Go, Read: Pitkämies Calling It Quits

In a somber, sober and unbelievably straight-forward and rational post, Jelle Hugaerts talks about closing down his Helsinki store Pitkämies. This was one of those stores that seems to exist in a dream space for a lot of adult comics readers: a place to buy the best comics internationally (Hugaerts mentions his first offerings were American comics), invested in its regional arts comics community, well-designed, a hub for events, an active and engaged owner. Unfortunately, as Hugaerts puts forward in almost heartbreaking terms, this is a model that's nearly inconceivable to sustain. Such efforts are never super-profitable, and when something goes south like music sales did a while back, it's impossible to do anything with the other parts of the business to push things back into the black. Hugaerts mentions that the store will live on in memory and, hopefully, in the occasional publishing initiative or effort engineered by its owner and operator. I can only thank Hugaerts and wish him the best, and I'm sure there are hundreds if not thousands of people that feel their life was improved by having this kind of store in their lives, no matter how briefly.
 
posted 6:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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