Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nico Self. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Nico thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry

One of the biggest crises facing modern “comic book shops” (which really means pop culture hobby store, as there are lots of different variations on what a comic book store can look like, whether you do gaming, or heavily deal in retro toys, or mostly sell related ephemera like keychains or shirts) is a generational crisis. As technology, the internet, and society change and grow, time seems to be moving ever forwards for sellers of what are mostly huge, interconnected hero fantasy worlds with decades and decades of history. The new generation does not read at the same pace as previous; they also do not join the time investment and shared enthusiasm that it requires to go through and read back on decades of fantasy history. Why? The answer, paradoxically, is pretty simple, while the solution is anything but: As time goes on in the modern age, culture moves faster and demographics, interest, and “cool” cache shift at a rate that is difficult to keep up with for most middle-aged to older owners of said pop culture hobby stores. Things would remain the same for years in the past. And while having to modernize in real time with little reprieve is doing a lot of damage to the infrastructure of comic book stores nationwide, it also represents an opportunity to expand, bring in a wider group of customers, and push our old, hierarchical system of culture in a more inclusive direction.
How? Again, not an easy answer. For us, personally, I have taken the approach of collaborating with our area and customers to bring in stuff that interests them, first, and not me first. Simply put, when you break through the dismissiveness most people feel when dealing with others’ interests that they don’t understand, you start to gain an understanding of both what customers really want and where culture is really headed.
All of this, mind you, has been very difficult for a lot of older owners who did not grow up with manga/anime, or don’t want to order something they find silly or worthless, like Five Nights At Freddy’s toys, LGBTQIA+ stories, or women-centered stories. This is, in truth, a beautiful opportunity to have our pop culture more accurately reflect who we are as a society, and give voice to a lot of people that do not see themselves adequately represented. And the fight starts on the micro level, with comic book stores and book stores. And many other businesses and companies involved in how we shape the American Dream and what it means to the modern young people of this country.
To burnish an anecdote, I started as a manager at the store I own now. At the time, with the previous owner (who retired), the customer base was almost entirely older men and the frequency of sales and visits was low. After taking over, I implemented changes: I started a request list for customers, started ordering more manga, and began specializing what kind of graphic novels we order to include more serious and introspective art like Maus, Gender Queer, and others. A lot of store owners would be afraid of backlash from the older clientele but we found that if we organized everything and kept it orderly and low key like a library, nobody seemed to even notice the shelves that carried the more “controversial” items except for the people that were actively looking for them. And in that time we discovered a whole under-served community of young people, people of color, queer people, and women who would otherwise have never set foot in the shop. That is the journey of change our art and pop culture needs to make on a macro level, and not just in a representative way but also in an authorial way; so, of course, we started inviting young local artists and writers to do signings at the store, no pressure, just to help them strengthen the ties that they need to make it as artists.
At the end of the day generational change, even change as terrifyingly rapid as what’s happening to comic book stores, is necessary and it is vital to the character and soul of our country and our society. Diversity is not a four letter word, it is a mirror so that we can more clearly see ourselves. And that is the mission of the store and why, despite all of the roiling changes and setbacks we have suffered so far in the store’s short life, we are determined to continue, to build a temple of art everyone can enter and a space everyone has a right to color and expand. What is art if not life ruminated upon, and what is life if not a shared world?

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Hello, I am Nico Self of Nico’s Comics and Games and I have been working in the comic book industry for over ten years. At my store I strive to create a welcoming, kind, interesting environment for all people of all walks of life. In addition to comics, we sell manga, toys, regular books, art books, pins, collectibles, and more. The goal is to allow people the space to browse without pressure, and to provide a guide (me) for when they need specialized help. Or someone to vent to when their favorite character gets badly translated into a movie! First and foremost, we are a community store and we strive to serve the people living around us and to enrich their lives with affordable, high-quality, accessible art that they can feel connection to. Also, I kind of feel like a detective when I’m trying to find something obscure for someone, or like a therapist when someone is lamenting on the state of, say, their favorite anime. All in all, we are a lot of things to a lot of people, but more than anything we are open and friendly with people and love the community.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Yes, I started working a second, part-time job at a comic book store near my house ten years ago while working a more “serious” job and found that I was only good at the comic book job haha. Before that, I had been collecting and reading comics for a very long time, since I was five or six years old. And I never grew tired of the medium, I just graduated to reading more advanced books (I even took some art school classes on cartooning when I was college-age so I could understand the technique better). Eventually, I started working at my first store full-time after a while, dropping my other job, and then spent many years cutting my teeth there and learning the industry as a whole. Then, my good friend needed a manager for his comic book store so I moved towns and went where the advancement was. After a while, my friend wanted to retire due to health problems so I started a payment plan with him to buy the store and took over. I never dreamed I would have a comic book store as a kid! I guess the lesson is, sometimes what you’re good at is the thing you never considered for a job but love deeply.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The most important thing about selling things to other people is that, in this specific case!, the customer is always right. What they want to buy is what they want to buy, and if you want to be pretentious or look down on what others are interested in it will absolutely come out in how you treat them. People can almost smell a disrespectful attitude. So as a veteran of any “scene” it is your responsibility to channel and harness the enthusiasm of the people you’re trying to get invested in your product, to feel a little of what they feel and to perk up when a truly excited person is asking you questions you might have heard a hundred times before. To diminish someone else’s love of something is a real transgression as a comic book store owner, but it used to be super common! I remember being a kid and having adult clerks sneer and tell me to get lost when I asked questions. It made me trepidatious to go into comic book stores for years! I remember we used to buy a lot of what we read through Amazon because the stores were so unfriendly.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicoscomicsandgames/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NicosComicsandGames/
• Other: Our address is 123 W Defee St Suite 9 Baytown, TX 77520