Asbury Park Boardwalk Comic Book, Record Shop Gives You Spot To Unwind
This story features a Brookdale Alum Chloe Fallon.
By Susan Bloom, Special to the Asbury Park Press
Growing up in Marlboro, Aaron Hochman loved music and comic books and amassed extensive collections of both.
And he successfully took those lifelong passions to the next level in early 2025 by launching Unwind Comics and Records, a vinyl record and comic bookstore on the Asbury Park boardwalk that serves as a welcoming place for community members to relax and celebrate their love of these iconic arts.
“My parents were huge fans of classic rock, and I always loved music as a kid, especially Led Zeppelin, as well as comic books like Mad Magazine,” recalled Hochman, 36, an Asbury Park resident.
After graduating from the State University of New York at Oneonta with a degree in mass communication, “I held jobs in social media, graphic design and in the movie industry and then worked at Apple for several years, where I built skills in sales, customer service, time management and merchandising.”
“When I was about 25, I met one of my now-best friends who runs a comic bookstore, and he helped me get further into comics,” continued Hochman, who became obsessed with such comic books and graphic novels as “Black Hole” by Charles Burns, “Patience” by Daniel Clowes and “Swamp Thing” by Alan Moore.
A decade later, and ready for a complete change from his job at Apple, a chance oceanside stroll helped inspire Hochman’s next professional move.
“I was walking down the Asbury Park boardwalk last spring when I noticed a 700-square-foot shop for rent and immediately saw my future,” he said.
“I’d always wanted to open a record and comic bookstore and had a huge collection of both things, but I never thought I could,” said Hochman, whose parents helped provide the encouragement he needed to make it happen. “My own collection of records and comics ended up filling the store and my goal was to sell my stuff and make enough money to buy it all back.”
“I named the shop ‘Unwind Records and Comics’ to evoke a quiet and calm space where people can relax, unwind and talk to us about whatever they’re into; we’re a place of warmth and community,” Hochman said. “We opened on Memorial Day weekend in 2025 and were incredibly busy all weekend, which was such a proud moment for both me and my parents to see.”
One of Hochman’s first moves as owner was to hire Chloe Fallon as his store and social media manager.
“I was really into emo bands like My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy as a kid, but I also loved the folksy ’70s stuff that my mom listened to, like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell,” shared Fallon, 32, a Neptune City resident whose father was big into comics.
“My dad had a huge bin containing hundreds of old comics from the 1980s to the 2000s and asked me to sell them,” said Fallon, a native of Bradley Beach who held a degree in graphic design from Brookdale Community College in Middletown. “I knew Aaron through mutual friends and was aware that he was opening the store, so I ended up selling them to Aaron, but I’d recently left my corporate job and asked him for a job there as well.”
Hochman didn’t hesitate to take her up on the offer the weekend the shop opened, “and Chloe’s first day was that Memorial Day,” he said.
Eclectic and curated
Today, amid Unwind’s eclectic and curated collection of 2,000 records, “we offer a great mix that reflects all of our tastes and the things that Aaron and I love — from the Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds’ and Bruce Springsteen’s albums to Ariana Grande, Hall & Oates, A Tribe Called Quest and the ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ movie soundtrack,” Fallon said.
“We stock the top albums from the late 1950s/1960s to today, from used older ’70s/’80s stuff by artists like Linda Ronstadt, Bread, Barbra Streisand, Engelbert Humperdinck and Jackson Browne for as little as $2 per record up to $20 to $80 for new pressings/printings of both old and new albums that have never been played,” Fallon said.
On the higher end, she said, “we just sold the several-record soundtrack to the ‘Metal Gear Solid’ video games for $160.”
As for the artists in greatest demand in their shop, “1980s-era imports from Japan are very hot right now, and we can hardly keep records from the indie/alternative bands Geese or Wednesday in stock because they’re so popular,” Fallon said.
According to Hochman, “we also carry about 1,000 comics from the 1980s to today, including the best of Archie, Invincible, The Walking Dead, Spawn, Doom Patrol, and Saga as well as graphic novels and Japanese Manga comics, all priced anywhere from $3 to $100 (for a coffee table-style collection book) but averaging in the $20 to $40 range.”
“We also feature comics created by local artists as well as a section of records by local bands,” Fallon said. “We welcome local bands to sell us their records so that we can be an outlet for them.”
With music and comic-related posters adorning the walls, Unwind’s maximalist décor pays homage to the store’s thousands of influences and eclectic vibe.
“I’ve always loved graffiti, so a lot of the look of this place is graffiti-inspired — comfy yet wild,” Hochman explained. “We’re always changing up the look and feel of the stuff on the wall and all of it is for sale.”
A welcome third space
Fallon said the shop’s customers run the gamut, from Gen Z and Gen Alpha teens browsing recent music to older adults hoping to get back the records they once had.
“Kids today are craving physical media because they grew up in a digital age and find the culture of vinyl collecting to be such a physical and enjoyable pastime, while older people love the nostalgia of finding their favorite record(s) from when they were 15,” Fallon said.
“Beyond home and work, people also love to have a ‘third space’ like a coffee shop or another gathering place to go to, and COVID took that away for a while, so it feels nice to be a third space for people,” Fallon said. “We have a couch in the store and people can come in and listen to music and read comics together.”
Among other trends, “turntables are back and the process of playing and listening to a record forces you to slow down,” Hochman noted. “People are getting into their whole turntable setup with their speakers, customizations and even diamond needles and we definitely see people once again embracing the artistic value of a full album, which is a beautiful sonic experience from start to finish.”
Supported by several employees, Hochman and Fallon remain focused on tracking the latest trends in music and comics, keeping their hottest products in stock, creating compelling social media posts, and continuing to grow the shop’s audience.
They’re not, however, overly concerned about competition.
“HoldFast Records in Asbury Park closed in 2020, and while there are a few other shops like ours elsewhere throughout the Shore area, we’re all in different towns and we all have our own niches, so it feels like less of a competition and more of a community,” Fallon said. “And though the Shore is a seasonal destination and we had a lot of visitors in the summer, we’ve been getting a lot of great local support in the colder-weather months and the word on Unwind Records and Comics is spreading fast.”
‘Community, nerdiness and music’
Closed for the month of January, Unwind Records and Comics is excited to reopen on Feb. 1 and start a bright new year.
“Looking ahead, we hope to continue growing as a spot for community, nerdiness and music,” Hochman said. “We’re working to launch a new website this year and look forward to collaborating on worthy causes and events with other local businesses and finding ways to engage with and give back to the community.”
“This job is incredibly fulfilling creatively, and I love being here every single day, creating content, sharing all of our wonderful products with people, and making them smile,” Fallon said of her favorite part of her role.
Hochman agreed that there’s nothing better than sharing his love of music, comics and art with others.
“I love stocking niche stuff that people don’t see anywhere else,” he said of Unwind’s unique inventory. “We have it here and it’s wonderful to be able to surprise and delight our customers.”
Unwind Records and Comics
Location: 1100 Ocean Ave., Unit D, Asbury Park boardwalk
Phone: 908-309-2289
Opened: May 2025
Owner: Aaron Hochman
Instagram: www.instagram.com/unwindrecordsandcomics
TikTok: @unwindrecordsandcomics
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Asbury Park boardwalk comic book, record shop gives you spot to Unwind