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India’s First Licensed Comic Book Store Opens In Bandra West

Samiksha Chaudhary

For those growing up in the 90s (or earlier) and even to some extent the early 2000s, comic books were all the rage and more. These pages on pages filled with illustrations opened up a new world; whether it was the Marvel Universe or The Adventures of Tintin and the likes, the stories were every child’s and even some adult’s dream come true. The first ones I ever remember owning were the Archie comic series.

Now, The Comic Book Store in Bandra West has become India’s first fully licensed comic book store and the world’s first marketplace for comic and pop culture. Opening its flagship store in Mumbai recently, they offer premium international titles from the houses of DC and Marvel, along with a whole host of different kinds of manga. They will also have branded merchandise, fan memorabilia and signed artefacts, both online and offline for non-premium prices, which is a first for India.

“We’ve grown up on cartoons like Batman, Justice League, Spider-Man, Avengers, X-Men, Teen Titans, etc. but somewhere along the line with the birth of social networks and smartphones, we all lost our way. Comics became scarce and along with it our childhood felt practically non-existent!” says Hamza Sayed, the founder of the bookstore.

“Despite housing one of the world’s biggest geek communities what India lacks is a centre where all these nerds can find their solace.” Thus, this flagship store is the first in a line of many he wishes to open across India that will house some of the best collections of comics.

You can checkout their comic book collections here.

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