House of Secrets, the comic book shop located at 1930 W Olive St., is celebrating its 26th anniversary this week. The shop was moved to Burbank, by owner Paul Grimshaw, from its original location in Montrose, CA. It has since seen more than a decades worth of comics and people pass through its doors.
Having been located in Burbank for so long, Paul’s partner, Erik Warfield, said the city has “a great demographic. We’ve got customers who are probably in their 60’s or 70’s, and have been collecting for years. We have new families, younger, the next generation so to speak. Some of them are customers we’ve had since they were ten years old, and now they’re thirty-something and have their own kids. That’s probably been the funnest thing to see, having kids myself now, it’s easier to measure time by them. You have these little kids, then they’re going to high school, they’re going to Burroughs down the street, coming here after school, then they’re twenty-five years old, then they’re thirty years old and they’re bringing in little babies – we’ve been here long enough to see that, and see the the growth of the industry and community around us.”
To mark their anniversary, the shop is planning a sale for both Friday and Sunday. On Friday, October 13th, House of Secrets is offering 40% off everything in the store, except for supplies. This includes trade paperbacks, new comics, old comics, and artwork.
On Sunday, House of Secrets is holding a special sale from 12-5PM. On this day, they’ll be opening up their storage space located behind the shop. Included in this sale will be old toys, marked down trades, and more dollar books.
Erik explains that they love what they do, and the shop is able to run because the people in Burbank have the luxury to spend money on comic books. “We can sell old comic books, we can sell dollar books, we can sell cheap new stuff, regular new stuff, trade paperbacks, artwork, and the old books are good to see. Any silver age or golden age books that we get, there is another level of clientele that want pricy books. We’ve sold $4,000 books, we’ve sold $1 books. It’s a wide, wide range, which keeps it steady all the time.”
