An artist finds a broader canvas and a business thrives. This time, the writing really is on the wall.
By MELIA BOWIE
Published July 14, 2003
[Times photo: Janel Schroeder-Norton]
Artist Kaz Thibodeau works on one of the many comic book characters gracing the walls of Colossal Comics and Collectibles on U.S. 19 in New Port Richey.
NEW PORT RICHEY - If this were Gotham City, perhaps the county would be cast as the bad guy, wielding strict sign ordinances that plague small business owners.
The citizens, struggling do do business, would turn to Batman for help in thwarting the rule.
But this is Colossal Comics and Collectibles in New Port Richey, and the hero is not the Caped Crusader, but an artist.
Colossal Comics, established in 1999 in a garage bay, moved to its new location at 7010 U.S. 19 in April, although few but the faithful noticed.
"My regular customers followed me," said owner Denise Gajus, 56. But it was not easy. "The phone company listed my address wrong in all the phone books, which was a disaster."
All that was there to attract customers driving by were white walls and a sign sandwiched between Cox Car Rental and a Budget truck rental shop, owned by her husband Ward, 57.
That's where muralist Kaz Thibodeau comes in - to the rescue.
Brandishing a brush and paints, 46-year-old Thibodeau fights the forces that would block big advertisement using, well, art.
He began painting the likeness of comic book heroes on the building last month for $900.
Superman, Spider-Man, the Hulk, Dr. Doom, Batman, Captain America and X-Men's Wolverine greet motorists speeding by on the busy highway.
"I had started doing windows with some lettering and graphics," said Thibodeau, who also works part-time doing maintenance at a New Port Richey apartment complex. In the past five years he painted a few murals here and there - in homes, on garage doors, inside video stores and now buildings.
"It's a way to draw people in," Gajus said. "A woman came in the other day with her son. They were driving by and her son said "Mommy, Mommy there's Superman."'
Who needs a sign now?
Inventory at the shop includes more than 40,000 comic books, their heroes, villains and eye-popping imagery.
Gajus and her husband have even worked out a cross-marketing deal with the local movie theater to promote Colossal Comics, which serves much of the Suncoast.
After Colossal, "the closest store is in Clearwater," she said. That was the impetus behind her son's garage-bay start-up. He left it after 10 months to attend culinary school in Lakeland.
Then his mother took over. She now works with Hollywood 18 in Port Richey to promote the shop.
"They have a display case down there and we put our comics in it and our card," Gajus said. In exchange, the shop advertises the theater on its inside walls using exclusive movie theater posters of comic-themed films.
Studios are cashing in on Marvel Comics with blockbusters like Spider-Man, X-Men, the Hulk, Daredevil and more.
"It brings their awareness up," Gajus said of filmgoers. "If they go see the movie then they have some interest in comics."
And with a bright green mural of The Hulk beckoning to them from the front of her building, fans are finally finding her shop.
