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Underground > Comic Books >

Comic Book Shop/Coffeeshop.... bad things are lurking

00:03 / 25.07.02

Recently a friend of mine informed me that a combination comic shop/coffeeshop is opening on my side of town. I had some ideas of how this could work... a more conventional coffee house style layout with some a nice selection of independent publishers (stuff the angsty, coffeeshop-dwelling teen set would enjoy, no doubt) complemented by a selection of mainstream superhero comics.

I was in for a rude awakening.

We ventured over to the location, and the first thing I notice is the logo above the door. It looked like a coffee cup from a distance, but I couldn't make out what was in it until I got closer.... and saw the title. Cup of Kryptonite, or somesuch. Oh boy.

Apparently they're not quite open yet (people were inside painting and finishing some carpentry, cue sound of power tools). Someone who was obviously the owner invited me to take a look around, and assured me they're shooting for an opening. The front window was covered by what appeared to be a spider-man mural, and the walls had similar decorations.

Ok, I thought. It's a normal comic shop, supplemented with coffee. For the hell of it, I asked what they were going to carry, you know, any indy stuff? He said "Sure, we'll carry the Vertigo titles, maybe some stuff from Dark Horse." I'm thinking I might have to pay this man a visit and attempt to subvert his way of thinking a bit. I have nothing against Vertigo, but shelving even their complete lineup does not an independent selection make.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

00:07 / 25.07.02

I have always loved the idea of a coffee house that sold comics, but the ones I have seen do it, don't do very well. I don't know if it is because the comics people are too entrenched oir they just think the comics will sell themselves.

But a coffee shop filled with work by Seth, Peter Bagge, Crumb, Los Bros, and the other usual suspects would be something interesting to try.

19:32 / 25.07.02

This might be something I end up doing if/when I move out of Olympia. I just couldn't bring myself to compete with the indy oriented Danger Room here, and there's plenty of coffee to be found here anyway. I've often talked about going to Vancouver and opening a cannabis cafe / alternative book store with comics and weird books.

23:21 / 25.07.02

There's a Comic-Book-Cafe in San Fransisco I've been meaning to check out... Sounds much nicer than what you discribed.

01:34 / 26.07.02

I guess I might just be a little annoyed because I see so much possibility, yet none of it utilized. The store is basically next door to a theater that is now locally-owned and shows independent films (and some mainstream ones to supplement their lineup and income).

Said theater recently had an event where the writer of the original Road to Perdition graphic novel came to speak and they had a special showing of that movie. If I were the owner of the shop, I would have struck a deal with the theater, bought all the copies of the graphic novel I could and set up a cross-promotion in the lobby. At the very least, the theater should have fliers explaining the availability of the GN.

Maybe I should just do this myself someday.

02:39 / 26.07.02

A coffee shop is nice, but I've been going to the same comic shop for over five years. They ought to offer me a cup when I walk through the door. Well, that's how I'd try to run a business, anyway.

Regrettable Juvenilia

16:47 / 28.07.02

Burn. It. Down.

16:58 / 28.07.02

Pat, where?

Actually, I've always had bad luck trying to drink coffee and read comics at the same time, but that's a personal problem.

03:39 / 29.07.02

Flyboy, I don't get it.

22:07 / 29.07.02

You live in the San Fran area Monkey!?!?!

if so it's reported to be in The Sunset District 19th Ave and Jeruselium... I think.

23:40 / 29.07.02

I don't like the idea of food and drink near unpurchased comics. Coffee equals steam, steam equals added humidity, and that's never a happy when it comes to paper. Unless of course there's a threesome of burly fanboy bouncers standing on a white line in the middle of the store with t-shirts saying "No Food or Beverages Beyond This Point, Whoreson."

00:25 / 30.07.02

Well, they already smell of milk...

09:59 / 30.07.02

The fanboys or the comics?

The Natural Way

10:08 / 30.07.02

Well, I love reading my comics whilst filling my face with coffee and veggie sausage, round the back of the Dumb Waiter Cafe in Brighton. The Grinder's Balcony overlooking Kensington Gardens is nice too. Except for that one time a bird shat in my mug. That wasn't too cool.

Not sure about comic/coffee shops, though. Too many beards, bellies and peni in one room just isn't cool. And it might affect my appetite.

Regrettable Juvenilia

19:22 / 30.07.02

SMatthew: don't get me wrong - a comic/coffee shop *done right* would be a thing of beauty.

"Cup o' Kryptonite"? Burnitdownburnitdownburnitdown.

00:42 / 31.07.02

I can't say I'd shop there. It's just the idea that that somehow makes it wrong.

03:44 / 31.07.02

I just have this nightmarish image of mylar bags with condensation on the inside from being too close to the milk steamer.

No star here laces

08:30 / 31.07.02

Well several pubs in central london ought to be "comics bars" by now (Pint of Web Fluid?) owing to the number of times I've got drunk and left piles of comics in 'em...

Of course what we all really need is combination comic shop and cannabis cafe, with outdoor seating and very good lighting. (anyone else get fucked off trying to read comics in coffee shops/bars because the light is never good enough to see the art properly?)

10:20 / 31.07.02

I think problem many people would have would be that of a typical androids dungeon style coffee shop - where fanboys(tm) possessing low personal hygene standards attempt to bring new lows of food hygene to cafe culture.

11:22 / 31.07.02

oh dear. i love the idea of comics and coffee. all you'd need is a separate area away from the mags. and how about a bunch of donated/secondhand comics to browse through? or maybe i should just run a coffeeshop that has a good supply of newspapers/zines/comics.

sh! - the women's sex shop in shoreditch - have been known to dish out cups of tea and coffee to customers. my first visit there was on a very cold day, and coffee was most welcome and made me feel relaxed.

ONLY NICE THINGS

12:01 / 31.07.02

That *is* a lovely thing about sh!, isn;t it, SFD? There's nothing quite like a nice cup of tea as you breeze through the Califia...

I think Mazarine's "but humidity next to the comics! Oh my!" and Flyboy's "burnitdownburnitdown" complement each other rather well. Maz - surely there are bookshops that have coffee? I know that comics aren't *proper* books, but they have the same sort of chemical composition...

The Natural Way

14:25 / 31.07.02

Yeah, SFD, that's a great idea. Mmmm. First open coffee shop, then only order in a handful of really good titles, chuck in a few books and other good things, make an incredible loss, but huzzah! Definitely something to do if you win the lottery.

16:59 / 31.07.02

i suppose the lesson here is when starting a business is have a business plan - as opposed to the guiding principal that most comic shops appear to opperate under "i always loved comics and thugh i had enough to open a shop, so i did."

18:56 / 31.07.02

I know that comics aren't *proper* books, but they have the same sort of chemical composition...

Oh, I worked in two of such bookshops, Haus, and spent many an hour trying to get sticky over-sugared coffee off of books, picking tiny half full espresso cups out of the shelves. If there was a "thou shalt not hold coffee near a comic thou hast not purchased" law complete with alarm, like the ones in Borders that shriek if you try to bring a book into the bathroom that you haven't bought, then perhaps I'd be game. My book-plebe experience has turned me into a facist regarding this topic. At least until there's a way to weld coffee cups to the hands of consumers so they can't leave them anyplace. Miserable bastards.
-grumbles fussily and bitterly.-

Matthew Fluxington

19:22 / 31.07.02

I think that if someone seriously wanted to have a coffee shop with comics, the comics that would be available to read while you eat and drink would not be the same copies being sold.

I think the place would probably be wise to focus on being a lounge rather than a coffeeshop, cos if yr going to focus on coffee, you're going to have to deal with Starbucks, and that will not be fun at all.