Longtime Church Street Marketplace fixtures Earth Prime Comics and Quarterstaff Games have moved a couple of blocks away, to the new Burlington Square development at 130 Bank Street. The comic book and gaming shops, started by the late Christine Farrell in the ’80s, will operate as a single entity called Quarterstaff Games and Earth Prime Comics.
Farrell, a noted comics collector, opened Earth Prime on Bank Street in 1983. The shop moved to the building Farrell bought at 154 Church Street in 1989. She opened Quarterstaff Games on the second floor that same year.
After Farrell died in 2024, former store manager Jordon Van Dyke took the reins of the two shops as owner-operator. Farrell’s estate decided to sell the building on Church Street earlier this year, prompting Van Dyke to combine the businesses and move them back to Bank Street. The new shop opened on May 16, across the street from Earth Prime’s original location.
According to Quarterstaff employee and social media manager Ross Johnston, the merger was a long time coming.
“It feels like a ‘at long last’ sort of thing,” Johnston said. “We’ve all worked together for years at this point, but now we can actually enjoy shifts together in the same store. No more running up and down the stairs between the two shops. It’s just so nice to be in one space finally.”
Johnston cited a variety of reasons for the move beyond the sale of the Church Street building.
“There were a lot of other factors that went into it,” he said, “a lot of things we can do in this new space that we really couldn’t do at the Church Street location.”
Specifically, the gaming store’s second-floor location wasn’t handicap accessible. It also lacked event space, which made it impossible to host popular games such as Magic: The Gathering or Pokémon. The new shop can accommodate multiple gaming tables and is fully accessible.
Johnston said employees initially worried that leaving the Marketplace might curb customer traffic, but they’ve been pleasantly surprised by the neighborhood feel of Burlington Square. Quarterstaff is located in the first floor of the mixed-use development next to the new AC Hotel Burlington and Jitters Café and Lounge.
Johnston is hopeful that the new store will strengthen the comics and gaming communities the store serves.
“There’s a real acknowledgment within this community these days about how much we really need each other,” Johnston said. “I know in the past, the shop has been sort of isolated, doing their own thing. And don’t get me wrong, I love a secret club … but it feels so important in this modern era of isolation to reject that and push for connection. And I think physical media like comics and games really help forge those bonds.”
Johnston added that the store is intended to be a local gaming hub and is in the process of becoming an official venue for Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon. Those developments should help attract customers to the new location. And if not, there’s always plan B.
While moving out of the Church Street location, Johnston and Van Dyke unearthed some decades-old advertising. “They were amazing hand-drawn flyers with the original Bank Street building, with an arrow pointing to Church Street,” Johnston said. “We’re thinking of updating them with an arrow pointing back to Bank.”