The origin story of your friendly neighborhood comic shop. Tracing the 50-year history of the local comic book store's far-reaching impact, we examine their cultural significance and the numerous threats they face today.

After a 75% industry contraction, floundering sales, superhero fatigue, and online retail competition, can our heroes survive?

Shopping for Superman explores the history of comic book stores through the experiences and first-hand accounts of the people who helped to create the modern-day comic shop. Beginning with shop owners from around the country sharing their reasons for opening a comic shop and how they've become a vital part of their communities.

Traveling back to the 1970s we introduce viewers to the Brooklyn school teacher who first realized the potential of breaking with the traditional distribution model for newsstands and drug stores and began shipping comics directly to retailers, resulting in an eventual controlling monopoly of the comics distribution business.

Through the boom of the 1980s and early 90s we see a market explode to over ten-thousand shops across the U.S. before the two major comics publishers, DC and Marvel Entertainment's disastrous choices would lead to a 75% contraction of the overall market.

Despite the market's crash, the creation of so many spaces across the U.S. led to a revolutionary sophistication of graphic storytelling through censorship-resistant environment of the comic store. Stories that would win literary awards, become standard in many a curriculum, and go on to create some of the most valuable IP in the history of entertainment would come as a direct result of the comic store.

Catching up to the present, we explore the comic book store's community importance as safe spaces for marginalized people, providing opportunities for identity fulfillment and self-discovery, and how comic shops continue to be one of the greatest influences in both childhood and adult literacy.

Closing our film with a call to action, Shopping for Superman, explores the threats and challenges facing store owners today, as well as a road map to navigate them for the sake of future generations.

Director Statement

The transformative power of storytelling and the degree of empathy it can imbue in a reader was why I first fell in love with comic book shops. The stores became brightly lit beacons, filled with tiny torches that attracted this particular moth to all that they held inside.

These shops were a kind of sanctuary where I was encouraged to commune with art. I felt celebrated for my insatiable literary appetite. It seemed like comic book stores had been waiting for me to find them my whole life. After just a few years of enjoying the thrill of this discovery, when I was barely beginning to understand the breadth of what was available to me, they started to disappear.

During the 90s, I watched so many stores close and wondered what went wrong. It couldn't be that all of these shops were bad at business? Could it?

Shopping for Superman is both an exploration of what happened to the retail comic book world, where it started, and where it stands. It is a testament to my love of comic shops. Designed for the uninitiated more than the seasoned comics fan with an emphasis on quality visual storytelling in an effort to elevate an often maligned and mostly misunderstood community hub, the goal was to raise awareness for the many shops struggling today.

Comic shops are more than just a place to buy comics or distract your kids. They're one of the greatest champions for childhood literacy, safe spaces for all kinds of voices, and well-springs of new ideas for curious minds. They're vital places where real people meet and engage to discuss and share real art.

With an incredible team and years of enthusiastic support from shop owners and my peers, I was able to craft this love letter to the comic shop in the hope that it would encourage any who watch it to get out there and start shopping for Superman.