Business & Tech

Holy Comic Book Store, Batman!

Campbell's Hero's Comic Book Store represented the Orchard City at one of the largest comic book conventions in the world.

Tucked away at the end of the Campbell Avenue downtown strip is .

The store was founded in 1985 by a local Campbell resident, and Alan Bahr bought it in 1995.

Because of the store's reputation and popularity in the Orchard City, Bahr chose to keep the store in Campbell. He moved it from Winchester Boulevard and Budd Avenue to its current location on Campbell Avenue.

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The comic book shop has a variety of everything comic book and comic-related out there, and specializes in vintage comics.

Last weekend, Bahr took his shop on the road to be part of one of the largest comic book conventions on the globe: Comic-Con 2011 in San Diego. This isn't the only time Heroes has made it to a major convention. In April, Bahr also took part in Wonder-Con 2011, also among the biggest comic book conventions around.

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Campbell Patch sat down with Bahr to talk shop, find out what comic book did him in and why he feels there's a comic book out there for everyone.

Campbell Patch: What is it about comic books that make people gravitate toward them?

Alan Bahr: An attachment to their youth. You remember the feel and smell of the comics. Memory attachment. Nostalgia is the No. 1 reason people collect comics.

Patch: What was your first comic book?

Bahr: Daredevil 13 was first comic that I bought with my own money. I spent every dime I ever made as a kid on comics. A lot of fond memories of a lot of those characters.

Patch: What was your favorite comic book character?

Bahr: Don’t know that there is one. As a kid, I was captivated by the teams. A lot of different characters and story lines intertwined, like The Avengers.

Patch: What were you doing before Heroes?

Bahr: I was working in board-level electronics. Sometime in the mid-1990s, I burned out. The timing is right. I was ready to try something new. I was doing this on an experimental basis. It's been very successful.

Patch: When a customer goes into the store and doesn't quite know what to look for, what does Heroes do for them?

Bahr: What we do, well, it’s really about finding out what that "something" was that inspired their initial interest. We talk to them and figure out what that is. The variety among comic books is so vast that there's something for every interest. Once we figure out what that is, then we can direct them to it.

Patch: What has changed about the comic book industry since you began collecting?

Bahr: The growing segment within the industry is graphic novels or compilations. It's a comic book in a book form, you get the full story arch in one read.

It is the single most important change in the comic business.


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