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Jelle Hugaerts on the Opening of His Pitkamies Store in Helsinki
posted June 15, 2008
 

Just thought I'd let you know about a new nice place in Helsinki that we have been calling here "a heaven for comic lovers." So three weeks I opened my comic store in Helsinki. It's called Pitkamies, the address is Kolmas Linja 17, 00530 Helsinki. Maybe you be willing to mention this in your blog? Feel free to use any material that I have written or pictures that have been taken.

I have been selling comics for four years more as a hobby and on the internet only. But now the time had come to open my store. But I didn't want to have your regular run in the mill indie comic store that sells only dernier cri and PictureBox on the top of the usual load of Fanta, D&Q and Top Shelf, I wanted a bit more. Mostly I feared of course that selling only art comics would never make enough money to pay all my expenses but also I thought it would be more interesting to have a bit more extra things.

What I immediately put a lot of attention to was the actual outlook of the place, so I had my pal Olivier Schrauwen (My Boy, new stuff in the upcoming Mome) to do the shop windows' stickers. I have purchased old wallpaper from the '70s to have a nice panther motive in the background, a German designer designed my book display and counter which he made from old bricks. The overall outlook had to be spacious and light. Pictures of the opening party are here. It had a nice outcome. A customer said, "Finally a comic store where I can breathe," which I took as a nice compliment.

Anyway, part of the success of the opening party and the media attention this has gained here was because under the same roof as my store but in a different room the Finnish Comics Society is running the first and only comic's art gallery and the first exhibition is about Finnish small press in the '80s plus it showcases original works by Matti Hagelberg, Katja Tukiainen, Jenni Rope, Kati Rapia...you can also just relax in a sofa and read comics from the vast library of the Finnish Comics Society (before there's any wrong ideas, most of the books of the Finnish Comics Society are situated in boxes in a storage space, what's available in the art gallery is just a miniscule outtake from their stock...)

The Finnish Comics Society is also running their organisation (for exampling organising the Helsinki Comics Festival) in the backspace of the store. We have offices there.

Now on top of this all comes the fact that the now 12-headed Kuti Kuti collective has moved into the basement of the store. Their previous spot had become too small and they were on the lookout for a new location. When I then found out that the downstairs space of my store was also available I asked them to check it out. They liked it, they moved in and have brought with them a gigantic silkscreen printing machine (it's 2m by 3m big, we had to break out windows and walls to get it in) that is standing in the backroom now. Kuti as you may know publishes every three months on the dot their free comics tabloid and spreads all over Finland and further. Most famous artists (at least abroad) are Tommi Musturi, Amanda Vahamaki (she's in the upcoming D&Q showcase) and Aapo Rapi who will be in the upcoming Kramer's Ergot.

So now we have the whole field of comics here: a store that supports experimental comics, a non-profit organisation, the comic artists themselves and with them several small publishing houses (www.boingbeing.com, www.huudahuuda.com). Starting from August we will have the silk screen machine up and running and in September we will be starting to organise workshops and lectures, etc.

It's not all comics that rules this address: I also have a nice and big handpicked selection of vinyls (all the indie classics and lots Finnish freakfolk) and clothing as well. Aside from the comics the Pitkamies offers a nice selection of music and clothing. The music department is in the fine hands of Ifsociety who handpick the gems from the vast sea of good indie records whilst not forgetting all the classic stuff from the past. The vinyl/cd division in the store is about 50 percent labels we like are Touch and Go, Subpop, Dischord, SST, Merge and the Finnish labels Fonal, Ektro, Lal lal lal.

Clothing wise I try to pick a good selection of shirts that have an affinity with comics. For now I deal with only a few manufacturers. From Finland I am proud to sell the fine goods of Polkkajam which is a duo from Turku that handmakes their wear with own design. From the states I am glad to import stuff from Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction which hires innovative contemporary artists to design exceptional and wearable pieces that combat the troubling possibility of artwork losing its presence and power in our image-saturated society.

The store's website is in English and can be checked here: www.pitkamies.net/kauppa.