‘There were comics signed by Stan Lee’; Thieves burglarize West Seattle comic shop

SEATTLE - Seattle Police are investigating an early morning burglary that cleaned out a local comic bookshop of thousands of dollars in merchandise. It happened Saturday around 5:55 a.m. at Tails to Astonish on California Avenue SW in West Seattle.

Right now, the owners of the comic store are busy taking inventory of the stolen goods and working to reopen.

"We caught them on camera," said owner Shaun Duff. "The door was just splintered, and they cleaned out the top shelves and even took boxes of comics."

Duff told FOX 13 some of the comics stolen were valuable and highly sought after.

"There were four comics that were signed by Stan Lee," he said. "We also had a lot of first appearance comics."

Saturday’s burglary comes as a double blow to the business which has been serving West Seattle comic book lovers since 2021.

"This is the second time we’ve been burglarized in six weeks," said Shaun’s wife Nicole.

According to reports, the first incident involved thieves coming in through a back door of the store.

"In that case, they broke the glass and took all the books inside and the cash drawer," said Shaun. "This time, they came through the front and took high-priced items. Someone in the group knew what they were doing."

In the video three people are seen entering the store with hoodies and partial face coverings.

"My hope is maybe they’ll take the comics to some local comic book stores and, if we get the list out to people, perhaps someone will see something they recognize as being stolen from us," said Shaun.

RELATED: Seattle Police investigate deadly assault in Union Square

The store plans to reopen on Tuesday.

"This doesn’t stop us from loving what we do. There’s enough people in this neighborhood, there’s enough good out there that it’s not going to shut us down, but it does hurt," said Nicole.

Anyone with information about the comic book theft is asked to call Seattle Police at (206) 625-5011.