www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/rory_root_1958_2008
passed away at an Oakland hospital shortly after 4 PM local time on May 19. Initial reports indicate he had slipped into a coma following surgery for a ruptured hernia.
told Sequential Tart in 2007 that he first sold comics at flea markets and in his mother's antique store. That interview and other written commentary suggests that Rory Root came into comics retail proper through the gaming industry, another loose confederation of businesses from the 1970s consisting of converted stores and start-ups run to great extent by fans of the field. He was a player in the Bay Area role-playing gaming group run by Arduin Grimoire creator Dave Hargrave. Attending the University of California at Berkeley, Root dropped out of school just before graduating with a degree in computer science in order to pursue a future in the retail end of the gaming industry. Root managed The Gambit, a gaming store on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley.
He was also a great lover of prose, which likely had some effect on his hope -- if not expectation -- that comics would become a vital participant in American book publishing. It was while at The Best of Two Worlds that Root began making some of the social, professional contacts by which he would eventually become known. Root and then-partner Michael Patchen opened Comic Relief on April 15, 1987. "We were shooting for April 1st, All Fools Day, but like so many good things in the DM, shipped late," Root told Sequential Tart. Root placed an early emphasis on trade paperbacks and collections as renewable stock and perennial sellers, a great number of which he kept, by necessity, in a space off the retail floor. He combined this stocking strategy with an enthusiasm for comics' wide range of reading options, a third position he staked that was neither the embrace of American superhero comic books as the one true use of the medium that many shops and major industry players advocated nor the rejection or pushing away of those comics that some of the leading art comics supporters believed in.
Free Comic Book Day every day when it came to giving a kid his or her first comic. He made a point of hiring knowledgeable staff and emphasized their hand-selling to customers, something he was delighted to do himself given the opportunity. "One time I saw him talking to a mother and young girl in the shop recommending comics, and he was pretty damn good at his job," Eric Reynolds told CR. Root's philosophy extended to all aspects of retail operation. He kept diverse the sources from where Comic Relief ordered books, and castigated shops that fell into a trap of servicing customers on specific pre-orders as opposed to having a wide-ranging stock and matching customers to books on the shelf. He eschewed maximizing profit on certain out-of-print or rare books in favor of getting them on the floor and into readers' hands. He supported joining booksellers associations, attending those trade shows and using those resources as well as any more specifically focused on comics. He embraced local creators and treated visiting comics professionals like guests in his home. "Comic Relief was one of the first stores to carry my mini-comics when I was a teenager, and it was the first place that made me feel like I might have a future in this business," Adrian Tomine wrote in a note to CR when informed of Root's passing. "At the time, there were a few stores that were politely selling my comics on consignment, but CR was the one place that called me in Sacramento asking if they could get more copies because they'd sold out." Root specifically encouraged young cartoonists of all stripes. He purchased loads of mini-comics and small press items to present them for sale, held a staggering number of signings and events, and became a fixture at and sometimes co-organizer of west coast conventions.
Comic-Con International, where his store's booth would by the early 2000s became one of the anchor locations on the floor for comics purchases and where Rory himself, perched on a stool, became one of the show's iconic figures. "The news of Rory's passing really is devastating," Comic-Con International's David Glanzer said to CR. "He was such a good and long time friend of Comic-Con that it's difficult to believe he is no longer with us. When I first came on board at Comic-Con, Rory was one of the first to offer his help and opinion on anything having to do with the comics industry." The end result of Root's hard work and that of several devoted staffers was one of the industry's first destination stores and a model for comics retail that made those who shopped there feel better about the possibilities of the medium.
the Will Eisner Spirit of Retailing Award, a lifetime honor that had gone to Root's store after a little more than a half-decade of operation. One of Root's most important endeavors was to cultivate relationships with and facilitate sales to libraries and other, similar, secondary markets for comics, doing so as soon as the early 1990s. When by the late 1990s and early into the 2000s this started to became a major market for comics sellers, Root dispensed informal advice and made appearances at professional gatherings to speak on these sorts of possibilities for the comics market. He exhibited at some of these shows in partnership with Diamond and then later on his own. Root's advice wasn't just a boon to comics shops that might forge such relationships but also provided librarians and other groups with a valuable service by letting them know what was out there for purchase so that they might enhance their offerings and attract readers. He was a featured speaker at the 2003 Book Expo America's comics programming track. One of the moderators at that show, Calvin Reid, spoke of Root's importance within the idea of book format comics. "His prophetic sense that it was inevitable and necessary for comics to be part of book culture -- both literary and retail book culture -- was clearly way ahead of its time. His work with libraries was just the same: prescient and practical. He not only saw how important libraries and librarians would be to book format comics, but he took the steps and did the hard organizing work to make it happen." He added, "I'd have to say from my view, he was an absolute retailing visionary and someone who managed to make their vision into a reality." Because of his enthusiastic support for creators, his general raconteur-type air and gentlemanly manner, his ability to informally network and his displayed enthusiasm for socializing during conventions (anyone who ever smoked in comics seems to have a Rory Root story), in addition to the status and effectiveness of his store, Root had an enormous number of fans in comics retail and throughout the industry. He served as a mentor and resource for a number of western US stores that opened 1987-on, and it wasn't unheard-of to see a retailer or two from a different store working at Comic Relief at one of the big, west coast conventions. "When people see the glory that is Comic Relief what they're really seeing is the passion of Rory manifest as a the greatest comic bookstore I've ever had the privilege of seeing," Dan Shahin of Hijinx Comics told CR. "His mind was as sharp as any I've encountered and he had a wealth of experience he was always willing to share with just about anyone. Rory knew from the beginning that there was so much more to comics than just superhero monthlies. He was the first to truly embrace the bookstore model for comic shops as opposed to the collectibles model that is still predominate in the industry. Rory knew that there was an adult, literate market for comics that was not being addressed and set out to make Comic Relief address that market." Dan Clowes called Comic Relief "a national treasure" in a statement to Comics Reporter; publisher Alvin Buenaventura likened his occasional trips to the store as a youth to going to heaven. In late 2004 into early 2005, when landlord difficulties and some physical plant concerns caused Comic Relief to seek out a new location on Shattuck Avenue, Root's many fans rallied behind the move.
Warren Ellis scheduled a late 2004 signing in ...
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