LOCATION/DIRECTIONS

               

In the late 1970s, Ralph Holt joined forces with a friend of his and began selling comic books and baseball cards at the Santa Barbara swap meet and conventions all over California. Eventually they opened up the Andromeda Bookshop, a store specializing in science fiction books and comic books, in Santa Barbara, CA. After a couple of years, Ralph decided to head out on his own. He made his way about 40 miles down the coast to Ventura, CA, and, in May of 1980, opened up the very first incarnation of Ralph's Comic Corner. Originally located in the back of a thrift store (where it literally was just a corner), he carried only new and used comics. Ralph moved to a larger location, with his very own storefront, down the road in 1984. In 1990 Ralph moved the shop across the street to an even larger store. In 1997, the store doubled in size again, having moved next door to its current location of 2379 E. Main Street, becoming the Cultural Hub of Ventura County. Along the way, the store added trading cards (both sport and non-sport), role-playing games, science fiction paperbacks, card games, trade paperbacks, T-shirts, posters, board games, Japanese animation and manga, Pogs, and everything else you might expect to find at a Giant Pop Art Emporium. The sports cards and Pogs are long gone (Alert!! Seth just brought in a truckload of Pogs and milk cap accesories. Check his Web Site for details!) but we are still filled to the rafters (really, just take a look in the back!) with collectibles. A few years ago, Ralph dialed it back a bit, relinquishing most of the store and its contents to Seth's Games and Anime, which still offers the finest in new comics and trades, games of all types, and oodles of other goodies. Ralph's Comic Corner is once again a corner inside Seth's, and offers an enormous selection of back issue comics, paperback science fiction books (currently on-line only), collectible drinking glasses and non-sport trading cards. There is truly something for everyone!

We carry a ridiculously large selection of back issues, as well as a full line of currently published comics, including everything from best-selling Marvel, DC, and Image comics to the usually difficult-to-find small press titles.

ABOUT THE PEOPLE

Ralph Holt is the Big Cheese of Ralph's Comic Corner. His favorite football team is the San Francisco 49ers, but don't hold that against him. He is 39 years of age, in a Jack Benny sort of way. He is a big fan of the work of Steve Ditko, and an avid collector of Charlton and ACG comics. He also collects paperback science fiction books, cartoon and promotional drinking glasses, and Target CDs, which...well, you can ask Ralph what's up with that.

Mike is the Not So Big Cheese (i.e. the manager) of Ralph's Comic Corner. Having been with the organization for (ahem) many years now, he has an extensive knowledge of comic book characters, history, and trivia which has no practical application anywhere outside of a comic book store. Being a person of great internal contradictions, his favorite comic characters are Swamp Thing and Uncle $crooge McDuck, two characters that have absolutely nothing in common whatsoever. Not getting enough of comics during his work day, he also writes the long-running comics weblog Progressive Ruin, which he plugs at any given opportunity...like, oh, say, when he's writing the "WHO WE ARE" page for the store's website.

Thank you for visiting, from all of us at Ralph's Comic Corner!