The Wow Cool | Alternative Comics store in Cupertino, California was burglarized last weekend. The criminal or criminals stole nearly $1,000 worth of indie comics and oversized art books after smashing the front window with a large rock.  The Wow Cool retail space is also the home of indie publisher Alternative Comics (see "Alternative Comics Returns"). 
 
Marc Arsenault, General Manager of Wow Cool, told ICv2 that he was still compiling a list of missing books on Monday afternoon, but detailed several of the more unusual items taken in what he dubbed on Facebook "The 2014 Great Indie Comics Hijack."  
 

Several new Alternative Comics-published books were taken, including Derf Backderf’s True Stories, Devin Flynn’s Hawd Tales and four copies of Noah Van Sciver’s A City of Whiskey and Fire, as well as a signed copy of Neil Gaiman’s Violent Cases and a first edition Mr. Punch.  "It was weird, and random," Arsenault told ICv2, since the thieves also targeted several of the large high-end art book shelves, removing 2/3 of the titles from one, and 1/3 of another, but didn’t steal other valuable property that was in plain sight, like an ipod on the counter.  "They didn’t touch the cash box, or anything in the back room," he said.
 
Thankfully, Arsenault said, there was a replacement pane in storage in the store, so the window has been fixed and the store will open again tomorrow.  However, the shattered window left miniscule shards imbedded in two stacks of books displayed near the store front, which he doesn’t think can be completely removed with vacuuming, so they may be a total loss.  
 

The store had recently purchased a new security system, but "we haven’t had time to set it up yet," Arsenault said.
 
This is the second comic store burglary in the last few weeks in which burglars took weirdly specific merchandise (see "Wichita Comic Store Burglary Nets $300,000 in Comics and Collectibles").

Complete listing of stolen items Arsenault shared via email:

(4)          A City of Whiskey and Fire by Noah Van Sciver
(3)          True Stories Volume One  by Derf Backderf
(2)          Much Success by H. Valium
(2)          Unearthing by Alan Moore
(2)          Tooth by Dale Flattum
(3)          Comic Book Artist Magazine
(1)          Violent Cases Tundra edition (signed by author) by Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean
(1)          Mr. Punch 1995 edition by Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean
(1)          The Glorkian Warrior Delivers a Piza by James Kochalka
(1)          Hawd Tales by Devin Flynn
(1)          The Best of Milligan & McCarthy by Peter Milligan & Brendan McCarthy
(1)          A Body Beneath by Michael DeForge
(1)          Голем успех by H. Valium           
(1)          Jimbo's Inferno by Gary Panter
(1)          Storeyville by Frank Santoro
(1)          Elektra Lives Again by Frank Miller
(1)          Basewood by Alec Longstreth
(1)          X'ed Out by Charles Burns
(1)          Skin Deep by Charles Burns
(1)          Scam: The First Four Issues! by Erick Lyle
(1)          Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
(1)          NOBROW 6        
(2)          NOBROW 7        
(1)          Gigantic Robot by Tom Gauld
(1)          Anatomy For Artists by Anthony Apesos
(1)          Stray Bullets 1 by David Lapham
(1)          Stray Bullets 2 by David Lapham
(1)          Hi- Fructose 31 
 
“And at least a dozen other books and magazines,” Arsenault said in the email. “Titles include Juxtapoz, Bust, Back Issue, and Study Group.  There is a selection of books by Keith Knight, Jen Sorensen, Joe Sacco and Lloyd Dangle as well.”