Foundation’s Edge

Wow. Remember the comic guy from the Simpsons? He seems like a charming, polite guy next to the staff here. I have travelled the nation and have been collecting comics for close to 30 years and have never seen a shop so cluttered, unorganized, and downright dirty. Sure they may have that random issue you are looking for from 1994 (they have mostly 80s-​90s stuff) but it’ll take 6 hours to find it in the heaps upon heaps of unorganized boxes and scattered trash. It’s dark, dingy, hot and slightly smelly. Inexplicably though they have a huge selection of empty VHS boxes prominently displayed.
This place could honestly rock if they would get better staff, clean up/​throw away all the garbage littering the place and organize it into an actual business.

This place reminds me of how comic shops were in the 80’s before comic culture was really popular like it is today. A little underground and behind the scenes. A little dusty and not very glamorous, but full of great treats for the imagination.
And that’s why I love it.
They also have a great collection of horror films on VHS tape.
The owners are super friendly and will sit and talk to you about anything and everything. The best comic shop in the area.

This space is a classic nerdvana, with all the comics you could want and a decent selection of gaming books and supplements. It’s dimly lit and a bit on the cluttered side, but as long as the owner or an experienced staff member is in, they’ll be able to find you what you’re looking for in a jiffy.
The one thing that seriously annoys me here, and it’s truly not the fault of this store, is the eternal annoyance of stupidly dressed and posed female heroes on comic book covers in the most impractical possible clothing for combat situations. If you want to look at ladies in scanty bikinis there are magazines for that, nothing wrong with liking to look. But if you are supposed to be depicting a hero who can kick butt, dressing her in lingerie and posing her with boobs and butt stuck out to here is stupid and insulting. It says that what she looks like and her value as an object of sexualized gaze is more important than her strength and effectiveness as a superhero, and that is a very ugly message. I suggest a look at the Hawkeye Initiative site for a better description of this issue in the comic book industry.
Again, not this store’s fault that the entire industry is messed up this way. It just causes a slow rage-​burn every time I walk in here and see this crap on half the comic book covers, to the point that if I didn’t genuinely like the folks here I would probably shop for my gaming books elsewhere. Not that gaming books are always very much better in this respect — chainmail bikinis do not a good armor class make — but it’s possible to buy some that aren’t nearly as bad from progressive companies like Paizo.

Its really dark but they have a large variety of comics to choose from and the staff is very knowledgable I had been in there once befor. Considering it’s locations on hillsborough street they must be doing pretty well so keep up the good work!

There are things that everyone likes and dislikes about Foundation’s Edge.
The discount subscriptions can only be beat online and then only slightly.
Unless things have changed since my tenure as a clerk there, this is the finest shop in the Triangle.

The old comic shop. When I first went in there, after foolishly thinking that I’d given up comics for good, I was greeted by an enthusiastic guy who helped me get back into things by introducing me to then little-​known chunks of awesome like Planetary and Ultimate Spider-​Man.
Soon, though, he was gone and my subscription just continued to grow. Once he was removed, I found myself saddled with the worst kind of comic shop guys. The ones who insist on calling the funnybooks «graphic novels» lest you find yourself with the notion that comics are supposed to be fun rather than grand and glorious pieces of art (I never understood why it can’t be both…), the ones who openly judge your every purchase in a way that suggests they really wished they had worked for Schoolkids, or the ones who really just work there for the sweet discount on the goth room decorations that seem to overshadow that this is a comic book store.
Trips back there now show that the comics have become even more of an afterthought, which I always find to be a pity from the place that brought funnybooks back into my life.

Le sigh. Comic shops to me are like an elderly relative. You love them, their smells evoke cherished childhood memories, but you can see the pain of their existence, the cruel decline of their health and it hurts you. I want to hug all the great comic stores in Raleigh (of which this is one, to be sure) and tell them it will be okay, but that’s a lie. This place is usually devoid of customers but filled with all manner of beautiful old and new culture, from rare action figures from a bygone generation to the newest in rehashed TV and movie franchise comics. There’s so much wonder and awe to be had browsing through their selections that I am compelled to give it a good rating, but it’s days are numbered. Cherish what might be Raleigh’s best comic joint while you can.