Antiques, cafes and...comics?
Ken Brown owns Drawn to Comics, a comic book store in
historic downtown Glendale.
Drawn to Comics was recently named the best comic book store by Phoenix New Times.
In 2005 he and his wife were at a comic book convention at the Glendale Convention Center, when they found a vacant shop.
“My wife was bored so she went walking around downtown Glendale and she saw an empty shop space down the street,” Brown says. After they checked into it, Brown says the price was right, the timing was right, so they took the plunge and opened the store.
Brown says the goal was to have a comic book shop that answered, “If I were a customer, where would I want to shop?”
Brown says he thought he could “carve a niche based off of all the customer service stuff I’ve learned over the years — knowing what I like about comics and what hopefully other people like about comics.” He says that’s pretty much what they’ve done for the past three years.
Brown and his wife run the store, with Brown working six days a week. With bright blue eyes and an enduring smile, Brown is quick with a handshake and introduction.
John Harris, of Glendale, comes in about once a week and says he finds the environment to be just that.
“He obviously cares about everyone who comes in,” Harris says. “It’s the best environment of any comic book store in the valley.”
Harris says the corporate comic book stores are usually just college kids behind the desk who don’t know much about the trade.
Brown says he wanted Drawn to Comics to be an authentic comic book store, not a just-what-sells store. “I wanted it to be a comic book store, not a pop culture store,” he says.
Brown says when he walks into a comic book store he is looking for comics and wants people to talk to him about comics.
“He’s pretty knowledgeable,” James Gowdy of Glendale says. “You don’t usually get that from other stores.”
Gowdy says Brown has a friendly and informed personality. “He gets to know you and that’s a plus.”
Before they could open the store, Brown says he and his wife needed to sort out their finances.
“We pulled a home equity loan out of our house when the market was good and rather than put it back into the house, we started our own business,” he says.
“This is pretty much all from scratch,” Brown says. “It’s the American dream of doing something right from scratch.”
Film and media studies junior and comic book fan Jasmine Carlisle says she loves it when people follow their dreams.
“Especially if it means opening a small business,” Carlisle says. “If a person has the means, or can legally acquire the means to open their own small business, then they should go for it.”
Brown grew up in Phoenix and says he’s been into comics since he was 10 years old.
“I just started studying every little aspect of it,” he says. His interest “just got expanded into more stuff as I walked into a comic book store.”
Brown graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 1999.
“I wanted to be a sports broadcaster,” Brown says. “I wanted to talk about my favorite sports all the time.” He was then advised that not everyone gets to be on camera or a behind a microphone, so he began to look into the business management side of broadcast journalism.
Brown was a broadcast business management major and minored in small business management. He says he carries many of the skills he acquired at ASU in his day-to-day life and business.
“With the journalism degree, you learn how to market your product,” Brown says. “I pretty much learned all of that through ASU.”
Growing up, Brown’s favorite show was “Cheers.” “That’s the environment I want the store to be,” he says. “If you come in, we know who you are, we know what you like, you’re welcome every time you come in.”
Bryan Hinchcliff of Glendale comes in on weekends and says Brown is very personable, kind of like a brother.
“The store is family oriented,” Hinchcliff says. “I think this is a great place.”
Reach the reporter at lauren.cusimano@asu.edu.
