Okay, for the longest time I've been claiming Blister in Nihonbashi was the only place to get American comics in Tokyo. By comics I mean the newest monthly issues, not the trades; tons of those can be had at Tower Records (Shibuya) and Kinokuniya (various, but Shinjuku is probably the one you want). I'm happy to say I was (more than likely) wrong about that. I have to go to Tokyo for some official business this weekend and since Blister is closed the days I'll be there, I started doing some Internet searches for other possible sources for four-color amusements of the super-caped-heroic kind. Or possibly the Hellboy-ish.
To get to the point, I found a nice blog by someone named Filipo who apparently lives in Japan and collects comics. Filipo missed a chance at Blister (the dreaded orange wall of closure gives me the willies), but found a place called Monster, located in Ebisu. Monster is mostly a toy shop but they have a small selection of American comics. Actually, from Filipo's description, Monster seems pretty much like Blister. Maybe not as ambitious as the original Blister, which was freakin' geek paradise and a must-stop for those tripping through Japan with comic book print running in their veins instead of blood. But still Blister-esque as far as the current incarnation of Blister goes.
I'd been planning to keep things simple-- I would have been satisfied with finding Manga no Mori in Ikebukuro-- because this is really a business trip, but now I'm going to have to stop at Ebisu and find Monster just to see if it's worth making it a regular destination.
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