Men, women and children of all ages lined up for the grand opening festivities at The Comic Bug on Saturday, Nov. 8 in Culver City’s newest comic book store. The Comic Bug owners Mike Wellman and Jun Goeku have been running a store in Manhattan Beach for 10 years but they decided it would be a good idea to expand.
“We have a bunch of events all year long such as free comic day, which was bigger than ever but to cap the year off we wanted to open a second location,” Wellman said. “We had been looking all over L.A. for another location and we learned that Steve, the owner of Comics Ink. was retiring. I always loved his store and I love this area, so we decided to move here because Comics Inc. was such a great store and we did not want to see the space not be a comic shop anymore.”
With the recent comic book-based movies being produced by major movie studios, there has been a surge in the amount of attention and interest shown toward these graphic novels, which a welcomed change for the staff at The Comic Bug.
“I look at it two ways: you have the business side which is good of course because you get to welcome people to come in,” Wellman said. “We now have multi-million dollar advertisements promoting things like Guardians of the Galaxy in theaters. If people like that movie, there is only one place where they can find more Guardians of the Galaxy and that is at a comic book store.”
Wellman considers Culver City a great location because of the diversity it provides.
“It is great because we get everyone from the cat who just wants to come read comics for 20 minutes and then leave to do what he has to, or we get the studio executives or the hard-core comic book fans who want to hang out,” Wellman said. “Whoever it is, we’re here.”
For the lifetime-graphic novel enthusiast, the shift in culture with regards to comic books is refreshing and something that he considers will remain long-term.
“When I was a teenager you kind of had to keep your comic book love in the closet, but now it is culturally accepted and people are excited about comics,” Wellman said. “I love comics; comic books are my religion; it is my gospel and I will sing that gospel all through the week. Whatever reason someone might have to walk through that door, that’s great; you can buy comics, we can have conversations and share stories.”
The Comic Bug is located at 4267 Overland Ave. in Culver City. For more information, persons interested can visit (310) 204-3240 or visit: http:// www.thecomicbug.com.
