Dave's Comics & Collectibles

EDIT [updated image here]

For many reasons, I'm starting to move away from fan-art based illustration and work on something more personal to me. This WIP is part of a autobiographical storybook I'm starting, featuring my old haunts and stomping grounds or other places & things that impacted me as a youth. Many of the places don't exist anymore. A recurring theme as we get older is "you can't go back", but my visual memory is pretty strong, and to the best of my knowledge (Google street view help a little), this is how this comic shop looked to me as a kid (again, as a work in progress, with lots of detail left to include). There's still a bit more to do, especially with the window dressings, but I strongly remember a Michael Keaton Batman cutout in the front window. Now, it’s a matter of working out the other details.

(**I’m currently trying to reach out to anyone out there who has any photos, insight or memories of this store and what they remember of it - especially the storefront/window details, etc. PLEASE HELP!**)

Dave's Comics was a deceivingly large comic store (to a small kid, anyway) in Royal Oak, Michigan from the early 1980s-2000. I frequented this store many times as a kid and it served as my first introduction to the world of comics which in turn put me on a path to become an illustrator. There will be many other (varied) entries but I see this one as a linchpin - the crown jewel as it were - of what i'm trying to achieve with this, so I wanted to create this one first. An homage to my favorite comic store and a bygone era, in general.

The plan is to eventually present the collection of stories and illustrations to my son so he has some insight as to where his daddy came from (again, many of which don't exist anymore) and how those places shaped him.