I recently had the very happy pleasure of discovering Bill and Walt’s Hobby Shop in the charming city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Picture this, dearest Reader… On the side of a brick building is an old blue door. By the door is the following sign:

You open the door and descend the steps into what I truly believe is heaven on earth - the coziest hobby shop I have ever been to in my entire life. Indeed, Bill and Walt’s Hobby Shop is everything I think a good hobby shop ought to be.

I am not a woman of words, but I wish I was so I could convey to you just how cozy it felt. You’ve been in a basement, haven’t you? You know the smell of paper, don’t you? Just imagine that.

While you won't find Bill and Walt here, you will find Eric - the very friendly and obliging man who has been running the shop for longer than he can sometimes recall.

The shop has changed locations a couple times. The last time it had to change locations was due to the rent being raised beyond what was reasonable. Eric told me that it was actually a customer who found the current location which, despite the constraints of the smaller size than the prior locations, is more than functional

The place even comes with a cool (haha, it was actually very warm) dungeon behind a neat "hobbit door" which, had it not been for the humidity, would have been the PERFECT place to host D&D.

Eric and I discussed the state of fandom and what it means for physical stores like the hobby shop. Fandom is massive, and it’s only growing. Despite that, physical shops don’t profit as much from this growth because people prefer to buy from cheaper online alternatives. Personally, I wouldn’t touch those alternatives with a ten foot pole. Perhaps that’s my privilege showing, but I am a firm believer in supporting businesses and the people behind them who actively care about fandom.

Bill and Walt’s Hobby Shop gave me something that the online stores will never be able to provide: Genuine Human Connection. There isn’t a friendly Eric on A**zon who will listen to me gush about indie comics from the 80s and 90s. You’re not going to find joy and whimsy scrolling through a major online retailer. It's places like this that we should be supporting.

Also, if you’d like to know what I bought from the shop, here it is!

The first thing I asked Eric was if he had anything by Evan Dorkin. And, guess what? He did! I picked up Milk and Cheese and The Eltingville Club, both of which I was super happy to find in the wild.

I mentioned that while I don’t know much about (or have interest in) the usual mainstream Marvel/DC stuff, I do love indie comics and work on a couple of zines myself. Eric let me know that the shop carried comics from local talent including the wildly entertaining Grixly Comix by artist Nate McDonough.

Nate also drew this lovely comic which is proudly displayed on the walls of the shop:

Oh, also, Eric told me a fantastic story about Glenn Danzig. I won't repeat it here, but it is incredibly funny. You'll just have to visit Eric at Bill and Walt's Hobby Shop at 101 Smithfield Street if you want to hear it yourself! ;)

But seriously, please give the shop a visit if you’re in the area. These places are more important than ever.