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Part II - Shopping the Geek Life in Portland.

While not as serious as the Tupac vs. Biggie feuds, Portland, like most cities, has its East and West rivalries. Thankfully your friendly neighborhood Geek is willing to cross the lines of diplomacy and get done what needs to be done! Being the continuing research of where to spend your hard-earned gold-pressed latinum I take you to two more fine Portland businesses.

Cosmic Monkey Comics and Rainy Day Games

Cosmic Monkey Comics - 10227 NE Clackamas St. Portland - 503.253.2752

I’ve written about this store a couple times now, and my support of Cosmic Monkey has not waned. The place is a little small and if it is very busy you may quickly find yourself growing a tad claustrophobic. Don't let its small size fool you though, Cosmic Monkey is packed with comics. This little gem in East Portland is one of the few stores in the area that is comics first, toys and merchandise second. (Although Cosmic Monkey has a good amount of popular and hard to find items). Like most shops, Cosmic Monkey offers a discount to customers who setup a monthly subscription for their books. (Simply a must if you’re trying to keep up with body count in DC’s Crisis). Personally, the greatest draw to Cosmic Monkey is the staff and its owner who are all more then willing to talk about all things comics, from the newest releases to long forgotten creators. These folks know their books! Check them out today. Tell them “Aaron the Geek sent me”, (it won’t do anything for you, but I’ve always wanted to say that).

Rainy Day Games - 18105 SW Tualatin Valley Hwy, Beaverton - 503.642.4100

This shop was introduced to me by one of my fellow gaming buddies. I both curse and thank him for it. Thank because it is a great shop, curse because all their awesome items taunt my already thinned wallet. Rainy Day Games is one of those great stores that your momma’ hated. They are the type of store that would let you hang out and game all day when ditching school. (Not that I think the owners of Rainy Day would ever allow such a thing, stay in school kids). As expected from a store with the word games in their name, Rainy Day really does have every tabletop game imaginable. You name it, they have it: RPGs (new and old), card games (poker to Yu-Gi-Oh), board games (the standards to Doom), puzzles (mad-libs to tangram squares), and everything else in between. The staff at Rainy Day Games is very knowledgeable about their product and have no problem expressing their opinions on certain games. The store has a section roped off for in-store gaming sessions and various card and/or miniature tournaments. Finally, Rainy Day Games has the perfect luck of being next to a decent pizza joint, making them the Geek destination site on the West Side! Maybe even the perfect Geek date... What? It’s worth a shot isn’t it?