Like any collaboration we release, you were able to score your favorite pieces from The Hundreds X DC Comics through our website, and can still get certain items at our flagship store on Fairfax. Duh. But we’re also stocking select pieces from the collection in an underground, top-secret location to ensure that, without a shadow of a doubt, they stay out of reach of all evil-doers and dastardly villains alike. Why, you ask? Because you have to keep powerful pieces like these out of the wrong hands, away from the people who wish ill upon the world and choose evil over good.

Normally, we’d remain hush-hush about the mysterious team of protectors who oversee this classified location, but their heroic work must be recognized and celebrated. We’ll call this incredible place “Secret Headquarters,” and we’ll refer to the leader of The SHQ as “Dave” to assure confidentiality of all true identities.

Dave and his team of covert crimefighters needed a way to convene meetings with their allies and plot on the bad guys, so they opened Secret Headquarters in 2005, in the very spot that infamous American spy Dr. Frederic Rinehart once housed his own secret headquarters in the 1930s.

You can feel the history from across the street, looking at The SHQ’s beautiful antique facade on Sunset in Silverlake. Don’t tell the bad guys but it’s a few doors down from Undefeated and across the street from Intelligentsia Coffee, which has some great outdoor seating where you can dive right into the new comics you copped at SHQ. You know, when there isn’t a pandemic going on.

I stopped by Secret Headquarters to speak with “Dave” about his incredibly cool shop, the evolution of the superhero, and the culture of comics. If you missed out on any pieces you wanted from The Hundreds X DC Comics, make sure you hit up Secret Headquarters to get your hands on those, as well as a bunch of great new comics. If you’re not sure what you’re even looking for, stop by or call them up and the SHQ team will help you find your next favorite story.

On falling in love with comics:

I started reading comics just after high school. It was the early ‘90s, I was going to community college and my sister, who’s five years younger than me, had gotten into a few indie comics. I started reading what she was bringing home, and then one day when I brought one of them to one of my math classes, the guy sitting next to me was like, “No, you need to read this kind of stuff.” He gave me Sandman, and from that point on, I wanted to know everything and go into all the nooks and crannies. That’s just my personality style. As I went along, I learned that my “thing” in comics was… most comics.

Right around then is when Death of Superman was happening, and they had a Robin miniseries that blew up. Sword of Azrael by Quesada was coming out, which was a big Batman and Robin story that put the two on somewhat equal footing and featured a great new villain. It was a huge time for DC, all of them were so in-your-face as soon as you stepped in a comic book shop.

On his all-time favorite Batman:

I haven’t had an era of Batman that has really stuck with me, it’s really been more creator-driven. I’m always looking for a certain writer or a thing that an artist and writer did together. Around 1994, they did a Batman black-and-white series, which they’ve done continuously over the years. I thought those were some of the best Batman comics because they were a writer and an artist picking to work with each other rather than being assigned the project. And the story would only be six or eight or ten pages, right to the heart of their Batman. And then they stripped away all the color. Those spoke to me for sure. As far as other Batmans I love, Paul Pope did a Batman storyline called Year 100 and his tone and artistic style were really great and loose. Year One is amazing, that story is unbelievable, to this day. In comics, not a lot can survive but that one has.

On switching up long-established storylines:

I wish there was so much more. It’s so insane, over and over and over. I wish they were allowed to stretch. I know those stories are being made but they’re obviously shut down. Even when they let the artist and writer go and do their own thing, they’re still really boxed in with the storyline. Every once in a while, a story like Mark Millar’s Superman: Red Son will come out, and it’s great. And people still want to read that story. Kingdom Come, for instance, was pushing it at that time because it was a little out there for DC. Oh, and then Darwyn Cooke did a story called New Frontier that was one of the best DC stories out there. He kind of bridged the gap between the Silver and Golden Ages. Cook loved that world and you could tell, and the story shines. But it’s still comfortably within those characters’ styles.

On which DC Comics stories you should check out:

Scott Snyder got on Batman a handful of years ago and he did a great story out of the gate called Court of Owls. And it was successful, so they let him and a few other writers and artists live in that Court of Owls world for a while. His successor, Tom King, does some cool, weird shit and put his stamp on DC in a really interesting way. He’s doing a new Rorshach series that takes only a few years ago and it’s kind of a murder mystery. Another one was when they smushed the Watchmen and Superman worlds together with Doomsday Clock.

On shopping at Secret Headquarters:

People typically come in with at least a general understanding of what they like to watch or read, but if they come in totally new to comics, we’ll interview them a little bit. We’ll ask them what movies they’re watching, and it doesn’t even have to be superhero stuff, it can be anything. We’ll ask what music they’re listening to. What TV shows do you watch? What podcasts do you listen to? And a lot of the time, we won’t even land on something from DC or Marvel, because those are so specifically superhero stories. There are a ton of independent storytellers doing great things. And we want to get as close to what our customer enjoys as we can. The whole reason for Secret Headquarters is to give people a place where they won’t feel weirded out to ask questions and find something new.