Twenty years of Whatever Comics

If you stroll down the high street, towards the old Westgate, you will find the last surviving comic book shop in Canterbury, “Whatever Comics”. Its owner, Manny, along with his wife, have been successfully running the store for 20 years.

They both believe that there is no secret behind outliving other shops but merely hard work and being passionate about the things they do.

Manny, please tell me, wouldn’t you rather have some fair and square competition?

We’ve always had it. In all the years we’ve been in business this is the first year since we started not having any competition from another comic shop but we still continue to have competition from places like Waterstones

What do you have to say about the lack of interest young people show towards reading a good old comic?

Now, I think the tables have turned quite considerably, maybe 20 years ago people weren’t so interested, but now I think the comic book is a medium that has gained a lot more respect than what it had in the past and we only have to look at the amount of films that are being made from comic books now. I mean 20 years ago I would buy a Superman t-shirt and girls would run away, now girls wear Superman t-shirts. And the fact that the bookshops, the big boys, are interested in stocking the product as well it’s another indication that it has become a lot more mainstream.

Do you avoid selling any particular type of comic or graphic novel in your shop?

Only comics that may bore the reader on being of extreme bad taste. As a retailer I have to have a certain amount of care on the product that I sell and I’ve got a responsibility not to stock comics that are so offensive that in the event of a parent coming in and seeing it on the rack next to a copy of Spiderman is going to get seriously worried about their child coming into the shop and buy comics. The last thing I want do is aiming out children from the shop because they are the next generation of comic book readers.

Have you noticed any increase in sales after X-men or The Watchmen hit the cinemas?

Some films, more than others, increase sell in the shop, Watchmen is one. I tend to say “no” to some of the merchandise for some of the films. I stayed clear of a lot of the Watchmen stuff because a lot of it was crap and a lot of people that didn’t know what the watchmen are wouldn’t buy it leader.

That’s always a good fun to seeing new movie based on a comic character, especially when they got it right but its painful when they did it wrong.

I told my friends I was going to interview you and actually some people wanted to know if you ever take into consideration employing students as sales assistants in your store.

Employment of people in the past has never been in the part time basis because we don’t make a fortune from this business so we can’t afford to pay a fortune. But if the right student comes with the right attitude and we would make enough money to pay him, we certainly consider it.

One thing that I’m curious about is your relation with the clients. You probably get angry when people take the comics out of their plastic covers or even worse, spill drinks or ice cream on them. How often do these things happen and how do you handle such situations?

Strangely enough, not as often as you might think most people are quite respectful. You do get the very small percentage of people that come in the store and have no idea what the product is. With people like that the idea is not to get angry and try to educate them.

And also, it’s something you can’t enforce. Accidents happen, like small child comes in drops a book on the floor and bends it you can’t force the mother to buy it unless she wants to.

Did you ever think about organizing one-day events where you would invite famous writers as Chris Claremont (co-creator of X-men) or Alan Moore as guest speakers?

We did signings in the past, with artists like David Lloyd. Soon, we’re hoping to have a launch of the second Wolfman book in our store, later this year.

One last question: what are the three vital things that should be considered before opening a comic book store.

First of all, do your research well. Two, believe in what you’re doing and three, be prepared to work bloody hours to achieve it.

[photos provided by Mike Radulescu]