Local Trivia: Newbury Comics

For those who don’t live in the Boston area or anywhere near Buckland Hills Mall in Manchester, CT, here’s a PSA: Newbury Comics is a pretty great store.

They have a section of DVDs (and a section of music, and other media, etc.) marked “wicked cheap,” and though it wasn’t very big, I spend much of my shopping time there looking and looking again at what they had to offer. The Newbury Comics’ “wicked cheap” section in Buckland Hills is where I got seasons 3-4 of Alias, for instance and seasons 1-3 of The OC (…but it shouldn’t be blamed for that last one). P.C. and I stopped at NC Buckland Hills when a plan to deliver stuff to my new room in MA and tool around up there turned into a “let’s just go home” plan B thanks to rain, about a month ago.

Yesterday, after successfully delivering the green/gold velvet loveseat-sized couch to my new room, P.C. and I decided to take full advantage of the beautiful day it turned out to be and go see the Newbury Comics at Fresh Pond. (It used to be across the street at Alewife.)

We ended up spending two hours there, in part because it was air-conditioned, in part because traffic outside was terrible, and in part because it’s a great store that’s fun to shop in. I looked at every single copy of TV-on-DVD set and season they had, and I pulled out every copy of shows I might have wanted to buy to check the prices.

This is one thing people should know going into Newbury Comics: Always check every example of the movie or show you’re looking for, as prices vary. You may find a show you’d like, season 1, for instance, for $45…and then you may find the same show, in the same condition, for $20.

Newbury Comics is part of the reason I’m so cool, musically. I bought a lot of CDs there last year, when I was surfing the web to find bands like Modest Mouse, Winterpills, Tilly and the Wall, Tricky, You Say Party! We Say Die! and others. I got some of their CDs at Newbury Comics.

As I told P.C., Newbury Comics is THE place to go for the weird stuff. (“And for the normal stuff, too,” I said loudly, for the benefit of the cashiers. “It’s also good for that!”) He picked up two DVDs he hadn’t been able to find anywhere else.

They’ve never had Matt & Kim, the eponymous Asobi Seksu album, or more You Say Party! We Say Die! (other than “Lose All Time,” which I picked up there for $4) when I’ve checked, but they did have a display on Passion Pit this time, and “Manners” was on sale for $8.

The staff at both Newbury Comics are also quirky and very helpful. At both places, I was asked if having a basket would make my life easier, and despite refusing both times (“I limit myself to what I can carry,” I say in these situations), a guy at the Buckland Hills NC brought me a basket anyway when it became obvious that I’d picked out more than I could handle safely. The girl at the Fresh Pond NC pointed out that I had a bottled drink with me, and it could get tough to figure out how to take a sip while holding onto La Femme Nikita (season 2), Rescue Me (season 1) and Deadliest Catch (season 2). I said it was more likely I’d set the bottle down and forget it, apologizing sheepishly in advance if that happened, and she said she’d just follow me around, pick it up and ask “is this yours?” in a polite but semi-ironic way.

They’re a bit like Hot Topic staff, but substitute an “I have an M.A. in a liberal arts area of study but choose to work here anyway so I can wear my hair any way I want” attitude for the “'My Little Ponies' is SO hardcore!” tween-faux-goth vibe.

So go, befuddled masses. Go to a Newbury Comics and be around people you suspect (or know) are cooler than you. Make the staff ask if you want a basket, then fill it with things. Enjoy supporting a local business with an ironic-yet-undetached inventory of cult classics alongside pop culture cotton-candy-equivalent.

Just remember: Check every price tag.