Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Trites.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Aaron. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’ve known since I was 18 years old that I was going to have my own comic shop some day. It was just a question of when and where. When my wife and I moved to San Diego from Boston (after the worst winter in the city’s history, with 115″ of snow *shudder*) we decided it was Now Or Never!
Growing up in Boston, I worked in a number of comic shops, including a decade spent with Comicazi just north of the city. They taught me so much about comics, how to manage a shop and, most importantly, how to build a community. After Comicazi won the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award at Comic Con in 2017 (which is basically like the Oscar for Best Comic Shop), it was such an enormous validation of the work we were doing, and the last push I needed to feel like I was ready to open a shop of my own.
Outside my time working in comic shops, I spent a few years working in the video game industry, where I was a community manager for Harmonix, the developer of the Rock Band music gaming franchise. It was a wild time for music games, exploding from a niche fad to a billion-dollar franchise almost overnight. I was used to managing local communities, and building relationships with comic shop regulars, but I got a crash course in global customer support, managing social media accounts with 3 million followers, and organizing events at gaming conventions around the world.
Eventually, the more time I spent with games, the more I missed comic books. I love comics, the history of the medium, helping people discover new stories, that sense of accomplishment when you track down that last issue you need in a run, swapping comic hunting stories with other collectors, the smell of an old book… comics have been such a huge part of my life, and I’m so excited to finally have a place of my own to share that excitement here in San Diego!
Has it been a smooth road?
Moving cross country was definitely a challenge. I had lived in Boston all my life and knew all the local comic shops, and all the owners. But now I’m the new kid in school, starting from scratch in San Diego. There’s definitely a lot to learn, but the local comic community has been so unbelievably welcoming.
It was hard deciding what I was willing to part with from my personal collection to help kickstart inventory for the store. I had close to 25,000 comics and hundreds of toys when I moved to San Diego, and as much as I loved hunting for them and reading them, so much of that stuff was just sitting in boxes. In the end, I put almost half of my personal collection into the store, so I at least get to enjoy having those items on display, and it’s been really rewarding finding them a new home with folks that love them as much as I do.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Now Or Never Comics story. Tell us more about the business.
Now Or Never Comics carries comics, toys, and games. We get new comic shipments every Wednesday, and we specialize in vintage comics, with thousands of back issues in stock dating as far back as the 1940s. There are dedicated sections for First Appearances, Key Issues, Signed Books, Variant Covers, Underground Comics, and genres like Western, War, and Horror, so it’s as easy as possible to find what you’re looking for.
We also have thousands of action figures in stock, specializing in vintage toys from the 1980s and 1990s, including Transformers, Masters of the Universe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Wars, G.I. Joe, and more!
I love that sense of discovery at a comic shop, especially those that specialize in vintage stock, so I always try to make space for the rare, the weird, and the unexpected. It’s always a blast seeing people walk in expecting comic books, and then immediately geeking out over retro video games, sealed wax packs of 30-year-old trading cards with the gum inside, vintage circus programs, View-Master slides, or the Little Golden Books that they had when they were kids.
I want Now Or Never to be a community comic shop. When I was putting together plans for the business, part of the vision was always “the Cheers of comic book stores”. Making the shop a space where people feel welcomed, where they can hang out and talk to each other about the things they love, where kids can show off their art, where life long collectors are just as welcome as first-time readers, that’s been a huge priority. There are so many other options for how to buy comics now, either through online subscriptions, Amazon, or as digital downloads… but PEOPLE are what make comic shops irreplaceable. Amazon doesn’t care what your first comic book was, or who your favorite Spider-Man artist is, or whether or not you think Batman could beat Superman in a fight. But that’s such a huge part of what makes comics FUN, and getting to share that with other people is amazing. Otherwise, it’s just a retail job and I may as well be selling widgets. I’m unbelievably thankful for all the connections that I’ve made in San Diego so far, for all our regulars and subscribers, and for the local businesses that have already gone out of their way to support someone new in town. I’m excited for our community to continue to grow, especially as we start hosting more events, and with Comic-Con coming up. We’re the only comic shop in downtown San Diego, and the only shop within 5 miles of the convention center, so it’ll be really exciting to see how things grow after our first year in town for Comic-Con!
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Comics have enjoyed a huge boom in popularity over the last decade, thanks to the wave of blockbuster superhero movies and TV shows. Comics are more accessible (and accepted) now than they have ever been. New fans means new readers, so we’re already seeing an increase in folks new to both reading and collecting comics.
Print definitely isn’t the most stable industry, and you always hear about the increasing shift to digital. That has certainly affected comics, with digital sales making significant gains in the last few years. But as downloads of new comics become more commonplace there has also been an increase in interest in vintage physical comics, which feels very similar to the revival of vinyl records. There’s absolutely an analog charm that a digital download lacks, along with the sense of history, not to mention the inherent value of owning an original physical copy of something. So while it’s fair to expect digital sales of comics to continue to grow, I think the affinity for vintage physical books will only grow as well.
A huge part of the name Now Or Never comes from the idea that older comics and older toys aren’t getting any easier to find, their physical condition isn’t getting any better, and they aren’t getting any less expensive. There are so many books that you used to see for $10-20 a decade ago that are selling for $100-200 today. If you want to pick up a vintage comic, a first appearance, or an iconic toy, the time to get it is Now Or Never.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1055 F St San Diego, CA 92101
- Website: nowornevercomics.com
- Phone: 619-892-7310
- Email: aaron@nowornevercomics.com
- Instagram: @nowornevercomics
- Facebook: facebook.com/NowOrNeverComics/
- Twitter: @nowornevercomic
Image Credit:
Photos of Aaron Trites are by Sara Florin
All other photos are by Aaron Trites
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