Making a Comeback
In January, my shop was forced to close due to a flood. In May, we're coming back, better than ever.
Folks, I cannot begin to tell you how tired I am.
On Wednesday, January 24th, Variant Edition was shut down due to flooding in our building. I documented those early days a couple of months back, and then got down to the hard work of surviving as a brick and mortar comic shop set adrift from solid ground.
The past few months have featured a lot of lessons, and over the next few weeks and months, you’re going to be hearing all about them. In an industry filled with long-time members contemplating walking away or shutting down their operations, I feel blessed that we’ve managed to push through something like this and discover a new path that seems better than the one we were on before. Given how people talk about the comic book industry, that shouldn’t be possible, right? Time will tell, but from this vantage point, I am excited for the future.
That said, let’s catch up a bit, shall we?
Cast adrift from our regular location, the amazing folks at Pe Metawe Games in Edmonton, Alberta took us in and truly saved us from drowning. I do not state this lightly: without their help, Variant Edition would likely be done. We had nowhere to call home, except for… well, except for our home, which for several weeks housed all of our comic files, holds, and point of sale. It was tight quarters and added significantly to the stress that we were experiencing, as there was really no escape from our circumstances. You wake up? You’re at work. Not only that, but you’re reminded that everything you’ve built, everything you’ve pushed for, is teetering on the brink, and that brink has eaten almost half the space you have to live in.
Pe Metawe not only gave us a place to operate out business from, but they brought us some much needed life/work separation, and gave us some semblance of sanity.
The owner of the shop has jokingly1 said “when you leave, you’re dead to us”, but I genuinely hope he and his entire team knows that just because we are “friends off forever”, they will always be in our thoughts, and we will always support them in any way, shape or form that we can.
Anyway. While we have been set up in their shop, we have had the great privilege of not only experiencing the community Pe Metawe has built, but also the area that their shop resides in. Much like Variant Edition’s once and future home in the Stony Plain Road business district, the Alberta Avenue area is one that much of the city looks at with a bit of side-eye. While both areas are filled to the brim with an array of diverse small businesses, people will casually joke about both area’s perception.
Quite a while back, when our shop was broken into (and a raft of internet trolls came after us for reasons), some ding-dongs came out to say it was because we were in a “bad area” of the city, citing crime levels. A quick search of the city’s crime reporting at the time showed that our area wasn’t out of line with almost all others - we just happened to be in an area considered to be “poor”. The Alberta Avenue area carries the same stigma, but is an absolutely outstanding and vibrant area. The variety of amazing food alone should make an area foodie flush2, but as much as I love my city, Edmonton is really bad at leaning into perception and class over reality.
A lot of the shops that populate both areas are the absolute heart of what makes a city great. Local folks building community and offering unique experiences. People investing their time and efforts in the local economy instead of chains running to hit their quarters above anything and everything else. And yet, because these are areas that don’t offer a bit of social currency to be seen in, they often get overlooked, or looked down upon.
The Substack post we linked to above is from a hyper-local not-for-profit paper that serves North Edmonton, where we talked about our situation, and how amazing being in the area had been. We wanted to communicate how thankful we were to this community for taking us in and supporting us, and how we felt a kinship with them.
Our time at Pe Metawe is growing short, and quite unfortunately, due to the time crunch involved in keeping our business running, we didn’t and don’t have the time to properly explore all the amazing spaces and shops around us during our tenure. That said, I do plan on making it back to the area at least once a month to check out a place that I wanted to check out during this time, to support the community that absolutely saved us.
That all said, we are beyond proud to announce that in the coming weeks, we will be moving to a new, permanent space back in the Stony Plain Road area in West Edmonton. Located at 10086 - 164th St NW, surrounded by another outstanding array of stunning local businesses, we have a two-story space that we’re going to do some amazing things with.
A lot of that is going to be shared in the days to come, because there is so much to talk about. Not only has the industry been wild lately, but people have been reaching out to us about a lot of different things, and we want to share it all. The Indirect Market is officially back with some shorter updates to start, but a full schedule for the next month, at least.
I know this update was hyper local, but I’ll be expanding as we go. Just had to start right from the ground, you know?
Thank you all for your support during all of this, and we will talk again this week.
-B.
If he reads this, he will say he is not joking, and while I believe him to be a man of his word, you can’t stop us from caring, David.
I said what I said.
I *loved* reading this! Despite my not being able to visit your temporary location at Pe Metawe, I do look forward to checking out your new one! Life has thrown some hardballs this year, that's for certain, but hopefully we'll all come back better than ever (if we can)!