Isotope Comics
326 Fell St
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 621-6543
When I was awkwardly pre-teen in my sunny Southern California suburb, I used to ask my parents to take me to the Chula Vista Public Library all the time. It wasn’t because I wanted to go to the library, but because they’d drop me off for hours at a time, and then I’d get a chance to *really* let loose.
Ok, letting loose when I was a kid meant buying a Snapple (Peach Iced Tea), eating some Baskin Robbins, and going to the comic book store across the street. I was stealthily buying comic books like no other - mainstream, indie, etc. The fine folks at Choice Comics in Chula Vista would hold the subscription for me, and throw in a little something extra sometimes - a deck of cards, or the newest promo, maybe even some pogs. I’d hide the comic books in my backpack and run back to the library, go to the bathroom stall, lock the door, and happily read my comic books in the privacy of my very own stall in the children’s section of the Chula Vista Public Library.
Enough about memory lane, the point is that I was a little ashamed to be so into Gambit, Spawn, Gen13, and the adventures of Milk and Cheese. I wasn’t into sports or cars or Abercrombie like the other “cool” kids. So when I went into Isotope, I immediately thought, “Man! Where has this store BEEN all my life?”
I imagine that Isotope could be that type of store, where a disaffected awkward suburban kid could go to The Big Bad City and be surrounded by people like him and who share his interests, where his shame doesn’t justify the need to hide in a stall in a public library, where he can be proud to enjoy his pursuits no matter the polarizing outside forces beyond his control.
Thank you, Isotope, for being That Store, and for making the world just a little bit brighter for kids like me.
