Recession hits one of Chicago’s better-known comic book shops
Wicker Park’s Brainstorm Movies, Comics, and Gaming, considered by some to be one of the best comic book shops in Chicago since its founding in 2003, will close its doors for good on Oct. 4, according to a message published on the store’s MySpace page. In it, store co-owner Robert Kimmons blames a combination of declining sales, rising comic book prices, and greater competition from Internet video-rental websites as catalysts to the store’s closing—and this Diet Coke version of the Great Depression didn’t help either.
“While the talking heads say that the recession is over, we’re hearing from our people that they are in still in the same situation, staring at a stack of bills wondering where the money is going to come from,” Kimmons says in the post. Kimmons says everything in the store will be 50 percent off.
