The Punisher in Oregon!

Not ready to go home from the Mayhem concert in Auburn, Washington, I found myself heading down into Oregon for a couple days of excitement at Newport beach and the surrounding area. Some of the great things about this area are, the ocean (naturally), Yaquina Bay light house, both the Ripley's Believe It Or Not and the wax Museums, the Aquatic Center and the underwater aquarium, boat tours, you name it. One thing that isn't easily associated with the wet, salty air of the coastline is a comic book shop! I may have missed a hidden little hole in the wall while hitting the shopping areas of town (both touristy and non) but I wouldn't be surprised if there was no such shop.

Down near Pier 1, however; I found this quaint little shop tucked into the back room of a micro-mall on the 'strip' that sells clay mugs that are crafted into faces that could easily be found in a 1970s cartoon intended for adults (think "Light Years") or maybe some hippie calendar of gnomes and mushrooms.Directly outside of this shop, there are two boxes of comics, bagged and boarded; just waiting to find new homes. On the front of the boxes, a paper sign gloriously announces, "Vintage comics- around 15 years old- $1.50 ea. or 4/$5.00"

Well, that sounded like an invitation to browse to me and so my fingers began their walking, stepping through each and every book. Within these home crafted boxes, I found a lot of Image books, including Savage Dragon; some Ultraverse books like Mantra and even DC's Metal Men mini-series from the early 90s and a four consecutive issue run of Marvel comic's the Punisher, issues 79 - 82. This may not have been a golden pick that puts my kids through college, but it is a pretty cool find for a town that doesn't really have a comic book store.