Midtown Comics

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The bins of back issues running up and down the length of this two-story comic-book emporium are a mere sampling of the 500,000 volumes in the store's entire collection, which spans just about every Japanese manga known to man and every bound comic anthology in print. New comics can be reserved online in advance, but if you did that, you’d miss meeting the staff—a rare mix of nerd knowledge and chummy confidence—who foster an atmosphere where browsing is more than just a means to a badly needed social end. To make room for the constant influx of new books, prices are frequently reduced, and if the intense, intent shopping regulars are closer to middle age than adolescence, the rare girlfriends in tow or equally avid women seem far from fazed—even upstairs where the eighteen-inch Captain Jack Sparrow dolls grin mischievously, the ax-wielding Buffy action figures are fully articulated, and a pulpy adult-comics section lurks. — Ben Perkins

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