Not-so-funny comics at Super-Fly bookstore

Anthony Barry and Thacher Cleveland opened Super-Fly Comics & Games on Dayton Street in August and offer serial comic books, graphic novels, and gaming products.

By Lauren Heaton

With colorful comics lining the north wall and dragon warriors from the gaming world alighting on every flat surface, Super-Fly Comics & Games at first glance feels like a kids’ store. But step inside the new business on Dayton Street, settle in with a Japanese comic book and a few adult graphic novels and get ready to enter a mix of parallel universes open to anyone with an imagination.

According to owners Anthony Barry and Thacher Cleveland, who purchased the serial comic book business from Dark Star’s owner Mary Alice Wilson in August, comics are moving into the broader literary market. They both got hooked on DC’s Batman and Marvel’s Spiderman comics as kids, but their interest has only grown with European and Asian creators of genres that include mysteries, romance, humor, horror, science fiction, Westerns, historical novels and anything else that could possibly be illustrated.

“There are more literary, non-superhero themes addressed in comics now — there’s been a groundswell of graphic novels,” Cleveland said last week, that appeal to adult readers interested in sophisticated text set against high art.

The store still carries 60 percent serial comics of the superhero theme by Marvel and DC, including the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, as well as Hell Boy, Spawn and Runaways by smaller publishers. Cleveland and Barry are also committed to stocking 40 percent of their merchandise with newer graphic novels that have pulp roots. Those comics include Sim City, R-rated pulp noir with adult sensibility and content; 300, a Frank Miller historical action novel about Spartan warriors and the Persian Army; Art Spiegelman’s political satire, Mouse; Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer; and Strangers in Paradise, a thriller/drama that focuses on relationships and appeals to a non-traditional comic book readership: women.

While in America the superhero genre of comics traditionally read by boys and men still dominates, according to Cleveland and Barry the rest of the world’s comic market, where Mickey Mouse is still the top-selling comic, is beginning to appeal more to women. Japan, which has a prolific comic market, produces many manga, or comics, that appeal to both genders and include a whole genre (yaoi) about gay male characters, many of which Super-Fly carries.

The bookshop’s owners are also trying to branch into the European comics, such as the traditional French strip comic Asterix, the Belgian comic Tintin and the British comic anthology 2000 AD, all of which still produce new material.

But Barry and Cleveland, who both attended Antioch College and worked at Dark Star for several years, are interested in finding out what their customers like and, based on requests and past purchases, will actively seek out comics they think might appeal to their regulars.

“This is not an industry where you can passively sit by, and exposing customers to new and appealing things is the most fun part of the job,” Cleveland said. According to Barry, it’s the reason people keep coming back.

“We supply them with the things they’re asking for and also the things they didn’t know they were looking for,” he said.

Part and parcel to comics is the gaming world. Started by the hugely popular role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons in the 1970s, it has spawned dozens of others, including the World of Darkness and Magic the Gathering, both of whose dice and figurines Super-Fly carries. Every Friday night Super-Fly hosts a Magic event in the gaming/reading room at the back of the store that usually runs from 5–8 p.m. Cleveland and Barry also plan to host regular X-Box electronic game events, the first of which is a Guitar Hero tournament hosted in conjunction with their neighbor store Dingleberry’s on Saturday, Dec. 8, starting at 3 p.m. The event includes first, second and third prizes.

Super-Fly Comics & Games is open every day of the week from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The owners post their most recent arrivals and “new cool stuff” at www.myspace.com/superflycomics.

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com