Gecko Books is one of Honolulu’s leading comic book and role playing game stores that is quite
close to UH Manoa. Although you’ll have to do quite a bit of walking in order to get there.
They’ve just recently moved to a bigger place, but it’s still around the same distance from UH
Manoa. The selection of comic books and role playing books is great and they even have action
figures and used books as well. The bigger space also helps the customer to feel less cramped and gives them more room to find the thing they’re looking for. They’re also willing to have a casual
conversation with you when they’re not busy doing work. There are obvious drawbacks,
however. The used book section is still rather tiny and cramped compared to the rest of the store sections. Also, the used books could have used a little more variety in their selections as most of
the books aren’t out of print or are quite easy to find in Barnes and Nobles or Boarders. Although to be fair, I suspect that most of the rare and hard to find books are probably being sold to Jelly’s rather than Gecko Books. I’m not sure of this hypothesis, though. Also, while the back issues of
the newer comic series are very easy to find and flip through, the older comics are much harder
to find due to the fact that the boxes that they’re put in are often put in the most inaccessible
places. I had to carefully move some of the boxes to get to what I was looking for. Luckily, the
boxes are not only labeled in huge words, but the comics that are inside the boxes are grouped
together by their comic company and arranged in alphabetical order so the customer can find a
certain comic in the least amount of time. I also found it rather odd that the comics of the 60s
through early 80s were located behind the cashier’s counter and that you had to ask them that
you wanted to look through those boxes. Still, I can understand the concern that if those rarer
comics were within easy reach, they could get easily destroyed by a careless customer. They’ll
let you read the new releases for a few minutes, but after that, they’ll ask you to put it back in
the plastic wrap in order to preserve the relative mint condition of the book in question. There
are a few graphic novels that aren’t in plastic bags, but you can’t take them out and read them
unless you’ve already bought them. I’ll admit that most customers would have no problem with
that rule, but for a bookworm like me, it can get quite irritating at times. However, there are a
few comic books that don’t have wrappers on them, so it’s a minor irritation. Still, despite these
flaws, Gecko Books is one of the best Comic Book stores I’ve been to that is also within walking
distance behind UH Manoa.