Mission: Comics and Arts expands to the Excelsior

Mission Local is growing

Four new neighborhoods. Four dedicated reporters. Zero paywalls. Help us stay free for all of San Francisco.

Donate today

“Excelsior Buzz” is a recurring column on changes, tidbits and other news from the Excelsior. Got news? Send us tips at xueer@missionlocal.com 

Mission: Comics and Arts, which has operated out of 2250 Mission St. between 18th and 19th streets since 2008, is opening a second location in the Excelsior, according to the store’s owner, Leef Smith.

The opening is fueled in part by a program run by the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development that seeks to fill in empty storefronts by giving new would-be tenants grants to help pay for upfront costs like plumbing and electrical upgrades. 

Smith, who received $50,000, said he got help navigating the process from Eddy Martinez, a real estate broker contracted by OEWD, and from a staffer at the Mission Economic Development Agency, who happens to be a customer at his comics shop. 

 The new location will be at 5196 Mission St., a block south of Geneva Avenue on Niagara Avenue, in a former optometry office. 

The new outpost feels like a homecoming to Smith, who grew up on Naples Street in the Excelsior. As a kid, he used to buy comic books from a local liquor store. He thinks this may be the first comics store to ever open in the neighborhood. 

The shop’s lease starts in June. Smith said he will renovate the space with some touch-ups like new flooring, and plans to open as soon as July. Once the store opens, Smith and his four employees will split time between the Mission shop and the new location. 

It’s a big step, said Smith, but the timing felt right, especially after a strong spring season driven in part by the popularity of Absolute Batman, a new comics series launched in October 2024 featuring a Batman who is a “working-class guy who fights white nationalists.”

“I’m a little nervous, and excited,” Smith said. “It feels like a good match.”

If you are a coffee lover with a soft spot for the Excelsior, this one’s for you. Mission Lotería, a shop-local initiative, is hosting a guided “Cafecito” coffee tour through the Excelsior District on Sunday, June 7, from 10 a.m. to noon. 

The two-hour walking tour kicks off at Excelsior Coffee at 4495 Mission Street at Excelsior Avenue, and makes stops at  the neighborhood’s four Latino-owned cafes, with plenty of coffee along the way. 

During the tour, you will learn about where coffee comes from, how it makes its way to your cup, and why it holds such a special place in Latino culture. The tour will also touch upon the Excelsior’s vibrant mural scene. 

Tickets start at $41.32 and the tour is open to all ages. If you can’t make this one, don’t worry — this is a recurring event that takes place every first and third Sunday of the month. 

Learn more and get your tickets here. 

The Excelsior Action Group, a local nonprofit that supports small businesses and improves the commercial corridors, is getting a new executive director. 

Laura Padilla, the group’s new director, has been working at the Mission YMCA for over 15 years, first as the director of community programs and most recently as its program coordinator. Padilla was also appointed by the Board of Supervisors to the city’s Immigrant Rights Commission in November 2025. 

The empty storefront at 905 Geneva Avenue near Mission Street, which hosted a Wells Fargo ATM for about a decade starting in 2015, is soon to be filled. 

Posters on the store window and door suggest a new branch of Cricket Wireless, a prepaid cell phone carrier owned by AT&T. 

This will be the second location of the brand in the Excelsior. The other one is seven blocks north at 4489 Mission St. at Excelsior Avenue. 

The building that houses the CAN Beauty Supply at 4696 Mission St. at Persia Avenue is now for sale at $2.1 million, according to Eddy Martinez, a real estate broker contracted by the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and helping with the sale. 

Martinez said the owner used to have his jiu-jitsu school, called Dragon House MMA, at the building for over 20 years, but as the business expanded, he moved to a bigger space on Geneva Avenue in Daly City. 

Dragon House MMA vacated in November 2022, leaving behind only a mural of men fighting. CAN Beauty Supply, a store selling cosmetics and beauty products, moved in in the spring of 2023, transforming the mural into an iconic commentary on the inherent violence of the beauty/industrial complex in the process. 

Martinez said the beauty supply shop won’t be going anywhere, as it holds a lease through 2028.