Comic Shopping in Philly? Hit Atomic City!

So two weeks ago I had the great pleasure of seeing one of the really cool comic shops in the North Eastern U.S.Myself and three buddies were in Philly to catch some baseball, eat some cheesesteaks and perhaps drink a wee bit too much at one of the many fine bars on South Street and the Old Towne.Now while I knew there were likely fine comic-shops in Philly I did not expect to find Atomic City -- one of the coolest temples to sequential art this side of San Francisco.Atomic City is run by the appropriately named Good Guy Joe and has one of the best organized set-ups I have ever seen. Plus the store has oodles of personality -- all springing forward from Joe and the staff who are crazy passionate about comics and all sorts of Geek Culture. Joe actually used to be a customer of the store and is now living out the dream of so many of us comic-kids -- running his "home" store. It's not all Beer and Skittles though, but even with Philly being hit by the economic downturn the same way the rest of us were Joe has managed to guide the store to a new and bigger location.Joe is an interesting cat in his own right. We had a great conversation about everything from "Elephantmen", to  "Blacksad" to Alternative Energy -stopping in to chat Kung-Fu movies and urban planning as we went.They have a great collection of comics, trades, fright-masks(!) and even some awesome old school arcade machines that hide away along the aisles.I like my comic stores to be open and feel inviting and Atomic City totally manages to do that. So, if you are ever in Philly and looking for some comic action to wash down that Ishkabible cheesesteak then make sure you drop in on Joe and his Atomic City team!