Shield Comics & Games moves to new downtown location

LACONIA — Shield Comics & Games, which has moved to a new location, is expanding its selection of games, as well as providing more tables and chairs for play and tournaments.

Owner Jason Thomas, who opened Shield Comics 15 years ago in Meredith, and moved the store to Pleasant Street in Laconia, in 2021, said the new location, on the Main Street side of the same building, provides an additional 600 square feet of space. That allows him to offer an expanded play space.

“People like to game,” Thomas said. “They like to come, and they like to hang out with their friends and play a game that they love, you know, and it’s a very social thing that we do.”

While the game selection has remained “pretty much the same” over the years, many of the games’ popularity tends to come in waves.

Currently, “we’re doing a lot more in Pokémon single cards, Riftbound,” he said. “We’re expanding our Magic: The Gathering, the gaming supplies we do, our Warhammer miniature games.”

Thomas said he came into the business as a comic book collector, and opened as just a comic book store. Yet, “Everybody that came in was asking for, like, Magic: The Gathering and different types of card games. So I started dabbling in that, and that just blew up and became what the majority of my store is — gaming instead of comic books. We still love comic books because I still love comics, but that’s mostly what we do now: the gaming.”

There is a lot of value in the gaming cards, he noted. Those who play want to have the best cards in their deck, and the better a card is, the more expensive it is. That leads to card collections.

The store’s clientele ranges from 6-year-olds to those in their 70s.

“Our demographic is all over the place,” Thomas said. “Everybody loves gaming, right? Playing board games with family during the holidays. We like to provide a nice welcoming space. A lot of people call it a third space, as in, you know, you got your home, you got your work, and this is the third space where you come, and you feel like part of the family.”

Shield Comics’ move came just ahead of the Oct. 31 pre-release of the new Pokémon Delta Reign, which promises to be another another major draw.

The store also specializes in One Piece, Lorcana, Dungeons & Dragons, board games, and painting and gaming supplies. It holds nightly events each week, with Magic: The Gathering booster draft on Wednesdays, Night Commander on Thursdays, and Magic Commander on Fridays. There is a Saturday afternoon Pokémon League, and Saturday night Riftbound. On Sunday, it's Lorcana.

“You come in and hang out and just feel the love,” Thomas said. “We try to promote that.”