An Interview with Lion's Tooth

We've been punks all our lives, and we wanted to create space for zines and indie publications.

Here at Autobiographix we have heard of a growing presence in the comic scene over the past few years: comic and indie bookstore Lion’s Tooth. Based in Milwaukee, the store hosts comics readings, comics school, comix book club, and other inventive and inviting events.

Recently, Nora spent a few weeks with family in Milwaukee, along with her newborn. She was excited for his first bookstore experience to be at Lion’s Tooth, which is welcoming and full of great titles (she picked up the latest M.S. Harkness, Time Under Tension, and considered Riad Sattouf’s Esther’s Notebooks, which she hadn’t seen in stores before).

Cris and Shelly of Lion’s Tooth were happy to fill us in on running such vibrant indie comic digs:

Describe your comics journey - how did Lion's Tooth come to be?

I (Cris) have been a lifelong advocate of indie comics as a journalist, translator and bookseller. In my 20s I toured the US interviewing American cartoonists and later organized an anthology introducing many of them to Brazilian audiences, including Dan Clowes, Dame Darcy and Adrian Tomine. I’ve translated much of Gilbert Hernandez’ and Joe Sacco’s work to Portuguese and written prefaces to books by Jaime Hernandez and Julie Doucet. In the early aughts I had a small comics store above a cyber café in São Paulo.

Shelly and I started Lion's Tooth because we realized we're not going to be able to retire, so we wanted a job we can do indefinitely, even into our old age. There is no such job in the classifieds, we kinda had to invent it. Shelly already had extensive retail experience as a founder of the Riverwest Coop, so opening a small indie shop was kind of a no-brainer for us. We've been punks all our lives, and we wanted to create space for zines and indie publications. And we wanted to connect with and support people who share our DIY values.

In your experience as a hub of comics activity, how do you see comics creating community?

It has been very interesting to see the evolution of comics over the years. Indie comics used to be fringe, and more experimental art comics still are, to a certain extent. But there is a record number of people making art comics, and curated events like MICE (The Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo) and SHORT RUN in Seattle feature scores of indie creators of high quality mini comics. There are different communities within the community too. Manga and young adult titles are more popular than ever. No one has needed to say "comics are not just for kids anymore" for many years, but now you can buy graphic novels for kids at the drugstore. Not to mention many best selling physical books started as webcomics. Comics are everywhere, there's something for everyone. It's fantastic, really.

What are the joys and challenges of running an indie comic and book store?

The challenge is money. Books and comics have very low margins, so we're constantly struggling to keep the lights on. But it's a labor of love, we can't imagine a more satisfying job. Lion's Tooth is our home, and we get the best visitors, in the day-to-day but also in our book clubs and events. To answer your previous question, this is the community-building aspect of the shop. We've met so many incredible people at Lion's Tooth. There is so much talent and creativity in Milwaukee. We hope we have also helped cool people find each other in the store. We've been able to gather a very gentle, generous and loving community.

What's up next for Lion's Tooth, and you two?

We both recently started second jobs to pay our bills, which can be overwhelming, but it's also the way we found to make sure Lion's Tooth is sustainable and sticks around in the long term. We're in the process of hiring a part-time employee for the first time. We want to continue serving the community and having fun at the store too. Oh, and we're now in a punk band together (still unnamed), so it's a full circle, back to our origins kind of thing.

Get yerself down (or up) to Lion’s Tooth! And, if you need any Milwaukee recs, Nora is always happy to help (the first cocktail bar in Milwaukee, Bryant’s, is close by and serves such delicacies like the Pink Squirrel).