Comic book shops belie stereotypes for new generation
One of the country’s oldest comic book shops, based in Yorkshire, has just celebrated its 40th anniversary. Julia Armstrong speaks to owner Dave Bromehead.
THE POPULAR stereotype of comic book stores, reinforced in recent years by US sitcom The Big Bang Theory, tends to be they are largely filled with lonely and nerdy men obsessed with something unpopular – but Dave Bromehead says that portrayal is out of date.
“That was the image you had back in the 1980s and 90s,” he explains. “Now it’s completely different to that and manga is popular with women in particular, probably
70 per cent of manga fans are women.”
Bromehead is a man who should know. He is the owner of Sheffield Space Centre, one of the country’s oldest surviving comic book stores which opened in 1978 on London Road and moved to its current home on the Wicker in 1986.
First owner Peter Hammerton sold astronomical art and NASA images – hence the name of the shop – plus science fiction books and comics.
Bromehead was dealing in comics part-time at comic cons and via mail order from 1978. He took over the shop in 1980.
“I decided to take the jump and go into it full-time because I enjoyed it all and I still enjoy it,” says the former teacher.
He became interested in comics as a boy and says they helped him to learn to read. “I always liked that medium. When I was a kid, it’s what taught me to read. My dad and my older brother used to read comics to me, then they got fed up reading to me all the time.
“I used to read all the favourites like The Dandy, The Beano and The Valiant and a few years later I discovered the US comics.
“The British ones were in black and white and the US ones were appealing because they were all in colour.”
He says while tastes have changed over the years, comic books and graphic novels have remained popular – thanks in part to them becoming increasingly mainstream through the huge success of the Marvel Avengers films and the television series of The Walking Dead. Bromehead adds that many people still prefer the original thing.
“People like to read a good story and enjoy the art. The impact of opening a book is much more than switching a screen on.”
And he says comic books are much more than just superhero stories and zombies.
“There’s huge varieties such as romance and history and all sorts of genres. A lot have been turned into graphic novels, where they collect six to 12 issues together.
“We probably did one of the first manga and anime conventions. We ran three of those and they’re all over the country now with thousands of people attending them.”
The shop has also helped to pioneer a schools reading scheme using comic books and graphic novels.
He added: “They teach you to read quite well because the vocabularies are quite varied, with words such as thermo-nuclear devices, especially the Marvel comics back in the 1960s!”
It supports the Excelsior Awards for children’s literacy, involving the godfather of modern comics Stan Lee, who died last November. “Each year we select a range of graphic novels. We include superhero stories, historical books and sometimes illustrated versions of classic novels. Any school that wants to take part gets a set. The schools vote on their favourites and every June we announce who got the most votes. It started off in Sheffield but has now gone throughout the country, involving 100-plus schools.”
So how did Bromehead and his knowledgeable team celebrate their big 40th anniversary last year? He admits: “We’ve been so busy we haven’t had time, we’ve just put up photos on Facebook. A lot of our customers have been with us a long time and now bring their kids along as well.” SPACE AND TIME: