Massachusetts is famous for many things, but one of the top things we have going for us here is our education system. Specifically, we have some of the top post-high school schools in the country. One of our schools is rather famous – in fact, maybe you’ve heard of it: Harvard University. Of course you’ve heard of it. Natalie Portman went there! Facebook was invented there! Ari Gold has a degree from Harvard, and he doesn’t even exist!
Of course, you don’t have to be a student to visit Harvard in Cambridge, MA. In fact, Harvard is pretty much the epitome of college town, with the school located in a nice large campus and a bustling little consumer area known as Harvard Square. It only stands to reason that a comic book store should sneak it’s way into the mix, right? And that’s exactly what the Million Year Picnic does. The unfortunate fact of the matter, though, is that the Million Year Picnic picked arguably the worst location for itself. Why? Because it’s in the basement of a building in between two New England chain comic stores. MYP competes with Newbury Comics (which isn’t even a real comic store but can sucker people in anyway with it’s DVDs and CDs and ricketaracketa) and New England Comics (which is the premiere MA real comic store chain) on a daily basis.
The question then is: should we be going to the chains, or is the Million Year Picnic the real winner of the Harvard comic store war? Find out my thoughts after the jump.
I think before I give you the answer to that question, we should instead go by the set criteria I give to any given store. When I go in as a consumer, I’m looking at store size, availability of new and old books, availability of trades, and customer service. That’s what we’ll start with.
As I said, the Million Lear Picnic is in a bsement. It’s not an ugly basement, but it’s also not a large one. This means that the store is a bit crowded with it’s shelving units. Rather large shelving units are placed directly in the middle of the floor as well as against the wall, so if the store is crowded on any day you’ll have quite a hard time moving about. I don’t blame the set up – it’s tough to fit all that’s in the store in that space. It doesn’t make the experience very comfortable, though. I’m afraid the wide open space in NEC wins this one, though Newbury Comics is only slightly better with it’s spacial issues.
As far as new and back issues go, the store is well stocked with just about anything you can imagine. You’ve got small press, smaller press, indie press, and all the big titles spread out over the backwall, which has an interesting curve to it. You’ll even find some other newish issues on the other shelves, and there is usually plenty to go around. There are a limited number of recent back issues, and then a collection of back issues as well. While I’ve never found anything I wanted in the larger set of back issues, at least they have some. Too many stores have stopped holding really old issues, and most modern collectors have begun to forget how much fun it is to dive into obscenely old comic boxes. In this regard, Million Year Picnic has the one up on both Newbury and NEC.
The trade selection here is pretty damn good. In fact, I’d say for the area it’s your best bet for those harder to find books. NEC boasts a good deal of titles, but MYP has the better ones. There are some hard to find trades in here, as well as a great selection of bigger hits on DC, Marvel, or even Vertigo and Image. Interested in getting in on Transmetropolitan? Don’t worry: MYP has your back for it. Heard about some weird Superman book that you can’t find anywhere else? I’d give MVP a look if I were you. The ordering system is a tad odd, though. Marvel has a good decent section, but DC is spread out a bit throughout shelves. The backwall has everything else, but it’s occasionally ordered by type of book or even segregated to author sections. This can be a bit odd at first, but ends up being both helpful and unhelpful at the same time. On the one hand, if you’re familiar with comics enough, you can find just about anything. For those interested in comics but not familiar, you might get a little lost. What’s nice is that certain titles are placed out in the open, almost as if they’re “featured,” and it’s usually pretty interesting titles, so you’re in luck.
Continued belowWhen it comes to extras, it’s a tad lackluster. There are some toys here and there, but nothing overly special. The focus on the store doesn’t really seem to be based around the knick knack/collectible element of comic culture, so I’ve never really found anything to write home about (or I guess here). It’s here that NEC and Newbury Comics take the reigns of the battle once again.
But finally, we come down to what can ultimately make or break a comic book shop: customer service. I will be honest with you all – despite having been in there fairly frequently, I’ve never had one of sales reps really talk to me, even when I purchase something. Normally I give a store quite a lot of demerits for that. I hate going into places and dealing with jerks behind the counter. But see, here’s the thing: it’s not that they’re being jerks. There is just always someone else to talk to instead of me. MYP usually has two or so extra people in it whenever I visit, and I’d say 75% of the time they’re chatting up whoever is behind the counter. It’s almost always about something comic related, too. I’d imagine that whoever is in there chatting is a regular, so for someone like me who visits maybe once a month in search of a rare trade or two, I think it’s understandable that they get the relevant conversation with the clerk. Lord knows that I’ve had my moments of chatting up someone in a comic store while someone else was trying to pay and get out.
So when it comes down to the epic Harvard battle for supremacy, who reigns supreme? Is it Newbury Comics? Hell no. If you’re a comic store visiting kid like I am, stay away. Really, it comes down to personal preference between NEC and MYP. Both stores have good elements, doing better than the other in various locations. To be honest, when I visit Harvard and want to go to a comic shop, I’ll go to NEC just because it’s a branch of my personal LCBS. Nothing against MYP, but I usually find what I want over at NEC. For the random visiting person, MYP is a nice enough store, but NEC has a nicer location and interior. It’s more “average comic friendly”, where as MYP is probably the place to go and set up a pull if you’re in the area every day.
If I were you, I wouldn’t rule either of the two stores out. Check them both out, weigh the pros and cons and see what you prefer. If you don’t mind the smaller location due to what you can get there, MYP is for you.
