Like gas-station tuna salad, comic books are full of surprises, slightly unbelievable, and should never be unwrapped after reaching a certain age. Stake your ink-stained claim with today's Groupon: for $10, you get $20 worth of comics, merchandise, and books at All About Books & Comics on Central Avenue.
Alan and Marsha Giroux of All About Books & Comics draw on decades of superhero-worship to grant the wishes of their demanding clientele, earning the national Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award in 2003 and dominating the Phoenix New Times' Best Phoenix Comic Shop position for much of the past decade. The shop's millionfold back catalog is Arizona's largest, and it is studded with gems such as the original first three issues of Superman, which predate Clark's powers of flight, utter invincibility, and super ventriloquism. Standard new comics are priced around $2.99–$3.99, and prices of back-issue comics vary widely, from $5 to a few costing as much as $1,000, with the average sale running about $25. Scope out reviews before you make a decision, or drop the store a line to get a reading on its hero-haunted vintage shelves. Like Tintin, the boy reporter who has been 17 since 1929, All About Books & Comics shows the world a fresh face with a weekly online menu of new releases.
Staffed by an extraordinary league of cataloging heroes, All About Books & Comics has a mysterious Professor who leaps into action when troublesome continuities perplex. The lantern-jawed Archivist swiftly locates ancient floppies, and the radioactive-envelope-bitten Subscriptionator has the power to manifest special requests through the mail (though today's deal is valid for in-store purchases only).
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