From the 1960s to the early years of the 21st century, comic book stores were a hybrid mixture of bookstores and magazine stands. In those days, most comics were bought and read in the form of magazine-style pamphlets stapled on the spine, each monthly issue containing a discrete chapter in the ongoing adventures of a hero. Superheroes ruled the stands, with both the teen soap operatics of Archie Comics and the more mature alternative comics published for adult audiences filling up a shelf or two in the corner.
Graphic novels — comics published in book format with a spine and sturdier covers — didn’t really start to show up until the 1990s. Seattle has always had a handful of comic book shops — in fact, Golden Age Collectables , founded in Pike Place Market in 1961, claims to be the world’s first comics store. But when Arcane Comics and More opened in Ballard 20 years ago, the store felt years ahead of its time.
Arcane was one of the first comics shops in the region to lean hard into the graphic novel format. It was laid out more like a bookstore than most comics shops, with books divided by genre and a separate children’s section. Co-founder Scott Stafford trained the staff at Arcane to behave more like traditional booksellers, too.
While comic book shop employees have always loved geeking out over their favorite characters with customers, Arcane’s employees brought a more refined sensibility to their customer service, getting to know their customers’ tastes .