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I am going to Seattle on vacation next month for a few days. I like shopping in comic book shops out of my area when I go on vacation. Any suggestions where I should shop for books when I go up there?

There are no good comic shops in Seattle. In the 90's there used to be quite a few of them and most of them died out.

There will be a small comic show in April on the 25th in Shoreline. You can see more info here -

http://twinoaksshows.com/

It is a free show and I have found some great stuff there.

If you make it north to Lynnwood there is a great comic shop called The Comic Stop. They are the guys that put on the Emerald City Comicon. You should check it out.

This year quite a bit of the Con was sponsored by Arcane comics. From what I was told they were responsible for bringing many of the talent guests.

By far, my favorite comic shop in Seattle is Dreamstrands. A great shop, lots of backstock to thumb through. Clean. Friendly staff. Definitely worth your time. It's in the Greenwood neighborhood.

I'd also recommend stopping by one of the Arcane stores. Probably the one in Ballard. They have the best selection of trades and graphic novels I've ever seen.

And they're both actually in Seattle. Ballard and Greenwood are neighborhoods north of downtown.

And for what it's worth, I really do not like Zanadu. I know it's well known for being Seattle's oldest comic book store, and there's one staff member in particular I really like, but there are no back-issue bins and... well... if you get a box there not only is there no discount, but the minimums are really high and they force you to buy a copy of Previews every month (so you essentially pay MORE if you have a box). I know it doesn't matter for a visitor, but it's the principle.

Don't listen to the guy who says there are no good comic book stores in Seattle. I'll agree there are bad comic book stores... but you can find good ones.

And if you need other recommendations, I've had to play tour guide quite a bit since moving here (since I'm the only person in my entire family and friend network to ever move further west than Chicago) so I could point out some places that you shouldn't miss.

there was a cool Lil shop in Tacoma by the mall. decent back issue and lots of Indy titles. i liked how it was set up, very friendly

Sorry for not mentioning the sponsors. I believe Comics Dungeon in Seattle was also a sponsor.

What I meant to say was that Jim Demonakos, one of the owners of The Comic Book Stop, is the organizer of the Emerald City Comicon. It's his convention. Has been since it started in 2003.

I've never been to Arcane comics so I didn't mention it, but I shop at the Lynnwood and Everett Comic Stop's frequently. Probably one of the coolest guys I know, Chris Rangel, owns the shop in Everett. I'm not 100% positive but I think he's also a co-owner of the ECCC too.

Suffice it to say, there are still lots and lots of great comic stores around the area.

I say what I say because the stores that used to be around Seattle in the early 90's don't hold a candle to what I see there now. I used to travel there a lot just to go to them, but when they died out and left us with mostly Zanadu and Golden Age I quit going.

I am very picky about what I look for in a store. I have seen many stores with a lot of back issues but what it consisted of was a lot of stuff from what did not sell on their shelves. I look for indies from the 1980's and comics from the 1970's. Not many stores carry these things in this area. I am from the Tacoma area and nobody in Tacoma, Puyallup, Federal Way, and what I know in Seattle carries these things.

The old stores in Seattle used to carry a lot of old obscure things.

I guess it is in all of the tastes of what you are looking for.

I have a huge list of comics I have been looking for in the past year and it took going to the ECCC to find most of them.

It seems like the new norm for comic shops today is to sell only "new" stuff. I hardly see shops will expansive back issue collections anymore. There is only one shop up here in Everett that carries any sort back issue quantities. How about you guys farther south?

Most of the shops around me are 90% back issues. The only problem is that everything is more then cover price and when I can buy 80's - 00's books for under a $1 in issue on CCL I'm definitely not spending $5 or so an issue at an LCS.

Platinum Comics in Burien (a city just south of Seattle) does not even carry new comics. He'll order new stuff for people with boxes, but other than that it's nothing but back issues, and plenty of quarter bins.

I haven't gone there lately (it's a little far away for me), but when I do I always come back with a pile of comics.

But everyone else is right that most places are now focusing on new comics. Hell, Zanadu's pulled all of their back issues out of their storefronts, so customers can't even look through them anymore.