electric relaxation

I found a pretty cool comic book shop in Hayes Valley called Isotope, and managed to kill most of my afternoon there. I feel like I’ve walked by the place before but they were closed or maybe hadn’t even fully opened up yet. It hasn’t been there very long according to their website, though they used to be located somewhere else in the city.

Anyway it has three very attractive properties:

1. It’s walking distance from my house
2. There’s a lot of space, with comfy chairs and couches
3. They play good music: lots of DJ Shadow and NInja Tune stuff

I might have just gotten lucky on the music front, but the space issue is huge. Most other comic book places are tiny so you’re constantly dodging and squeezing by people. I like to spend ridiculous amounts of time meticulously poring through the trade paperback selections, which is a much more pleasant experience when you have room to maneuver.

I found out about this place because it was the first hit on Google for “comics san francisco”. I was actually trying to find Al’s Comics which is also close by and sounds pretty cool. Maybe I’ll go check them out tomorrow. Jai said that place sucks but I figured I ought to form my own opinion.

Update:
Note that they’re pretty serious about providing seating and encouraging you to lounge, it’s not just for show. I actually read the entire first volume of Hard Time while I was there.