I probably need to spend more time reading comic books. As the “Star Wars” fever rises, some in my household are becoming frustrated that I keep confusing Count Dooku with Count Chocula. But fear not, we don’t have to be confused for long because the world of comics (yes, there are “Star Wars” comic books), board games and fantasy is becoming big business in Lawrence.

A new three-story comic and gaming store is opening in downtown Lawrence. Well, sort of. The Game Nut and Astrokitty Comics & More have merged, and an expansion project is underway at Game Nut’s longtime home at 844 Massachusetts.

Astrokitty recently vacated its longtime space at 15 E. Seventh St. when owner Joel Pfannenstiel sold Astrokitty to Game Nut. Joel, though, continues to be a part of the business. He’s helping design the expansion that will end up occupying all three floors of the Game Nut building at Ninth and Massachusetts.

“We plan to be the largest gaming store in Lawrence and really one of the largest ones in the Kansas City area,” Joel said.

The space already is occupying two of the three floors. The top floor of the building houses the comic book shop — now known as Astrokitty @ Game Nut — and it also includes the store’s action figure department. The main floor of the building continues to house the electronic video games. Work is underway to expand the shop into the basement level. It will include the board game selection, role playing games, the store’s High Score video game lounge, and a large area that can house up to 60 people who want to get together to play tabletop games.

“We want to create space where the community can meet and play,” Joel said.

The space, which is expected to be open in February, will be called The Dungeon, complete with the old stone walls of the basement that will be left exposed. Getting together to play board games or other tabletop games has become an emerging trend.

“There’s just a camaraderie and social aspect of it that you don’t really get as much with the video games,” Joel said. “We’re really going to push the aspect of community and interaction and people coming together.”

Video games, though, will remain a large part of the business. Joel said the number of people who play both video and tabletop games and read comic books is large. Television shows — everything from “Game of Thrones” to the multitude of zombie stuff — has led to greater interest in games and literature related to fantasy and other genres.

“There has been a huge upswing,” Joel said. “All this stuff that I’ve immersed myself in all my life, other people are doing it too. It is very cool.”

The Lawrence business community is certainly betting on the trend. This is the third major comic/gaming project I’ve reported on this year. Boom Comics opened an approximately 15,000 square-foot comic and gaming store earlier this year in the former Kief’s Audio Video space at 2429 Iowa St. In west Lawrence, Rolling Gnome Games — a store that focuses on a variety of board, tabletop and card games — opened at 3727 W. Sixth St.

Game Nut and Astrokitty, though, are two of the longer-term players in the Lawrence market. Both are celebrating their 10-year anniversaries this year, Joel said.

It sounds like the expansion in the industry isn’t quite done. Joel said Game Nut owner Gene Nutt is undertaking an expansion of his south Iowa Street store. Plans call for the amount of space for the south Iowa Game Nut, which is at 2540 Iowa, to approximately double. Work is likely to be completed in February, Joel said.

In other news and notes from around town:

• If I’m going to start reading lots of comic books, I’ll probably need a new house with an extra room to keep all my Count Chocula costumes. (Sorry, I’m still getting confused.) Regardless, I do have the latest figures on home sales in Lawrence.

For October, home sales in Lawrence were basically flat. (I didn’t say I had exciting figures. Why do you think I’m still making Count Chocula jokes?) Sales totaled 83 units, down from 84 in October 2014.

The numbers for the year to date are more exciting. The October numbers pushed Lawrence above the 1,000 homes sold mark for 2015. For the year, home sales in Lawrence are up 15 percent compared with 2014. Last year, the real estate market took a little dip in Lawrence, but it seems clear that 2015 will reverse that trend. Last year, home sales declined by about 0.2 percent. That was compared with a 17 percent increase in 2013 and a 28 percent increase in 2012. So, 2015 is on pace to return the market to more recent norms.

Here are some other numbers from the report put out by the Lawrence Board of Realtors:

• The number of newly constructed homes sold for the year have rebounded in 2015. New homes sales total 73, up from 60 at this time in 2014. However, sales of newly constructed homes continue to lag 2013 totals, when 86 had been sold at this time.

• The type of new home being constructed in Lawrence is slightly more expensive than in past years. The median selling price for a newly constructed home is $309,400, up about 1.5 percent from a year ago. It is up about $9,000 from 2013, when the median selling price was $300,620.

• The total dollar value of homes sold in Lawrence is up about 18 percent to $212.8 million.

• The median number of days a home sits on the market before it sells continues to fall. The median is now at 24 days, down from 33 last year and 42 in 2013.

• The number of homes on the market continues to fall, which real estate agents have said is depressing home sales in the city. The number of active listings stands at 317, down about 15 percent from last year and about 13 percent from 2013.

I also have one figure on real estate values. This one comes from the Douglas County Appraiser’s Office, instead of the Board of Realtors. The latest data from the appraiser’s office shows the average sale price for existing homes in Lawrence and Douglas County is $213,992 thus far in 2015. That’s up about 1.5 percent from a year ago. So, the real estate market is seeing some appreciation but isn’t going gangbusters, based on those numbers.