Otto Zoller can find the comic book you want and get you checked out in 15 seconds or less.
It happens all day. A customer comes into the comic book shop he manages and asks for a specific issue; Zoller finds it immediately, and the shopper is out the door.
Great and fast service is a virtue, he says.
Zoller, 44, is the general manager of Louisiana’s Double Play, the only comic book store remaining in Baton Rouge.
“I remember growing up, there were four or five comic book shops here,” he tells 225 in a feature from the December issue. “Now, it’s just us.”
Despite the popularity of superhero movie franchises and TV shows, comic book stores have gone the way of mom-and-pop bookstores as readers turn to online retailers. But that hasn’t stopped Double Play nor Zoller’s commitment to his customers.
Tucked into a small retail space on South Sherwood Forest Boulevard, Double Play has a huge selection of just about every comic one could ask for. It also sells Magic: The Gathering cards and collectible figurines. It has a giant backstock of comics from the Silver Age, a widely regarded era of quality comic books from the mid-’50s to the ’70s.
As a comic book store general manager, Zoller hears it all the time: The industry’s dying, no one reads comics anymore, people only care about superhero movies and TV shows. But Zoller doesn’t buy any of that—especially when the store has managed to cultivate an enthusiastic and loyal customer base through the years. Some customers visit from out of state and even out of the country just to purchase or order from Double Play’s selection.
Against the odds, the shop endures.
“There’s nothing like reading a comic book—the feel, the texture,” Zoller says. “Whether it’s a comic book movie or television show or even a digital comic copy, it’s just not the same as the physical thing.”
