There’s paper fanned out everywhere inside Comix Revolution. A small display table in the front has the newest releases from David Eggers, David Byrne and Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern bathed in a dim light. Posters are taped up on the walls above legions of magazines starving to be noticed. The covers are pretty flashy, but it’s the paperback comic books on the racks beyond that really grab attention, drawings illustrating tantalizing glimpses of skin and impossible feats of strength.
Superpowers abound in the world of comic books. Everyone should have his or her own superpower, even Jim Mortensen, the owner of Comix Revolution.
Mortensen is dressed casually in blue jeans and a gray T-shirt with the store’s logo on it. Nothing fancy. This is a comic book store after all. He wears a cell phone clipped onto his belt and has thin silver wire-framed glasses. Judging by his rather average costume, if he has a superpower it would be something banal but noble, like kindness. Maybe it should be entrepreneurial spirit. After all his store, 606 Davis St., will be participating in a national Free Comic Book Day starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 3.
The store has about 3,000 to 4,000 copies of nine different titles to hand out, all brand new.
“A national free comic book day could get lots of people to show up and get comics in the hands of readers who might not usually show up,” Mortensen says. “This year it’s the day after ‘X-Men 2’ opens, last year it was after ‘SpiderMan’ opened.”
To coincide with the movie opening, the store will be giving away a re-issue of “Ultimate X-Men Volume 1” to get readers introduced to the series. Other titles include “100 Bullets” and “Scary Godmother.” Jill Thompson, the creator of “Scary Godmother” and Brian Azzarello, the brains behind “100 Bullets,” will both be on hand in the store to sign customers’ copies. The two comics deal with very different subjects. One is about a Witch and her family, the other deals with an enigmatic old man bent on providing ordinary people with revenge. These are just two examples of the potential for graphic novels.
“Comics have been diversifying for the last ten years,” Mortensen says. New genres include crime fantasy, slice of life, humor and sci-fi comics, he says.
The Evanston store has been opened for two and a half years. There is another Comix Revolution, also owned by Mortensen, in Mount Prospect. Mortensen, a 1994 Northwestern graduate, had an interest in comics since college so he decided to open a store of his own.
“My personal interest was not as much with Superhero comics as with normal comics,” he says. “When I finally got the opportunity to open a store that could represent the entire spectrum of what’s available I took the chance.”
Mortensen says his store never charges more than the cover price.
“We emphasize reading comics over collecting them. We won’t ever tell people they should buy a comic to send their kid to college,” he says.
Though many people wouldn’t consider picking up comic books, Mortensen says he hopes they may start reading, even if they never start a collection. And Mortensen hasn’t stopped at just comics.
“We’re trying to angle ourselves as being more mainstream and get different types of folks interested in checking things out,” he says.
This includes political texts as well.
“We do carry leftist alternative literature, which is the Revolution part of Comix Revolution,” Mortensen says. He motions towards a line of books about the George W. Bush presidency and the war in Iraq on the counter, including an account of George W. Bush’s presidency and the memoir of a Gulf War veteran called “Jarhead.” Though the store is liberal, Mortensen points out that Comix Revolution is not taking a definitive stance against American soldiers in Iraq.
“There’s been more titles produced because of the war. We carry more products by certain publishers. It’s not a conscious choice to target people by selling anti-war books. There isn’t anything you wouldn’t find here on a normal basis, but the output’s higher, so we have more.”
The diverse literature helps Mortensen target a wider audience than the traditionally male readership of comic books.
He agrees that there is still a gender gap in the world of comics, but new titles like the Japanese graphic novel Manga are written by women for women and deal with a lot of storylines featuring young girls.
“The typical Superman fan base is still 95 percent male and 5 percent female,” he says.
But Comics Revolution is not geared towards the average superhero fan. The variety of reading materials in the store guarantees that there’s something for everybody, guy or girl, comics collector or bookworm.
“I can pick up great comic titles like Optic Nerve, literary magazines like McSweeny’s and novels by Beckett and Joyce. I think it’s one of the best things about Evanston,” says Weinberg junior Mike Emmons.
Both students and faculty have found refuge behind the windows of the store.
“That back shelf is just genius,” says NU English Prof. Bill Savage. “Comix Revolution has the smartest bookshelves in Evanston.”
Savage has been ordering textbooks from the store for about a year and half and uses comics in his curriculum.
“You could spend all day wandering around Barnes and Noble and Borders and not find these books. They aren’t the best sellers, but culturally they’re more important than the bestsellers,” Savage says.
For Savage, who used to order his books from Great Expectations before it closed, it is the atmosphere inside the store that is the most important.
“In the old days, a bookstore used to be an extension of the owner, and Jim really has an idea of what he likes,” he says.
And this Saturday, Mortensen will take what he likes and share it with Evanston, on his terms.
“It’s my own store so I can do whatever I want to,” he says. nyou
