Big Planet Comics x DCPL: Comictropolis

A few weeks ago, writer David Betancourt reached out to us at the shop, with a proposition: he was working with DC Public Libraries to host a series of events connecting library patrons with local comic creators, including Stephanie Williams, Rodney Barnes, and even Betancourt himself; a series of conversations titled Comictropolis. The library asked if he could get a local comic shop involved, and luckily enough, he thought of us!

Turns out David Betancourt (who has years of journalism and teaching credits under his belt as well as his comics writing chops) used to get his comics from Big Planet, way back in the day where the shop I currently manage was located in Georgetown!

There were a few options for which of the lectures we could choose to attend, but taking into account scheduling and prep time, we chose to run a pop-up shop for the final Comictropolis event, a conversation with Tom King, which was held a few days ago as of this writing, on Sunday July 12.

Right now, Tom King’s Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow comic is huge, given that it was the major inspiration for the Supergirl film that came out earlier this summer. If you get online, you’ll see a lot of heated opinions of both the man and his work, but I have to say, Mr. King was very kind and funny, in the brief time I got to spend with him on Sunday. Mr. Betancourt was also deeply cool as well — I fear my most Type A personality traits may have come out in my communication with him, and I might have been overthinking some of the logistics. David was so laid back, though, it totally put me at ease once the day started kicking off!

The event had a turnout of about 50 folks based on my rough head count, followed by an opportunity to buy some of Mr. King’s comics and have them signed, although some folks brought their own issues and even original comics artwork from home!

Overall, we had a great time, and I think the patrons did too — it was a real treat to see some of my regular customers coming out for the talk! I’m also thrilled to have gotten to meet Mr. Betancourt, and hope that we can do this again next year, except even bigger and better (and hopefully with us able to attend each of the conversations, with any luck!)

As a side note, I’ve been dying to work with DCPL in some capacity, and this was a fantastic opportunity I couldn’t pass up! I really hope we can work with DCPL more, in the future!