When Simon Chadwick told his parents he was dropping out of engineering school to open up a comic book shop, they figured it wouldn't be long before he returned to BCIT.
That was in 1993.
Last week, Port Moody's Hourglass Comics celebrated its 20th anniversary and Chadwick said his business is still continuing to grow.
"My parents were very supportive," he said. "My mom is a little surprised that I have been doing it for this long. I think they thought I would do it for a while and then go back to school."
The industry has seen many changes during Chadwick's two decades in business.
When he opened his shop, there were many stores just like his dotting the Lower Mainland suburbs. But when the industry began to wane in the late 1990s, many of his competitors were forced to close their doors, with Hourglass hanging on and filling the void.
As a 19-year-old starting out, Chadwick made up for his lack of business experience with an ability to assess the genres and stories his customers liked.
"As far as the business stuff goes, I learned by doing," he said. "The comics themselves I knew really, really well. Right off the bat, I had a gift for ordering what was cool. I think the main thing that kept me in business early on was getting the right stuff."
These days, the comic industry is on an upswing.
With film series like The Avengers and Iron Man raking in billions at the box office, many movie-goers are looking to learn more about the characters on the big screen. Some are turning to comic books, which has led to changes in the types of customers at Hourglass.
"When I first started out, it was more geek culture," he said. "It still is, but geek culture is actually cool right now."
Gone are the days when collectors dominated the business, fearing that even a fingerprint or a folded page could reduce the value of a rare comic book. Younger enthusiasts, Chadwick said, buy comics for the art and the stories and treat them more as an entertainment medium than a collector's item.
The internet is also changing the industry. Many people are buying their comics online or in digital form and viewing them on their tablet computers, Chadwick said.
But the 39-year-old entrepreneur isn't worried about these latest developments. As he sees it, there will always be a need for shops like Hourglass, where customers are paying for knowledge just as much as their comic books.
Chadwick believes that while the internet may affect larger retailers, fans will still flock to his store, where they can see and hold the latest stories the industry is producing.
"We already understand how to do niche," he said. "Making us more niche is not necessarily a bad thing."
