The Definitive Guide to Gaming Stores in Louisville: Heroes Comics & Gaming!

story by Andy B; map illustrations by Andy B; photographs by Andy B and Mike Pfaff

In the previous installment of this series, I told the sad tale of Parallel Worlds shutting their doors. The Gods of Game Stores, or the invisible hand of economics, saw that our gaming supply in Louisville no longer met demand and mere months after a game store closed, lo!, another store opens. Unto us they have bestowed Heroes Comics & Gaming!

• Address: 361 Baxter Ave
• Website: www.heroescg.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/heroeslouisville
• History: Grand Opening on the day I visited – April 3, 2016
• Gaming Area: 16 tables with room for more
• Crowd: 28 customers late in the evening of the grand opening Saturday, including a few in costume; Several were playing games; Why is that kid wearing a box for a shirt? He had removed the head and arm pieces from his Minecraft costume in order to play a game
• Parking: None in front of the store on Baxter, but around the block behind the store is a large parking lot for 30 cars, shared with the neighboring businesses, but those neighbors are closed on weekends and evenings, so Heroes has the whole parking lot to themselves
• Nearest drink: Swankiest nearest drink of any game store so far: half a block to Ward 426, a chic restaurant with a full bar

The grand opening was not my first visit to Heroes Comics & Gaming. I work nearby, so I came on my lunch hour to check it out on the first day of their soft opening on March 9. In fact, I was their very first customer. I think that should entitle me to special privileges or at least recognition of some kind, don’t you? At least it entitled me to free burgers, hot dogs, and cake for the grand opening. Apparently, everyone got those, but I still felt special.

Heroes is a big store. It’s spacious and brightly lit. The restroom is painted to look like a TARDIS. I didn’t need to piss, so I don’t know if flushing the toilet sends you on an adventure through space and time. I hung around for a while eating the free food while fellow nerd, James, taught me how to play “Boss Monster.” The store is a comfortable place to hang out. Demond Thompson, a customer checking out the store after his friend told him about the grand opening, agreed.

“I like it a lot,” Demond said. “Honestly, having the room to move is great. Other stores can be cramped. I have a little girl who is nerdy, so a big space like this where she can move around and feel safe is great.”

Even after the free Grand Opening food is gone, Heroes sells sodas and candy to make it easier to hang out longer.

Having visited every other game store in town, my overall assessment of Heroes is that it is a Jack-of-All-Trades, Master-of-None. Heroes sells roleplaying game books for Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and Star Wars: Edge of Empire, but not nearly as many roleplaying game books as The Louisville Game Shop. There is a wall of board games, but not as many as Something to Do. There is a good selection of roleplaying game dice, but not as good as Role of the Die. There is a counter full of cards for Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, but not as many as Through the Decades. There is a big gaming room, but not as big as Bluegrass Magic. Heroes has a really big collection of comics, with over 15,000 back issues on display. That is a lot but probably not as many as Comic Book World (though Heroes tells me there are “pallets more” comics in the back to be sorted). Heroes is competitive in each of these categories, just not the top dog in any one specific niche. In the category of friendly and helpful staff, though, Heroes can’t be beat.

A quick note: Heroes Comics & Gaming is a sponsor of Nerd Louisville. All of the other Game Store Guide entries were researched before Nerd Louisville began soliciting store sponsorships, so this is the first time I have written an entry describing a sponsor. I made an effort to be objective and assess Heroes the same as I would any other store, though I have tried to be generally positive about all the stores in the Guide.

The Definitive Guide to Gaming Stores in Louisville will be a multi-part series of Nerd Louisville articles until all the gaming stores in Louisville are included. If you’d like your store to be featured next, please contact us! Please send corrections to andy@nerdlouisville.org.