Valiant appearance cancelled due to raging fire.

[Scarabus]

Hey Valiant fam. Haven't posted in a while due to a strenuous life in the film industry but I feel this warranted some attention.

I was at my LCS last week and was handed a flyer stating that the Valiant crew would be driving the Ninjetta to Long Island New York and appearing at the shop on January 7th 2015 for giveaways, signings, news and more including 50% off of all Valiant titles. Needless to say I was stoked and marked it in my calendar.

January 7th 2015 approaches and I have my day planned out. Drive back from New York City, pick up the girlfriend, eat, drive her to work, and then proceed to the comic shop on Long Island New York. When the tasks were completed and I finally arrived, I was at a loss for words.

There was no comic shop. It was completely burnt down to the ground. I was very taken back considering I was in the store a week before this incident as previously mentioned and now there was literally nothing left besides charred back issues scattered about the parking lot.

To me this is very ironic considering the incident happened the very same day Valiant would appear. I do not know what to make of this situation at this point other than I no longer have a LCS, but in my previous encounters and observations, I notice many businesses are rewarded insurance money when their business is burnt down and this seems to be a common occurrence. I'm not saying this is a possible arson case but does anyone have any thoughts regarding this situation? A shame regardless for a 35 plus year old shop and even more ironic this happened the same day as Valiants supposed appearance.

The news story:

http://7online.com/news/fire-burns-thro ... ideoplayer" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Elveen]

Bummer.

[betterthanezra]

Wow that's pretty unbelievable

-Brian

[ilzuccone]

i believe it. i drove my bro to an indian restaurant for his first indian meal… it was burnt to the ground… i think we got in n out.

[comicsyte95]

Very sad to hear this but glad that no one is hurt.

[nycjadie]

A comic store without fire insurance would be foolish indeed.

[GammaJosh]

I don't know that I'd jump straight to "insurance fraud" just because they burned down. Hopefully they did have coverage and will be able to open again in a new location. Now if the shop turned out to be in any way connected to anyone from Comics Pro or Laughing Ogre Comics, I might be a little suspicious!

[nycjadie]

Is Laughing Ogre shady? I've purchased from them.

[Ramses818]

I would think it was nothing because if it was shady they would have waited until after the signing and the sale so they had the cash. Then they could've done it and still collected the same amount of insurance keeping the cash in hand. But then again I could be completely wrong!

[Daniel Jackson]

A shame to see so many businesses affected by the fire, but at least no one was hurt. Let us know if they find out what actually caused the fire to start.

[paradise]

Is Laughing Ogre shady? I've purchased from them.

hmm, no comment except:

http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php ... lement_in/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ilzuccone]

Is Laughing Ogre shady? I've purchased from them.

hmm, no comment except:

http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php ... lement_in/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

i love it when ed swings in and drops a bomb then swings out.

[Bone-A-Fach-ee]

I heard about this fire. Collector's Kingdom was one of the places I would go to as a kid, living on Long Island. There was another, smaller store closer to my house, but for serious stuff, I'd always go there. Shame to hear about it. Hope no one was hurt, and that they were able to save anything that was worth anything.

[nycjadie]

Yikes!

[grendeljd]

Wow, that's crazy. A real shame for all involved - hate to hear about it happening to a long-running establishment like that. Glad no one was hurt, but duuude... all those comics burnt up?! Gah!!