The mean streets of the Windy City took a toll on the storefront of well known comics shop Chicago Comics when a holiday bar crawl turned into a brawl.

On Saturday night, revelers in the Twelve Bars of Christmas pub crawl launched a row in front of Chicago Comics that left the front window smashed and a neon sign damaged as two men in holiday garb squabbled over a pot-themed ashtray. Chicago Comics Eric Kirsammer is asking TBOX, as it’s known, organizers to pay the $1000 in damages.

The cost to replace the window and repair the sign—more than $1,000—represents an estimated five percent rise in this month’s business costs, said Eric Kirsammer, the store’s owner.

The insurance deductible is $1,000, meaning Kirsammer would have to cover the bulk of the cost if he files a claim. And if he does, his premiums will rise.

“It’s a big expense,” Kirsammer said. “Bookstores are not high-margin businesses.”


The event in question is not just a few buddies wandering around getting hammered, but a huge milling crowd of more than 40,000 people wandering around getting hammered: some 25,000 tickets were sold for the crawl, meaning organizers may have netted as much as $1 million in ticket sales.

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Chicago Comics is well-known as one of the finest stores in an area blessed with many great comics shops, with a particular emphasis on the indie side of things—it’s a sister store of the famed indie bookstore Quimby’s. More pictures of the damage were posted on the store’s Facebook page with the caption

Thanks, TBOX!

Wrigleyville Strikes Again: Some drunk dude put another drunk dude’s head through our window. Class act, guys. Everyone’s okay though! Even the one who dove through our storefront, surprisingly!


Although ugly, this was not the most violent event of TBOX—elsewhere, a fellow was stabbed in the neck with a broken beer bottle, resulting in a “Friday the 13th” type scene. Ah, holidays.

3 COMMENTS

  1. “Those Wrigleyville drunks are a bunch of cretins.”
    Have you ever seen the South Side drunks? Those guys are thugs.
    FYI – Just because you are involved in a bar crawl does not mean that you are 1. “getting hammered” 2. causing property damage 3. getting in fights.

    Best of luck getting it fixed, Although I’d recommend going after the people involved in the fight as well.

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