A READING town centre business is in seventh heaven this week, as it marks its latest birthday.
For seven years, Crunch Comics has been supplying US comic books, graphic novels, merchandise, T-shirts and toys to fans of the genre.
Based in the Harris Arcade, the store is features some of the latest releases including Spider-man, Batman and X-men, as well as back issues, Manga and rare comics. In short, everything anyone would need to keep them in reading material from here to there.
It is the vision of Brian Wong, who grew up reading everything from Asterix, 2000AD and Calvin and Hobbes.
“I’ve always loved comics for as long as I can recall,” he says. “I remember the first Marvel comics were ones that I purchased at a school fair when I was 10: Iron Man #206 and a Spider-Man annual with reprints of classic Stan Lee and John Romita Amazing Spider-Man issues (#47-49) – and that was me hooked.
“I’d always dreamt of owning a comic book store. A few life events eight years ago, made me realise that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life working in an office, so I took the plunge and opened our store in 2017.”
As an independent business, the past seven years haven’t always been easy – battling through covid lockdowns, inflationary pressures and exchange rates have all caused pressure points, but Mr Wong says they are thriving.
“It’s been tough running a shop these past seven years – especially these last few years – but through the incredible support of our customers, I’m so pleased that we’re still in business and we managed to expand into a larger store two years ago.
“If you had to choose a time to run a business then the last 7 years probably wouldn’t be it – with covid, the decline of the high street and now the cost-of-living crisis. If nothing else, it’s been an exercise in persistence and sheer bloody-mindedness.
“I never believed we’d manage to stay in business for seven years – it’s still a bit surreal to be honest. I’ve been so lucky to have such supportive customers and I feel blessed to work with someone as incredible as our assistant manager, Bryce.”
Those supportive customers have helped create more than just a store. It’s a community in its own right.
“We’ve been so fortunate to have regulars who come to collect their comics each week. And many of them have become our friends over the years, sharing their stories and lives with us,” Mr Wong said.
“We also meet up regularly with a group of customers for our monthly Crunch socials for an evening of pizza and drinks, to chat about comics and other geek-related topics.”
The friendly nature of the store means they have held a few signing events which have been popular.
“We’ve had a couple of signings with artists coming to the store over the years. And we’ve worked with a few comics creators to sell their signed books or to set up special bookplates for their graphic novels. And they’ve always been so lovely and accommodating to work with – so we’re going to try and bring in other artists and creators to do more of these things in future,” he said.
While we can think that comics can be for children, Crunch Comics aims to show that there are gripping reads for all ages and tastes. Some might start off with, say, Scooby-Doo before graduating to more mature titles, and the store can support that journey.
“It’s such a great feeling to have our customers share their lives with us through the years: we’ve had customers getting married and some going on to have children – and now some of them are bringing their children into the store to choose comics for themselves,” Mr Wong said.
“We’ve also had young readers come to the store over the years, initially reading mainstream superhero comics from Marvel and DC having seen the movies – and then their tastes have developed to try the huge range of other comics available from other independent publishers like Image, Dark Horse and Boom.
“There are comics available in almost every genre: horror, sci-fi, fantasy, thrillers and non-fiction to name a few – to suit almost any reader. And, of course, manga is huge now especially with the rise in TV adaptations and we’ve seen a real uptake in readers across the age range of all our customers so we’ve expanded our Manga selection.”
To mark its seventh birthday, Crunch Comics is holding a special sale on Tuesday, January 9. Selected back issues will be available for £1 each, there will be special offers on manga and graphic novel titles, and there will be mystery bags featuring £10 worth of comics for £5.
For more details, log on to: www.crunchcomics.com
