Words by Tom Price

Frank Brion paces slowly along the towering bright red walls with racks upon racks of comic books lined neatly in rows of four.

Already a comic book or two clinched by his side he scans the ever-growing selection at Red Sky Comics — Merced’s newest comic bookstore.
Brion, 34, isn’t new to the game, he’s been buying comic books downtown for more than 20 years. Before Red Sky opened its doors in January, he bought his comics from Cop-A-Comic owner Lonnie Cox who died last year.

“That left a big gap in the community,” says Brion, of Cox who operated downtown for 20 years. “He was a really neat guy. When he says he knew you, he knew you. He was like a father to a lot of us.”

Red Sky owners Michael Smid and Scott McAllister were among the hundreds that called Cox a friend and mentor. Smid worked at Cop-A-Comic and McAllister was a long-time customer who was in the process of purchasing the business from Cox when he died.

When it became clear the business was not going to sale and the inventory from Cox’s store was going to go to his beneficiaries, the two decided to step up.

“One day Mike was like ‘lets do this,’” says McAllister.

So they leased the spot two doors down from the store they spent their childhoods rushing into on Main Street and opened Red Sky Comics.
“There wouldn’t be a comic book community in Merced without Lonnie,” says Smid, who can’t imagine downtown Merced without a comic book store. “Honestly, there was no way we weren’t going to do this.”

Red Sky hasn’t wasted time in creating a name for itself. It’s grand opening featured some of the biggest artists in the industry, including JH Williams III (Wizard’s Artist of the Year).

They say the numbers of customers on their pull service (pre-sold orders) is growing steadily and they are constantly expanding their inventory.
Both avid collectors who have donated boxes of their own collection to the store, say they have given up collecting to dedicate themselves to the shop.
They say it’s a great time to be a collector, with genres for everything imaginable. From fantasy to crime and superhero to graphic novels — there is a book for it.

“It’s great that they brought something like this back downtown,” says Brion. “A place like this should not go away.”

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