The Dragon Lady

On Saturday, January 7th, I was informed that one of the mainstays of the Toronto Comic Book collecting community would be closing forever, The Dragon Lady! I don't remember when I first visited their store but it was probably in 1980 when I came to live in Toronto and I have to admit that it always came in second place to my favourite haunt, The Silver Snail.

Way back then, the two stores were much closer together than they are now. The Snail was at 321 or 323 Queen St. West, on the south side of the street and The Dragon Lady was at 200 Queen St. West, on the north side of the street. From the postings made lately, about the imminent moving of The Snail and the closing of The Dragon Lady, it would appear that the Dragon Lady moved up to it's present location, at 609 College Street, in 1989 (although other reports say it was 1996). I'm sorry to say that it barely registered with me because I rarely came to the downtown stores at that time, I was getting my weekly supply from George Zotti at The Snail North on Yonge St. north of Eglinton Ave.

When I first began collecting comics, at the age of nine or ten in 1966 or 67, the only places to get them was on the spinner racks at the newsagents or from second-hand bookstores. As I grew into my teenage years, wishing for a dedicated comic shop, they began to appear and then proliferate! Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever and I have a terrible feeling that I will live to see a time without any specialty comic shops, at least none that I would recognize as such.