Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Mar 9, 2015 18:59:43 GMT -6
Socko Jones, the owner of Comic Book Jones in Staten Island, New York, talks about getting customers hooked on comics, the nicknames he gives his family and friends, and his approach to his work: “We’re like a corner bar and I’m the bartender. You got to listen to everyone’s problems, even if it’s someone who doesn’t smell too good.”
www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/nyregion/the-force-behind-comic-book-jones-invites-you-to-his-clubhouse.html?_r=0
Keeping Up With the Jones
The Force Behind Comic Book Jones Invites You to His Clubhouse
The adventures of Socko Jones begin each morning in a strip mall on Forest Avenue in the Mariners Harbor section of Staten Island.
We encounter our jive-talking, tattooed hero now having a smoke in front of Comic Book Jones, the clubhouse he keeps disguised as a comic book shop.
Next door to an Entenmann’s outlet, the store is spacious and snazzy, with an inventory that ranges from collectible and mainstream editions to obscure and indie comics, and even homemade booklets printed on copy machines by local artists.
The shop has seats and couches for reading and browsing.
“We encourage loitering,” Mr. Jones, 41, said, heading inside and sitting next to a rack of vintage Jimmy Olsen comics. “We let customers read our comics cover to cover.”
He added, “I never understood that boys-only, dark-basement approach to running a comic store where if you don’t know what you’re talking about, it’s like you don’t belong.”
Neighborhood Joint: Alex’s MVP Cards and Comics in Yorkville Finds a New Home. It’s Still Tiny.FEB. 13, 2015
Mr. Jones was born Michael Rivas, but everyone in his life calls him Socko, including his wife and even his mother, who works in the shop, basically keeping her son in line.
He became known as Socko as a teenager, after joking about being an unknown Marx Brother by that name. His surname came from his pet expression that anything cool was “the jones,” he said. “The way a junkie is jonesing for a fix.”
The expression seemed an apt name for the store when it opened seven years ago, given how seriously comic-book lovers take their habit.
“For some people, collecting is more like an addiction than a hobby,” he said. “They’ll give up paying other bills, for their weekly comic fix. So I called it the Jones, because you just got to have it.
“And I’m the pusher,” he continued with a laugh. “I may give someone their first comic for free, to get them hooked.”
Mr. Jones said he had given nicknames to about 40 steady customers, and employees past and present, thus inducting them into “the Jones family clan.”
“I was horrible at remembering names, so I’d make up nicknames for everyone,” he said.
His mother is known as Mama Jones, and his business partner, Mark Eadicicco, is much better known as Tiger Jones.
“His full name is actually Professor Tiger Beat Jones, Esq.,” said Mr. Jones, whose nicknames tend to be descriptive.
Also on staff are Tough Tony Jones and Waffle Jones, “a square-shaped fellow,” said Mr. Jones, now back outside for another smoke, with a former employee whose name, Max Organized Flamingo Jones, derives from her shelf-neatening compulsion and her habit of standing on one leg.
Mr. Jones — Socko, that is — said hello to his arriving manager, Babyface Jones, who has an unfailing memory for customers’ weekly requests.
“This guy’s DiMaggio,” he said. “If we kept baseball card stats, his numbers would be incredible.”
Mr. Jones wears a goatee, thick black glasses and a push-up hairstyle. His neck is tattooed with the duo Snake ’n’ Bacon from his favorite comic, the absurdist “Tales Designed to Thrizzle.”
Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story
He lives nearby with his wife and their three young children, who all have nicknames, too.
Mr. Jones said he grew up on Staten Island a huge Spider-Man fan and began working in comic stores when he was 12.
“The one thing I knew I was going to do in my life was open a comic book shop,” said Mr. Jones, who raised the capital for his store by working as a nightclub D.J. and a pet caretaker.
Mr. Jones greets nearly every customer by name and is eager to discuss the latest developments in the comic world.
“My approach is: We’re like a corner bar and I’m the bartender,” he said. “You got to listen to everyone’s problems, even if it’s someone who doesn’t smell too good.”
“I’m surrounded by the things I love, so I vibe off everyone’s excitement,” he said just before the Tuesday afternoon delivery of the week’s shipment of new releases.
Mr. Jones said he weathered the recession by keeping a buzz around the shop with evening events, including book club discussions, festive comic signings with bands rocking the place, and his weekly podcast recorded live in the store with customers as a studio audience.
The shop has seen a spike from the popularity of the television series “The Walking Dead,” which has sparked interest in the comic book it came from and has served as “a gateway drug” getting newbies hooked on comics, he said.
“We get a lot of soccer moms and housewives coming in for ‘Walking Dead’ books and then asking, ‘What else do you have?’ ” he said.
Then — Socko! — he’s got ’em.
“They catch the jones,” he said.
Email: character@nytimes.com
Name Socko Jones
Age 41
Where He’s From Staten Island
What He Is Comic book store owner
Telling Detail Mr. Jones’s arms give him an illustrated-man look. His right arm is covered with a comic-themed pastiche. His left is a work in progress, anchored with a tattoo of his business partner, Tiger Jones, caricatured as Gargamel, the evil wizard from the Smurfs cartoon.
A version of this article appears in print on March 8, 2015, on page MB4 of the New York edition with the headline: Keeping Up With the Jones.
www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/nyregion/the-force-behind-comic-book-jones-invites-you-to-his-clubhouse.html?_r=0
Keeping Up With the Jones
The Force Behind Comic Book Jones Invites You to His Clubhouse
The adventures of Socko Jones begin each morning in a strip mall on Forest Avenue in the Mariners Harbor section of Staten Island.
We encounter our jive-talking, tattooed hero now having a smoke in front of Comic Book Jones, the clubhouse he keeps disguised as a comic book shop.
Next door to an Entenmann’s outlet, the store is spacious and snazzy, with an inventory that ranges from collectible and mainstream editions to obscure and indie comics, and even homemade booklets printed on copy machines by local artists.
The shop has seats and couches for reading and browsing.
“We encourage loitering,” Mr. Jones, 41, said, heading inside and sitting next to a rack of vintage Jimmy Olsen comics. “We let customers read our comics cover to cover.”
He added, “I never understood that boys-only, dark-basement approach to running a comic store where if you don’t know what you’re talking about, it’s like you don’t belong.”
Neighborhood Joint: Alex’s MVP Cards and Comics in Yorkville Finds a New Home. It’s Still Tiny.FEB. 13, 2015
Mr. Jones was born Michael Rivas, but everyone in his life calls him Socko, including his wife and even his mother, who works in the shop, basically keeping her son in line.
He became known as Socko as a teenager, after joking about being an unknown Marx Brother by that name. His surname came from his pet expression that anything cool was “the jones,” he said. “The way a junkie is jonesing for a fix.”
The expression seemed an apt name for the store when it opened seven years ago, given how seriously comic-book lovers take their habit.
“For some people, collecting is more like an addiction than a hobby,” he said. “They’ll give up paying other bills, for their weekly comic fix. So I called it the Jones, because you just got to have it.
“And I’m the pusher,” he continued with a laugh. “I may give someone their first comic for free, to get them hooked.”
Mr. Jones said he had given nicknames to about 40 steady customers, and employees past and present, thus inducting them into “the Jones family clan.”
“I was horrible at remembering names, so I’d make up nicknames for everyone,” he said.
His mother is known as Mama Jones, and his business partner, Mark Eadicicco, is much better known as Tiger Jones.
“His full name is actually Professor Tiger Beat Jones, Esq.,” said Mr. Jones, whose nicknames tend to be descriptive.
Also on staff are Tough Tony Jones and Waffle Jones, “a square-shaped fellow,” said Mr. Jones, now back outside for another smoke, with a former employee whose name, Max Organized Flamingo Jones, derives from her shelf-neatening compulsion and her habit of standing on one leg.
Mr. Jones — Socko, that is — said hello to his arriving manager, Babyface Jones, who has an unfailing memory for customers’ weekly requests.
“This guy’s DiMaggio,” he said. “If we kept baseball card stats, his numbers would be incredible.”
Mr. Jones wears a goatee, thick black glasses and a push-up hairstyle. His neck is tattooed with the duo Snake ’n’ Bacon from his favorite comic, the absurdist “Tales Designed to Thrizzle.”
Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story
He lives nearby with his wife and their three young children, who all have nicknames, too.
Mr. Jones said he grew up on Staten Island a huge Spider-Man fan and began working in comic stores when he was 12.
“The one thing I knew I was going to do in my life was open a comic book shop,” said Mr. Jones, who raised the capital for his store by working as a nightclub D.J. and a pet caretaker.
Mr. Jones greets nearly every customer by name and is eager to discuss the latest developments in the comic world.
“My approach is: We’re like a corner bar and I’m the bartender,” he said. “You got to listen to everyone’s problems, even if it’s someone who doesn’t smell too good.”
“I’m surrounded by the things I love, so I vibe off everyone’s excitement,” he said just before the Tuesday afternoon delivery of the week’s shipment of new releases.
Mr. Jones said he weathered the recession by keeping a buzz around the shop with evening events, including book club discussions, festive comic signings with bands rocking the place, and his weekly podcast recorded live in the store with customers as a studio audience.
The shop has seen a spike from the popularity of the television series “The Walking Dead,” which has sparked interest in the comic book it came from and has served as “a gateway drug” getting newbies hooked on comics, he said.
“We get a lot of soccer moms and housewives coming in for ‘Walking Dead’ books and then asking, ‘What else do you have?’ ” he said.
Then — Socko! — he’s got ’em.
“They catch the jones,” he said.
Email: character@nytimes.com
Name Socko Jones
Age 41
Where He’s From Staten Island
What He Is Comic book store owner
Telling Detail Mr. Jones’s arms give him an illustrated-man look. His right arm is covered with a comic-themed pastiche. His left is a work in progress, anchored with a tattoo of his business partner, Tiger Jones, caricatured as Gargamel, the evil wizard from the Smurfs cartoon.
A version of this article appears in print on March 8, 2015, on page MB4 of the New York edition with the headline: Keeping Up With the Jones.