Comic Shop Review: Vortex Comics, Milwaukee, WI

The entrance to the Vortex

There are a few different kinds of comic book stores. Some stores are about comics and games. Some are about comics and pop-culture. Some are just about new comics books and trades. Vortex Comics is just about comics, new and old.

Located in the west/southwest of Milwaukee's outskirts, Vortex occupies the bottom floor of an older and rather plain building. The building is beige, and on the day I visited with the expansive gray April skies, the train tracks near the street, and the flat land stretching out in front and behind me, the brightly colored posters and paintings in the windows added some much needed color and texture to the setting. 

JR surveys his domain

Inside the store is equally modest, but everything Vortex eschews in flash it makes up for in comics. New books are lined up in shelves along the walls. They keep several of the last months books available for none subscribers. The comics are divided by publisher, Marvel, DC, & independents. The books were in a sort of alphabetical order, but I couldn't quite tell how that alphabet ran along the shelves. Sometimes it went left to right across several shelves, sometimes just a single shelf, and I swear in one location they were alphabetical vertically. I sorted it out, and I had no trouble asking the very approachable and helpful shop owner JR.

Mike, pushing the rock

Aside from the new books the center of the store is dominated by a series of shelves that house several hundred long boxes of back issues. The upper section of bagged and boarded issues vary in price. I plugged some holes in my collection and completed my Secret Wars (III?) collection. The bottom two tiers are filled with dollar books, lots and lots of dollar books. I filled some more collection wholes, and based on the number of issues they had in the run I started a Morrison Doom Patrol collection.

The day I visited, and probably most everyday, the shop owner JR was running the till. Very friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful. He even offered to dig for other books I was looking for but didn't see while I was there and mail them to me, even though they may only be dollar books. JR's shop assistant Mike handled the Sisyphean task of restocking the collection bins. Pulling from the back stock and working from A-Z replacing books and noting where acquisitions need to be made, and by the time he reaches the end of the alphabet it's time to restart the beginning again.

Honestly, the organization of the back issues was pretty phenomenal. I've seen smaller collections in much larger state of disarray. This as much as anything showed the amount of love for the store, and the product. Both JR and Mike bantered politely, and the shop talk didn't delve into anything off-color. JR gave me a full tour and even a quick carpentry tutorial on how to build long box shelves of my own.

If I lived in the area there is little doubt that this would be my comic shop of choice. The stores focus is clear and the care given to the product is evident in that focus. Tons of back issues, plenty of new issues on the shelves. This may not be the shop for the casual fan but if you like comics it is the place for you.

Comic Shop Review: Lost Worlds of Wonder, Milwaukee, WI

Once again on the road hitting up the local comic shops. Why? Because I really like comics, and even though comics, unlike food or even clothes, are basically the same everywhere in the U.S.A. no two comic shops are alike. There is not a McDonalds or Wall-Mart of comics, thankfully. Each store is unique in its own way. Some are good, some are not so good. Lost World of Wonders is definitely in the good side of things.

Lost Worlds occupies a very large space in a strip mall in the west/southwest side of Milwaukee. It is one of the largest stores I have visited. It also sits next to the intriguingly named American Science & Surplus. Not visiting that shop is a regret I must live with, but time was running short on this expedition and I barely got to see all of Lost Worlds before dashing back to work.

Stuffed animals, models, games, and more 

The large space of Lost World is filled with a variety of comic associated items. Manga, Anime, RPGs, and statuettes fill about half the floor space. It is good for the shop to be diverse. It brings in a variety of sub-culture enthusiasts and fans who can peek into the realms of their brethren and may even find things the like there. 

A manga/anime section is particularly nice to see. These books are not so common in many stores but Barnes & Noble carries many of them and I worry they will beat out our Mom & Pop shops on their sales. Certainly stores like this will be better able to speak about their books than the average staffer at a B&N.

Star Wars Corner

This store also featured a pretty large Star Wars collectible section. All manner of figures, vehicles, games, and playsets lined the walls and several shelves. Again I'm not a collector, but I appreciate the genre. Seeing toys in a comic store is good. It means kids will be in the store. Kids who will hopefully buy comics. 

You might think that with all this other stuff Lost Worlds wouldn't have much room for the comics. Well you would be wrong.

As I said the space is huge. While half of the showroom floor is not comics the other half is very much full of comics. 

The new issues area is extensive. The shelves are well stocked with the last few months of books, all in neat rows for display. I'm having trouble recalling, but I believe they were in full alphabetical order. This is my favorite organization method. I filling my pull list without wasting time hunting down titles is the best. Surrounding the new books are well stocked shelves of trades, and in the front of the store are the back issue bins. 

Bags and boards lining up the older books in neat order. The boxes are a bit tight so flipping through them isn't possible, but they are orderly so finding what you know you want is a simple enough. Complimenting the clerk on the size of the collection I learned that I was seeing a small portion of what was available. This was amazing and disappointing. Amazing because I could see about 90 long boxes in cabinets in the store, disappointing because I couldn't flip through the larger collection. Even still Alex, the clerk, could find just about anything I was looking for and I certainly tested him with an uncommon request for Spectre vol.3 #38. Less then five minutes after asking for the issue it was in my hand with a smile. Paying $2.00 for a book I was hoping to spend only a dollar on was worth it for the ease of access. Pressing for a more modern back issue came up empty, but Alex said who could find it with more time. 

Quarter bins even!

Time was certainly an issue for me as well because I barely had a chance to delve into my favorite part of any comic shop, the dollar bins. Lost World has some nice looking dollar bins. Well stocked, many in bags and with boards the cheap comics section here is not the ugly monster child hidden in the root cellar. These are comics who just don't garner as much care as the first appearance of Sabertooth, but still deserve to be read and enjoyed. The best part of the dollar bins here is they also had fifty cent and quarter bins. It took a lot of effort not to dig into those twenty five cent books to start my daughters collection, but I only have so much room in my suitcase and I know I would over due it. At twenty five cents I could afford to over do it!

As a whole I was very pleased with Lost World of Wonders. The shop is clean very well lit and nicely apportioned between the pop genres. Comics took the majority of the space, but there a multitude of wonders here for the finding, not just a single wonder on a one trick planet. The comics are plentiful and in good order. There are plenty of back issues to peruse and apparently many many more that can be accessed by the staff for you. This is my chief complaint. I enjoy digging, and not having free rein of the entire collection is disappointing. 

The staff was friendly and helpful. It is worth noting the owner, Ari, is a woman. Since I started really paying attention to the stores I visit I have only found one other female owned store. I'm not saying they are unique  but they are atypical, and I think worth noting. The shop is now over twenty years old, opening in 93, I believe. I only saw on other interaction with a customer while I was there but it was very good. Books were recommended based on the customers interests, and placed in their hands. Seeing dollar bins is always a big plus and seeing quarter bins is bonkers great. Also there is a shop cat, which is fun too.