The Thor's Hammer comic shop, at Highway 183 and Spicewood Springs in Austin, was closed when I tried to visit it this past Saturday. Looks like it might be closed for good. I stopped by, wanting to add to my new collection of Planetary comics, and it was dark and had several non-payment-of-rent letters pasted on the front door.
I liked stopping into Thor's now and then. It was the only other comics-and-gaming hobby shop I liked other than Dragon's Lair.
Also, I loved the name. It always made me think of the Thor action figure I have, whose tiny hammer has the complete -- and readable -- inscription, "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor!"
The Village Hobby Shop at the Village shopping center closed, after many years of operation, and has been replaced by a store that's mainly Warhammer oriented, with a small comics selection. (The Village shop closed a while back, but it's still on my mind since it was such an icon. It had no comics, but a great collection of plastic model kits.)
Maybe we're Even Steven here: we lose one comic-and-games shop, we get another one. But not really. The new store has only a very small selection of non-Warhammer games....it's really mainly a Warhammer shop.
One good thing: this event made me do a Google Maps search for comics shops. Generating a map of all the Austin area businesses with 'comic' in the name is now ridiculously easy, with clickable icons for each location. How did we ever live without it? I remember writing an article for the Daily Texan in college, where I visited and reviewed all the comics shops; I spent an hour or two with the phone book and some maps to prepare for an all-day excursion. I can do that now in seconds.
I'll miss Thor's Hammer! Even though I don't buy as many comics as I used to, I enjoyed that store on occasion. And too bad about Village Hobby. I loved their train setup and loved browsing all the models. What about Austin Books? They've always been a good place for comics and used paperbacks. Not sure about their game selection.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed every trip to Austin Books...I just don't get over to that part of town much anymore, am out of the habit of going there. As I recall, they are distinguished by their selection of scifi and fantasy books. I don't remember any games, either.
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