whyilovetoronto:

Why I Love Toronto Reason #42

Silver Snail

Comic book nerds rejoice! The trailer for The Avengers was released yesterday and by golly I am so stoked! I love comic books – more so Marvel than DC.  I remember my first comic book I ever got was Power Rangers, but my first ever Marvel or DC affiliated comic book I got was X-Men! Now my dad, and my three uncles were comic book fanatics – it seemed to be the cool thing to collect in the 70’s and 80’s. Comics are very important to my family, my one uncle painted life-sized pictures and cut-outs of comic book characters for an independent Comic shop, and painted us some stellar comic book paintings one of which is hanging on my wall (Daredevil and Elektra). My other Uncle is raising his son on comic books and my other other uncle – well he has gone as almost every comic book character for Halloween.

Now as a child I was interested in comics and I was excited when my father would take me to Queen Street to the Silver Snail to buy a comic book. My father used to buy comics there as teen and the shop has a vast collection of comics and action figures that would make and comic fanatics head explode.  The shop was opened by Ron Van Leeuwen who wanted to share his love of comics with everybody. The Silver Snail opened for business in 1976. The main location that everybody associates the Silver Snail with is at 367 Queen Street West where it has been for around 3 decades.  The Silver Snail has seen the sights of many comic book legends including the creator of The Simpsons, Matt Groening.  

However, the iconic location is set to move according to a report by the Toronto Star. Where will it move? That is unknown at this point but it is suggested that it could move to the Annex or Yonge Street (maybe Honest Ed will take it in like they did sonic boom). The new owners of the Snail do not see the comic shop as fitting in with the Queen Street culture anymore – If that is true then places like the Black Market may be the next victim to go. The store is said to remain at its current location until February of next year, and if it does decide to leave its Queen Street Location I will be there on its last day stare at the building and to lay down a card thanking the Silver Snail for being a reason of

Why I Love Toronto.

https://www.silversnail.com/shop/index.html

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/970520—the-silver-snail-comics-icon-sold-to-move