RetroGeeks Revitalize Downtown Dearborn

Dan Merritt wants a better tale to tell.

"I wish the story was more compelling, but it really just came from a long list of words," he says about how him and his wife Katie came up with the name Green Brain for their comic book shop in East Dearborn.

"We wanted a good image when you heard the name and we wanted it to sound kind of like a pub or meeting place – something that evoked curiosity. The greatest thing a name can do is pull on a person's interests," he says.

Dan pauses. He's sitting in his "office," which is a gaggle of mismatched tables and chairs behind the counter in the front window of his store. "I guess this story is kinda lame," he finally gets out.

Whether or not branding experts would agree, the name seems to be as memorable as Dan and Katie hoped. Green Brain is one of the top three or four comic shops in southeast Michigan and it's fitting that it would call one of Detroit's more storied cities home.

And, while their name has been a success for their shop, their shop, in turn, has been a success for their East Dearborn home, located right on Michigan Avenue, a handful of blocks west of the I-94. In fact, the whole building – upstairs and down – has become a point of interest for the town made famous by Henry Ford.

Upstairs, downstairs

See, it's not just Green Brain inside 13210 Michigan Ave. There is another husband and wife team upstairs, slinging a completely different product, but selling the same thing – Dearborn.

Windy Weber and Carl Hultgren run Stormy Records on the second floor. This eclectic little record store plastered with posters and filled with tunes, is a mainstay in Dearborn and Detroit's music collecting scene.

And, as for Stormy's name, well, that's a bit easier. Windy says they pulled it from the 1933 song, Stormy Weather, covered many times over.

"Stormy and Green Brain are great additions to the energy and life of the district," Michael Boettcher, Executive Director of the Dearborn DDA, says. "The owners are so enthusiastic about their product and what they do that they can't help but alter the area. These independently owned mom-and-pop shops have been a formula for success for our town."

For nearly a decade the two businesses have carved out a little niche inside Dearborn that has surpassed its own borders. They supply not only their town, but also the surrounding areas with their respective wares, selling comics and records to a wide range of people. They've got nerds, hobbyists, the old, the young, freaks, geeks, and – in terms of comics – a certain Detroit city council member stopping by to chat, discover, and purchase pages or comics and stacks of CDs.

"We get a huge amount of people from outside of Dearborn," Dan says. "We have a lot of customers from Detroit and a lot from the suburbs. And we're a big boost to street traffic. We're on a main street, with a storefront, and a door and a sidewalk. We're right here."

But Stormy and Green Brain weren't always packaged up like they are now. Green Brain was originally a half-block away. It used to be called Comics Plus back in the mid '80s. The original owner got old and sold it to Dan and Katie in 1999. They changed the name and moved it down the street to their current bigger, better, more boutique-y location.

Stormy, on the other hand, spent seven years moving around Dearborn before finally settling into Green Brain's second floor. It was July 2006 when Dearborn's dynamic duo finally joined forces. And despite Stormy's stormy past, they have no intention of leaving Dearborn. The two have become beacons for their city.

"They are critical to our downtown," Boettcher says. "They bring in new audiences to a place like this. Their customers are a little more experimental, a little more edgy. Those types of customers are open to exploring the city. They want to check out what's going on around the corner."

Which includes the nenown Arab American National Museum and just down the street, the Montgomery Ward redevelopment, which is expected to play home to Oakwood Healthcare System and Midwest Health Services.

A sense of place

Green Brain and Stormy Records have provided a new face to East Dearborn's downtown and have turned it into a destination spot. They have etched out an identity by sticking to what they love. This has not only helped them pay their bills and fill their souls, but also brought people to the streets of Dearborn.

"Dearborn has a nice mix of urban and suburban," Dan says. "We're a few feet into the neighborhood, we're on Michigan Avenue, close to a big city. We're a modest little town on an international map. This place is real … and people feel that."

This anchor on Michigan Avenue seems to fall in line with the growing idea of urbanism here in the state.

"Michigan has always been behind the curve when it comes to downtown living," Boettcher says. "But it's happening now. Places like Green Brain and Stormy surviving is a healthy sign of this. People are starting to pay attention, asking and thinking about what's next. Dearborn is on its way to being the next great downtown."

"People are remembering what a downtown is," Dan adds. "People are getting bored of parking lots and mini-malls. There is a move to bring businesses down here, this is an interesting period of time for Dearborn."

Comics and little record shops are widely thought to serve a niche audience, and, at the surface, maybe they do. Green Brain tends to pull in mostly 18 to 35-year-old males. But as the graphic novel market gains greater respectability --they are now reviewed in the New York Times Book Section-- that customer base is evolving. Meanwhile Windy says that not as many teenagers come into Stormy looking for new music as in the pre-iPod era but draw collectors and an older nostalgic crowd. Deep down, however, comics and records transcend age, race, and gender. There is a lot of history and memories attached to these two mediums.

"I learned how to read from comics," Dan says.

And now Dan and his wife Katie, who has worked in comic shops for nearly 20 years, make a living selling the very thing they love.

"Carl and I have a lot of teenage memories here in Dearborn, of buying records, vintage things, hanging out. It's very nostalgic here for us. It's good for the soul for us to stay here."

When you walk into a Green Brain the smell of ink and pages grabs you. When you walk up Stormy's creaky stairs, you can smell the record sleeves and hear that familiar sound of someone shuffling through plastic CD cases. These are very nostalgic places that aren't just selling comics and music, but memories and, quite possibly, the future of Dearborn.

Stormy and Green Brain, by doing what they love, have become an imperative puzzle piece to the growth of their beloved downtown.