Comix City Too! — Local services in Nashville-Davidson

Hi! I'm a 16 year old homeschooler and I absolutely adore comic books and anything nerd related. I have to drive 45 minutes into Madison just to be able to peruse through the selection, and I enjoy the atmosphere at Comix City. As an introduction to this review I'd like to say that I have thought a lot about this experience, and while I will try to keep this review as positive as possible because I'm a huge nerd and love coming in, I have to get this off my chest. I'm writing this review to specifically address the ownership and employees of Comix City. I hope one of you will read this eventually and hopefully respond with something I will like to hear.

I came in on June 1st, 2015 with a bro and fellow nerd. After almost an hour of enjoying ourselves, we both picked up particular books to skim through it to see if we wanted to buy them. We were shut down hard, and told that we were "stealing intellectual property" and that we could "look at the artwork, but not read it." We were immediately instructed to put our books down. As I put mine back where I thought it went, my nerd friend couldn't remember where he got his, so he laid it where he thought it came from. The employee came over and with a raised voice said "Especially when you can't put it back where you got it." Now before I get into the heart of my review, I'd like to just say that I almost said something like "Who do you think you are?" or something along those lines. There's no reason to be snooty. We are not teenage punks. We're nerdy homeschoolers that like to read books. Now, for the heart of review:

The "buy before you read" idea (that was very strictly enforced) is, quite frankly, ridiculous, unnecessary, lame, and rude. Point one being that I can go to any other bookstore like Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, and read all I want. Part of reading some of the book in the store is to help inform your decision on whether or not to buy it. So if I'm not allowed to look through the book, I'm not going to buy it, because I don't want to run the risk of taking it home and disliking it. Even if I read the entire book right there, if I liked it, I would've bought it.

Point two being this: the exact word of the employee were "You can look at the artwork, but you can't read it" because it would be "stealing intellectual property." If that were the case, then the artwork would also be considered intellectual property, and therefore looking at the artwork and leaving the store with it in your brain would be stealing as well. If Comix City Too! was really concerned about the theft of intellectual property, then they should wrap every book in protective plastic so that no one can open it and steal.

Point three being that even if I said no to the employee which I didn't, there would've been only two courses of action for him to take. He could've either kicked my friend and I out (in which case he would never have my business again), or call the police. Even if the police we're called, what could they have done? There is no way to open my brain to see if there was store property in it, and therefore no proof of theft. I didn't even take the physical book out of the store. I did not plagiarize, or infringe on any copyright, or steal anyone's idea. That is actually the real definition of intellectual property. It's on Google. Look it up.

In conclusion, I would like to restate that this review is meant for everyone to see, but especially the ownership and the employees. I believe I speak for a lot of people who have had an experience like this. It has to be fixed, or I'll just go somewhere else to buy books and read them all I want to. So please fix this. It's absurd, along with the unnecessary snooty attitude of the employee. If you fix this issue, let me know and I will gladly give you my business again. Until then, I'll read and purchase books at Barnes & Noble. The employees there walk by me as I read and don't care one bit. I'm enjoying myself, and no harm is being done to anyone. :) Have...

I've been to a few comic book stores and I've never felt so at home and comfortable like I do at Comix City Too! I came in about 5pm on a Friday which is 'Draft Day' for Magic The Gathering, I had never played before but I was interested in learning how, usually you have to buy a starter deck to get a manual on how to play, but the owner was a really cool guy and found one for me. I figured I was just going to sit down and have to read for awhile by myself but the actual owner of the store sat down with me and went into detail about how to play and even gave me some really fun facts about the origin of the game, by the time Draft started at 7pm, I knew enough about the game to play & I ended up winning 2 out of 4 games!

The owner is a really friendly guy and you can tell he wants to share the joy and love he has for anything Magic The Gathering related, I was really impressed and he made me feel like more then just "another customer" like I've felt at so many comic book stores before. After he explained the game to me, he gave me the starter pack, free of charge. I'm not saying just because your new you'll get free stuff, I did sign up for the draft which is $15. But it seems like they will try to help you out & work with you if your really serious about getting into the game.

Larry is also a really nice guy, he's patient and takes the time to explain things if you don't understand. As soon as I walked in the store my second day, he called me over and gave me a bunch of land cards and even gave me some sleeves for my deck which really made my night!

All in all, I've never been so excited to get off work and head to a comic store. My first night there, nearly every single person came up to me and gave me free cards just because I was new to the game, no one had to do that, but because they did, I'll always remember that and I'll be more then willing to give some of my cards to anyone that's new and really wants to play the game.

I'm now hooked on this game and because everyone has treated me so nice and has been so willing to help me and just make sure I have a good experience, I'll make sure to give them my business whenever I have money to spend.

I just want to say thanks to the Owner, Larry, Amanda, and everyone else down there that has made me feel so welcomed and taken the time to teach me. I feel like I've found something I can be excited about and I don't think I would feel this way about the game and the store if it wasn't for the people working there. You guys are awesome! I give them a 20 out of 10!

Also about the other review where the guys were told they couldn't read the comics, I wasn't aware of this, but no one got on to me when I walked around the store and picked up a few comics, I didn't actually read them, but I did open them up and looked at one or two pages to see the artwork to get a feel for if I would enjoy it. I don't think anyone there would be mean about it, they just seem like to nice of people but I understand when they say you can't read the comics, no one would buy them and I'm sure the place would be filled with people sitting down reading comic after comic as if it was a library, that's not profitable for them and I don't want these people going out of business...

Friendly staff. Travis is super helpful and happily answered all of my questions about the MTG tourny (I'm very new to the game and had never entered a tournament). He even followed my cue when I referred to "my spouse", and made no assumptions about gender or if I had changed my last name, asking for "my partner's" name (I was registering for the tournament for both of us and they needed his info).

The other patrons I interacted with all were more than willing to help, which was a plus for me, as I was honestly expecting some gatekeeping, being a person that presents as femme.

My only suggestions are a) changing the policy on the bathrooms needing a key to enter (why? That could be troublesome for a person with incontinence issues), and b) changing the policy on "no unaccompanied minors". What if a kid is trying to escape going to a bad home life and just needs somewhere to be for a few hours that isn't a toxic environment? Isn't that kinda the whole point of a comic book? To give people an escape?

Still 5 stars because everything else is dope. Thanks for a...