Local Comics Store Spotlight: Flying Colors Comics & Other Cool Stuff

The foundation of ComicBook.Com is comics. While we love to cover all aspects of pop and geek culture, our roots lie in the comics community and the plethora of characters and stories that have sprung from it. If you speak with anyone in the comics community about what has made the medium successful in North America, you'll quickly discover one answer that stands far above the rest: local comics stores. They are the bedrock of comics in the United States and Canada, supporting fans, communities, and conventions with open doors and a dedicated staff.

This year on ComicBook.Com we are highlighting this important aspect of comics and culture by taking a look at one local comic store each week. These are stores that embody what it means to support culture and community. We hope you can visit some of them throughout 2017.

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Joe Field has always been ahead of the curve. Flying Colors Comics & Other Cool Stuff, Field's store, was founded in 1988 and all three decades of its existence have presented some of the most important lessons the American comics industry has subsequently learned. From the founding philosophy of Flying Colors to the creation of events like Free Comic Book Day, this is one store that has left an indelible mark on the industry. Field, his family, and his staff have continually led comics forward and the many stories they have to tell are still worth a listen by retailers, publishers, and fans alike.

When Field opened Flying Colors it was months before Tim Burton's Batman movie opened, it was on the cusp of the 90s comics bubble and it was just after the bust of the black & white boom. It was a great time to get into comics, one that came with a built-in audience and plenty of opportunities. That wasn't enough for this store though. Field strove from the very start to be a family friendly store in which anyone could enjoy themselves and find something to read, not just the current crop of collectors and readers. "My wife and three young daughters were my 'marketing research' team as we looked at all kinds of stores to come up with a plan," says Field. The diversity of perspectives in age and gender that founded Flying Colors was decades ahead of its time and has paid off in a big way.

Field pays close attention to his customer base and has noted a big shift over the decades. When Flying Colors first opened its doors their customers were 80% male and about 20 years old on average. Today women make up more than 35% of the base and the average age has shifted upward towards 33. That speaks to the importance of inclusivity and building lifelong customers who keep reading well after high school. It's the sort of change that emphasizes the long-term.

The long-term is a key concept behind Flying Color's most successful initiative: Free Comic Book Day (FCBD). Joe Field was the man with a plan behind this international event that started at his store in Northern California. The first FCBD occurred in 2002 with only a few special issues and 8 publishers involved. In the 15 years since it has exploded into an event that will feature more than 2300 comic shops in more than 60 countries giving away 6 million comics from 38 publishers in 2017. It all began with Field looking at what worked outside of comics in an effort to boost his own industry. Field says it was all about "an age-old method of promotion: the freebie." He had staked his livelihood on comics and believed in the product. FCBD was about giving people a taste of what makes the medium so special. For anyone who has visited a comic book store on the first Saturday of May in the past decade, the results speak for themselves.

Click ahead to learn more about Joe Field's origins and where the future of Flying Colors lies.