Comics Plus has sold hundreds of comics to folks in the Coastal Bend, and while the pandemic hurt many businesses, it had a different impact on this store.
“In the last couple years, with COVID, we have had a little bit of a spike with people coming in,” said store owner Jesse Mendoza. “There's been a renewed interest, you might say, also with some of the older collectors.” With so many people being encouraged to stay home during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, where a lot of businesses didn’t survive, Comics Plus thrived.
“Because of the pandemic and everything, were going back to reading books and looking at comics,” said comic book reader Justin Lopez. “I went back to because I was forced to, in the way.” Mendoza said a lot of the people who come into the shop are seeking nostalgia, but others are motivated by more modern comic-book inspirations.
“So, a lot of times we have people coming in looking for characters that they grew up with or things that maybe, because of all the movies and TV shows that they are seeing now,” he said. “Sometimes it might spark an interest in them.”
He also said a renewed interest in some of the newer characters is also bringing people in.
“ ‘Now there's a TV show devoted to let's say Hawkeye, and I used to like reading, so of the stuff with Hawkeye,’ ” he said. “So, they come in looking for that stuff now.”
Lopez said he falls into that category.
“I kind of stopped for a while, but then I continued after seeing the movies a lot more, got more awareness to it,” he said. “Yeah, now I'm back.”
Comics Plus is located on Everhart Road in the shopping center across from Sam's Club.
