At Cockatoo Comics in Sydney’s Newtown, customers come looking for obscure graphic novels, second-hand comics and peculiar little zines. Some eventually return with comics they’ve made themselves, which may be the most satisfying outcome a comic shop owner could hope for.

For owner Siobhan Coombs, it all began with a childhood spent finding consolation in Archie Comics and Tintin. Through her experience, including landing her dream job as a teen at Sydney’s Kings Comics, she figured out a comic shop could be a hospitable place for people with peculiar passions.

Over a decade later, she founded Cockatoo Comics in Newtown, turning a large market gap into a business of her own. 

Visits to Paris introduced her to stores filled with European graphic novels, experimental illustration and obscure publications, while New York’s Desert Island and Los Angeles’ Secret Headquarters offered even more inspiration, championing local artists and interesting contemporary comics – Coombs realised there was a gap in the Australian comic books market. 

“I just wanted to provide an alternative for people who really love comics, but they’re maybe not interested in the weekly comics from DC and Marvel,” she told Inside Retail. She also wanted to support artists in the local scene. “It took a lot of coaxing from my partner to start to see myself as someone who could actually own their own business, but once we decided to make the plunge it all fell in line and made so much sense.”

Coombs opened Cockatoo Comics in 2021, with help from creative director Annie Huang.

Source link