Mission: Comics and Art, a store many fans hold dear, is calling a community meeting Dec. 13 to discuss ways to keep the 14-year-old business at 2250 Mission St. alive.
“Everything is on the table, from changing the business model, moving the store, or even potential closing,” the owner, Leef Smith, wrote in a social media post. “The bottom line is that things are not working as they are now.”
Smith expects to see longtime customers and comics fans at the meeting, but he worries, “if there are only a handful of people, as passionate as they may be, that’s not enough to keep the business afloat.”
After experiencing a modest recovery after the pandemic, sales have again dropped by 12 percent, compared to 2022. Smith blames the decline on less foot traffic as the work-from-home culture has taken root, on safety concerns on Mission Street, and on the shift to reading and shopping for comics online.
The lengthy winter storm earlier this year also had a big effect, he said.
“It rained so much that people felt like, ‘Oh, I know how to do this, I know how to hunker down, I just go back to my pandemic life,’” he said.
Overall, the comic-book industry benefited from the pandemic. Sales of comics and graphic novels grew more than 60 percent in 2020, and another 4 percent in 2021, according to estimates by ICv2 and Comichron. But the brick-and-mortar comic-book stores have not experienced that surge.
“The customers that used to come in every week are often coming in every two weeks. People are not browsing, and a lot of customers have moved away from the city entirely,” Smith said.
Sour Cherry Comics, just four blocks away, at 3187 16th St., reports a similar experience. They opened in 2022 and had a strong year, but the owner, Leah Morrett, was shocked at the difference this year. “Vibes are totally off, and people are having a bad year in general,” she said.
Morrett has tried to bring new customers into the store with art shows, tea parties and writing workshops, but people feeling the pinch of inflation are able to do without comics. “What we are selling are not necessities,”she said. “It’s a luxury purchase.”
The city is losing some of its richness, Smith said, as businesses like Uptown and Amado’s have said their farewells, one after another.
Ryen Motzek, president of the Mission Merchants Association, said that the Mission’s struggling businesses should band together.
“I don’t think it’s a fair solution, but it’s desperate times, so we have to be creative,” Motzek said.
Smith, too, has tried different things to revitalize the store: Rewards programs, coupons, events, business loans, but none have helped much. “December is usually the best month, but I’m worried about January and February and March, especially if it rains like last year.”
Mission Comics found itself in similar financial straits in 2017. The owner held a community meeting and started a Patreon account. That helped the store survive until revenue started to grow again. But that support is not enough in the post-pandemic Mission.
The store, which has been around since 2009 at two different locations, is a special place for many. Royal comic fans, whom an employee, Alyssa Appleberry, calls “Wednesday warriors,” come into the story every Wednesday, when she stocks DC or Marvel’s latest issue.
“It’s a beautiful place, full of our work and inspiration,” said Appleberry.
Liam, a 4th grader at Sanchez Elementary School, looks forward to Thursdays and Fridays, when his dad takes him to Mission: Comics and Art after work. While his dad browses comics, Liam checks out Spider-Man action figures or reads a book in the armchair.
Nick Tucker, a regular at the store since its opening in 2009, is eager to keep the place alive. But he also understands the challenges behind the low-margin business.
“There’s that rising and lowering tide that’s hitting everyone, but if you are in the lower water, it’s not gonna be a low tide, you are gonna be on the ground.”
The meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 13 will begin at 6 p.m.
In 1968, comic books cost 12 cents, the equivalent of $1.05 today. Even adding on another $1 so the creatives can be paid properly, a comic book should not cost more than $2.50 if all things were equal. But the mega-corps owning these IPs don’t care, they ruined the business model for small stores, and are expecting people to pay $5-6 for 20 pages of weak storyboards with barely any dialogue. It’s not sustainable.
I strongly, and sadly, suggest the store owners google the “sunk cost fallacy.” If movies grossing billions of dollar couldn’t move the needle and increase sales (because the companies refused to tie the books in with the movies), then it’s time to move on.
what a condescending comment, I’m certain the people who are in the business of selling comics know far more than you. DC and marvel are not the only companies that produce comics… as it turns out there’s a massive comic industry in japan GASP and would you know it those comics are popular here.
Anyway I’m going to continue to support artistic endeavors in this city ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I stopped buying comic years ago when the prices became ridiculous.
The real culprit here is changes in distribution. You can get this stuff much easier online now and that sucks for the brick and mortar stores.
Fan communities saw this years ago and kind of picked their winners. Borderlands, on the scifi/mystery book side went for sponsors. Comix Experience does its subscriptions and both of those are in good tourist spots.
At the end of all of this we will have a handful of specialty book and comic stores in SF. So that’s something. But it’s a sad, ugly game of musical chairs. Best of luck to the guy.
It’s that accursed Valencia bike lane.
I’m glad to see Mission Local cover some legitimate businesses on Mission Street. Nice change of pace.
Good luck to these comics shops. They are much better for the city than stolen-goods resellers.
The continuing decline of San Francisco is directly related to the flawed progressive policies of elevating and accepting the lowest of human behaviors. No one wants to live in a drug and vagrant induced hell hole, except for low life’s and those who worship crime, disfunction and murderous drug dealers. I mean we can’t have those murderous drug dears deported now, can we. That would be far worse than having 700 or so San Franciscans murdered by those drug dealers every year. But the Sacklers must be hanged…
We have one of the lower homicide rates as a major city. You’re a moron and you’re clearly a troll who has never been here nor understands the complexity of the issues here.