End of a Comics Era: Happy Harbor closing
Happy Harbor wasn’t “just a store that sells comics,” as owner Jay Bardyla humbly puts it. It was a cultural institution in this town – and news of its closing has hit the local comics community hard.
It’s a huge loss for Edmonton. Happy Harbor didn’t just sell comics. They nurtured new readers with a level of community engagement rarely seen in the small business world. They hosted card tournaments practically every day. They held live animal drawing classes – once featuring an actual horse, a cow, dogs, birds, and most recently a monkey-tailed skink. They ran “artist-in-residency” programs where they’d pay people to come in and create comics. How cool is that? They gave shelf space to almost any independent artist who wanted it.
Bardyla says they didn’t just cater to their existing customers – they tried to create new ones.
“We’ve visited hundreds and hundreds of schools and libraries, talking to kids and parents and teachers and librarians about the benefits of comics, to get kids engaged in reading – and creating,” he says. “That’s a huge platform for us to keep the business going, and to have the business be rewarding as well.”
It all ends on Jan. 31, after 20 years in the business. Among the outpouring of surprised reaction on social (and actual) media after the information was leaked on Tuesday night is one lingering question: Why? Why would one of the town’s most popular comic shops close its doors when the comics industry is booming?
“In short, because we want to,” says Bardyla. He and his partner Shawna Roe had been pondering the decision for a couple of years now. The reasons are many and mainly personal, he says. Bardyla worked up to 60 hours a week, putting heart and soul into the comics he loved. He’s been at this since he was 17, at one time running four different stores. He’s 47 now. He’s says he’s had enough. He wants to move on, maybe start a band, maybe draw a few comics of his own. The community engagement will continue.
But it’s about business as well. While retail turns out not to be dead after all, there are new challenges. One of the issues for any independent comic store is competing with the big chains, which enjoy bulk discounts and other privileges, Bardyla says, effectively starving out their competitors.
“When you put a ton of time and energy and resources into something and you can’t pull off what you want to pull off, that wears you down a little bit,” he says. “It’s frustrating. Things are not as simple and smooth in the industry anymore, so you’re working harder to earn the same amount of money, and that doesn’t make sense.”
The idea of getting someone else to take over Happy Harbor wasn’t even considered.
“There wouldn’t be anybody in town who could do what we do, or have the finances to take it on,” Bardyla says. “I didn’t really have to look. I know already. There’s a handful of us that are in touch with each other already, and we know each other’s business.”
It’s not an easy ride for any of the comic stores in town, he says, from Warp, the first, to newer shops like We’ve Got Issues. Bardyla goes on, “I’m not going to sell my business to someone who’s going to come along and all of the sudden give up on the kids’ section or turf the artist-in-residence program – because it’s costly with no immediate tangible rewards. When you have built something to a certain level, as selfish as it is, you would prefer the name and the brand and the reputation remain in as much of a positive light as possible.”
Some guilt is setting in. Bardyla admits he felt a pang when he saw a picture on Facebook of a little girl sitting in one of the comfy chairs at the front of the store, reading the first comic book she bought with her own money. “And I was thinking to myself: I am a complete asshole … she’s not going to have the same experience for much longer.”
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