Whatever Store

I love this place. Friendly staff with an awesome selection, specializing in the more «intelligent» end of the graphic novel spectrum. Their recommendations are consistently excellent, and I’ve discovered a bunch of new favorites thanks to them. A local institution!

Great comic book shop in the neighborhood. Cougar and Rich have always pointed me in the right direction when suggesting new titles or the trade paperback of an older title. Always appreciate the service and the advice. Thanks, guys!

One of my closest friends lives in the Castro, but he’s not a comic book guy. But one day he was running a bit late, so it gave me a chance to check this place out. If you’re in the Castro and need comics, you couldn’t do better.
While the store isn’t the biggest comic book store in the City, they are able to cram a lot — right by the front door are the older back issues, usually at a discount, as well as some toys. At the other side is the new singles, popular trades, and they even have a center rack with choices for kids.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask the married owners for their opinions: they know their stuff. Whether it is finding something new, or chatting about what is going on in the world. They are not only helpful, but can be generous — I’m a big Valiant fan and while picking up the new A&A series, the owner gave me an older but worthwhile collection of last season’s previews. Actually should go back to discuss the new season of Daredevil.
Anyways good selection, knowledgeable and friendly owners. Heck, I live only two miles from another store and yet I keep finding myself here.

Awesome Store. Friendly and helpful staff. They helped me find mutlipe issues in the back issue bins.
Pros: Gems can be found in the big selection of modern Age back issues, helpful staff, reasonable pricing
Cons: Lack of Bronze and Sliver Age Comics, variants & key issues.
Absolutely must visit !

I love this store. Wide range of comics and a surprisingly robust offering of t-​shirts and toys, given the small size of the shop. The owners are friendly and I always enjoy a brief geek out with them over recent titles, plot turns, etc.

This place would get better review from me if it was open more frequently. The place is a bit small, but has a good variety of comics that already come bag and boarded, including the graphic novels. The staff is thoughtful, and helpful, and know their comic stuff. It’s a nice nifty store in the Castro, just please have better hours.

This is a great store and over the last few years The owners have given me a number of very good recommendations on what to read. This store is worth a visit just to check out the racks of recommended items. And watch their Facebook page for some good updates as well!

I’ve been going here for years and even after moving to Oakland, I can’t imagine going to another comic book store. I always spend at least 30 minutes talking with Rich about comic books, TV, and movies. I look forward to my visits to Whatever.

Recent poor reviews for this amazing, welcoming location have inspired me to write my own review. I don’t understand how anyone could come into this place and give less than four stars. This is definitely one of my favorite comic stores of all time. If not for the small businesses in the small town I grew up in, this WOULD be my vote for best.
The first time I visited this store was with bay area friends who were right on track with their assessment of the customer service and quality of product at this location. I like to feel welcomed in a place of business, and the friendly and helpful demeanor of the folks who run the Whatever Store made me feel quite at home. Few places down in the Bay made me feel as such, which is part of the reason why I moved back to Sacramento. But I digress, great people, great store.
I got a few recommendations for now favorite comic and graphic novel series at this store. I used to shop for me, and for family when I came in, as they have quite a selection for a small store. I brought family and friends in here as well, which I do not do unless I absolutely love a place.
The dollar buys/​sneak peeks are much appreciated for comic addicts on a budget. It’s a great way to get into a new series. This is how my obsession with Saga began.

Every friendly staff! I love coming here, it’s the only comic book store I can count on to have what I want. If they don’t have it, they order it for me. Plus, I don’t even have to ask, they offer to order or hold things for me without me asking about it. The owners are great personable people and I always feel welcome there.

Fun friendly place. Love to shop here. It brings out the little boy in me. I get caught up in the books. I just can’t stop. Wonderful staff. Always helpful and they know what I like or should read.

A great local comic shop. The owners are friendly and are always willing to provide recommendations (and they have been good ones!). They feature interesting and somewhat offbeat collections near the register which I find is a good way to discover new titles.
I would say the only knocks against them is that their size means they can’t carry a ton of stock and will sell out of popular titles.
I haven’t purchased any single issues from them so I can’t comment too much on their selection in that area.

Pretty good for finding new comics, and they had a good range of back issues. The staff wasn’t too friendly, but they did help with some things.

Whenever I find myself in SF, I hunt out this quality comic book store in the heart of the Castro district. As with most American comic book stores, the selection is unrivalled (we are in the land of comics after all) compared to the UK and the guys who run it are welcoming and friendly.
The thing I love the most about this place though is the great selection of action figures. Most places only stock the current release figures so tend to really only have the figures based on current movies and totally new series. BORING!!! Whatever… actually stocks classic figures from previous releases, in fact when I first visited many years back, I was delighted to find a «cyborg Superman» from the series ‘Reign of the Supermen’ on sale — needless to say it was snapped up by me and sits proudly on my desk at home now.
Overall if you’re after independent and a selection that’s not obeying to current market promotions, Whatever… is the place to hit up.

Biggest problem, they wrap their hardcover and paperback collections of comics and graphic novels in plastic bags and tape them shut. Yeah, they don’t want you to be able to even flip through the book to assess the quality. Sometimes even if I am familiar with the content, I want to assess the quality of the printing or what kind of paper it was printed on. They have several signs asking you to not flip through the books until after you have purchased them and left the store.
Comix Experience and Isotope are both FAR more friendly and both operate as an actual bookstore instead of place to buy sealed up copies of books you may or may not actually want.

Wanted to check out this store because they sell pop vinyls… but was turned off when the owner said no taken pictures n the store… probably a small thing for most people… but I don’t know what the big deal is about taking picture of collectibles… needless to say… probably won’t be coming back because of it.

Horrible customer service. Bum level.
I went in here with my friends just checking out shops on Castro. Since I haven’t been into comics before but having intrigue, I thought this would be a neat place to check out.
As soon as we walked in there was an untrained dog barking at us, I thought «Whatever…» although my friends were frightened.
I was finally frightened when I was chastised for taking a picture of a cover. The clerk came up to me and gave me a dirty look and said «C’mon man, they’re only a dollar». I felt like I was back outside being asked for charity from a common bum.
So I shrugged it off and let him go back to his corner. I decided I would buy a comic I was looking at for a while, so I go up to the counter lay down the book and hand him the money. As soon as the money touches his hands he reprises his disgust that I took a picture with a scoff and other passive aggressive behaviors. Like sighs and «jeez» and «hahaha». So I took my money back and left.
How entitled are you to expect that a customer in your store to buy anything that’s a dollar? The value was great, but I wasn’t even looking to buy anything. It should be a blessing you even got money in your hand.
Horrible customer service. Bum level.

I’ve been frequenting this shop since they opened and love it. The guys who run the shop are awesome and helpful. I am not always the most timely person when it comes to picking up my books, and they’ve always kept my titles in order and held them till I picked them up and have always helped me with suggestions and opinions on titles if they can.
They’ve more than earned my loyalty and I’ll be buying my books from them and recommending them for years to come. Plus they’re gay friendly and independently owned.

After searching comic book stores in the Bay Area through Unilocal,this place had some items that I am currently collecting. Not only that, but they had a great selection of them. Hard to find ones even! I would know because I have been collecting them for a few years now. The guy working there at the time was very helpful.
They also have a pretty good selection of trades and the usual new releases.
Definitely making this a must-​stop-​here when I am in the area.

In the spot that used to occupy ‘Does Your Mother Know’ houses a pretty sweet comic book store! It has everything from mainstream comics to indie and erotic.
My friend, bless her heart, has a little geek built inside of her so you better believe she was taking everything in as we browsed.
For what it’s worth it definitely brought me back to my comic book days. Is it just me or has Superman and Green Lantern gotten hotter?