Another local comic shop bites the dust

[samurainoir]

Dragon Lady Comics set to enter the deadpool

This one look me by surprise, and lately the shuttering of so many local comic stores has not been surprising at all. Probably because Dragon Lady was such an institution... One of the long standing mainstays of the Queen ST comics scene before moving up to trendy Little Italy. I recently spent a pleasant hour or so digging through back issue bins before going across the street to the Indy theatre The Royale (former home to Kung Fu Fridays). It's a real shame, the manager there is one of the good guys.

It seemed like two decades ago there was a comic shop in every neighborhood in Toronto. Now it's definitely a destination trip for most. I realize my love of the back issues bin is the way of the dinosaur, as that type of old school store makes way for the in print trade paperback store/chain shilling the diamond catalogue. dragon Lady was one of those shops that did used to really dig into the Indy scene and was also notable for it's comic strip reprint collections of classic stuff way back in the day.

The Indy/used bookstore scene in Toronto is not faring very well either.

[toys2cool]

that sucks man

[emeraldknight47]

That does suck. Always hate to see local businesses, especially niche businesses, go belly-up. Signs of the times, my friends....

[kingdom warrior]

This should be a surprise to no one as more and more people support digital comics. This is what's going to happen. smaller Comic shops will disappear leaving only the bigger stores to adapt and change but eventually they will ALL disappear and you may just find comics in books stores or just collected as trades......

[samurainoir]

I've noticed this has already happened West of the City recently.

There is a pretty good chain of stores in Oakville/Burlington (and I think Hamilton as well?). It follows the new school comics retail model quite well, and is actually well stocked in terms of variety of material above the Marvel and DC stuff. Basically they don't really deal in back issues much beyond the weekly stuff, and they just blow out the singles in the dollar bin after a while. The stores and clean and generally well organized, and well stocked in terms of trades from the diamond catalogue.

What I've kind of been discovering however, is that more often than not, unless it is the top tier stuff, trades quickly go out of print. So you go in looking for something a bit older or niche, and it's impossible to find.

I've found this to be true of the manga market in Tokyo in recent years as well. Only the top tier "Watchmen" and "Dark Knight" ie) Lone Wolf and Cub or Nausicaa seem to stay in print indefinitly, with the midlist titles quickly disappearing off the shelves in favour of the new.

The one benefit of digital is the fact that all these old titles that don't seem to be economically viable to keep in print and warehoused are finding new life as digital releases.

I'm just shocked that print is dying so quickly within the decade, I honestly would have imagined us print-heads would have had much more time. I admit given my lifestyle that I find it much more easier to read the new stuff digitally, but nothing brings me more joy than getting my hands dusty and knees sore digging through boxes of back issues dating back decades and decades to find some kind of treasure I never knew about before.

And if I were to be objective, Dragon Lady has always been a dusty dusty store smelling of old paper... but it's dedicated to nostalgia and paper collectibles, so what do you expect? One less store with a wonderful stock of back issues dating back thirty plus decades, with a particularly good selection of indy stuff.

[thunderbolt]

The other factor when considering people that prefer print is the fact that a lot of us don't care for the current comics all that much and flock to back issues online or at used stores. I just picked up a big pile of 70's Marvel monster reprint comics that will keep me busy for a while. IMO a better value than a current JLA pin up snails pace book.

[Figuremod73]

One of my worries is what will become of these back issue filling these stores that are closing? Will they find a home somewhere or eventually just be thrown away? Some of the best comics are in the 25 cent bin (for just reading who cares if its a dog ear?). I seriously doubt many of those will find a place at a online dealer.
It most likely will be all digital within the next decade....

[kingdom warrior]

I've noticed this has already happened West of the City recently.

There is a pretty good chain of stores in Oakville/Burlington (and I think Hamilton as well?). It follows the new school comics retail model quite well, and is actually well stocked in terms of variety of material above the Marvel and DC stuff. Basically they don't really deal in back issues much beyond the weekly stuff, and they just blow out the singles in the dollar bin after a while. The stores and clean and generally well organized, and well stocked in terms of trades from the diamond catalogue.

What I've kind of been discovering however, is that more often than not, unless it is the top tier stuff, trades quickly go out of print. So you go in looking for something a bit older or niche, and it's impossible to find.

I've found this to be true of the manga market in Tokyo in recent years as well. Only the top tier "Watchmen" and "Dark Knight" ie) Lone Wolf and Cub or Nausicaa seem to stay in print indefinitly, with the midlist titles quickly disappearing off the shelves in favour of the new.

The one benefit of digital is the fact that all these old titles that don't seem to be economically viable to keep in print and warehoused are finding new life as digital releases.

I'm just shocked that print is dying so quickly within the decade, I honestly would have imagined us print-heads would have had much more time. I admit given my lifestyle that I find it much more easier to read the new stuff digitally, but nothing brings me more joy than getting my hands dusty and knees sore digging through boxes of back issues dating back decades and decades to find some kind of treasure I never knew about before.

And if I were to be objective, Dragon Lady has always been a dusty dusty store smelling of old paper... but it's dedicated to nostalgia and paper collectibles, so what do you expect? One less store with a wonderful stock of back issues dating back thirty plus decades, with a particularly good selection of indy stuff.

It's sad when I see "Old" shops that had character disappear and newer antiseptic stores pop up with nothing but the latest on the shelves. I'm not sure if DC and Marvel have intentions to eliminate shops on purpose.

If everything is digital what's the need of a mom and pop store? you can buy directly from the them or as a trade you can go to a major book store in any mall.

Digital is not going away anytime soon. I understand that.

I do agree that having Golden age comics accessible to read is a plus. it's normally much more difficult to track books down and not pay and arm and a leg just to read. That I do like. but the modern stuff I just can't read on line my brain understands that books from the 40's are hard to come by.Modern books, no sorry I have to have those in my hands to read.

I agree, I love going through bins finding books that I never read or owned from the siver age up to the 80's and nothing and i mean nothing beats the smell of an old comic.

[kingdom warrior]

One of my worries is what will become of these back issue filling these stores that are closing? Will they find a home somewhere or eventually just be thrown away? Some of the best comics are in the 25 cent bin (for just reading who cares if its a dog ear?). I seriously doubt many of those will find a place at a online dealer.
It most likely will be all digital within the next decade....

Usually they are bought in bulk by liquidators for others to buy. I remember in NYC going into a wholesale shop where they had tons of comics to buy for comic shops to stock up on.

Flea market guys buy them up too.....I scored a complete mint Watchmen set at a flea market for cover price sitting in one of the bins the guy had. he said he had no clue what was in them he was just there to make money and pay his bills.

[ctc]

>unless it is the top tier stuff, trades quickly go out of print.

A lot of that depends on the company too; some of the smaller publishers can't afford to keep reprinting stuff, even top sellers 'cos after a certain point everyone who wants one has one and the extra become warehouse filler. For that reason a lot of smaller companies and individuals go print on demand. The RPG industry is headed that way. (I suspect they can't quite go totally digital 'cos there are too many accessories that don't translate as well and there's a lot of page flipping involved.)

>Only the top tier "Watchmen" and "Dark Knight" ie) Lone Wolf and Cub or Nausicaa seem to stay in print indefinitly, with the midlist titles quickly disappearing off the shelves in favour of the new.

Japan is an interesting case study (and it's a shame more folks here don't look at it as such) 'cos EVERYTHING we're going through now they've been dealing with since the late 90's. The industry there contracted HUGE; and as a result "Playing it safe" is THE way to go. The formulas have become increasingly codified, and as soon as something isn't hot it goes away. They've even started dismantling their "underground" and "Independant" branches, ensuring further conceptual stagnation. (Although they're a bit late for the Wertham party: Party like its 1954!- Tokyo Manga Censorship becomes Law! | RobynPaterson.com )

>The one benefit of digital is the fact that all these old titles that don't seem to be economically viable to keep in print and warehoused are finding new life as digital releases.

....not to mention the doors it opens for all sorts of new stuff. I'm glad for both, since I think the mainstream N. American comic industry has been "eating it's own tail" for well over a decade. The old audience is dead; we need to now cultivate the new one.

>I honestly would have imagined us print-heads would have had much more time.

It never works out that way....

>nothing brings me more joy than getting my hands dusty and knees sore digging through boxes of back issues dating back decades and decades to find some kind of treasure I never knew about before.

I can KIND OF agree; but for me the joy was in the reading of some weird, obscure comic. So the digital format is a passable second choice; mitigated by the variety open to me.

Don C.

[Brazoo]

Wow - this is horrible and surprising news. I live just down the street and go as often as I can afford to - which isn't too often these days, unfortunately.

[Mego Magyar]

20 years ago I could get to 6 to 7 comic shops here in Vermont now I know of only 1, the first one there ever was in VT up in Burlington is the only one left and that's not what it used to be.

[samurainoir]

20 years ago I could get to 6 to 7 comic shops here in Vermont now I know of only 1, the first one there ever was in VT up in Burlington is the only one left and that's not what it used to be.

I was in that one a few years ago and i didn't really find much that excited me in the comic store, although there was a pretty decent used bookstore in Burlington I liked.

At least there are still some good comic shops in Montreal left across the border, but again about half as many as there were in the nineties... Captain Quebec used to be comparable to the Silver Snail in Toronto, but it looks like times have not been good in recent years. It will be interesting to see what the SS in Toronto will morph into under the new owners and whichever new location it ends up at. Back in the day Queen ST used to e the comic book mecha, with at least 4 shops within a few blocks of each other as well as Bacca, the SCIFI bookstore. Now it's gone the way f the bookstores and record stores that used to dominate the strip.

[MIB41]

Emeraldknight and myself were discussing this very subject the other day after we had departed our favorite comic shop dating back to our childhood. I generally feel that with the advent of the Kindle, and it's increasing popularity, comics will eventually be forced to convert to this format. Publicly traded companies like Marvel and DC will want to do away with the costs associated with printing and distribution, if the very near future indicates a dominate virtual presence. That being said, I thought little shops like ours would have to invest in an online presence to keep those sales coming and use their physical shops to sell the old back issues and all of the nostalgic toys, DVDs, and CDs which make up a good portion of their revenue as well. If they don't do this, they will continue to die off. Just my thoughts.

[Hector]

Print media is quickly dying, folks.

Two comic book stores institutions have closed around my area in recent years...Comic Relief and Comics & Comix...

Comic Relief - CLOSED - Downtown Berkeley - Berkeley, CA

Comics Comix, Berkeley

Comic Relief's owner, Rory Root...was a major player in the world of comics...



Wikimedia Error


Some say Root was the inspiration for the Simpson's Comic Book Guy...but he always dismissed that rumor...