Rising Sun Comics is not your typical bookstore.
Yet the new comic book shop in Pacific Beach serves much the same function, especially for youngsters.
“We’re kid friendly, and kids like graphic novels,” said owner Ed Sherman of his recently opened shop at 1041 Garnet Ave., which has a sizable selection of graphic novels. “Librarians will tell you the best way to get them to embrace reading is to get them to read things they like.
“Schoolteachers now are using comics in their classrooms, they’re teaching college courses with comics,” Sherman added, offering an example of how a “floppy,” as comics are sometimes referred, or graphic novels or other related periodicals can inspire literacy.
“Just the other day, a woman came in with her son who was struggling with reading and he liked playing the Plants Versus Zombies video game,” Sherman said. “He saw the book (graphic novel of the same name) and his eyes lit up and he grabbed it. His mother looked at me and said, ‘What did you just do?'”
Sherman said the woman came back later and told him, “I’ve never seen him that happy about reading a book. There are so many parents out there saying, ‘My child was struggling, didn’t like reading, and I got them into graphic novels — and now they’re reading at an advanced level.”
In Japan, a country with a long tradition for illustration, comics have been hugely popular. Referred to as manga, the Japanese form was established after World War II by Osamu Tezuka, who expanded the page count of a work to number in the hundreds, and who developed a filmic style, heavily influenced by the Disney animations of the time. The Japanese market expanded its range to cover works in many genres, from juvenile fantasy through romance to adult fantasies.
Rising Sun Comics carries a lot of manga, and Japanese anime, a style of Japanese film and television animation, typically aimed at adults as well as children.
Sherman, who is also a taxpreparer year-round, and has a second comic store location in a Mission Valley mall, said the location his new PB store is not a coincidence.
“I wanted to be on Garnet, and I wanted to be close to the beach to accommodate tourists and locals,” he said, adding he believes “there needs to be more traditional retail on this street. I figured this would be something different.”
Sherman noted the demographics of today’s comics readership is changing.
“Now women make up at least 50 percent of the people who read comics,” he said.
Sherman pointed out that comics are no longer just about traditional superheroes.
“There are a lot of new readers coming in, and there are a lot of genres — crime, horror, science fiction. It’s just not for kids,” Sherman said.
Of comics’ enduring appeal, Sherman commented, “At the end of the day, comics are entertainment. They’re supposed to be interesting.”
Comics, in some circles, used to be stigmatized as escapist. No longer.
“People aren’t embarrassed by comics,” Sherman said. “They’re more sophisticated now. A lot of different genres. There’s something for everybody.”
The history of American comics started in 1842 with the translation of Rodolphe Topffer’s work, “The Adventues of Obadiah Oldbuck.” But it wasn’t until daily newspapers and comic strips, that the art form really took off. American comics’ historians generally divide 20th-century American comics history into ages: the Golden Age from 1938 (first appearance of Superman) to 1954; the Silver Age from 1956 to early 1970s; the Bronze Age spanning from then until 1986; and the Modern Age, from 1986 until today. Rising Sun Comics Where: 1041 Garnet Ave. Hours: Mondays through Thursdays 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sundays noon to 6 p.m. Info: 619-343-6837, www.rsc-online.com, [email protected].