Amid rows of dark LAN shops in the basement of a dank shopping centre, this brightly lit store sticks out like a sore thumb. Rows and rows of plastic-wrapped comics stand on as many shelves, making it one of the rare places where fans can come in every week for their dose of heroes and villains.
In 1987, Comics World was birthed over owner Bill Teoh’s frustration with larger companies charging inflated prices for comics. Popularity of the art form declined in the noughties – he blames video games – forcing most of his competitors to shutter. But Teoh endured. And now, the legion of DC and Marvel blockbusters in cinemas have attracted a new breed of fans, and comics are fashionable once more. So it’s no surprise that issues featuring the likes of Deadpool, Superman and Spider-Man are among Teoh’s best-sellers, even displayed in the shopfront when shipments arrive every Tuesday.
And how’s this for irony: Teoh once sat on the censorship committee that banned the importation and sale of comic books in Singapore back in the ’70s. With the ban now lifted, the 82-year-old stresses that he was never against comics. Batman is his all-time favourite superhero – an homage to his career in the Singapore Police Force – and he grew up reading British children’s comics such as The Beano.