We Was Robbed

We Was Robbed

Marc Arsenault

The Wow Cool | Alternative Comics shop in Cupertino, California was broken into sometime this weekend by way of a very large rock. Several hundred dollars of comics and books were stolen. We were very fortunate that there was a replacement window available. The glass from the window that was smashed broke into an impressive quantity of shards both small and large and the debris field stretched from the end of the patio outside the shop all the way to the back of it. The books closest to the window need to be individually vacuumed.

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The thief or thieves were bizarrely selective in their choices of books to remove. Several new Alternative Comics published books were removed, including copies of Derf Backderf’s True Stories, Devin Flynn’s Hawd Tales and four copies of Noah Van Sciver’s A City of Whiskey and Fire.

Also missing were about 2/3 of a couple of shelves of big fancy art books and our hodge podge shelfs of larger art books and political and slice of life comics including books by Henriette Valium, Keith Knight, Lloyd Dangle, and Neil Gaiman, including at least one signed edition. The total retail price of all the books that were stolen is around a thousand dollars.

We have cleaned up most of the mess and are now just mostly dazed and confused.

The best way you can help us out in this difficult time is by buying books from our shop, online, or in person at the Cupertino store. We will be open on schedule at 12 noon on Tuesday, December 16th.

A partial list of what was taken and some before and after photos is after the jump. If you have any information, please contact the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s office at (408) 868-6600.

before

The main shelves that were taken from. August, 2014. Several more books had been added since.

after

Those same shelves right after the burglary was discovered.

QUANTITY TITLE AUTHOR ISBN PRICE
4 A City of Whiskey and Fire Noah Van Sciver 978-1-934460-63-4 4.99
1 The Glorkian Warrior Delivers a Piza James Kochalka 978-1596439177 12.99
1 Hawd Tales Devin Flynn 978-1-934460-62-7 4.99
1 The Best of Milligan & McCarthy Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy 978-1616551537 24.99
3 True Stories Volume One Derf Backderf 978-1-934460-78-8 5.99
1 A Body Beneath Michael DeForge 978-1927668078 15
2 ????? ????? H. Valium 978-608-65598-0-9 30
1 Mr. Punch 1995 edition Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean 978-1563892462 24.95
1 Violent Cases Tundra edition (signed by the author) Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean 19.95
1 Jimbo’s Inferno Gary Panter 978-1560976912 29.95
1 Storeyville Frank Santoro 978-0978972271 19.95
1 Elektra Lives Again Frank Miller 978-0871357380 24.99
1 Basewood Alec Longstreth 978-0985300470 19.95
2 Tooth Dale Flattum 20
1 X’ed Out Charles Burns 978-0307379139 21.95
1 Skin Deep Charles Burns 978-1606991671 16.99
1 Scam: The First Four Issues! Erick Lyle 978-1934620700 14.95
3 Comic Book Artist Magazine 7.5
1 Understanding Comics Scott McCloud 978-1568620190 19.95
2 Unearthing Alan Moore 978-1603091510 29.95
1 NOBROW 6 978-1907704192 24
2 NOBROW 7 978-1907704345 24
1 Gigantic Robot Tom Gauld 978-1935443001 16.95
1 Anatomy For Artists Anthony Apesos 978-1581809312 22.99
1 Stray Bullets 1 David Lapham 29.95
1 Stray Bullets 2 David Lapham 29.95
1 Hi- Fructose 31 7.95
misc. other books and magazines

And at least a dozen other books and magazines. Titles include Juxtapoz, Bust, Back Issue, Study Group. There is a selection of books by Keith Knight, Jen Sorensen, Joe Sacco and Lloyd Dangle as well..

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