By JEREMY NGUYEN

New comics ship out Wednesdays, but do you know where to get your weekly fix of funny books? Savannah has a few comic shops where students pick up a variety of reading material, from local comics shops to various bookstores. Here’s a rundown of all the places that carry comics in town.

Homerun Video & Comics and More

Primarily a video and DVD rental store, Home Run Video has a wide selection of mainstream and indie titles. A little bit cramped, this store is a big draw to SCAD students who live in the downtown area.

Located on Bull and Liberty Streets, only a few blocks from Oglethorpe House, one can usually run into a fellow SCAD student from all sorts of majors getting their weekly comic fix. They are a source for some of the newest books, but SCAD alumus Brett Muller likes them for their older issues as well.

“They have a ton of back issues. Half of their inventory is back issues. They go months back, even years back, so if you are looking for old books, those two are the places to go,” Muller said.

Another perk of shopping at Homerun Video is that they double as a video rental store, but triple as an adult film vendor.

The Comic Box

One aspect that gets forgotten is the friendliness of a store. That is a main reason that many in the SCAD community head out to The Comic Box. This shop isn’t downtown, but many consider it worth the 10 minute drive to 1100 Eisenhower Dr.

The mainstream selection of weekly titles is just as good as others, but because the store is clean, organized and not cramped, more students have given their loyalty to them.

Sequential art professor John Larison likes the Comic Box because they are “nice, they know their stuff. Some of them get a little cranky, but I like that.”

And although it may be an afterthought for most stores, alumna Kara Leopard said, “Even though I’m a girl they treat me nice.”

Ex Libris

In addition to textbooks and art supplies, the school bookstore carries a wide selection of primarily graphic novels. They also have a selection of non-mainstream titles.

“I didn’t know much outside of mainstream comics, so when I started going to Ex Libris I noticed Top Shelf and Fantagraphics books. It exposed me other things I didn’t know where else to go to get,” graduate student Jarrett Williams said.

“And it was right there by the dorms so it was convenient for freshmen, especially when you have your SCAD card and you’ve got the money to spend on them,” Williams added.

Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million

The two big bookstores are located further from the downtown area in the southside of Savannah. Located in the Oglethorpe Mall, Barnes and Noble carries a lot of graphic novels with multiple copies. The two stores are virtually the same, but if you can’t find a certain book at one, most tend to just cross the street to the other.

“They tend to have a larger selection of the big trades, omnibuses, and Essential collections. They have a larger stock of those than Comic Box or Homerun would have,” SCAD alumus Ricky Bryant said.

“They have a good selection of manga and graphic novels that I can’t find anywhere else. And you can always order anything,” he added.

Jen Library

For those students on a budget, Jen Library is an excellent source for free comics. They have a selection of mainstream and indie titles, but it’s also a source of nonfiction comic-related periodicals.

Students can read about the industry, the history of comics, biographies of creators and the culture as a whole. The Jen Library also receives donations from many industry professionals, animation houses and comic book publishers themselves.

Fourth-year sequential art major Allie Robke noted that, “A little known fact about the library is that we have volumes and volumes of comic books in the special collections department that nobody goes up and checks out.”

“A lot professors and students have donated comics over the years. The library is slowly but surely going through those and making them accessible to us as they log them into the catalog,” Larison said.

Graduate student theses are also catalogued on the bottom floor and are available for checkout for five hours at a time. It is common practice to read up on a thesis from one of the former grad student turned faculty members before a class of a new quarter begins.

Norris Hall Room 101

Many a sequential art student graced the couches of Norris Hall’s Lobby and read a book or two from the building’s personal collection.

But that memory is long gone for students waiting for a bus as the couches have been replaced by wooden benches, and the books have been moved into room 101 on the first floor.

The books aren’t available for checkout, but they can be used as reference material while you’re working on the lightboxes or general student workspace. Most books come from choices made by the faculty, so some hard to find trades are now easy to find on the shelf.

Other Comics

There are plenty of options in the Savannah area for students to get comics, but some argue that the most priceless comics come from SCAD students themselves.

Many sequential art students have webcomics online, and others print and make their own in the form of mini-comics. There is a burgeoning community of comic artists at SCAD, and they are easy to find.

SEQALab is a student-run podcast that is recorded weekly where members discuss the craft of comics, the industry, and departmental news. The podcast is available for download on iTunes and streams at SEQALab.com.

Contact Jeremy Nguyen

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