Akira Comics

In 2012 Akira Comics won the Eisner Award for retailers, the ‘Spirit of Comics‘. I can see why, as this is a fantastic comic shop.

The store is split into two levels, an upstairs level that on its own is a little bigger than some of the smaller comic stores, and a larger downstairs level.

Upstairs

The upstairs is probably about half occupied by an outstanding selection of European comics. This is supplemented by a small kids book section and a decent fantasy/sci-fi novel section.

As well as that, there’s a reasonable variety of tabletop games. Not as large as most dedicated games shops, but still pretty decent. This also includes a small selection of RPGs. By the counter, there are also a few TCGs (mostly Magic) and accessories, but not very much.

On top of this, there’s a few dozen t-shirts and a small café area to the side of the sales area.

Downstairs

The downstairs is roughly organised into two areas.

The first area is decorated in a superhero comic style, apart from a hobbit-hole over on one wall. It’s about as big as a typical comic book shop, and apart from a decent Funko Pop! selection, and a corner with art books and movie tie-in books, is filled with US comics in both trade volumes and individual issues.

The second area consists of a mix of merchandise and manga. There were a reasonable number of figures, as well as a couple of cases of Harry Potter items.

The manga section isn’t as comprehensive as Otaku Center but is still one of the best selections I’ve seen. It’s organised into separate sections for shojo, seinen, and shonen, with each having a wide range of titles, including both all the obvious ones and some I’d not heard of.

Overall, I am very impressed by Akira Comics. It’s bright and well-decorated, with a nice atmosphere. It’s got probably the best selection of comics I’ve seen in Madrid. It’s got a very good selection of manga, with probably only one or two stores beating it on that. It’s also got a reasonable games section, other books, and a coffee bar.

If you want to take someone to a geek shop that’s going to impress, this is probably the best one to take them to unless they’re after something specific that’s not comic books.

On top of this:

• there’s a small museum (open Saturday afternoon with prior booking),
• there’s a discount card that costs 5€ for 5% off everything (except sale items and promotions) with no renewal fee,
• the store gives a portion of its profits to several charities.

 Akira Comics takes about an hour to get to from where I’m based in the south, but I can still see me going there more often than a lot of the places I can get to in twenty minutes. Highly recommended.

Official website: https://www.akiracomics.com/

 Open: 10:30-14:00 & 17:00-20:30 Mon-Sat.

Nearest Metros: Herrera Oria (line 9),  Avenida de la Ilustracion (line 8).