Dan Howard, an employee at Fortress Comics & Games, left, and Mark Chojnowski, tournament coordinator, center, make small talk with customer and East Lansing resident Mike Holmes. Fortress Comics & Games, 425 Albert Ave., sells the cards for Magic: The Gathering, a game Holmes was introduced to by his father.
For Jeff Campbell-Crawley, buying Fortress Comics & Games late last August fulfills a dream and mission.
“It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to own a gaming store,” said Campbell-Crawley, co-owner of the local comics and gaming store. “An opportunity presented itself, and I jumped on it.”
Due to family circumstances, Campbell-Crawley said the store’s pervious owner was unable to spend a lot of time within the store during recent years.
Lonnie Goodnoe, who Campbell-Crawley met and became friends with about four years ago while playing games at the store, approached Campbell-Crawley about possibly partnering up to purchase the store and make sure it remained in East Lansing.
“My first thought was that this was a really exciting opportunity,” said Campbell-Crawley, who has been a customer at the store since moving to Michigan in 1998. “I talked it over with my wife to see if it would be a viable option for our family and it was.”
After becoming co-owners of Fortress Comics & Games, 425 Albert Ave., Campbell-Crawley and Goodnoe shut the store down for a week of renovations.
From putting down new carpeting and adding new fixtures to having the bathrooms remodeled, the renovations helped clean up the store’s image.
“The store had fallen a little bit into disrepair,” said Travis Adle, manager of the store and longtime customer. “One of the things the remodeling did was cleaned the store up considerably. It brightened it up so it didn’t look so dingy.”
The store, which celebrated its 10th anniversary Oct. 1, offers customers a wide selection of comics and games — from video and card games to mini war games, which are played with miniatures that customers buy and paint then play against other game enthusiasts on mini war game tables.
Dan Howard, an employee at Fortress Comics & Games, said that the store’s large amount of space devoted to playing the games that the store stocks, including mini war game tables, draws a lot of customers from MSU and the Greater Lansing area.
“They can buy the games and play them at home, but then they’re only playing against their friends and people they know,” Howard said. “If they come in here, they can buy their games and play against other people and meet new people. Having a play area is very important to a gaming shop.”
Although the store offers an entire basement dedicated to playing the games customers purchase at the store, Campbell-Crawley said that they are trying to stock items that would interest random people coming off the street.
“We try to have something for everyone,” Campbell-Crawley said. “We don’t just cater to the gamer.”
Since the renovations, Adle said returning regular customers are beginning to return — and are impressed with the new look.
“Customers who haven’t been in the store in years are coming in on a regular basis,” Adle said.
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