1. Gods & Monsters, The Pop Culture Superstore
By Cooper Smith
Gods & Monsters is still over a month away from opening, but that didn’t stop the owners from
giving Infinity Arc a tour as well as sharing their hopes for the “pop culture superstore.”
We met up with Anna Young and Todd Fisher, co-owners of what will be the second biggest
comic shop in the United States, and them and their team were nice enough to tell us a bit
about themselves and what the store will be.
“I was going to start with a pop culture fine art gallery, and maybe a little lounge,” Young told
us. After a month of working on her market research, Fisher, who had been helping her
brainstorm ideas for her shop, showed up and they decided to “power through together.”
At nearly 20,000 square feet Gods & Monsters will become the second largest comic book store
in the US, or “the largest of [their] kind,” as Fisher eloquently put.
Spider, a fabrication artist who is creating a lot of the features that will soon become iconic of
the massive ma and pa shop, told us that, “people rival the space, but no one rivals the range of
the things we cover. Just to say a comic shop is inaccurate when 4,000 feet is dedicated to
gaming. There is a concession stand going in and a movie night, live shows, cosplay…
Subscription courier services. It is almost a disservice to just run us up against places that just
sell comics.”
“Or to just call us a comic book store,” Fisher chimed in.
Spider was right. Being inside the wide open space, even when it seemed so far from
completion, was staggering. If you are a fan of Sci-Fi, Fantasy, DC, Marvel, or independents then
Gods & Monsters has something for you. We had to know, was a store this massive their
intention?
“No. Not at all,” Young answered. “We were looking at 6,000 to 7,000 square feet, and we had
a spot picked out that we liked. We were still going to do the three things in tandem: a small
gallery area, a little gaming area with a little snack bar thing, and our retail; and it was laid out
really nicely for it. But someone came in and was going to lease three spaces together.” Luckily,
when one door closes, another opens. The Artegon Marketplace, a mall that is proud of it’s
village of independent business owners, offered them a larger space and it worked.
However, a big space can lead to big problems. “By November we thought we would have to go
bankrupt,” Anna shared with us.
“We got to a really dark place there just a few months ago,” Fisher said. “[Young] likes to tell
this story that we used to take turns crying on each others’ shoulder. Like she would have a
breakdown and I would say, ‘No, it is going to be okay,’ and then six hours later I was breaking

2. down. But in those last few minutes of the eleventh hour, a party came in and was interested in
helping us revive the dream.” These silent partners came in with funds to revitalize the project
and it is now on an expedited timeline.
To give you an idea of what they are expediting, we were shown the Arkham Asylum window
where regulars can pick up their subscription, a Marvel mural by the local artist Earl Funk, they
are putting in a Blade Runner inspired White Dragon Noodle Bar for concessions, a DJ booth,
three round booths based off of the escape pods from the Alien movie for customers to play
table top games, three more booths based off of Skyrim right next to the apparel section, a
Transmetropolitan art gallery, and a VIP room for members that will look like the inside of a
TARDIS.
This article wouldn’t be right if we didn’t mention that we also met a man called Maus, a
graphic designer helping piece the store together, and Justin, who runs the online store and can
be found at the Gods & Monsters’ booth at conventions. When speaking with all of them you
could tell they weren’t just coworkers, they were a family. “We are making our own tribe,”
Young said. It wasn’t just a tribe for their work family, it is for all of you out there too.
Infinity Arc is proud to say that we were able to see the store in it’s early stages and will be
looking for opportunities to work with their team in the future. Watch our page and Gods &
Monsters’ through Facebook and Twiiter, and we will let you know when more things are
coming up.
In the words of Todd Fisher, “See you June 13th.”