click to enlarge - Luke Awtry
- Merchandise at Champion Comics & Coffee
Comic book heroes are all about second acts. Tony Stark turned away from the life of an arms dealer to don the Iron Man armor and protect the innocent. Stephen Strange was a surgeon before becoming Dr. Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts. Bruce Wayne was a nepo baby before becoming Batman, the scariest orphan/vigilante of all time.
Rory Malone knows a little something about staging an epic second act in life, too. After working as a public defender for 18 years, Malone decided it was time for a radical change. So he and his wife, Rachel Malone, opened Champion Comics & Coffee in Williston, one of the few brick-and-mortar comics shops in Vermont, and took a gamble on turning one of his life's passions into a new career.
"I got into public defense because I wanted to help people," Malone, 48, explained as he sat at a table in the Taft Corners shop, surrounded by bookshelves full of graphic novels and monthly comic books. "At some point during the pandemic, I realized that the frustration I was feeling in the job was outweighing the good feelings I would get from helping people."
Growing up in Juneau, Alaska, Malone was an avid comics collector — until a storage unit fire destroyed the majority of his collection. Still, changing careers was no small matter for Malone, who had been a public defender since graduating from Vermont Law School in 2003. But after he and his wife talked it over, they decided on the comic book-café combination.
"I was skeptical on whether or not a comics shop on its own could make it," Malone said, noting the dearth of shops in the Green Mountains. "Coffee just seemed like a no-brainer," he went on. "And the two things will feed into each other: We'll get people coming in for coffee that will browse for comics, and people who come in for comics and grab a cup of coffee or tea on their way out."
The 19,000-square-foot shop's layout nicely illustrates the dovetailing concepts. Entering the shop, posters of heroes, such as the X-Men's Wolverine, greet visitors, attracting them to shelves stocked with comics, graphic novels, manga and toys. The rich smell of espresso (a Captain Americano, obviously) hits the nose and lures customers to the back of the shop, where the coffee, snack bar and register reside. Cookies and other baked goods await.
The store opened on December 16. "This was — and still is — a giant gamble," Malone said. "When we first opened, I was so scared that we'd open those doors and no one would come through."
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Fortunately, it's been quite the opposite. Malone has been amazed at how both the local comics community and Williston at large have taken to Champion. And he's been surprised by some requests. When the store first opened, he recalled, he was asked at least four times a day if the shop was going to host gaming nights — particularly Magic: The Gathering tournaments.
"I don't think I realized just how much appetite for gaming there would be," he said.
Kids' comics and graphic novels are also hot items, with some comics, such as Sonic the Hedgehog, selling out every issue.
"I have a good, knowledgable staff, but the truth is, I'm learning how to do this as I go," Malone said. "But our customers tell me what they want, and that's helping me zero in on what the shop has to be."
And what do the customers want? In addition to gaming nights, more tables. The shop currently has six, but after seeing them quickly fill up on weekends — Champion is one of the only locally owned coffee spots open on weekends in Williston — Malone plans to double the number. Along with introducing gaming nights for Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, the shop will celebrate Free Comic Book Day on May 6 with specials and cosplayers.
What really excites Malone are the guests he's lining up to do in-store signings of their work. The first is Vermont's new cartoonist laureate, Tillie Walden. (Read more about her in "Drawing Interest.") The Norwich-based artist, a two-time Eisner Award winner, is set to visit the shop on June 6.
"Tillie represents everything we want in our shop," Malone said. "She's a local creator making compelling graphic novels. We hope she's the first of many creators, both from Vermont and abroad, that we can bring in for folks to meet."
Malone is learning to navigate retail obstacles, such as dealing with comic book distributors. "I ordered 200 books at one point and got an email back saying 196 of them were on back order," he lamented. But he's not letting the tough challenges faze him.
"When things get hard, I remind myself that law school was hard," he said. "Being a public defender was hard. That fact that opening this store hasn't always been easy won't dissuade me."
Fortunately for Malone, the store has thus far exceeded his expectations. More importantly, Champion is becoming the kind of home for comics lovers he envisioned.
"The people coming in have told me, over and over, how happy they are that there's a comic shop here," Malone said. "That makes me really happy, because I feel a responsibility to serve this community."