Two San Diego comic book havens are finalists in San Diego Comic Con’s Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, to be presented next month during the buzzy pop-culture fest.
Southern California Comics of Kearny Mesa and Villainous Lair of Normal Heights are among the 37 nominees for the comic book retailer award, and the competition hails from around the world.
Other comic book stores in the running are from across the U.S., but also from Australia, Canada, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
Southern California Comics opened in 1997 and recently expanded. Co-owner Jamie Newbold, on a promotional video, called some of the store’s more unique stock “exotic and cool and ever-changing.”
Villainous Lair, which also recently expanded, boasted on its Facebook page that the store had been nominated as Best Comic Book Store in San Diego, while a fan complimented the business, saying “There is so much room for me to nerd out in!”
Other California finalists for the Eisner/Comic Con comic book store award are Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach, the Escapist in Berkeley, Hypno Comics in Ventura and Geoffrey’s Comics in Gardena.
Comic Con is set for July 24-27. The Eisner awards take place July 25 at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront.
Eisner is renowned for creating The Spirit comics. He launched the awards to honor those who link comic book writers and artists to the public.
The winner, according to Comic Con, does “an outstanding job of supporting the comics medium both in the industry at large and in their local community.”
