One Million Comix

Comic books have long been the proud realm of geeks and nerds everywhere, but The Big Bang Theory helped bring them into the mainstream. And when that show started playing in living rooms everywhere, brothers Alex, Chris and Kostas Giancoulas, co-owners of One Million Comix, noticed an appreciable difference in their store. “It made it a little bit more cool to geek out, for instance,” says Alex, “because I see the shirts that the characters are wearing on the show, and customers are coming to the store and asking, ‘Do you have this shirt that Sheldon wore?’”

That’s not to say that The Big Bang Theory was entirely responsible for the increasing exposure of comic books; indeed they’ve had a passionate following for decades. One Millon Comix has been in business since 1989 and Alex sees fans of comics on a regular basis, the ones who have encyclopaedic knowledge of the various series and characters. He finds it a joy to meet people so devoted to their interests. “Some of the customers are so into it that they study it and live and breathe it,” he says. “It’s fun to watch and see.”