Since the inception of comics in 1837 with The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, comic books have been an essential storytelling medium for decades.
Dee’s Comics has gifted Canberrans with comic and pop culture content for 35 years now. But they do more than just provide – they foster a strong community.
The store’s current owner, Brendon, describes the old store, founded by Dee and Stuart in 1988 in Charnwood, as the size of a small bed.
“It was really just a hole in the wall type thing,” he says.
Years later in 2012, Dee’s Comics found its home facing Cohen Street in Belconnen. Four years later, Dee and Stuart retired from running the shop, and long-time employee Brendon was handed the key to the castle.
Having a strong customer base is something Brendon’s proud to say about Dee’s, as even the customers from their days in Charnwood still go to Dee’s Comics.
Brendon says that customers can go to any store to get comics, but people come to Dee’s because of the atmosphere and community that has built up over decades of interactions.
“You go to your store because there’s something about the feel or the aesthetic or the atmosphere that speaks to you.”
What also defines Dee’s Comics is how they represent Australian artists and publishers. Brendon says that customers can go to any store for Marvel or DC comics, but you can’t expect small Australian publishers to be on the shelf.
“It’s not even a fifty-fifty chance, like you can guarantee that 90 percent of comic stores don’t stock that stuff,” he says.
“I’ve always been really proud of the fact at Dee’s we’ve championed small press, we’ve championed small publishers… We’ve easily got the biggest range of Australian comics in Australia.”
Even though Australian comics might not be the biggest money makers, he wishes that more Australian stores would be willing to stock more Australian content. However, he adds that due to Australia’s size, it’s tough to get a comic community as powerful as Europe or the U.S.
“We are still able to champion the indie comics, we feel like we’ve built a great community of readers… people who really are finding something to connect with in the source material.
He also places a lot of emphasis on the enormous variety of comics that exist today but is still amazed by the amount of people who haven’t given the medium a try.
“TV is so limited by what you can put on screen, in a way that is going to wow people. You’re only limited by what the artist can imagine when you’re reading a comic,” he says.
For people struggling to get into comics, store assistant Ben Garfath suggests that they should try to figure out what genre of film they like.
“Come on into this shop or any comic shop really, and see if there are similar stories available.”