James is a Pinko

Isotope Comics in Hayes Valley is one of our favourite stores to waste time in.

We even reported over on the CA Blog that it was where Chris spent the last of his savings (we've set up payroll since). We, inevitably, walk out of there having spent at least $50 each time. I thought I had outgrown comic books. I had a bit of an obsession with the X-Men as a kid (thus, Miss Rogue) and was definitely into Archie, but hadn't picked up a comic book in years.

And I was never really a comic book nerd...you know...one of those aficionados who can tell you which issue which superhero was defeated by which villain and will point out the inconsistencies between artists. I just read 'em because they had great stories and exciting characters (my favourite was actually Dazzler, who James tells me may make a comeback soon).

But this isn't about comic books. This is about the experience that James Sime creates at Isotope. It's not just the store, although it's open design and whimsical props make it easy to browse and stick around. It's not the selection, although each graphic novel and comic series is obviously painstakingly selected. It's not the service, although James (as well as his staff) knows every book in that store, will tell you a story about each series/graphic novel, will bend over backwards to make certain you leave with what you came for and is incredibly entertaining to talk with.

It's the passion. The obvious love of what he does. It's a feeling you can't quite put your finger on when you enter the store. You want to be there. You are excited. You want to linger.

And James does events, has a Flickr photo stream, a blog where he professes to put 'new shipment news, photos, announcements and just stuff he thinks is interesting' and knew what Pinko Marketing is. He reads blogs and stays interested in new ideas (and seemed proud to be called a pinko entrepreneur).

Oh...and this isn't a comic book store...Isotope is a comic book lounge (and that's not fancy messaging...it really is).

James loves what he does, befriends his customers, puts loving detail into everything and probably creates 10 new comic-book addicts every day (he could be a supervillian who creates comic book dependencies in disguise, but he's too nice). He doesn't sell comic books...he provides an amazing experience.

I am going to be emailing James to get an interview with him...probably on video...within the next month or so. People keep asking me whether pinko works for offline stuff, too. Well, James is the embodiment of it, so I think it will be an interesting video.

tags: pinkomarketing, marketing, isotopecomiclounge, jamessime