The Comic Center of Pasadena, more commonly referred to as "the comic book store", is a place where the guys frequently visit to buy their comic books and hang out, until it was burnt down in an accident revealed in the 7th-season finale, but was later rebuilt, using Howard's mother's money and furniture, much to Howard's disliking. The store is owned by Stuart Bloom. The store's name has only appeared twice on the show on its door, and has only been mentioned out loud three times. Once in "The Comic Book Store Regeneration" and twice in “The Comet Polarization”. It has actually appeared for the third time in "The Date Night Variable", when Raj comes in to the comic book store and has a night cap with Stuart. Stuart is folding may be t-shirts or towels and they have the comic book store's name on it briefly and seem kind of unreadable.
The store used to have a website at http://www.thecomiccenter.com (in reality, the domain name is registered to Warner Brothers), but it has gone offline since 2011. Similarly, its Facebook page has gone idle since 2011 too.
The Store[]
The store first appeared in "The Hofstadter Isotope" where Penny follows the guys to the store to buy a gift for her nephew. Stuart recommends her a comic book for the gift. She sees Stuart has drawn a portrait of her, which he exchanges for her telephone number.
In "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary", the store hosted The Mystic Warlords of Ka'a Tournament.
The store has hosted a Stan Lee signing thanks to Stuart's connections in "The Excelsior Acquisition". The logo of the store is shown when the guys are lined up outside waiting to meet Stan Lee, wherein the sign is visible; the only time the outside of the store was shown.
In "The Wheaton Recurrence" Stuart wins a bet and guys dress up like DC girl super heroes
Stuart also hosts a costume party on New Year's Eve which the gang won for the best Justice League of America team in "The Justice League Recombination".
He also hosted a costume Halloween party in "The Holographic Excitation" and a Valentine's Day party in "The Tangible Affection Proof".
Raj hosts a Scavenger Hunt in "The Scavenger Vortex" which first puzzle is the Comic Book Store in a puzzle.
The store has a fire and is gutted in the Season 7 finale ("The Status Quo Combustion") due to Stuart's hotplate. Stuart claims the insurance company thinks he did it for money. Also, the fire department, the police, his parents, and his therapist. He did not get enough money from the insurance company to reopen so Mrs. Wolowitz gave him the rest of the money. The store was reopened in "The Comic Book Store Regeneration".
Stuart lived in the back of the store when necessary.
Trivia[]
- The store is located on E. Green Street near Pasadena City College and Caltech (according to the store's website).
- At the end of "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary" we can see a view from the sky of the comic book store, but it's located in Hollywood (near Hollywood High School), so it's just a casual location.
- On the counter (since "The Russian Rocket Reaction") has shown the official website of The Comic Center and a QR code that points to it.
- Penny is impressed by the looks she gets while in the comic book store, while Amy thinks that comic books are "lame-o".
- After graduating art school and moving to Pasadena, Stuart seemed to gain ownership of the shop through the following possibilities:
- He worked there until the previous owner named him their successor.
- He attended business school and then opened up the store.
- Lonely Larry, Captain Sweatpants and Dale are regulars at the Comic Book Store and friends with Stuart.
- Dale once worked the register for Stuart when he was unavailable ("The Flaming Spittoon Acquisition").
- In "The Nerdvana Annihilation", Leonard mentions that a man called Larry (maybe Lonely Larry) works at the comic book store, this could possibly be the previous owner. Season 1 is also the only season that the Comic book store doesn't appear in.
- In "The Bakersfield Expedition", the girls visit the Comic Book Store looking into the guys' fascination with comic books.
- While Marvel Comics play a part in many of the episodes, there are no Marvel Comics on sale at the store except during Stan Lee signing day ("The Excelsior Acquisition") and in "The Bakersfield Expedition" when girls buy a Thor comic book. The most comic books and merchandise are of DC comics.
- There was a cutout and a man wearing a shirt connected to the former MMORPG, "City of Heroes". He appears in a few episodes. http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php?topic=4908.40
- There is a cardboard cut-out of Ichigo Kurosaki from the anime Bleach in the store.
- There is also a poster of Faith from the 2008 video game Mirror's Edge.
- Posters and models from the sci-fi video game franchise Mass Effect can frequently be seen in the background.
- After the store was reopened, the logo's colors were changed from purple, green, orange and yellow to blue, red, yellow and gray.
- In "The Comic-Con Conundrum", Stuart gives Raj a part-time position to help with his finances after he finally cuts the cord on his allowance from his rich father.
- When the store becomes successful, thanks to a visit by author Neil Gaiman, Stuart hires Denise as an assistant manager and they become a couple.
- It's unknown when Stuart opened his comic book store, his friends were regulars around 2003.
Appearances[]
- S02E20: The Hofstadter Isotope
- S02E22: The Classified Materials Turbulence
- S03E02: The Jiminy Conjecture
- S03E05: The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary
- S03E07: The Guitarist Amplification
- S03E16: The Excelsior Acquisition
- S03E19: The Wheaton Recurrence
- S04E11: The Justice League Recombination
- S05E05: The Russian Rocket Reaction
- S05E07: The Good Guy Fluctuation
- S05E10: The Flaming Spittoon Acquisition
- S05E15: The Friendship Contraction
- S06E01: The Date Night Variable
- S06E05: The Holographic Excitation
- S06E13: The Bakersfield Expedition
- S06E16: The Tangible Affection Proof
- S06E17: The Monster Isolation
- S07E02: The Deception Verification
- S07E03: The Scavenger Vortex
- S07E13: The Occupation Recalibration
- S07E24: The Status Quo Combustion
- S08E15: The Comic Book Store Regeneration
- S08E24: The Commitment Determination
- S09E02: The Separation Oscillation
- S09E04: The 2003 Approximation
- S09E05: The Perspiration Implementation
- S09E11: The Opening Night Excitation
- S09E13: The Empathy Optimization
- S09E14: The Meemaw Materialization
- S09E17: The Celebration Experimentation
- S09E23: The Line Substitution Solution
- S10E17: The Comic-Con Conundrum
- S10E22: The Cognition Regeneration
- S10E24: The Long Distance Dissonance
- S11E01: The Proposal Proposal
- S11E03: The Relaxation Integration
- S11E09: The Bitcoin Entanglement
- S11E10: The Confidence Erosion
- S11E11: The Celebration Reverberation
- S11E12: The Matrimonial Metric
- S11E18: The Gates Excitation
- S11E19: The Tenant Disassociation
- S11E21: The Comet Polarization
- S11E22: The Monetary Insufficiency
- S12E02: The Wedding Gift Wormhole
- S12E22: The Maternal Conclusion
Gallery[]
External links[]
- The Comic Center of Pasadena official website. Registered to Warner Brothers. Site has been offline since 2011.
- The Comic Center of Pasadena on Facebook (no activity from page owner since 2011)