Itiban Comic Shop is a Brazilian

comic book store The direct market is the dominant distribution and retail network for American comic books. The concept of the direct market was created in the 1970s by Phil Seuling. The network currently consists of: * three major comic distributors: ** Luna ...

founded in 1989 by the couple Mitie Taketani and Francisco Utrabo (better known as Xico Utrabo) in

Curitiba Curitiba () is the capital and largest city in the state of Paraná (state), Paraná in Southern Brazil. The city's population was 1,773,718 , making it the List of cities in Brazil by population, eighth most populous city in Brazil and the larg ...

. It was the first

bookstore Bookselling is the commercial trading of books, which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, book people, bookmen, or bookwomen. History The found ...

specializing in

comics a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

in the Brazilian South Region and one of the pioneers in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. The name references the Japanese word "ichiban" (一番), meaning "number 1".

History

In its early years, Itiban also sold newspapers and magazines due to the rules of the distributors. Over time, they managed to increase the amount of material related to comics, music and cinema. They also started to sell comics from the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and the

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after an agreement with Devir Livraria, which acted as comic book's importer. In all its years of operation, Itiban has held events related to comics and launches of works by various artists such as Lourenço Mutarelli, Bianca Pinheiro, Laerte Coutinho, Rafael Coutinho,

Fábio Moon Fábio Moon is a Brazilian comic book artist best known for his work on '' Casanova''. He is the twin brother of fellow comic book artist Gabriel Bá. Career Fábio has been writing comics for almost 15 years, and has been published in France, I ...

Gabriel Bá Gabriel Bá (born 5 June 1976) is a Brazilian comic book artist best known for his work on ''The Umbrella Academy'', ''Casanova (comics), Casanova'', and ''Daytripper (DC Comics), Daytripper''. He is the twin brother of fellow comic book artist F� ...

and Marcello Quintanilha, among others. Some of its main activities are the regular chats with authors from all over Brazil, the ItiClub (its free monthly reading club) and the Itiban Jam Session (a live "drawing battle"). In addition, Mitie is also one of the curators of

Bienal de Quadrinhos de Curitiba Bienal de Quadrinhos de Curitiba is a Brazilian comic book festival held since 2011 in Curitiba. History In 2011, the event Gibicon nº 0 ("Gibi" is an informal way of calling comic books in Brazil) took place, with the subtitle "Curitiba's Inte ...

, which counts with Itiban as one of the supporters. The store has already operated at three different addresses: Rua Visconde do Rio Branco, Avenida Marechal Floriano and Avenida Silva Jardim (current address, since 1999). The store's facade usually has graffiti by Brazilian comic artists, which are usually replaced without regularity. Currently, the facade features the art of Fábio Zimbres and Rafael Sica, who painted the store in honor of its 30th anniversary in 2019. In 2021, Itiban went through a crisis due to a sharp drop in revenue as a result of the operating restrictions imposed by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, as its main clientele came from in-person sales, especially during the various events held in the store during the year. In March, Mitie made an appeal on social media, talking about the risk of the store closing after more than 30 years. The appeal mobilized customers and comic book fans from all over Brazil, increasing online sales (which were negligible until then), in addition to several messages of support.

Awards and honors

Itiban Comic Shop was elected in 1998 as Best Comics Retailer by

Troféu HQ Mix Troféu HQ Mix is a Brazilian comics award. The prize was created in 1989 by João Gualberto Costa (Gual) and José Alberto Lovetro (Jal), members of the Association of the Brazilian Cartoonists. The name refers to the television show about comics ...

and, in 2003, it was honored with the incentive medal of Prêmio Angelo Agostini as "Best Store" alongside the comic stores Banca Flávio, Comix Book Shop, Point HQ and Revistas & Cia.

References

{{reflist Comics bookshops