Highway 62

One of the things I was able to do over the Thanksgiving break was to get out to San Francisco and tour the incredible selection of comic shops they've got out there. Comic Relief dwarfs the rest of them (and it's got a fine selection filling all that floorspace). Comix Experience is another great shop, carrying a selection of stuff that I hadn't seen in forever (and if only Marvel put a reasonable price on the SQUADRON SUPREME collection instead of $30, I'd probably have come home with that, too). But my personal favorite store is far and away the Isotope.

The old location over in the Sunset was an intimate space that very quickly got overrun during any of their parties (spilling folks out onto the sidewalk to grab a smoke and get some fresh air - yes I'm aware of the irony implicit there). And, of course, it was next to Noriega Teriyaki, which made for a nice way to spend an afternoon between comics and decently priced sushi.

But it was too damn small. This new location takes care of that problem. In spades. It's roomy, with enough wall space to handle all the back issues and new releases and extensive book stock. You've got comfy (if not a little low for my taste) seating aplenty. You've got the hidden bar and storage. You've got the gallery, both toilet seat and conventional art.

Most importanly, you've got ambience. Not Android's Dungeon ambience, but a kind of upscale gallery ambience. People can sit and chat while looking through the week's haul (when the music isn't too loud, which is the case as the day I was there, Ian Yarborough's birthday was being celebrated). If you looked at the place from the street, you wouldn't guess that it was a comic store. And that's fine by me.

That way, you actually get people coming in to look at the art, not knowing what to expect. Preconceived notions of comic shops are shattered (or better yet, informed) as folks come in off the street and get a dose of culture, not just comics culture. The Isotope is both accessable and cool, which is usually in the category of mutually exclusive, yet somehow, the nearly impossible gets pulled off.

James told me that he gets a lot of grief from other comics retailers because of all the "wasted retail space" in the store, but maximizing floorspace for comics isn't what the Isotope is all about. It's about an experience, one that can't be replicated anywhere, and one that shows comics as a vibrant and diverse artform, not just a habitual fix. James, Kirsten, Jared, and Ian should get credit for making the most of the new place.

I look forward to the time that I can come back, likely for Wondercon (which is shaping up to be a big show, mostly because it'll be the first time I'll be showing Strangeways as a finished product, not a work in progress.)