The first time Alex Miller met Dark Horse Comics founder Mike Richardson, he was fresh off a round of Saturday morning cartoons.
It was around 2000, and Miller, who grew up in Milwaukie, was only 8 or so years old. “Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot,” a show produced by Richardson, blared from the TV. As the episode ended, the Dark Horse logo appeared on the screen.
“You know,” Miller recalled his dad saying, “we could go meet him.”
A quick trip to Things From Another World later, and there Richardson was — towering nearly 7-feet tall behind the comic shop counter, Miller just about eye level with his idol’s knee.
The next time Miller met Richardson was this past August at Milwaukie’s Little Float. As the former Dark Horse CEO signed comics, Miller announced his plans to open his own comic book store at a prime spot in the city’s downtown.
In June, Dark Horse shuttered the remaining two Oregon locations of its retail arm, Things From Another World. Through Dogwood City Comics & Games — another comic shop slated to open at 10977 S.E. Main St. by late fall — Miller hopes to carry on that legacy.
“If I we’re going to do this,” he said, “it had to be in that location.”
Opening a comic book shop wasn’t always on Miller’s radar. He retired from the U.S. Navy in spring, around the time he graduated from Portland State University with a bachelor’s degree in business technology and analytics.
He was toiling through the job search when Things From Another World announced its impending closure, Miller said, and a seed was planted: What if heopened a comic book store?
The final push came on one of the last days of the downtown Milwaukie shop.
Miller had stopped into Things From Another World with his daughter, 2-year-old JD, who was rustling through a rack of extras from Free Comic Book Day. Eventually, she plucked a book off a shelf and opened it.
“I got a picture of her, just sitting there looking at it,” Miller said. “And that was probably the moment where I said, ‘All right, I’m just going to do it.’”
Dogwood City, like most comic book shops, will stock manga, trade paperbacks and graphic novels. But Miller also wants the store to be “as much of a third space for folks as possible,” he said — a go-to spot for Pokemon tournaments and groups playing tabletop games like Catan or Dungeons & Dragons.
Another goal of Miller’s is to make it easier for people to pick up certain hobbies, he said. When scouting inventory for games like Warhammer or Magic: The Gathering, for instance, he plans to prioritize starter decks and items that present the lowest barrier to entry.
Dogwood City itself borrows its name — not from a far-off planet or character in a cult-classic science fiction series — but from Milwaukie, Miller’s hometown.
Dubbed “The Dogwood City of the West,” Milwaukie was reportedly home to the largest, oldest dogwood tree until a storm damaged the landmark in 1962. Even today, the dogwood flower, with its small, white petals, lends its likeness to the city’s logo.
“I, having grown up here (and) having so much love for the city, wanted to express that,” Miller said.
