FAN FARE
Production designer Valdar Wilt (Bones, Mythic Quest) and set decorator Maile Cassara (Minx, The Santa Clauses) started by studying The Comic Center as it appeared at the end of Big Bang. But that show's finale was in 2019, so the set was long gone. "We had to get the original set photos from the original set dec team, zoom in, look up every single figurine that was consistently seen, and try to find those," Cassara says. "One of my biggest fears was letting this fanbase down. I know how dedicated they are." The only original item available was the pinball machine, which takes pride of place again.
As the show opens, The Comic Center has seen better days, existing in a violent, dystopian version of Pasadena, California. 
SIZE MATTERS
Episode one sets up the present as a violent, anarchic world where life is cheap, windows are boarded up and cat food serves as hard currency. The look is dirty, nihilistic — and fabulous. "The first time I saw Chuck [Lorre, cocreator] walk into the comic book store, I was like, 'Oh my gosh, look at that face!' He was so happy that he was beaming ear to ear," she recalls. "The Big Bang store was a lot smaller; we made ours probably twice the size. Also, multicam has three-wall sets. Ours is single-cam, so we had a fourth wall, we had a ceiling, we had hanging lights."
FRIENDLY FIRE
Episode two opens on a universe where nobody's allowed to be angry. "We kept saying, 'Friendly, friendly, friendly,' and man, there is not a lot of stuff in the comic world where people aren't fighting each other," she says. "Thank goodness for Archie." A wall of Archie comics takes Stuart by surprise, along with DC Super Friends posters. Cassara also had some "friendly" comics made, including a Superman and Lex Luthor Best Buddies comic. "We had a crosswalk comic, and someone being nice to the elderly. The art department had a really good time coming up with names for all of those."
For each universe, set decorator Maile Cassara says, "We went through and changed every single comic that was on display," sometimes more than once per episode. The Warner Bros. prop house supplied many of them. 
MAGIC HOUR
Episode three lands in a magical world, so most comics were replaced by items of sorcery and enchantment. Cassara and her team put together spell packets while sitting on the floor together in an assembly line. "It was so fun," she says. "That's why I fell in love with this: being super hands-on and creating these crazy environments that you've just read from a page." The original store featured a life-sized astronaut figure, which was replicated for Stuart Fails. "He's an astronaut almost the entire series, but in episode three we changed him to Merlin, because science doesn't exist in that universe."
HIDDEN FIGURINES
Cassara was attached to the set's figurines: "There's this Poison Ivy figurine that's absolutely stunning; she's one of my all-time favorites. She's the heaviest thing I've ever lifted. These pieces are so beautiful, it's hard not to fall in love with them." And she favors another figurine the audience may never see. "I kind of want to keep it a secret, because I want people to try to find it. He's really tiny. We put him in a different place every time. He's just going to keep popping up in each universe."
This article originally appeared in emmy magazine, issue #9, 2026, under the title, "...But the Set Succeeds."
