'Maui Comics & Collectibles' Regrows People’s Love for Comics

For nearly 10 years, the people of Maui (HI) has never seen nor been in a real comic book store locally, until now. Opened in May 2015, “Maui Comics and Collectibles” offers a variety of comic books (old and new), vintage cartridge video games and consoles, collectible toys, Warhammer 40K sets, and much more! All products aim to satisfy people with different tastes. Besides selling comics and collectible products, the shop also appraises, buys, trades, or cosigns customers’ goods.

The owner, Alika Seki, summarized his purpose through his store’s mission statement, “Foster people’s love for comics.” Through this mission, people, who wanted to get into comics, got a great education of the genre, including kids whom immediately fell in love with the hobby. Meanwhile, current fans of comic books and other collectibles were able to re-live the excitement of seeing a variety of awesome things inside a store while sharing their passion with people around them.

Maui Comics & Collectibles have had its fair share of hot ticket items. Key issues of X-Men and Spiderman has been sold in the store, as well as the first printing of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. However, another batch of hot items that sell well are local comics created by local artists of Hawaii, such as the “Kukui Project” by Todd Bernardy, “Kipaku Kai” by Rusty Bailey, and “Aumakua” comics by Christopher Caravalho.

Besides opening a comic book store, Alika also aimed to reach out to the community by hosting some great events in his shop. Maui Comics & Collectibles hosted vintage video game tournaments, Magic Card tournaments, named “Friday Night Magic,” that happen every Friday night after business hours and on the weekends, “D&D Encounters” every Wednesday night, special movie screenings, and “The Nerd Watch” podcast every Tuesday.

The momentum doesn’t stop there, as Alika has more plans in store that people will enjoy. In memory of his close friend and mentor, Bruce Ellsworth, a live comic book auctioning event, called the “Bruce Ellsworth Memorial Comic Auction,” will happen in the next month or so. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Big Trouble in Little China,” the movie will be screened at Maui Mall on Thursday (March 17, 2016) at 7:30 PM. All event goers will have a chance to win some great prizes. Alika also plans to bring special screening events of Saturday morning cartoons from the 80’s and 90’s that consist of Transformers, TMNT, Thundercats, He-Man and other shows in full, along with vintage commercials in between, for parents and kids to love.

Maui Comics & Collectibles are located at 333 Dairy Road, Unit 102 (1st floor) in Kahului, Maui. They are open from 10 AM to 8 PM on the weekdays and 10 AM – 6 PM on the weekends. You can like the store on Facebook or follow them on Instagram.