Lehigh Valley comic book stores answer growing demand

Superheroes are having quite a good year, huh?

“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is the second highest-grossing domestic film release of all time, “Avengers: Doomsday” generated $16.5 million in advance ticket sales after the first day of availability last month, and trailers for the Marvel’s Wolverine video game have earned millions of views in the last year on YouTube.

Superhero stories are quite popular in films and television and video games, but the most popular trace their origins to comic books. To quote the late, great Stan Lee: “I used to be embarrassed because I was just a comic book writer while other people were building bridges or going on to medical careers. And then I began to realize: Entertainment is one of the most important things in people’s lives. Without it, they might go off the deep end. I feel that if you’re able to entertain, you’re doing a good thing.”

Comic books are an $18 billion industry, one that’s expected to grow to more than $27 billion by 2034, according to Fortune Business Insights. While the market is dominated by customers in Asia-Pacific countries, the U.S. market continues to grow, in part bolstered by comic-related conventions and other events, Fortune said.

In the Lehigh Valley, a handful of independent stores are catering to that market.

John Hohn, who owns JAF Comics at the Trolley Station Outlet Mall in Lower Nazareth Township, didn’t grow up as a comic book fan. He began as an online toy retailer in 2008. After a customer asked if they could sell comics, he opened retail operations for JAF Comics in 2015. It offers comics as well as manga, collectibles, board games and trading card games.

“Basically for me, it was just about selling another product,” Hohn said. “And now over the years, I still don’t read a ton but I do appreciate the comics so much more because it’s a different style of reading. If you’ve not read comics before … a comic just reads so different. I wish I was introduced to comics as a kid because I probably would have read more.”

While not quite the same as American comic books, Japanese-published manga stories helped the family of Kristin Bond-Lopato, who owns Manga Lane with her daughter Kassidy Bond and husband Mike Lopato. They operate at Bethlehem Commons and offer manga, figurines, decorations and accessories.

Bond-Lopato said Kassidy had struggled with dyslexia her whole life and that “the only real thing she could read was manga because of the way it’s written in the short dialogue, and it’s not like reading a book exactly. So she really got into manga and then slowly started to get into watching the animes and she would watch them in Japanese so she could read the words to kind of help her with her reading, and so it was kind of inspirational to us.”

JAF Comics founder and owner John Hohn holds two Dreamscape in-house published comics in front of the new releases section Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026, at the store in Lower Nazareth Township. The store opened as an online retailer offers comics, manga, toys, statues, board games and tabletop materials in 2008 before opening for in-person retail in 2015 at the current location. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)

An inside look at JAF Comics on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026, in Lower Nazareth Township. The store opened as an online retailer offers comics, manga, toys, statues, board games and tabletop materials in 2008 before opening for in-person retail in 2015 at the current location. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)

Playing areas are seen Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026, in JAF Comics in Lower Nazareth Township. The store opened as an online retailer offers comics, manga, toys, statues, board games and tabletop materials in 2008 before opening for in-person retail in 2015 at the current location. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)

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Comics are very popular, Ty Johnson said, in part because other media such as television and YouTube videos expose potential fans. The Lehigh Valley Comic Convention has also grown in venue size over the years.

“For it to go from Schnecksville Fire Hall to 59,000-square-feet Agri-Plex [at the Allentown Fairgrounds], I would say that it’s still gaining in popularity,” he said.

Johnson owns Beachead Comics in Allentown, which opened in 1985 under Jeff Rabkin and Biff Crossley at 16th and Chew streets, and offers comics, toys, figurines, apparel, statues, posters, Funko collectibles, and Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering cards.

Johnson said he was a Beachead customer for 15 years before he became the owner after Rabkin died in 2015. It moved to its current location on Chew Street in 2017.

“I saw him every single week, I didn’t want the store to just disappear, so I made Biff, the co-owner, an offer and here we are,” Johnson said.

Comics still have appeal after all this time, he said, because they evolve with the times.

“There used to be this sort of format for comic books, but now they can be anywhere from the most simplistic, child-friendly comic book that you can think of — like a Mickey Mouse or something like that — to one of the most popular ones right now … called ‘Absolute Batman,’ ” he said. “And it’s a very dystopic look on the Batman world. So they’ve evolved, they have something for everybody.”

Ty Johnson, owner of Beachead Comics at 1326 W. Chew St. in Allentown, stands in the store on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. It opened in 1985 under Jeff Rabkin and Biff Crossley at 16th and Chew streets before it moved to the current address in 2017. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)

An inside look at Beachead Comics at 1326 W. Chew St. in Allentown on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. The store opened in 1985 under Jeff Rabkin and Biff Crossley at 16th and Chew streets before it moved to the current address in 2017. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)

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Comics also reflect the times, according to Harry Kerch, owner of ComicMasters at Whitehall Mall in Whitehall Township. The store opened in 1994.

One example is the use of Captain America comic books as propaganda during World War II, like the “the iconic image of ‘Captain America No. 1’ where he’s punching Hitler in the face.”

Other examples include how the X-Men mirrored the civil rights movement.

“It’s a neat way of approaching history that most people don’t get a chance to see,” said Michael Caffrey, who owns Tales of Adventure Comics and Games in Coopersburg.

Caffrey said comic book stores offer “both the brand new things that people are making today and then also a place to find things from 20, 50, 80 years ago.”

They can also serve as gathering places for “like-minded people” who can discover new things on store shelves.

“The face-to-face interactions are so important both between staff and customers and among customers,” he said.

Kerch believes comic books have resisted change, such as when some companies tried to push for digital comics and believed there would be a “fair amount” of demand for that.

“It didn’t happen, and I think it’s because … the medium of comics are and always have been one in which people want to feel the pages, they almost want to smell the comic as they’re reading it,” he said. “And there is an intrinsic value built into the comic books, which allow it to be a collectible.”

A retail store comes with challenges, of course.

In late July, Rey Perez was forced to temporarily close Evil Empire Comics & Horror Collectibles after his space flooded at the Quakertown Farmers Market in Richland Township, destroying the majority of his inventory that he built through the years.

“I wasn’t going to reopen the store,” Perez said. “That was my initial thought.”

But the comic book community is small, he said, and people reached out to give or sell inventory to him. The store reopened Aug. 29.

“People have been overwhelming me with support,” Perez said.

Lehigh Valley comic book stores

Beachead Comics: 1326 W. Chew St., Allentown

ComicMasters: 1978 Whitehall Mall, Whitehall Township

Encounter Comics & Games: 811 Union Blvd., Allentown

Evil Empire Comics & Horror Collectibles: 201 Station Road, Store 405, Quakertown

JAF Comics: 224 Nazareth Pike, Lower Nazareth Township

Manga Lane: 559 Main St., Bethlehem

The Portal Comics and Gaming: 321 Woodlawn Ave., Bethlehem

Tales of Adventure Comics and Games: 201 S. Third St., Coopersburg

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