Thursday, February 15, 2007  
The Comic Den to Close

:: Posted by Bryan @ 2/15/2007 12:19:00 AM
Mississauga Comic Shop a Popular Manga Retailer

by Bryan Munn

The owner of Mississauga's The Comic Den, a 28-year veteran of comics retailing in the Toronto area, has announced that he will be closing his store permanently in June due to health reasons.

In an interview with Sequential, owner Terry Visser explained that a series of operations has made the running of the store problematic for his family.

"I was born with a muscle degenerative disease" Visser said. "After 14 surgeries in my life and with more to come, we couldn't run the store anymore. So my brother, Anthony, and I decided it would be best" to close the store.

After June 10, the store will continue to exist as a home-business, run as a subscription service out of Visser's home in Streetsville.

Comic shops sometimes seem to come and go, but this particular business has a longer history than most. The Comic Den has been a mainstay of the thriving GTA comics retail climate for some time, riding out several bust periods in the comics industry, and has recently taken advantage of the surge in interest in manga and anime among young consumers.

According to Visser, "The Comic Den has been in business for 28 years. We started in 1979 doing flea markets and conventions. But I didn't open the store until I finished High School, which was in the mid 80's. The last few years we've been carrying a lot of trade paperbacks and translated manga (over 8500), as that market is really growing fast. We also carried over 4500 DVDs for rent, primarily anime."

This product mix has resulted in a varied clientele, including members of York University's manga club, YAMA (The Comic Den's website hosts a podcast about Japanese pop culture). Visser's "average customer is girls in their teens to men in their 40s." Although a popular fixture, The Comic Den has not been alone in sharing the manga boom. The picture Visser paints of Toronto is of an economically healthy market for comics. Visser notes that, according to Diamond Comics Distributing, "there is more stores in the GTA area then any other city in North America. There are some whole states without a single store. We started specializing in Manga/Anime and doing rental in 1987, and that seams to be rising."

Comic Den will continue to operate almost as usual until closing, although orders will be reduced, sold-out product will not be replaced, and, beginning in March, everything in the store will be discounted.

Visser's plan after he closes the store?

"Catch up on my reading."

The Comic Den
3032 Kirwin Ave.
Mississauga, Ontario

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