I have wanted to do a clean up of our retail listing for some time now. I had a hard time believing that there are 310 comic shops in Canada, so it was time to go through the listings and get some up to date information.

Part of this revamp was to uncover new shops that sold product, and weed out the stores that have closed.

Added to each store’s listing were appropriate images that allow you to see if they are a member of an organization or have won an award. New tags added to each store:

• Winner of the Harry Kremer Award for Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Retailer
  
• Participates in Free Comic Book Day
  
• Member of ComicsPro, the Comic Professional Retail Organization
  
• Winner of the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award, for Best Comic Shop in the World
• Member of the Canadian Booksellers Association
  

We started January with 310 shops, lets see where we ended:

Newfoundland
7 listed in January
5 remain open
2 closed

Nova Scotia
11 listed in January
8 open + 2 new stores = 10 Open stores
1 closed
2 stopped selling comics

New Brunswick
10 listed

PEI
2 listed

Quebec
42 listed
46 open
5 removed

Ontario
120 listed
127 open – many new and newly discovered shops in Ontario
16 removed from listing

Manitoba
19 listed
11 open
8 closed

Saskatchewan
9 listed
9 open + 1 newly discovered = 10 open

Alberta
39 listed
41 open – 6 new shops uncovered in Alberta
4 closed

British Columbia
49 listed
55 open – 12 newly discovered shops in BC
6 removed from listing

Territories
2 listed

So by my math there are 318 comic book retailers in Canada, up from the 310 I didn’t think were possible. There are some caveats here:

• stores are considered comic book stores, for the most part, if they stock new release comics, manga, BD or graphic novels.
• there are stores on the list which deal exclusively in non-new/used product, but are considered to be comic book shops based on the quantity of material stocked
• the Quebec listings could be much larger if BD stocked in book stores was considered, but like the absence of Chapter’s/Indigo bookstores, the focus is on comic book shops
• you may quibble with some of these determinations, that’s okay
• if you know of a store which is missing, has opened, or has closed, please let us know by contacting retailers@joeshusterawards.com