Dragon Lady Comics was a comic book shop in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Canada, owned by John Biernat. Founded in 1978 as a

mail order Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing a telephone call * Placing a ...

company, Dragon Lady Comics was opened as a store the following year. Dragon Lady closed on 3 February 2012. The comics business reopened nearby on 8 February 2012 as the Comic Book Lounge and Gallery.

Overview

Dragon Lady Comics is named after the

Dragon Lady Dragon Lady is usually a stereotype of certain East Asian and occasionally South Asian and/or Southeast Asian women as strong, deceitful, domineering, mysterious, and often sexually alluring. Inspired by the characters played by actress Anna Ma ...

character that appeared in

Milton Caniff Milton Arthur Paul Caniff (; February 28, 1907 – April 3, 1988) was an People of the United States, American cartoonist famous for the ''Terry and the Pirates (comic strip), Terry and the Pirates'' and ''Steve Canyon'' comic strips. Biography ...

's ''

Terry and the Pirates ''Terry and the Pirates'' is an action-adventure comic strip created by cartoonist Milton Caniff, which originally ran from October 22, 1934, to February 25, 1973. Captain Joseph Patterson, editor for the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate, ...

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

. The store opened in 1978 as a mail order memorabilia business. However, in 1979, a retail outlet was opened at 200

Queen Street West Queen Street is a major east-west thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Roncesvalles Avenue and King Street in the west to Victoria Park Avenue in the east. Queen Street was the cartographic baseline for the original east-w ...

, tapping into the new

direct market The direct market is the dominant distribution and retail network for American comic books. The concept of the direct market was created in the 1970s by Phil Seuling. The network currently consists of: * four major comic distributors: ** Lunar ...

aimed at comic collectors. In 1979, owner John Biernat was interviewed by local

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...

station

CBLT CBLT-DT (channel 5) is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the English-language service of CBC Television. It is part of a twinstick with Ici Radio-Canada Télé outlet CBLFT-DT (channel 25). B ...

for a news segment on "the comics craze" (airdate 23 June 1979). From 1985–1988, Dragon Lady Comics operated a publishing wing,

Dragon Lady Press Dragon Lady Press was the publishing wing of the Toronto-based comic book store Dragon Lady Comics, operating from 1985 to 1988. The company was known for its reprints of classic newspaper comic strips in various forms.George Kovacs & C. W. Mars ...

, devoted to reprints of class newspaper

comic strips A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...

. In 1996, as Queen Street was being transformed into a more upscale retail district and rents increased, Dragon Lady Comics moved to larger premises at 609 College Street. Merchandise expanded to include movie

memorabilia A souvenir (), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a m ...

and magazines, and a small selection of secondhand books. This change was reflected in the new (albeit rarely used) name for the store, "Dragon Lady Comics and Paper Nostalgia". Shifts in the comics market and the lingering effects of the 2008 recession negatively affected the store's profitability, and a rent increase forced its closure early in 2012. The store itself was split in two, the new comics and graphic novel business was relocated a few doors east under a new business name and new owner Kevin Boyd - The Comic Book Lounge and Gallery, located at 587A College Street, while the back issues and paper nostalgia went with Biernat back to his home in Kitchener, ON."The Last Days of Dragon Lady Comics"
- The National Post, 3 February 2012, (Howard Akler)

In popular culture

Dragon Lady Comics is mentioned in

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nin ...

's 1993 novel, ''

The Robber Bride ''The Robber Bride'' is a Margaret Atwood novel first published by McClelland and Stewart in 1993. Plot summary Set in present-day Toronto, Ontario, the novel is about three women and their history with old friend and nemesis, Zenia. Roz, Cha ...

''. The Dragon Lady Comics storefront is shown in the background of the 2011 film '' Take This Waltz'' at minute 107.

References

External links

"Surveying the comics craze"
- CBLT news segment, original airdate 23 June 1979.
"The End of An Era: Toronto’s Dragon Lady Comics to close in early 2012"
-

Joe Shuster Awards The Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards (or Joe Shuster Awards) are given out annually for outstanding achievements in the creation of comic books, graphic novels, webcomics, and comics retailers and publishers by Canadians. The awards ...

Canadian Comics Awards, News and Links, 2 February 2012 (Kevin Boyd)
"Toronto’s Dragon Lady Comics to close"
-

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

, 4 January 2012 (David Graham).
"Dragon Lady Comics set to enter the deadpool"
- BlogTO, 4 January 2012 (Igor Bonifacic)
"Panoramaist: Dragon Lady Comics"
- Torontist, 5 January 2012, photos by Tony Makepeace
"The End is Nigh for Dragon Lady Comics"
- Torontist, 5 January 2012, (Laura Godfrey)

-

Financial Post The ''Financial Post'' was an English Canadian business newspaper, which published from 1907 to 1998. In 1998, the publication was folded into the new ''National Post'',"Black says Post to merge with new paper". ''The Globe and Mail'', July 23, ...

, 4 February 2012
"The Last Days of Dragon Lady Comics"
-

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

, 4 February 2012
"The Start of an Era? As Dragon Lady closes the Comic Book Lounge + Gallery opens"
-

Canadian Comics Awards, News and Links, 21 January 2012 (Kevin Boyd)
"The Comic Book Lounge + Gallery to open 2/8/2012"
- Comic Book Lounge website, 21 January 2012 (Kevin Boyd) {{Canadian comics Comics retailers in Canada Shops in Toronto

Overview

In popular culture

See also

References

External links