Part one of a two-part post (sorry no variant covers)
Β It was a rainy Monday morning, I left my corporate traveller hotel in El Segundo, just south of LA. Rain is unusual for LA, so people were stood under the small veranda at the front looking at the sky. Iβm English, this weather is amazing.
I take out my phone to request an Uber and a taxi driver appears out of nowhere. βNeed a ride?β
I get in, without a prompt he starts βThis is bullshit β¦ there is traffic 24 hours a day in this cityβ The driver is called David and quickly works out Iβm English. He puts Careless Whisper by George Michael on the Stereo β¦ LOUD β¦ followed by Adele. All I need now is his Dick Van Dyke impersonation.
Iβm going comic book shopping and my first destination is Secret Headquarters.
Progress is slow, and without warning, it feels like Iβm halfway through a potential kidnap, I calm irrational thoughts and look out of the car window. LA is flat, VERY flat. The road is heavy with traffic and lined with apologetic palm trees, shabby, tired and layered in pollution.
Iβm jolted back to the car by LOUD Elvis, followed by Chris De Burgh βLady in Redβ, David keeps turning the volume up and down, up and down, but I canβt quite hear what heβs saying. I realise weβre mid-Sunset Boulevard, down at heel β¦ lined by strip mall after strip mall punctuated by Psychics and Pizza men. The LA dream is tired and shabby on Mondays.
Davids reached the finale of his DJ set, and heβs playing βHotel Californiaβ, I bet heβs an awesome wedding DJ, maybe the second marriage. Not the first.
Stop 1, weβre here.
Secret Headquarters,Β 3817 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Iβm just going to address this right now. Secret Headquarters is for Hipsters. Maybe itβs not even cool to use that word, but f@#k it. It is. Trying so hard to be cool, so so hard. Imagine a Victorian era parlour, sans, the thick smog of ready rubbed tobacco, and smoking jackets. I expected there to be a half drunk glass of Port on every surface. Like a downscale Ollivanders wand Shop, a reading room on the titanic or a fitting row from a Saville row tailor. I stop, not sure I feel comfortable here. Β its empty, its Monday morning and an almost invisible employee at the back is playing Aladdin Sane by Bowie, Loudly #hipster.
The shop itself is smallish, with a wall of single issues on your right as you enter, arranged like a sorting office in some finely manicured cubby holes. As you can imagine, itβs hip. On the left a wall of trades and graphic novels, finely ordered and manicured. Imagine Gap for comics, in 1845
Secret Headquarters is painfully self-aware, it feels like a vanity project, in the attempt to be authentic itβs entirely fake but maybe thatβs the point. The employee nestled at the back reminded me of Millhouse from The Simpsons (so thatβs a plus). Β In terms of selection, itβs deep and varied and I picked up the super Last Days of American Crime by Remender and Tocchini amongst other things. This book is really great, you should read it.
In summary, Secret Headquarters feels like a place where the customers want to be seen, with a sterile manicured environment that lacks excitement. Itβs not for me.
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I call an Uber and we set off across town to Meltdown. The day was getting hotter, and we wove between psychotic bus drivers, past increasingly seedy studios (a.k.a Porn), ramshackle tattoo parlors listening to Janet Jackson in the cab, cruising past Fat Salβs Deli we pulled up outside to see two irate Germans getting a cabriolet ticketed right outside. Bam. Thatβs an entrance.
Meltdown Comics & Collectibles, 7522 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90046
Meltdown is huge and is suitably ramshackle for the area. Itβs part museum, part comic shop, some of the inventory must have been on a shelf for years. There are random action figures peppered amongst the shelves. Itβs a cornucopia, that you could lose yourself in for hours. Real, authentic. itβs legit.
There are subsections for games, action figures, a fantastic selection of kids books, tables are arranged by theme and shelves are arranged by publishers. The atmosphere was open and friendly and the soundtrack was straight out of βPretty in Pinkβ. In the centre is a panopticon with a surly employee wearing black. Of course, heβs wearing black. Thereβs a little more that whiff of high fidelity about this place. Next door is http://www.nerdistschool.com which seems a bit kids from fame for me, and the popular Nerdist podcasts are done out the back somewhere. I pick up the Brian K Vaughn Doctor Strange run and head out of the door to find lunch.
Another quick Uber and Iβm there.
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Pinks Hot Dogs,Β 709 N La Brea Ave, Los Angeles
Ok, so this isnβt a comic book shop, and I donβt want this to turn into a written episode of Dinerβs, Drive-Ins and Dives, but if you are ever in LA, you have to visit. Itβs not the worlds best dog, but the place has buckets of personality and has been an LA institution since 1939. The chilli cheese dog is a speciality, whatβs not to love? I went big and had chilli cheese fries too. One small heart attack later I was back on foot to just around the corner β¦
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Next Up: Golden Apple Comics, Mega City One and Hi-De-Ho
Fear and Comic Books in LosΒ Angeles Part one of a two-part post (sorry no variant covers) It was a rainy Monday morning, I left my corporate traveller hotel in El Segundo, just south of LA.











