THE start of May is traditionally Free Comic Book Day, but comics and pop culture provider Heroes HQ will be celebrating a more personal occasion.<\/p>\n
The store is set to ring in its 10-year anniversary, and in place of the global event, they will be holding their \u2018Not Free Comic Book Day\u2019 to coincide with the milestone.<\/p>\n
Festivities will take place on Saturday, 7 May, with plans to include a barbecue, a CFA fundraiser, and stacks of free leftovers from previous years alongside a weeklong anniversary sale.<\/p>\n
Heroes HQ will turn 10 on Tuesday, 26 April, and owner and operator Jeannine le Vaillant said the celebrations will be just as much for their customer base as for their \u201cfamily business.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be here without our comics community. They\u2019ve supported us fully throughout the lockdowns of the last two years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout them, everybody in Ballarat and our postal community, our online community, we just wouldn\u2019t be a store anymore.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re getting to know them again now without their masks, so not even COVID could stop us from celebrating.\u201d<\/p>\n
A long-time fan of comics, Ms le Vaillant has run the store since 2015, after purchasing it from founder Garry Fay, and said her daughter Ruby would regularly spend all her pocket money there.<\/p>\n
Together with Ruby, the pair have extended Heroes HQ\u2019s services to an online platform over the past five years, which delivers comics globally, separate from their in-store stock.<\/p>\n
The online front is managed by Ruby, and now stocks over 25,000 comics, but Ms le Vaillant said their in-person store preserves the \u201crural taste\u201d of their local roots.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s in store here is for our locals and people that pop into the store. We\u2019re very proud of this place as our local comics area,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re the only comic shop from metro Melbourne to nearly Adelaide. We\u2019re local and contactable, of course just like the other urban stores, only we\u2019re in their backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other plans for the anniversary celebrations are still being considered, such as a raffle and cake, and Ms le Vaillant said she looks forward to looking back on her personal achievements with the shop.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very proud of this little store. It was a dream of Garry\u2019s, and something he got off the ground, but it was still baby steps,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve made the store into a teenager, and when I\u2019m ready to move on, hopefully the people that take over can move the shop into a young adult with aspiring plans for new things.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s become a real store. Garry did the hard yards, and we\u2019ve kept it going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE start of May is traditionally Free Comic Book Day, but comics and pop culture provider Heroes HQ will be celebrating a more personal occasion. The store is set to ring in its 10-year anniversary, and in place of the global event, they will be holding their \u2018Not Free Comic Book Day\u2019 to coincide with […]<\/p>\n