A short history of the store so far.

Bear Delahunt and Ron Berney met when we were both struggling artists living in the foothills of Hollywood, on the outskirts of the entertainment industry. We soon realized that we shared a lot in common - a penchant for pop culture, a hatred for the LA Lakers, a belief that Michael Jackson was a genius, and most of all the ability to put in long, long, hours not working hard.  The latter talent eventually lead both Bear and I away from Los Angeles and on to other endeavors and other cities.

But we always stayed in touch.

And last summer, when Bear found himself back in his boyhood haunts of Southern South Carolina, we began to discuss the idea of opening a comic book store. After a few months of planning Bear's Comics opened just after Memorial Day 2010.

Another one of our common beliefs is that sequential art is a unique and important form and that an awful lot of brilliant (and too often ignored) work resides at the intersection of literature and visual images. It is an art form that is our constant companion through our early childhood (even before we can figure out how to read the words that accompany the images), in to adulthood,  and on through our dotage. It can run the spectrum from the  jauntiness of  Mickey Mouse to the hauntingly profound images of Art Spielgman's "Maus", from the teenage utopia of Archie Andrew's Riverdale, to the dystopian future United Kingdom of Alan Moore's "V for Vendetta" - sequential art in all its forms cuts a wide path through the human condition.

It is our store's, and this blog's, mission to encourage all the artists who contribute to this form and to nurture the artist that lives in all of us..... and to have fun doing it.

Look forward to seeing you all here and at Bear's Comics.

-RB