for another time!).

The gentleman who served me was so lovely, and even gave me a discount for being a first-time customer. I felt so welcome that I definitely want to go back. After I do some more research....