So, I suppose it’s well known to many of the people who read this blog that I’m working with my business partner Zach (or rather, I should just say that my business partner Zach is working and I’m along for the ride on this one) to open a theater space on Franklin St. The process has been a while in the making– we’re looking hard at a space across from the old ComedySportz space, which would be a ridiculous deja vu but also a good idea, insofar as we know the space and we know what we can reasonably expect from the landlord.

(Further justification for our efforts– after several weeks of really hitting the flyering hard, we turned out our best Skylight crowd since opening night– and maybe best ever– last night, in a week that is traditionally DEAD for live performance. Everyone in DSI is excited, and it’s great to see an energized community taking responsibility for filling the seats, because a theater could quickly open and close without that buy-in. I hope people recognize that the turn-out is dependent upon putting our name in front of people EVERY week, not just for a few sustained weeks here and there.)

Of course, with commercial real estate, one can never be too careful, so we have looked casually at some other spaces as well. One of them is the former site of a comic book shack, so, well, it seemed reasonable to do some research by going to the comic shack’s new location.

Holy crap. The old comic shack in Chapel Hill was a pit– everyone’s stereotypical version of a comic book store. The kind of retail space that defies all logic. Poorly lit. Vaguely dank, the kind of place you would not be surprised to find secret pockets of mold in. Cramped– old, yellowing longboxes stacked everywhere. Trade paperbacks and sci-fi novels giving the impression of stagnant nerdiness.

The new space (no longer called second Foundation, it is now Chapel Hill Comics) is bright, well lit, expertly laid out, with new graphic novels on display that promote the best the art form has to offer. There are just a few back issues, and they’re in bins that are stylish and neat. Books are separated by category, with manga resting comfortably away from superheroes away from indie black-and-whites. Books seem to be on display not for marketability, but for artistic merit.

I’ll remain faithful to my comics shack for the super hero fix that I require weekly, because I have a ridiculous passion for the genre, I’ll be dropping more money in Chapel Hill Comics, because it’s important to support mom-and-pop businesses that do things well. And because Andy, the owner, took a generous chunk out of his schedule to tell me and Zach about his former space in painstaking detail– over an hour. I can’t imagine getting that kind of information from a chain, or hell, from anyone else. It’s clearly not just well-laid-out, it’s well-run by good people. That goes a long way in my book. It’s the kind of business that Zach and I hope to run when Dirty South Improv moves to downtown Chapel Hill in a dedicated space.