I'm bummed out man. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic my local comic store, Lee's Comics, closed. It didn't look like such a big deal at the time because everything near me was closing as well. But unfortunately, the store announced it wouldn't be returning after this Covid19 situation ends.

It's an inanimate object, a store, but I was suprised by how much this news affected me and soon a monsoon of emotions came roaring inside me: frustration, anger, despair.

It was a great store, and it's closing made me realize how important the direct market was to my enjoyment of comics as an artform. Finding things you never thought you'd ever come across in a million years in the 50 cents bins, it was basically the only place where I have ever met anyone who appreciated the medium as intensely as I did in real life.

Another part of it, is that as much as we get reminded that the comic industry is not dying, I can't help but feel furious how niche comics is. This is a medium that has proved it's potential to be just as thought provoking, entertaing as film or literature, but while video games, movies books are consumed by basically the majority of the population in one way or another, but comics are so... esoteric. If I told you that comic series like Love and Rockets or American Flagg or Sandman deserved to be as popular as Harry Potter and Fortnite you would say I'm insane. And maybe I am, and maybe it's unrealistic to imagine a world in which that's reality, but I can't help but be frustrated that something as rich as comics aren't appreciated to the extent that they should be by the general public.

I'm on a rambling tangent here, but I'm filled with equal parts exasperation and hope for the potential of comics.