Found a hidden gem comic shop in Austin with a wall of fan art

I was in Austin last weekend visiting a friend and stumbled into this tiny comic shop called 'The Panel' off of South Congress. It was really cramped, but what caught my eye was the back wall covered in fan art from local readers. There was this one drawing of Spider-Man done on a pizza box that was honestly better than some covers I've seen. The owner said people have been bringing in art for years and he just tapes it up wherever it fits. I spent like 45 minutes just looking at everything because each piece told a story about who made it. I asked if he ever takes them down, and he said only when the wall gets too full and he has to rotate them out. Has anyone else seen a shop that really shows off what their fans create?

3 comments

3 Comments

abbyp613d ago

People really romanticize this stuff but let's be real. The owner just taped pizza box art to a wall because he didn't want to paint over the scuffs. That's not some deep community thing, he just doesn't care about appearances. I've seen shops like this where the "fan art wall" is just an excuse to not clean up clutter. And that record shop banjo comparison sounds cute but I bet it was mostly illegible scribble and a few dirty jokes.

barbara_jenkins663d ago

Oh wow, that pizza box Spider-Man sounds incredible! I love how random stuff like that becomes art when someone just goes for it. Reminds me of this old record shop in Portland that had a banjo hanging on the wall with lyrics Sharpied all over it, nobody knew who started it but they kept adding to it for years.

erickelly3d ago

People really romanticize this stuff" - yeah @abbyp61 I get where you're coming from but I dunno, I read this article once about how those random scribble banjos and pizza box walls actually do bring people together. Even if the owner was just being lazy, the fact that customers kept adding to it says something, right?