For local filmmaker Jonathan L. Bowen, making The Comic Shop was a bit like traveling back in time. “I haven’t really been into comics since I was in middle school,” says Bowen, 42, who frequented comic book stores while growing up in Portland, Oregon. Those experiences helped shape his feel-good dramedy about struggling comic-book store owner Mike (Jesse Metcalfe) and Mike’s friendship with teenage customer and aspiring artist Brandon (Micah Giovanni). But creating the movie meant that Bowen had to give himself a crash course in what he’d missed over the years.
In 2018, while still living in Oregon, Bowen stepped back from his day job working on corporate videos to dedicate himself to his filmmaking ambitions, writing five screenplays just that year, including The Comic Shop. He immersed himself in research, learning about the world of indie comics after being familiar only with the mainstream superhero series from DC and Marvel. “What I really loved about it is, the same with indie filmmaking, a lot of times you’re getting somebody’s real vision, somebody’s passion,” he says of the comics highlighted in The Comic Shop.
Bowen and his wife moved to Las Vegas in 2019, and when it came time to make the film, he based the production locally. Thus, local store Heroes for Sale became Mike’s World, with Torpedo Comics standing in for the flashy rival store that threatens to put Mike out of business. “I don’t know what we would’ve done without them being really easygoing about us just taking over their store,” Bowen says, referring to Heroes for Sale. At Torpedo, which is owned by System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan, Bowen and his cast and crew were amazed at the high-end selections: “There were people buying comics on the set.”
Bowen also scored cameos from local entertainers Carrot Top (playing himself as a customer at Mike’s World) and Murray Sawchuck (playing a famous comic book creator), adding to the movie’s authentic Vegas flavor. “I tried to make it where it’s Vegasy, but in the way that us locals think about it,” he says. “Carrot Top lives here. If he likes comics, he would go into a local store.”
While his childhood memories of visiting a similar store owned by a guy named Mike inspired Bowen’s idea, the character arc for Mike, a onetime artist, who gave up his dream to open a small business, is more reflective of Bowen’s own life. He lived in Los Angeles for a while and made one previous feature film, in 2011, before shifting focus to his corporate video business. Now he’s hoping that, like Mike, he can keep pursuing what he loves. “I feel like I have to earn the opportunity to make another movie,” he says. With The Comic Shop making its way to audiences, he’s ready to do just that.
The Comic Shop is available April 11 for VOD rental and purchase.