MACON, Ga. — The owners of a new comic and collectibles shop used to travel to comic-cons across the county selling their own products.
Now, they've settled down and opened a store in Macon. It has gaming areas, almost 50,000 back-issue comics, and more.
Located at 5854 Columbus Rd, Fanboy Collectibles and Comics celebrated its grand opening on Sept. 14.
Co-owner Monique Huffman says she and her husband, Michael, wanted to open up a comic and collectible store on Macon's west side.
"This was my husband’s dream ever since we were together," Monique said. "The stars lined up and everything fell into our laps at the right time."
Monique and Michael started out their business as 'Fanboy Glass' in 2011 traveling to comic conventions across the country and selling "geeky- themed" glassware.
Fanboy Glass is still in operation and Monique makes the designs for the glassware herself.
“Glassware that are all themed for characters in things like Dungeons and Dragons, a glass that says, ‘Run the DM is smiling,’” Monique said. “And then other designs that are influenced by sci-fi [and] fantasy.”
Michael says they've been to around 300 conventions total over the last 10 years.
“Average of 30 a year,” Michael said.
Michael says they decided to settle down in Central Georgia since they’ve lived here for about a decade and they found a great location to open up a shop.
The store has almost 50,000 back-issue, or older, comics, Michael says.
“At least, conservatively, 35,000,” Michael said. “Probably closer to the 50,000 mark.”
“Some of them are actually as old as from the 1940s,” Monique said.
They bought their vast collection from a friend in Kentucky who was moving out of the country. The Huffman couple bought all the contents of that store, filled two truck-loads of comics and brought it down to Macon.
“We ended up having to transport about 60,000 comic books from Kentucky to Georgia,” Monique said. “When we actually bought the comic books, initially we weren’t thinking about opening up a store.”
One of the most unique finds in the comics and collectibles store is an Amazing Spiderman 300 reprint, which was a home shopping club exclusive reprint. It is virtually untouched, Michael says. It is selling for $1,000.
“I’ve been doing comics since I was a kid and I’ve never seen one until I got the one I have,” Michael said.
The Huffman's are holding a Comic Fest on Oct. 26 at Fanboy. Families can attend in-costume to get some candy and pick up some free comics. Monique says it's apart of a bi-annual event sponsored by Marvel and D.C.
In October, they also plan to start hosting a Wednesday night drop-in Dungeons and Dragons game.
Students from all grade levels and college, active and retired military, and first responders get 10% off their purchase at Fanboy’s.
Michael says if a customer is looking for something and can’t find it, he'll try his best to get a hold of it.
“I have a lot of contacts across the country that can find it, if they can’t find it,” he said.
More information about the Fanboy Comics and Collectibles can be found on its Facebook Page.
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