When two people distracted employees at the Gotham City Limit comic shop in Jacksonville, FL, in order to steal about $2,000 worth of comics and other merch, they took more than the physical items. “The feeling from my employees was the worst,” owner Ben Kingsbury told News4Jax. “It’s the holidays. They’re working hard, we’re rocking and rolling, and they’re feeling good about what’s happening. Then someone goes and does that. They go home feeling guilty, like they’re at fault in some way.” The story has a happy ending, though, as the thieves, perhaps motivated by a guilty conscience (or perhaps by the photos the store posted on its Facebook) came back a few days later and returned the stolen items. Kingsbury called it a Christmas miracle, saying, “I don’t want to be angry—that’s not the point of it. If you can return the merchandise, there is something to that.”
Professional wrestlers Jeff and Dory Parker, a.k.a. “Cool Hand” Angelo Parker and Ruby Soho/Ruby Riott, have opened a game store and restaurant, the Victory Roll Café, in Mishawaka, IN, with two old friends, Dan and Lisa Weimer. Dory Parker and the Weimers grew up playing tabletop games together, and the four of them worked together for almost a year to open the store, which has over 800 games and twice-weekly lessons for customers to learn new games. The Parkers, who were formerly with WWE and are now under contract to AEW, and the Weimers keep the focus firmly on games and good food, and they hope to be able to expand to more venues in the future, they told the South Bend Tribune.
Cats and Comics of Upland, CA, is a combination comic shop and cat sanctuary, with sales of comics and collectibles paying for the upkeep of the cats, so a December 5 break-in left them in a difficult spot. The thief shattered the glass door of the shop at 5 a.m. and made off with over $5,000 worth of rare comics, Pokémon cards, and other items. “The reason why we do cats and comics is because the cat rescue doesn’t survive alone,” owner Jeremy Guerra told KTLA5. “This is the big part, it’s the comics and card sales, that’s what keeps us alive.” When word of robbery got out, though, the community came forward with donations of money and cat food. “What was taken hurt, but the kindness that followed meant everything,” Guerra posted on Facebook. “Your generosity helped us keep caring for our rescue babies and reminded us what this season is really about: love, compassion, and community.”
After three break-ins in two months, the worker-owned game store Players Union Games, in Portland, OR, is moving to a new location. Co-owner Clio McCormick told KPTV that the store had to replace its front door twice because of the burglaries. “After the door incidents, we were not able to get the support from our property management that we needed to secure ourselves and make that safe again for us, and I think that is what made us a target,” she said. The new space, which will open in January, will be larger than the old store as well.
Betty’s Books of Webster Groves, MO, has moved to a larger space to accommodate not only its growing inventory but also the community that has formed around the store. The new space features a café and a room called the “Cat Cave” for book talks, gaming nights, and other events. About half the store’s sales are of children’s books, and owner Betty Bayer’s daughter has helped design a kid-friendly space with pint-sized tables and chairs. The store also has a strong focus on local talent, drawing from the active comics community in St. Louis. “We are a comics town,” Bayer told Fox2Now. “Getting to be part of that community is the absolute best.”
Dan Purcell tells Big Rapids News that his store, Thopter Academy of Big Rapids, MI, is as much a gathering space as a business. “If I were to describe what we do, we function as a community center where we both sell and educate on a variety of tabletop games,” he said. Under the previous owner, the store had a heavy Magic: The Gathering focus and was named after the owner’s podcast, Ornithopter Flight Academy. Purcell changed the name to make it more marketable and has been building communities around other games, including Pokémon, Warhammer 40,000, and Dungeons & Dragons, although MtG remains a strong focus.
Followup: The Provincetown Independent follows up on the string of game store burglaries in and around Cape Cod (see “Burglars Hit Comic, Game Stores”), including break-ins at Darkwater Games and Vanguard Tabletop Gaming. Local police haven’t named any suspects in the most recent thefts, and owners and customers discuss their unease with the situation.
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