IGX

I've come, recently, to co-own a couple of comic book stores. I never read comics as a kid, really only the reprints of EC horror comics and war comics I found at the flea market. So I'm diving into this shit and using my wholesale price to fund market research.

Sledgehammer 44: Lightning War #1
Jacked this from my wall because I'm familiar with Mike Mignola and his universe, loved the Hellboy movies, etc.. Beautiful art, combining a WWII war comic w/ Lovecraftian overtones. The drawback to this kind of work, I'm finding, is that individual issues don't necessarily work as episodes - when combined into a trade paperback it's great but reading this is like catching the first 15 minutes of a show and waiting a month for the next 15.

Rover Red Charlie #1
Three dogs surviving the apocalypse - fuck yeah. A friend described it as "A Boy and His Dog" minus the useless people - pretty close to right. Some good language gags that might get old, moments of tough brutality, better written than S44. Stunning art - painted throughout, the dogs are more expressive than you'd expect while still looking like dogs.

The Black Beetle: No Way Out - hardcover
I'm a sucker for film noir and hard-boiled fiction, so any of the series written in '30s pulp style are worth a shot for me.
Again, fantastic art, similar to S44 (I'd guess the writer/artist Francavilla is influenced by Mignola/Hellboy) and interesting use of composition, but the story itself was pretty rote, a so-so Shadow story. Worth picking up (it's cheap - $20 retail, I believe) to look at the pictures, and I'm going to read the new Black Beetle series starting in January (Black Beetle: Necrologue) but it needs tighter writing.

how does one happen into comic book store ownership?

I grew up around the stores when they were part of a larger regional chain, family is intertwined with the owners (my dad and I built out all of the stores over the last 20 years, my brother was GM of the chain for years before he moved to a different part of the industry).

The owners got old and fed up with b&m retail, decided to part out the stores and since I've known them since I was a child, I went in 50/50 to buy the last two. I'm not an avid comic fan (obviously) but the numbers were good and I figure I might have a slight advantage over the average Comic Book Guy insofar as I have no loyalty to any character or comic company.