“Floating World is the most innovative and art-conscious of (Portland’s comics shops).”
-Steve Duin
The Oregonian A&E, Oct. 9, 2008

(photo by Arthur Smid)

Floating World Comics is the record store of comics stores. By that, I mean that there’s a different type of vibe here. We’re a bookstore that just happens to carry the coolest books of all - comics. But also art books, international art magazines, graphic design, illustration, animation, music and movie related items, anything that might serve as inspiration for creative folks looking for something new. We’re also a gallery with First Thursday art openings and we’ve just branched out into publishing. I’ve started publishing a quarterly art comics newspaper and just released my first comic, a reprint of Jeff Lint’s hyper-sane 70’s action book, THE CATERER. Dream projects.

We’re a store for readers. This may sound strange coming from a retailer, but when people ask what’s a good comic to buy? My advice is, buy one that you’re going to read more than once. There’s enough good comics out there that you don’t need to waste your money on crappy ones. What am I saying? Of course crappy comics are fun too. But we do focus on the reading experience, rather than, say, collecting every issue that comes out. So we organize the shelves by writer, by publisher, by genre. So if you know you like this, you can go down the shelf and find something new you might like too. There’s good comics, and then there’s the real gems. Ones that you want on your bookshelf at home, that will continue to entertain and enlighten for years to come.

We’re a store for artists. I love searching the net to find new and interesting artists all over the world. I go out of my way to contact different distributors and curate a selection of books that are inspirational and exciting to discover. People who know what they like and what they want spend a lot of time in bookstores. They’ve seen it all and they’ve already collected most of what they want. These customers want to find something new, and Floating World caters to this desire. Imagine all those great books you’ve seen online, all in one room. Visitors from around the world come in all the time and remark they wish they had a store like this back home.

I opened the store in 2006 because Portland is the greatest comics town in the country and we deserve a great comic store. From the start, my goal was to provide excellent subscription box service for the regular Wednesday customers, and also, to create new readers - expose them to the best that comics has to offer. I’m very proud of everything the store’s done so far. Our monthly art shows have brought some amazing cartoonists to visit: Al Columbia, Jim Woodring, Nicholas Gurewitch, Christophe Blain, Peter Bagge, the Spacenight Bill Mantlo benefit, artists from Serbia and many more. Each of our yearly animation fests has featured a retrospective on an important avant garde animator: Adam Beckett in 2007 and Bruce Bickford in 2008. My love and thanks to the Portland art community, the global comics community and you the customer. Continue giving love, the universe has an endless supply to give back.

“They write about our raids in the paper…”:

“Comics Shop Confidential” The Oregonian, 10/9/08

“Comic Shop Focus” Daily Crosshatch, 12/3/08

“Not Just For Geeks” Portland Tribune, 12/19/06

“Trash Days” Portland Mercury, 8/14/08

“All Rom, All The Time!” Broken Frontier, 11/30/07

“Al Columbia to Resurface in Floating Word Comics Exhibit” Alarm Magazine, 9/07

“Ten Geeky Places to Visit in Portland” Wired, 3/10

“Interview with Jason Leivian, owner of Floating World Comics” Wejetset Magazine, 7/10