A Few Comics Sites (& Sights) in the Far East
My family and I love to travel and whenever we visit new places, I like to check out comic shops and the general comic book scene in a region. We recently returned to the United States after more than three weeks traveling through China, Hong Kong and South Korea and I made it one of my goals to find out more about comic books in those areas. I came prepared with several comic book T-Shirts and a little bit of internet research.
CHINA
Our first 15 days of the trip found us traveling through China with a tour group and so I didn’t have a great deal of time to explore on my own but I doubt it would have made much of a difference. Other than a couple of T-shirts, I saw very little comic book presence in China. While I was wearing a Batman T-shirt at an elementary school, a teacher told me that she and her husband had just watched Iron Man 3 but that was the exception rather than the rule. I asked one of our guides about comics and he commented that the government had a pretty tight control of print media and those types of books might not be allowed in China. There could also be the issue of the lack of disposable income necessary to buy comics as the cost of living in big Chinese cities has increased dramatically over the past decade and most families do not have money for extras beyond food and rent.
While my main area of interest is western comics, I thought that perhaps Japanese comics might have made some inroads here. This was not visibly the case and may have a great deal to do with ongoing and historical tension between the two countries. I saw one street vendor (keep in mind that this was out of the hundreds of street vendors that I walked past) that had a sign refusing to serve Japanese customers. The history of the Sino-Japanese tension is something into which I have no intention of discussing here, I am merely sharing what I saw.
HONG KONG
While technically a SAR (Special Administrative Region) of China, the rules for what happens in Hong Kong are considerably different than what occurs in the mainland. Facebook and blogs are back in play and you can find just about anything in this true city of the world including comics. I saw lots of T-shirts particularly featuring the Big Red S. I only had one full day to explore Hong Kong with the family but I made a couple of comic related discoveries during that time. Our first stop of the day was Victoria Peak, a must see for anyone visiting Hong Kong. The vista offers breath-taking views of the magnificent skyline as well as upscale shopping, the most popular pastime in H.K. The first sign that I saw upon reaching The Peak (the name of the shopping area) via tram was an advertisement for Madame Tussads Hong Kong. The ad featured wax figures of Spider-Man, Iron Man and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine . While I was tempted to go just to see those figures, I have to admit that I find wax reproductions of people really creepy and the rest of the fam had no interest so we bypassed that attraction and continued up the escalator.
I was almost to the next level when I saw a sign with the DC logo and I knew that I had another destination to hit. The DC Comics Super Heroes concept store features T-shirts, hats, shoes and a dressing room completely decked out in Action Comics wallpaper. The selection of T-shirts in XL was a bit limited (sorry Americans) but the guys that worked there helped me find some options. They also let me take pictures and some video and were happy to answer a few questions and all of them spoke excellent English which is pretty common in H.K. I will add that they are very proud of their merchandise there and you can guess the prices you will find at a name brand tourist shop on the top of a mountain.
Next we went to Times Square Hong Kong to celebrate a Batman 75th anniversary event. Batmobiles, statues and pictures greeted us (and thousands of others) and we didn’t even try to push into the building to see the rest. The people of H.K. certainly seemed thrilled to see Batman leave the city of Gothem (sic) for a bit to look out over their fair city. Batman may be 75 years old but his status as a world wide icon is completey secure.
Our last stop in Hong Kong was Metro Comics in the Basement of the Causeway Bay Shopping Centre on Hong Kong island. This was a location that I discovered in my pre-trip research. This store is a bit tricky to find as the Causeway Bay region is absolutely packed on Sundays with tourists, shoppers and locals enjoying what for many of them is their only day off of the week. The Shopping Centre does have a large sign on the street but there are a lot of signs all over the place and it is easy to get a bit overwhelmed with the lights and signs and crowds. Metro Comics is generally only open in the evenings so if you are going to head over there, you might as well wait until 4:00 pm or later. The shop features primarily comics in their limited shop space although their website is covered with other comic related merchandise. One of the partners in the enterprise, Lee, told me that about 25% of their business came from tourists as I purchased a couple of comics for a bit more than the price as at my LCBS although the books were bagged and boarded.
Seoul, South Korea
The final stop on our tour was another one of the world’s largest cities. About half of the population of the Republic of Korea calls Seoul home although the city did not feel nearly as crowded as Hong Kong. I thought that this city might have more access to comics but it turned out not to be the case. There are plenty of comic book T-shirts around and in a five minute stretch in a popular shopping area I saw at least ten. I never found a place to pick up individual comic book issues, however, I did find a store that sells trades called What the Book?. The shop is located in the Itaewon region of Seoul which is known for shops that cater to foreigners (lots of big and tall shops for Americans). What the Book? stocks new and used books in English and has about a shelf about six feet tall and ten feet wide containing western comics in paperback and hardback for a about the same list price as in the U.S.
Conclusion and Links
We had a fantastic time in each of these places over the 3+ weeks that we were there and comics were just a small part of that. You should know that if you are going to the far east, your access to western comics is going to be limited and will depend a great deal on where you go and the degree to which you do your due diligence. If you work at it, you just might be able to find some places that will feed your need for Super-Hero action. Here are links to more info about some of the sites that we visited. Feel free in the comments below to share your own experiences!
Time Square Hong Kong Batman 75th Anniversary Event
