The changing face of the comics world
Legends Comics and Books is celebrating 25 years as Victoria’s leading comic store this year. Owner Gareth Gaudin has been there since the beginning.
Legends was always dedicated to the “high end, art phase” of the market, Gaudin told me.
“Only the good stuff. No Pokemon and Magic cards.” Magic cards were the best-selling merchandise for other comic stores, but the original owner, Grant Wilson, had “a bizarrely tuned integrity,” Gaudin recalled. Legends was dedicated to vintage comics, with a generous selection of the best modern graphic novels.
When Wilson opened the doors in 1992, Gaudin was Legends’ first customer. He was soon hired, and worked there for the next 10 years. When Wilson retired, Gaudin bought the store with the support of Lloyd Chesley, one of Legends’ best customers.
“Stupid thing,” Gaudin noted ruefully, “to become a partner with your best customer.”
Gaudin has been a comic lover throughout his life.
“I love the smell, the feel, the colour,” he said. From the age of five it was a big deal for him to go the store.
By now, Gaudin has written and illustrated 231 books.
“And I can’t stop,” he admits. “I’m making three of them right now. Yeah, books. I never liked reading comic books. I just like them as books.
“People come in and ask me: ‘Who is stronger, Superman or Batman?’ But I don’t care. They are worried about what’s in the stories, but I’m thinking about the halftone dots, the smell and the biographies of the artists. Subject and storyline are way down the list.”
Between 1970 and 1992, the comic industry was booming, because people recognized that old — and new — comics had value. They were investing and speculating, and comics were being published in editions of as many as eight million copies.
“The day that Legends opened,” Gaudin reflected, “was the day that DC Comics put out the Death of Superman, the biggest-selling comic of all time.” Ironically, that book “just blew the bottom out of things,” Gaudin reflected. “It was the death of the industry. Marvel Comics went into bankruptcy and the majority of comic retail stores went out of business. We went weeks without a customer.”
But then eBay came along, and suddenly Legends was able to sell its stock all over the world. And about that time, comics became hip.
“We had Louis Riel, the graphic novel. And Art Spiegelman’s Maus was being taught in schools. We suffered through the ’90s,” Gaudin recalled, “but slowly people started coming back.”
Victoria is a remarkably good place to own a comic-book store. Perhaps that’s because this is “the end of the line.” People retire here, and bring all their stuff with them.
“We’ve always had a better comics society than Vancouver,” Gaudin said, and to him, the Vancouver stores seem a bit empty. In Victoria, collectors from elsewhere — university students, cruise-ship passengers — find the cosy, cluttered Legends store deliciously overstocked.
It used to be that comics were just for teenage boys. Then, in the 1980s, the demographic shifted to 40- and 50-year olds — collectors and nostalgia buffs.
“It was getting pretty stale,” Gaudin said. Not any more. “Nowadays, easily 75 per cent of our clientele is female. It’s shocking. There are entire days when not one male comes into the store.
“And these days the vast majority of artists, writers and publishers are women.” Top of the list in his store is Saga, written by the American Brian K. Vaughan and drawn by Fiona Staples, from Calgary.
“Saga is a gargantuan seller,” Gaudin said.
In 1954, the American Comics Code declared that all comics were for kids — funny animals, Archie, superheroes. But 60 years later, Hollywood has made superhero comics obsolete, and this has opened the gates to every possible genre: crime, mystery and romance. Biographical comics are huge.
“You just name somebody famous and there’s a book on them,” Gaudin said, directing me to a shelf with graphic novels about Glenn Gould and James Joyce.
New comics continue to arrive every week, just as they always did, but the highlight of any day is when someone struggles into the store with armloads of old boxes.
“It could be anything,” Gaudin said. This year, a woman came in to offer him a “million-dollar comic,” the first issue of Spiderman. He has a warehouse full of more humble offerings. For the vintage stuff “there is always a buyer somewhere in the world,” he explained. He could do all his selling online, “but people need to find me,” he said. They have to bring in things for him to sell.
For almost anyone, a trip to Legends is a journey into personal reminiscences. Gaudin’s favourite cartoonist is Harvey Kurtzman, who originated Mad magazine.
“He was one of a handful of people who did things differently. And Art Speigelman — he changed it all, and all for the better. Their fascinating stories keep me interested in the antique comics. And who knows — maybe when I go to work on Monday there will an old box with a Superman No. 1 sitting in there.”