33 DECEMBER 1-7, 2022 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | FIND MORE MUSIC COVERAGE AT WESTWORD.COM/MUSIC Tunes and Toons CITY RECORDS IS BRINGING A NEW VINYL, CASSETTE AND COMIC BOOK STORE TO EAST COLFAX. BY JUSTIN CRIADO Justin Gnazzo remembers accompanying his dad, Nick, to work in Brooklyn in the 1990s. It was just a quick train trip downtown to the Marvel offi ces, where Nick Gnazzo would drop off his commissioned comic book il- lustrations. Justin recalls how the editors would gift him goodies and merch based on the pages his dad helped bring to life, including X-Men. He’s been a proud comic book nerd ever since. “I grew up around it. My dad was a comic book artist [from 1989 to 2004],” Justin says, adding that his father is now an electrician, still living in Brooklyn. “I grew up watching him illustrate comics. This was prior to do- ing comic drawings on iPads and stuff. Since mailing it to the Marvel offi ces would take two days, we would just take the train and go to the Marvel offi ces. The editors would give us action fi gures and stuff. I’ve just always been around comic books and illustration.” That passion for pop culture followed Justin (aka “Doctah Jay”) into adulthood, from curating art shows to collecting toys, and he’s now hoping to share it with the local community with the help of his wife, Seekay, and longtime friend Troy “Tbone” Bolton. The three recently announced that they’re opening City Records Comics & Toys at 1331 East Colfax Avenue. While there’s no offi cial opening date yet, the shop is set to debut at the beginning of the year. Bolton and Justin met several years ago, while both were working at Mutiny Infor- mation Cafe. They’d talked about opening a one-stop shop with everything from vintage vinyl to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action fi gures, but the opportunity hadn’t presented itself until recently, when the East Colfax storefront opened up. “I was in the music department; [Justin] was in the comics and collectibles depart- ment. We became real fast friends,” Bolton re- calls, adding that he’s been working in record stores since 1988. “Justin has mad comic book and collectible experience dating back to the mid-1990s. We’ve always like-mindedly talked about doing things together, which started off as thrifting on Thursdays looking for things that pertained to our business. We pitched a store idea to each other, looking solely for places on Colfax. The place we found, it just kind of fell into our laps, man. We saw the sign, turned around, saw it and did it.” There’s a need for such a space in a city that’s not necessarily brimming with comic book stores, especially given the recent re- surgence in collecting. But Justin doesn’t want to be just any old funny-paper dealer. His vision is to create a curated comic book store with products that refl ect the current zeitgeist and pop culture. For example, when Disney releases a new Marvel movie, he wants to be the guy people go to to fi nd the original source material. “The thing about my comic shop is, I want to represent this more as a comic book and collectible boutique. It’ll be a rotating stock,” he explains. “I want people to call me and be like, ‘Hey, I know this is a long shot, but do you happen to have the fi rst appearance of Wolverine [in The Incredible Hulk #180, Oc- tober 1974]?’ And I’ll say, ‘Yes, I have three.’” He’s quick to add that he’s into more than just comics. “I love playing Magic. I used to play Poké- mon as a kid,” he says, adding that those card games will be a part of City Records, too, along with Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Dungeons & Dragons. He has plans to host tournaments for all of those games, as well. “We’re trying to bring the community to the shop and show them that we’re here for them.” Bolton, a proud metalhead with a wealth of knowledge in the genre, collects every format, including eight-track tapes, and gets excited about combing through bins to fi nd hidden treasures for the shop’s shelves. “We’ll have everything there — records, cassettes, eight-tracks, CDs, VHS tapes, Blu- rays, DVDs, posters, shirts. We’re going to have it all, man,” he says. “We love both the high end and the low end. I don’t mind look- ing through a lot of records to buy, sell and trade. You know, what’s crazy is that every format is collectable now. I think people are done living in the cloud. I still think people listen to too much music on their phone and don’t know how to hook up a speaker and turntable, but I can fi x that. I think people just want physical shit. I think people just want shelf-worn stuff. I think people like to talk about what they have.” This type of talk excites Justin, who chimes in, “I will never turn away an old Mr. T doll. Some random things like that light up my heart. “Think about these things as...memories from childhood, memories of better times. Every time I see a Ninja Turtle that I used to play with in the bathtub at a store, I immedi- ately want that so I can sit in the bathtub with that action fi gure,” he continues. “It brings those good feelings back, and those thoughts of, ‘I remember when my dad got me that,’ or, ‘My mom took me to Toys “R” Us to get this hot new toy.’ People used to bust down doors for toys. People got trampled for Tickle Me Elmo. Now we fi nd them in bins at the ARC, like, ‘Oh, man, someone’s parent almost killed someone for this doll, and they’re throwing it in a bin.’ You can be part of this thing’s his- tory to exist in its world [when] you can pass it on to someone else who it means more to.” The collectability of vintage vinyls, ac- tion fi gures and Pokémon cards have only increased over the years. “The thing about collecting, especially with the boom of 2021, when Disney released all of those [Marvel] shows and comics shot through the roof — people were selling things for like six times more than market value. It was insane,” Justin adds. “I made a shit ton of money; it was fantastic. But I realized a lot there, like, this is all FOMO, this is all speculation. I just started thinking [about] what’s going to hold value for a long time and not decrease. “I started shopping with a different eye,” he recalls. “I want to make collecting fair. When the boom was happening and I was looking at prices, I was like, ‘This is ridicu- lous. This is not what it’s worth.’ I want to show and explain to people, especially any- body younger than me, what it’s about. I want them to learn: Like it fi rst; don’t just collect it because people want you to. I want people to come to me for things that they love, and I want to fi nd those things for them.” Like his father, Justin is planning to offer a “comic clinic” for comic book restorations at City Records. Seekay notes that there will also be a space for local artists and offerings. Snacks will be available, too, with the pos- sibility of food trucks serving at certain times (Justin and Seekay owned and operated a food truck for several years). The trio is also proud of the store’s customized shelving, especially the record bins, courtesy of CJS general contracting. “Colfax is going through a lot of change. We’re opening up a store when we see a lot of stores closing. It’s a very interesting time for the market and our market,” says Bolton, who is also a DJ and luthier. “We love physi- cal media, and we’re bringing it back hard.” City Records is going to be much more than just a bottom-line business. It will be a place for fellow music and comic nerds to meet and make merry, whatever they’re into. “I want the community to teach us back, too,” Bolton says. “I’ve never stopped learning.” Learn more at instagram.com/cityrecordscolfax. MUSIC Troy Bolton (from left), Justin Gnazzo and Seekay Gnazzo are set to open City Records Comics & Toys on Colfax. COURTESY CIT Y RECORDS
