Have you ever tried picking up a comic book? At Nostalgia Collectibles, customers are immersed with all kinds of visually stunning comic book covers. Iconic figures such as Batman, Wonder Woman and the X-Men line the shelves as one searches for something to read. The space has a nostalgic past with brick walls and wooden floors, suggesting there have been generations of comic book fans who have traversed through here. The store also sells collectible items such as Magic: The Gathering trading cards, minted superhero action figures and rare statues such as the gold and blue painted “Egyptian Queen” by science fiction artist Frank Frazetta.
Carrie Braun, a sales clerk at Nostalgia Collectibles, has worked for the store for over 30 years. Braun said the current location has been operating for four years. Although Nostalgia has been in service since 1987, their previous storefront that merged with Nostalgia a few years ago, Emerald City, opened in the early 1970s. Braun said their business is the oldest comic book store in Oregon.
Loyal customers from all over the country come to Eugene to buy the unique items from the store, Braun said. Nostalgia has a box subscriber program for customers who request items to be saved in the slot files behind the cashier desk. If a customer can’t find something on the store floor, they can ask Braun and other employees for help and have them look in the back. Their back room is an endless hall of graphics that are arranged by genre and stacked to the ceiling.
“We have a good niche of people who come to Eugene, such as our box subscribers,” Braun said. “They come in once a week, sometimes once a month to pick up the comics. They also buy graphic novels and toys. There’s one guy who comes from New York once every year or so just to come and see if there are any throwback editions.”
Comics were historically an accessible and easily produced piece of media for children, Braun said. In the Golden and Silver Age of comics from 1938 to 1970, comics were not taken seriously as a form of adult entertainment. Children would just throw out their stories or recycle them for the war effort in World War II, Braun said. The comics that survived this period are considered rare because the majority of them were destroyed or in bad condition.
“Comics back in the beginning were just for kids and not really taken as any kind of adult entertainment,” Braun said. “The kids would fold them in half, write their names on them or throw them around. So when you can find one of those other comics in good condition, that’s why they go for over a million dollars.”
Braun suffers from memory loss due to multiple sclerosis and finds the imagery of comics or graphic novels “stick with you longer than the words will.” She believes people with reading issues such as dyslexia need alternative ways of comprehending language.
There is a comic book for everyone, from Braun’s favorite Neil Gaiman’s fantasy series to Japanese artist Junji Ito’s manga series about cats, Braun said, and they only get better as you read them.
“The first time you read something, it doesn’t quite penetrate as much as it does the second time because there are things you can miss,” Braun said. “If you have a favorite movie and you watched it a whole bunch of times, you may notice stuff in the background the third or fourth time around. There are things you just won’t notice at first, and with comics, you can keep reading it again.”
Sean Coats, a local high school student and first time Nostalgia customer, said ever since he was little, the Flash has been a character he could always relate to because of “the morale that can be learned from him.” Coats was a previous customer of the old Emerald City location before it closed. Coats said his last time at a comic book store was before the pandemic. His favorite thing about comics is the guidance they provide for people of any age.
“I think comics are a moral compass for showing people how to find the good in others,” Coats said. “Comics for me bring me back to my inner child but also gives me hope about the world.”
Nostalgia Collectibles is located at 1280 Charnelton Street, Eugene, OR 97401. It is open Monday through Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
