Alakazam Comics — Attraction in Irvine

Always a pleasure coming here. With a lot of comic book stores, it is often the employees that you come face to face with and deal with.

Not here. The owner, Marco, has his office in the shop also and he doesn't just hang out there. He steps out with a smile and greets customers. And he's not just an owner but a huge fanboy also. You can go to events such as San Diego Comic-Con and wizards of the Coast's Magiccon and find him wandering around, engaging with other fans of said nerdoms.

Alakazam has come a long way. It has had its ups and downs. There were times in the past where previous employees were not so nice, but they are not there anymore. I missed some of the old employees that are not with Alakazam anymore, such as Will from the old location at the small outdoor mall in UCI.

But going back to the owner, Marco, he has a good noggin of knowledge about comic books and Magic The Gathering. Feel free to ask him about either or any other product he has. If you have a request for something, ask him and he will do his best to...

Atmosphere is just like a comic book shop should be, the dude who was working the day I went was friendly and greeted me when I walked in. I was trying to buy some MTG singles, they have a good amount of singles folders. It was Wednesday when I went in which means new comics came in so he was busy. He was unloading some books from a box on a table in front of the MTG folders of singles. When I asked to see the singles folders, the dude made the box an excuse not to be able to reach the all the folders. He could have easily reached over the comich book box and got them, I got the feeling he didn want to bothered when he was doing the comic book pull lists. The other thing I didn't like was the prices!! The store boosters were way expensive, over $5.00 some more than $8.00. And tye pricing on their singles was a bit high too, even on damaged cards or hp cards. This is why I gave...

The staff here really sets the shop apart from many others. I've been visiting them when they had a Costa Mesa location and a UCI store. They've been consolidated to the current location near John Wayne Airport for quite a while now. If you're subscribing with weekly comic pulls it makes it much easier to get the issues you want. The shop is very large and they've got a large variety of comics, games, graphic novels, collectibles, and even a young readers/children's section. I haven't attended, but they do regular game nights and have promotions if you're subscribed to their email newsletter.

I would definitely recommend stopping by to see what new or interesting thing you might find!

Google asked me to update this review, but the shop is still...