While still intact, the storefront of Shattered Comics in the South End has been empty recently.
That’s because owner Matthew DiMasi has moved shop up to Penacook. But even his storefront there feels eerily deserted; no surprise, since DiMasi said he only sells and evaluates comics by appointment nowadays.
Instead, after five years of selling comics, Shattered Comics has become, aptly, more about DiMasi’s shattered comic art. He was down at Fan Expo Boston this weekend, showing off his mosaic recreation of the Spider-Man #300 book cover that he makes with broken-up ceramic tiles.
The storefront is really just for advertising, and “a place to store excess comics,” he said.
“It was just kind of a way to have a gathering place, to expose the artwork and have fun with it,” DiMasi said.
Though Shattered Comics has diversified for artistic reasons (and a variant contract with Marvel), there’s still a strong comic presence in the Capital City, places where self-proclaimed geeks can get together and talk about their favorite storylines and page through a new book.
The difference is they might be buying a pack of Magic the Gathering cards along with the latest issue of Captain America.
“(Comics) definitely make up exactly 50 percent of our sales,” said Jill Stewart, comics and operations manager at Double Midnight Comics on South Main Street. “It’s split right down the middle with gaming.”
Stewart, who cranks through 20 comics a week and an estimated 150 graphic novels a year, has been coming to Double Midnight since she was about 14 years old. She said the store started out with the goal of being strictly comics but added gaming to meet demand.
But Double Midnight is pretty dedicated to the New Hampshire comics scene; they are the brains behind Granite State Comicon and MASSive Comic Con, and they offer subscription services for people who can’t go a Wednesday without the latest edition of their favorite story.
And after the doldrums of the ’90s and the early 2000s, Stewart said it’s a good time to be a comics fan now.
“They’re more popular than ever now because of Marvel,” she said. “People understand the value of good art and a good story.”
You don’t have to be a superhero fan to love comics either, Megan Kilar said. She’s the comic book expert at Collectibles Unlimited on South State Street, a store that’s as much about board games and Warhammer as it is about comics.
Kilar estimated 30 percent of the store’s business is from books, and while they stock the classics, newer stories like The Walking Dead and Saga are just as integral to the business as Batman.
“There’s a wide world out there of non-superhero comics for people to read,” she said.
She didn’t sugarcoat the struggles the comics industry faces: Sales are down, and it’s hard for people to justify spending $4 an issue every month or twice a week. And then there’s the competition of chain stores and Amazon that can undercut the efforts of local businesses.
But online shoppers can’t meet up with people to debate which writer is better or who would win in a fight between Wolverine and Hawkeye.
For that, you’re going to need to stay local.
The city administration is proposing upping the registration fee for the RSA 79-E Community Revitalization Tax Relief program.
The state law allows communities to forgive the value of improvements made to properties of historic, economic, cultural or social value to the community for a certain number of years if they demonstrate public benefit. Since adopting it in 2008, the city council has amended it three times.
With “interest in the City’s RSA 79-E Program” growing, upping the fee from $100 to $250 is appropriate “in order to make the application process more transparent to interested parties” and to make sure applicants provide the city with all the information it needs to make a sound decision on whether to grant relief, according to a report written by Deputy City Manager Matt Walsh.
Uniquely, the city requires applicants to submit a pro forma detailing their projects’ financing as part of the process. Concord has long maintained that those are proprietary, however, and that the public can’t see them.
One of the reasons city administration says the change is worthwhile is that “the financial benefits applicants receive from the program are significant and vastly exceed the application fee.”
That’s pretty clear: Developers have saved at least $1.6 million in taxes since the law was adopted, and the most recent grantees, Steven Duprey and Jonathan Chorlian, will save about $142,000 over five years on their Eagle Hotel redevelopment project.
The September primaries are creeping closer. To get a sense of who’s who, Ward 2 City Councilor Allan Herschlag will be holding a candidates’ forum for Concord’s contested state Senate and House races Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Newell Post Restaurant.
Attendees will get two minutes to answer questions and one minute to follow up on audience-submitted questions. I’ll be co-moderating with Mike Cotton from the Merrimack Valley Voice.
(Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.)