It was a sad day for St. Louis comics fans when Star Clipper Comics closed down in January, but a happier day when owners of a local comics shop chain have resurrected the name with fixtures and employees.
Hoping to fill the void left by Star Clipper’s closure, Steve Unverferth and Tony Favello, co-owners of Fantasy Books, Inc., purchased the store’s fixtures for their Wash. Ave. store and even hired four of the Trujillos’ former employees. Unverferth and Favello didn’t have a name for their shop yet, but it was easy for Trujillo to see how this new store — a long, narrow space with hardwood floors that had formerly housed an art gallery and a dojo — could channel the spirit of its popular predecessor.
I’m told that the Fantasy Books chain doesn’t quite have the indie focus of the original Star Clipper, but hopefully some of the employees from the old shop can port over a bit of that sensibility. The new Star Clipper was set up with former owner Benjamin Trujillo’s full cooperation.
The new store opens in early April.
This is really sad. In a letter to customers, Ben and A.J. Trujillo, the owners of Star Clipepr COMis in Stalous, have announced the store is closing, with a liquidation sale beginning on Saturday. Opened in 1988, and going through three ownership changes, Star Clipper was always in front of retailing trends, and the Trujillos had definitely built up a great relationship with their community—as evidenced by the outpouring of support on their FB page—carrying a wide selection of comics for adults and kids, with a strong emphasis on female customers. Recent signings include Neal Adams, Cullen Bunn, Chris Samnee, Michael DeForge, Kate Leth, Tim Lane, Jeff Weigel, so you can see how eclectic their domain was.
As for the reasons for the closing, they are laid out in a excellent, detailed piece in St. Louis Magazine
“The decision’s been a long time coming,” Ben Trujillo confirmed yesterday. “It’s been bandied about for almost two years. The economy tanked in 2008, and we weathered that fairly well. There’ve been changes in the demographics of the area and in comic readers in general, which has made things unpredictable, as we buy products on an unreturnable basis. And with the social things happening in St. Louis, those’ve impacted business, as well. It’s sad to be the people who are shutting it down, but we feel a great sense of ownership and don’t necessarily see someone else’s custodianship here.”
To date, the news about Star Clipper’s end was kept tight, with only workers and, according to Trujillo, “a few select customers” knowing. (The Trujillos are the business’ third owners in 27 years.)
“Everyone’s been really disappointed and sad,” he said. “Everyone’s really disappointed. Surprisingly, a lot have said that they’ll stop reading comics. Or they’ve said that they’ll move to reading digitally. For a lot of people, it’s a shock. They see the store and have no idea what’s happening behind-the-scenes.
This is certainly a blowtogood comics and good comics customers in the St. Louis area. I had the great pleasure of working with Carol Denbow back in the Friends of Lulu Days, one of Star Clippers former owners, and a very ahead of her time retailer. I always thought of the shop as being out ahead of the curve. This store will be missed.
[Photo via the Star Clipper FB page]
This is great news. I was enormously saddened when Starclipper announced they were closing, as it was the comic shop I visited every Wednesday (well, mostly Wednesdays). I’m hoping the local comics community will support the new owners and location as we tend to be a little reluctant to go downtown here in St. Louis. Good luck to all involved and I’ll definitely stop by when you’re open.