Capital City’s comics culture

by nmendonca | Apr 19, 2013

Granted, Ottawa isn’t famous for its urban underground scene.  But where comic books are concerned, this city is quickly proving the industry, and even local naysayers, wrong.

Buy local. Dominic Bercier and Kristopher Waddell of Ottawa’s Mirror Comics, with two of the publisher’s titles.

With half a dozen shops across the Ottawa area, a local independent publisher, and a surprisingly successful spring 2012 convention, the nation’s capital may finally be proving itself a contender in the Canadian comics market. “Since Ottawa Comic Con, the cat’s out of the bag,” says Dominic Bercier, the co-founder of Ottawa independent publisher Mirror Comics, chuckling.

Bercier is referring to the Ottawa Comic Convention, a two-day event held at the CE Centre in May 2012 (previously held as a one-day event at Lansdowne Park). Organized by the same group that plans the Montreal Comic Convention, the 2012 Ottawa event drew over 23,000 in attendance and over 100 vendors – both exhibitors from stores and individual artists’ booths.

Rob Spittall, owner of the 13-year-old Comic Book Shoppe on Bank Street, says they weren’t expecting those kind of numbers, admitting, “We would have been happy with 5,000.” Spittall says the success surprised even the attendees. “We had a lot of people saying, ‘Wow, this is Ottawa? I didn’t think we could pull this off.’”

As for the exhibitors’ experience, Bercier and Mirror Comics editor-in-chief Kristopher Waddell say that their sales figures were a happy shock. Waddell says Mirror’s sales for the Ottawa convention were equal to what it had made at Toronto’s Fan Expo, though with only a fifth of Toronto’s attendance numbers.

Back issues on offer at Myths Legends & Heroes. Some first editions can cost hundreds, even thousands.

In retrospect, maybe no one should have been surprised by Comic Con’s explosive success. Scheduled just before Toronto’s Fan Expo and Montreal’s Comic Con, the Ottawa event enjoyed a timing and a location that were convenient to both Toronto and Montreal. But mainly Comic Con was a success because comic books are a rising tide in North America, and Ottawa, like neighbouring Montreal and Toronto, is tapping into it.

Beyond Canada

The market isn’t a small one. Diamond Comics Distributors, Inc., based in Timonium, Md., reported a $414 million market in North America in 2011. These numbers don’t account for online, independent sales or merchandising, with comics being just the tip of the geek iceberg. Small comic book shops across the United States have also reported an increase in sales. Though Diamond has yet to release the 2012 numbers, Rob Zedic, owner of Myths Legends & Heroes in Vanier, says this year has been his best since opening in 2004.

He says his clientele range from 20 years old and up, many looking to rediscover characters from their childhood or to fill gaps in their collections. “Most of the kids that come in here are brought by their parents,” he says. Spittall says that in the last five years demographics have changed dramatically. Though customers traditionally have tended to be males between ages 25 and 45, Spittall says now 30 to 40 per cent of clients are female.

Girls read comics, too.  Contributing to a noticeable demographic shift, a fan browses back issues at Silver Snail.

For Mirror Comics, Ottawa was the clear choice for their headquarters. While Toronto and Montreal are known art hubs, Bercier says Ottawa is more accepting of local artists. “You tell people you’re an artist in Ottawa and they’re like, ‘Wow, that’s really cool.’ In other cities it’s more ‘been there, done that,’” Bercier says.

Spittall’s Comic Book Shoppe, which sells Mirror Comics publications among others, holds a variety of events for the community, from art sales to girls’ nights in the Shoppe. Spittall also isn’t afraid to refer customers to other shops if he doesn’t have something in stock. “It is a business, but it works better when we work together.” It’s this thriving and cooperative spirit that Waddell describes in one line: “Ottawa is geek chic.”

Spittall says Comic Con, expanding to a three-day event for 2013, still has a lot of growing room, and his Shoppe continues to see more and more new faces. Still, some misperceptions linger. “To most people, the stereotypical comic book reader is the guy from The Simpsons: a cave-dweller living in his mom’s basement. Sure, you can find that guy, but most of the people there were not him. A lot has changed; now there’s something for everyone.”