It's called Forbidden Planet. It's about a block away from Union Square. I found it just as dark, heavy rain clouds began to roll in and settle on the tops of those immense skyscrapers.
They sell comic books and graphic novels almost exclusively (they also had a section about role-playing, but I didn't investigate) along with corresponding action figures from many famous comics. I was really impressed. The walls on three sides were lined with comics and there were shelves sitting in the middle of the store filled with even more.
For the past three years now I have been searching in vain for a particular anthology of graphic novels by this one author. Since I'd never been able to recall the name of the author or the name of the book, I had reluctantly resigned to the fact that I would never find it again, or more work by this person. However I began to search the shelves anyway, already knowing that I wouldn't find what I've been looking for. I always check Daniel Clowes' work because the illustrations I remember were similar to his, and for all I knew, he was the author. But I didn't find it. An employee asked if I needed help. "No, thank you," I responded. I didn't dare try to vaguely describe what little I knew about what I was looking for. I would end up sounding like some of those customers who would come into Rasputin's sometimes, asking me things like, "I'm looking for a song that sounds like this..." And I thought those were annoying questions. Just because I work at a record store doesn't mean I'm going to know every verse from every song sung to me by a customer. (And on that tip, I have to thank Yen for always searching for that song for me that has to do with horses and clouds! We'll find it someday...)
But she stood standing there, patiently watching all of us look around, and I thought she was pleasant, so after a couple minutes' deliberation I gave it a shot.
"Okay. I can't remember who the author is or the name of his book, but I'm looking for an anthology, it's a graphic novel, and the illustrations are like those of the creator of Ghost World."
She was eager to help and directed me to Ghost World and his other works, but I told her I'd already looked through those. So she went to the counter to ask a cashier, and I was sure I was going to get an annoyed reaction from him because after all, it could be any author at this point. But he wasn't irritated; he suggested an author for us, and the girl with the purple hair and I searched through his stuff. "No... none of this looks familiar...Umm I remember a couple details of a couple of the stories, but that probably won't help at all." She urged me to share, so I told her: "I remember one was based in San Francisco, and another story was about a girl who calls the pay phone outside of her apartment, and when people pick up she says terrible things to them." I felt so dumb because I wasn't any help at all. But she walked up to the counter again. "These guys read all this stuff," she told me, and recited to the cashier again my vague description.
"That's Summer Blonde by Adrian Tomine," he called to me. And just like that, we'd found it. I couldn't believe it. I was also surprised that they didn't think my questions were dumb at all. They had a copy of Summer Blonde, but it was a little frayed at the corner, so I opted to purchase another of his I've never read called Scrapbook, though I will return for S.B.
Thank God for all those comic book junkies out there who pore through these books. Thanks to the helpful and very cool staff at Forbidden Planet too. It's a great store.
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