Welcome to Store Tour, ROBOT 6’s new weekly exploration of comics shops, and the people who run them. Think of it as the retailer version of Shelf Porn. Each Sunday we’ll feature a different store, and also get to know the person behind the register.

To discover a comic store in your area, visit FindAComicShop.com

This week's store is The Comic Room, located at 659 McCowan Road in Toronto, Ontario, at the intersection of McCowan and Lawrence Avenue East. We spoke with manager Sean Clement.

Robot 6: Tell me about the layout of your store. How is that worked out?

The Comic Room: The Comic Room is actually part of two stores. Our upstairs is a traditionally used bookstore called The Paperback Exchange. You walk through the bookstore to reach the stairs that bring you down into the secret world of comics (that isn’t so secret, because there are signs).

The basement is where the entirety of The Comic Room is. When you descend the stairs you’re surrounded by posters of all the upcoming series and projects by various comic companies (which are constantly updated because there’s no greater sin than old, faded posters in a comic store). Once at the bottom there’s our monthly sales rack, which features 25 percent off comics, toys and merchandise surrounding a certain theme (last month was Spider-Man and this month is Avengers-related).

The new comics have their own section that is changed on a weekly basis. Anything from the previous month is on the opposite side of the new comics so that the customers can easily find them. The rest of the store is back issues down the middle with a great selection of hardcovers, trades, statues, toys and merchandise in their own sections. Surprisingly, our back-issue selection is quite large, considering a lot of stores seem to be phasing out that aspect of the business.

We really try to make the store flow and highly organized, the opposite of the nightmare scenario of a stereotypical comic shop.

What’s your store’s secret origin? How did it come to be? How did you decide on its name?

The name actually comes from the original owner, whose son opened The Comic Room in 1981; his son was named Ron, and “Ron’s Comic Room” must have seemed like a great name back then. After the business was sold to the current owner Troy (who had worked at the store since he was barely a teenager) the name was slowly shortened to “The Comic Room,” mostly because the employees were getting tired of being asked, “Are you Ron?” and being told, “Thanks for all your help, Ron!” even though our names are definitely not Ron (no offense to all of the amazing folks named “Ron” in the world). The name really suits the store since we’re underground and it really does have a cozy room feeling to it -- aclubhouse vibe.

How did you get involved with the store and become its manager? Why did you decide to get into comics retailing specifically? What in your background do you think made you particularly suited for it?

I am asked this a lot by customers. They say, “How did you manage to get a job here?” and it is really simple: I was a customer for a couple of years and loved coming to the store. The owner was always extremely kind to me, and being a young 20something, I didn’t want to work at soul-crushing part-time jobs anymore while making my way through college. I went into the store one day and said, “Can I have a job?” and the Troy said, “Sure, just bring your resume.” I did and was hired immediately (because my resume featured such desirable traits as “parking lot attendant” and “flier distributor,” which are skills valued by any comic shop). There’s a lot of jealousy from customers who realize now all they had to do to work in a shop was ask for a job. The murderous glare in their eyes tells me we might be hiring again soon.

What made me suited to the job more than anything was a pleasant disposition and willingness to help the people that come into the store, to make it a fun and friendly experience. I had some experience as a Sales Clerk so I knew how to work a register, that helped a lot too, but personality and a genuine love of the comics being sold really went a long way. Customers can tell when you’re passionate about comics and want to have that shared community experience, that feeling that they’re in a place they can discuss the books they love when they come into a store. Pre-Internet, that was a big deal and probably still is (because it is hard to troll someone to their face; not impossible, but hard).

Not being a sexist pig to women who come into the store is good, too. I can’t stress that enough.

Do you have a philosophy or strategy to retailing? Has that evolved from when you first started? If so, what caused that change?

The main strategy within our store is customer service. That is what keeps people coming through our doors. We are always about pleasing the customers and making sure that even when we do not have a product that they’re after we go above and beyond to get it into their hands. Sometimes customers miss an issue and they know that we will do everything we can to find it, which includes going to conventions and tracking down those books so they do not have to. When issues sell out we’ve been known to trade with other stores to fill that order, too. Troy interrupted a trip to New York once to get books that were accidentally missed a week before. The sense that we genuinely care about our customers and make them feel special is incredibly important to us. They’re honestly like family. When you see people coming in week after week for months, years, and even decades they become like family to you.

It hasn’t changed much over the years either, except everyone involved (customers and employees) has more wrinkles, more kids and better hair (or less hair).

What are your current bestsellers? What are your favorites that deserve to sell better at your store?

The Marvel books are our top sellers: X-Men, Spider-Man and Avengers. The bread and butter has mainly been those core Marvel and DC titles since the inception of the store. We always bring in a variety of titles because we know that people are going to want different tastes and we try to give that to them, even when they don’t know what those different flavours are, but it ultimately goes back to the main series that those companies put out.

I am sure it is the same in plenty of shops, but Image has slowly been creeping (and maybe not so slowly in the last few years) into a lot of pull lists. They’re producing some incredibly innovative and wonderfully creative titles that have grabbed a lot of people’s (and media) attention; they’re the Vertigo of the new millennium. We do sell quite a bit of Saga, and that is a series that has a special place in the heart of lots of readers, but I’d love everyone to be on board. Series like Velvet, Criminal, Bitch Planet and Sex Criminals (by Toronto’s own Chip Zdarsky) are books I know people would love if they had a chance to try them and we promote them as much as we can, but customers have to make up their own minds or find their own way sometimes.

What is your customer base like? How has it change over time, if at all? Do you have a discount or loyalty program?

It is mainly males in their 30s, 40s and 50s. A good half of them are people that have been collecting at our store for decades. We have slowly seen the demographic changing, and there’s a healthy dose of female readers coming into the store on a more regular basis (which we love to see!). The women who do come are mainly 20something with a smattering of 30-year-olds or older. We do get the occasional teenager or even younger, but it seems like the days of very young children falling into the world of comics is going away (at least in our section of the city). Whenever a kid comes into the store we really try to make it a special occasion for them and have them feel special. I remember as a kid having some truly terrible experiences in comic shops, and making that impression on kids is important, that comics are fun and the experience of coming into a comic store is awesome (because it is, they’re great!).

We have an informal discount program, nothing as solid as some stores. We have a coupon on our website that allows for a 15 percent discount each time you come into the store (on your entire purchase), but if you have been a customer for a number of years or you’ve been great to us we’ll try to be even better to you. We also have free pull lists, no monthly fee program to sign up for, and just ask that our customers give us a heads up when they want to stop it. That’s all. I mean, even Mark Waid knows the dangers of customers not picking up their pull lists, and it is more a courtesy than anything else.

We also have monthly and quarterly sales, discounted graphic novels, and a massively legendary Boxing Week Sale (sorry, Americans). We also give free plastics and backboards on new issues, which is HUGE! As a reader I always hated having to buy them and it really ate into my comic budget. We give them free!

How do you reach out to new customers? How do you advertise? I imagine there is some crossover between your customers and The Paperback Exchange's customers.

We reach out to new customers using a lot of traditional advertising mediums (yellow pages, fliers, word of mouth, etc.) as well as the Internet.

There’s not as much crossover between The Paperback Exchange’s customers and The Comic Room's as you would think. There is the occasional comic reader who will grab a novel while walking back through the store, but it is fairly rare. Most of the time it occurs is when a mother or father is browsing for books upstairs and their kids make their way downstairs and manages to find a comic they can beg their parents to purchase for them. We love those sales -- thank you, children!

How do you handle your online and social media presence? How does it support or supplement your store?

Our online presence definitely has helped the store. Once our website was constructed it was a boon in terms of advertising for the store and opened a floodgate for new customers that might not have been able to find us. It generated a lot of traffic into the store itself and we have heavily pushed the idea that customers can email (or even Facebook) their orders to the store on a weekly basis if they do not have a pull list. They have loved it! We’re flushed with orders every Tuesday from people who just send off their orders through their computers and are happy to know that they will be there when they come in the store later in the week.

Our Facebook site is a lot of fun too because it’s a place people can learn about store news, comic-related media, and even have fun with other customers. We haven’t invaded Instagram or Twitter yet, but hopefully we will in the very near future.

Do you have any events or programming, such as signings? How is it coordinating those in addition to your regular retailing duties?

Our store is a small one, so we don’t have very many signings (or even game nights, which are becoming a staple of a lot of shops). We don’t really have the room. The store has been shopped at by a lot of artists through the years, however: Francis Manapul, Valentine DeLandro, Craig Yeung, Mike Del Mundo, Noel Tuazon and more. We finally asked one to do us a favor and are having one of our very first signings in our 35-year history this Free Comic Book Day, though: Harvey and Eisner nominated artist Noel Tuazon (artist of Elk’s Run, Tumor and The Broadcast) is going to be signing and doing sketches for us this year!

It wasn’t that hard to arrange since he’s such a great guy and readily agreed to do it. He’s a really fantastic artist and guy. We will pay him in sandwiches.

Does your store attend conventions? Does your store benefit from them?

We don’t. We’re too small to find it advantageous to us. We attend them in the sense that the artists I mentioned before are kind enough to bring us to their tables and let us help them sell their wares, but the store itself doesn’t really have a presence at major conventions around Toronto. We go to them to help our artist friends, meet new people, and have a good time.

We benefit only in the sense that conventions are great and they’re a good chance to grab those issues our customers would like us to get for them (and maybe meet Stan Lee).

What do you see as the biggest challenge in the comics industry today that particularly impacts your store?

The biggest challenge is the same as it has been for a long time – getting new people in the store. Toronto is a big city, and there are dozens of comic stores around that have their own unique way of selling comics. Luckily we have had our niche for a long time but the comics industry (as well as it has been doing in the last few years) isn’t as hot as other mediums (including those movies everyone loves so much by Marvel). You want people to learn that comics are a wonderful medium that is fun, exciting, worthwhile and more than able to compete with video games, movies, television, etc. That’s a hard thing to do and it is a shame because we all know that comics are worth it.

On the industry side, especially in Canada, I would say one of the main issues is the current exchange rate between the United States and Canada. We’re paying more than the average American customer for issues (even with discounts) and that can be worrisome. When money is tight for a lot of people comics aren’t as high on the priority as they once were. That can be a serious problem. I remember being a kid and while Americans were enjoying their $2 comics paying almost $4 for a regular issue.

Another issue is that ordering comics during major events (like Secret Wars or Convergence) can be like navigating a nuclear treaty. We have to order this many of one thing to get a variant of another thing, the Russians want this but we have the bomb too, Putin is angry but Tony Stark is evil. It’s complicated.

Conversely, what is the industry’s biggest asset that is helping you be successful?

Marvel movies. They don’t bring a lot of new people in the store, at least not on a regular basis, but they do draw back in a lot of lapsed fans and sometimes do creative new ones. Plus the fact that comics have never been better written, have such talented and stunning artists, creating a high-quality product goes a long way to making the store (and medium) successful.

How do you feel digital comics have affected your store, if at all?

They have to a degree, but not as much as was once feared. The practice of including a digital copy with most issues has given people a feeling of value when they pick up an issue from our shelves and negated some of the loss of sales. Comics are a collector’s medium and people will always want that physical copy in their hands, in their collection, to give them a feeling of completeness. I don’t know if that will be true for future generations, but many of us who have grown up with physical comics will keep buying them, I think.

With all of the people that come through your store, I imagine you must have some great stories. What's the funniest or most memorable moment you’ve seen in your store?

There are a lot of memories from over the years. The time Joey Jeremiah (from Degrassi High) came into the store looking for comics. All the times Mike Del Mundo (artist of Elektra) came into the store and shot the breeze. The strangest has to be the time a group of guys came into the store while the owner and I were standing at the cash register. They asked if it would be OK if they made a video in the store for a bachelor party. We looked at one another and said, “We guess so.” We didn’t know what to think. They left the store and came back a few minutes later with their friend, dressed as Batman, and proceeded to make a G-rated bachelor party video in the store. I don’t think that the owner and I knew what to expect, but it was odd. I don’t know how great of a bachelor party was, I don’t know if that video is out there somewhere, but it happened. It happened and I saw a mustachioed Batman before his wedding day.

Anything coming up at The Comic Room that is a good excuse for someone to stop by?

Free Comic Book Day is only weeks away. We are having giveaways, a MASSIVE sale and a lot of fun planned for anyone showing up. It is going to be good times and we’re really looking forward to it as a retailer. It is a day where everyone is happy. We hope to see you there!

If you’d like to see your store featured here on Robot 6, email here.