In just a few weeks Phoenix will pass a new milestone - 10 years serving Capitol Hill and the greater Seattle community. Normally around this time we like to celebrate with a comic book signing, some free comic books, and a special store-wide sale. And we’re still gonna do that! But Phoenix is more than just comics. So for our 10 year anniversary, we’d like to dedicate the whole month to a celebration of every aspect of the store. We’ve got a lot planned, and we hope you’ll join us for every part of this that speaks to you!

Phoenix 10th Anniversary Celebration!

Before I go into the rundown of everything we have planned, I want to share with you a little story about how far we’ve come.

Ten years ago, on May 4, 2013 we opened our doors. The night before had been long - we’d only just finished the build out at the store, and I was planning to work through the night to put everything together. Comics, pallets of display racks and our point of sale. Everything was in a pile in the back of the store where just earlier that day they’d put the carpet down. I had no idea how I was going to make this happen.

That was when my friends and family showed up. And some of their friends showed up too. Everyone in my little corner of the queer community came together to get Phoenix ready for its first day. Working together we put comics on the walls, built the display racks and unpacked and set up our point of sale. We had so many show up that we had more people than we had work. A few folks even wound up passing out fliers to passerby out on the street.

By eight or nine o’clock, the work was finished and I closed things up and went home. I didn’t sleep a lot that night. I remember getting up early, with no idea as to what to expect for our first day out. What happened surpassed all my expectations. People were waiting at the door, ready to check out the new store. Everyone was so excited - Capitol Hill now had a neighborhood comic book store. 

And that is that - the tale of our first free comic book day. A continued Thank You to everyone who helped us get things started, and to everyone who's contributed to the store's growth and prosperity over the years. I still see so many of you out on the streets even today, and I’m still grateful to all of you for helping me turn this crazy dream into a reality.

May 6 - Free Comic Book Day

For those not in the know, Free Comic Book Day (or FCBD for short) is a lovely comic book holiday that’s been going on now for over 20 years! We’ll have four tables bursting to full with comics to give away to everyone who wants one. This year’s celebration will include creator signings, a store wide sale, and new for this year - a trivia contest in the afternoon! Save the date and plan your visit accordingly!

Details for FCBD are now available! 

May 13 - Regional Championship Qualifier

Competitive Magic players - this one’s for you! We’ll be hosting a March of the Machine sealed format Regional Championship Qualifier on Saturday May 13th at 11 AM. Prizes for this include not one, but two invitations to the fourth round of the regional championships, along with a hefty chunk of store credit and additional extra prizes that will push the envelope on the prize pool up a considerable amount.

Details for our May 13 RCQ are now availble!

May 20 - Phoenix 10th Anniversary Board Game Meetup

The fine folks at Queer Geek, the organizers of our POC Board game meetup, and the Furry Board Game meetups are teaming up to host one big board game meetup group! Events and board games will run from 1 PM til at least 7-8 PM, and will include open gaming and board game giveaways,

Details for our Community Board Game Meetup are now available!

May 27 - March of the Machine Commander Party 

We’re ending the month in style with a tribute to our Commander crowd with a March of the Machine commander party! In addition to the usual casual commander games, we’ll be augmenting this one with extra door prizes for players who bring new brews to the table in the form of March of the Machine or March of the Machine Aftermath commanders!

Details for this event will go live on Thursday, May 4. 

And that’s our lineup for our 10th Anniversary, but that’s hardly the end of our offerings here at Phoenix. We’ll still be hosting our usual weekly and monthly meetups not to mention bringing you some of the finest comics, games, and more that the industry has to offer! We hope you’ll join us for these events and many more. And thank you as always for your continued support! It’s patrons and customers like you that make a store like this possible.