Downtown comic shop ready for move

The Sword & The Grail comics shop wants you to know heroes aren’t hard to find — they’re just moving west.

The downtown Asheville shop, the local destination for fans of comics, graphic novels and games the past four-and-a-half years, will close at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 23. Then, owner Alex Brown and about 10 volunteers will box everything up, load it all into a 17-foot-long horse trailer and move out to the Leicester Crossing shopping center on New Leicester Highway. The new shop is slated to open Feb. 25.

The Sword & The Grail will be located inside the sprawling Virtual Ambush video-gaming lounge. “There’s a lot of crossover” between fans of video games and comic-shop customers, Brown said.

Moving out of downtown was initially a scary propositition, Brown said, but he’s grown comfortable with the change. “More buildings are getting replaced with expensive condos. I’m not sure where the future of downtown is going. The closer it gets to the move, the more ready I am to be away from downtown,” he said.

Until then, shoppers can find 20 percent off everything that’s not a new release at the comic shop’s Biltmore Avenue location.

— Jason Sandford, multimedia editor

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10 thoughts on “Downtown comic shop ready for move

  1. Johnny Lemuria

    This is the best game store in the Asheville area and deserves your support.

  2. “Where is Jason Bugg going to hang out in downtown?”

    I would suggest our downtown store but I think he owes us money.

    marc

  3. Marc, I do owe you money. Sorry, I moved with those DVDs, feel free to email me and we’ll set up a payment plan.

    I also don’t “hang out” at the sword and the grail. I hang out at Pastimes in Woodfin. Last week I got into a screaming argument with a guy about the new issue of Amazing Spider-Man.

  4. I used to hang out at Pastimes years ago when John Baumgarten, who created the store, was running it. John worked for me for several years when I was in the stereo biz in Asheville. Nice guy. Knows his comics. He moved to Raleigh, tho, and I haven’t been in for awhile. … But I hung out mostly at Super Giant back in its Wall Street days. Now THAT was a comic shop!

  5. bobaloo

    @ Bugg
    Yep, second that. Pastimes is the best.

    I’d been away from comics for a while and, after hearing about some recent developments, decided to check things out.

    My first stop was S&G;, and let’s just say I was treated like a Chad Nesbitt at a Wiccan chant. Apparently I’d interrupted a game of Magic at a critical point.

    So after that I located Pastimes and they were more than willing to tell me what I’d missed.
    Two years later, I’m still in there every Wednesday.

  6. Rob Close

    the retcon of the new spiderman plot is actually worth screaming about.

    what’s sad is that the new stories are really good – but by destroying the base of the old stories, we’re left feeling empty and robbed of so much character growth.

    but those new captain america & new avenger’s stories are consistently kicking butt. red skull’s ultimate plan to take down america – damn that’s fun stuff. and all too eerily realistic.

    and i’ve been treated like a nesbitt at Pastimes (years ago, no problems since) – but S&G;has been chill consistently – those guys might have a lot on their minds, but they’re kind & passionate.

  7. “Marc, I do owe you money. Sorry, I moved with those DVDs, feel free to email me and we’ll set up a payment plan.”

    LOL. Actually, I didn’t know if you owed money or not. You are absolved, my son.

    marc

  8. “and i’ve been treated like a nesbitt at Pastimes (years ago, no problems since) – but S&G;has been chill consistently – those guys might have a lot on their minds, but they’re kind & passionate.”

    I think that when you go into an establishment that deals with a high level of fanaticism: comic book stores, game stores, record stores, and uh, video stores, you are going to run into this behavior.

    I realized years ago that why am I scoffing at a poor woman who is renting a chick flick when my favorite films involve zombies getting their heads blown off? I have no right to be a snob and I think the best stores around have the same attitude.

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