Reading comic books, collecting trading cards and building and playing with model rockets and trains were cherished activities of childhood for many.
Those classic hobbies are still being passed down from generation to generation, according to Diversified Games owner Brian Guenther, who has many long-time customers who now bring their own children to the downtown Chehalis shop.
“It’s weird seeing a lot of these guys have grown up now, over and over. Some of the kids now have kids of their own, and in a couple cases have grandkids. It’s like, ‘Yeah, OK, I’m feeling old,’ but it’s cool at the same time, though,” Guenther said.
Diversified Games has been a staple of the area for over a quarter century, offering a wide selection of comic books, graphic novels and manga. The Chronicle visited the store on Thursday, March 20, to talk to Guenther about the history of his business and what he has planned for its future.
“It’ll be 26 years in August. I’m just gonna keep doing what I’ve been doing,” Guenther said. “The business, it’s evolved over the years. It’s just kind of the natural, you know, ‘as the world changes, we change with it kind of thing.’ … I try not to put too much in stone. Because it’s a fluid world these days, especially in comics and games.”
Along with the comics, Guenther sells a variety of board games, model rocket and train accessories, a selection of Games Workshop Warhammer model sets and paints, and collectable trading cards from games including Magic: The Gathering, Disney Lorcana and Pokémon, though Pokémon is currently out of stock.
Every Friday, he also holds tournaments for local players of Magic: The Gathering, events some have been attending for years.
“One of our old customers from the early 2000s, he was a teenager back then when he first started to come in. He came in to play Magic a few Fridays ago with his son,” Guenther said. “They live out towards Hoquiam or Aberdeen nowadays, but he brought him in here because this was his original store.”
Guenther has been in the comic book industry for around three decades after he initially bought into co-ownership of Pendragon’s Comics in Centralia in the mid-1990s. But, following a bubble formed in the comic industry during the 1994 Major League Baseball players’ and sports cards manufacturers’ strikes that burst when baseball resumed, Pendragon’s closed in 1996.
A year after that, Guenther was working at the Diversified Video rental store in Salkum. He eventually bought the business.
With the growth of the internet and digital video formats, he realized the video rental industry was dying. Guenther decided to move the business from Salkum to Chehalis and pivot from video rentals back to comic books, but he also added board games and hobby supplies to his inventory.
Diversified Games was born. It opened in August 1999.
Since then, it has survived the economic impacts of 9/11, the 2007 Chehalis River flood, the 2008 recession and, most recently, COVID-19 closures.
“Right now, in our industries, both comic books and games, they’re like, ‘Well what’s this tariff situation gonna do?’ Most of us are like, ‘Eh, probably not much,’” Guenther said. “But you never know, most board games — or at least components — are manufactured in China these days. And Canada is the biggest comic printer.”
Whatever economic challenges come his way, Guenther said he isn’t too worried about it. He attributes his business’s survival and success to loyal customers and being located in Lewis County.
“We’re lucky to be in Lewis County. Let’s face it, our economy is so bad, and it’s been so bad for so long, we don’t have far to fall. All these other places get really high on themselves, and then their economy crashes and they crash with it. Lewis County’s always just kind of plugged along,” he said. “We haven’t had the big swings in economic stuff ever since logging went away in the 80s.”
Big developments are underway in the comic book industry, including the bankruptcy of the largest suppliers in the industry, Diamond Comic Distributors, which runs the annual Free Comic Book Day every May.
“They’re getting auctioned off Monday, that’s how bad it is,” Guenther added. “... Diamond used to be the only comic distributor for decades. They had exclusive agreements with DC and Marvel. During the (COVID) pandemic and shortly after, DC and Marvel realized how bad Diamond was at being their distributor. So, they both left, and they were like 80% of its business, which is why we’re here now.”
Free Comic Book Day — scheduled for May 3 this year — is one of the parts of Diamond being auctioned off, and Guenther hopes it is still held this year as he’s already ordered stock for it. Even if it doesn’t, though, he still has plenty of other comic books to sell and will continue hosting weekly Magic: The Gathering tournaments.
Diversified Games is located at 551 N. Market Blvd. in downtown Chehalis and is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 6 p.m.
For more information, call the business at 360-740-7750 or follow Diversified Games on its Facebook at https://tinyurl.com/2s3pthjr.
