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After years of reading about Isotope Comics in San Francisco and reading various interviews with the owner, James Sime, I finally indulged myself in a trip to his unique store.  James was sitting at the counter when I arrived, as friendly and enthusiastic about comics as I am.  It’s a good quality for an owner to have.  I had a brief feeling of Déjà Vu after meeting James, who is well known from CBR, Flickr, Twitter, and various podcast interviews.  Never before had I met a store owner who is well known on the Internet!

Within seconds of my arrival we started talking about Doctor Strange—after I spotted his costume hanging in the balcony.  We both agreed that the current Strange series is somewhat lacking.  In fact, James’ theory is that anything with the title “Strange” isn’t all that good.  There was the JMS series a few years ago where Marvel attempted to reboot the good doctor.  And if you remember the 1990s era comics where Doc split into two entities—one called Strange—this theory seems spot on!  We both agreed that Brian K Vaughan’s The Oath series was one of Doc’s finest tales.

Isotope’s interior design is equally friendly.  There are no long white boxes that you have to step over as you walk around.  It does not look like a refuge for seedy characters.  It is a store where you feel comfortable looking around at cool things  The store is brightly lit, there are comfortable seats where you can read stuff, and they have interesting graphic novels on display everywhere.  They have new comics as well as mini-comics.  There is also a selection of original art on display.

Isotope is famous for having unique events where creators come to do signings.  James can really think out of the box and tries to make these events special—by offering limited edition pint glasses for Darwyn Cooke or scotch tastings for Warren Ellis.  James started getting these creators to create a drawing on toilet seat covers; I’m sure it started off as a lark, but now Isotope’s upper wall is covered with dozens of them.  And James has so many, he can’t display the entire collection at once.  There’s a Warren Ellis piece featuring Spider Jerusalem right next to one by Darick Robertson, and Mark Millar drawing his rendition of Superman.

This toilet seat drawn by Darwyn Cooke makes me supremely envious.  It’s just perfect and captures everything great about Cooke’s style.  I showed this picture to my wife Teresa (who is not a comics fan) and she instantly recognized Catwoman.  That’s a testament to Cooke’s ability to draw the character in an iconic form.  Teresa wondered why no one has made a business out of selling toilet seat covers with images?  There probably is one, but not with comic characters.  I’d certainly buy this one if DC made this a licensed product.  But I wouldn’t use a backhoe to steal it.

I only spent an hour at Isotope before I had to return to work.  I bought a few great collections, Northlanders (vol 1 & 2, awesome stuff) and Criminal (2 volumes).  If you work in the financial district as I do, it’s really a convenient trip.  You can get on any outbound Muni at Embarcadero, travel to the Van Ness stop, walk up to Fell, make a left and walk 2-3 blocks to the store at 326 Fell Street. 

When I was in my 20s, I always had a fantasy vision of what my ideal comics store would be like.   I always imagined a place where collections were readily available, top-notch creators would come and socialize with fans.  And perhaps share a drink or two on special occasions.  James Sime is my idol—he not only dreamed about such a place, he made it into a reality!  Nuff said!

Links:  Isotope Comics, James Sime on Twitter

Dave Olbrich, the former publisher of Malibu Comics, has just started a wonderful new blog called Funny Book Fanatic.  He's done a lot of other jobs in the comic business besides Malibu.  One of them was a stint as the editor of Amazing Heroes, probably my favorite magazine about comics back in the 1980s.  (I've just unearthed a treasure trove of that publication and will have to share some of them with you soon.)

Dave's giving us a new look at past events in his blog, I really enjoyed this story about Walter Simonson, when Dave tried to interview him for Amazing Heroes.  Little did Dave know that he would be publishing Simonson's work in Malibu's Bravura line!

Can I say how much I miss Malibu?  It had some really wonderful titles, I was very excited to see George Perez drawing Ultraforce when that title first appeared.  The above cover is part 2 of an Ultraforce-Avengers team-up, written by Warren Ellis and drawn by Perez.  This second issue had a reality warping device that smooshed the Avengers and Ultraforce together, and you got some really kinky stuff, like Quicksilver bedding down with the Wasp.  At the end of the story, the Black Knight crosses over into the Malibu universe and joins Ultraforce.

Another classic Malibu title was Firearm, where I took note of a talented writer named James Robinson.  Firearm was a private detective who took on cases involving super-powered Ultras, who frequently used him as a punching bag.  One line that he wrote in issue #2 has always stuck in my memory: "I'm a Touchstone guy in a Walt Disney world.  And sometimes, I hate it."  Nuff said.