We Need More Nerds on Colorado’s Western Slope

I made a startling discovery while utilizing the Google machine this afternoon. See, I was looking into a spotlight piece on some of the best places to buy comic books on the Western Slope. A noble goal, as I'm far from the only nerdy so-and-so who lives out here, so I have to assume we've all been having trouble finding places to procure our funny books.

Well, Google Maps gave me the answer to my query, as well as the answer to the question of why all of us nerds have been having trouble finding comic book stores to patronize. The short version: it's because there aren't any.

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"This can't be true," I said to myself upon making this discovery, but it turns out to be one-hundred percent factual. If you search for "colorado comic book stores," literally the only result that Google Maps gives you on the Western Slope is Top 5 Comics in Grand Junction. Fine people over there, don't get me wrong, but only one for the whole of the Western Slope? That's absurd.

Now, there are other comic book stores in the state of Colorado. However, they all exist on the Front Range, apparently. Granted, I didn't dig too far into this search, mostly because I was gobsmacked that there would only be one place on my side of the state that's dedicated to comics, but having lived in small towns all over this country, I know for a fact that if a town has a comic book store, it will show up in your Google search results.

The only conclusion I can make, especially when you consider some of the other preferred activities of the Stranger Things crowd that remain underserved out here, is that there just aren't enough of us indoor kids on the Western Slope. Don't get me wrong, I'm not begrudging my more-active neighbors about their sports and hikes, but I've seen enough anime t-shirts while I'm strolling through town to know that there's a whole population of nerdy folks out here. Unfortunately, it just doesn't look like there's enough of us to make any noise.

Maybe this will change in the future, but it's just too much fun to be outside on the Western Slope, so I doubt it. In the meantime, keep supporting the good folks over at Top 5 Comics in Junction, because they're the ones putting in the work for the rest of us.