Redd Skull Comics owner Kelly Dowd remembers the first comic he ever read, Spectacular Spider-Man No. 27, as if it was yesterday. The Frank Miller-penned issue featured a temporarily blind Spider-Man aided by Daredevil. It got Kelly interested, but it wasn’t until he attended university that he became a life-long fan. After visiting a comic book shop with some friends, he started picking up issues of Mike Grell’s classic, Warlord. “The love of comics came back,” says Dowd. “It just went from there.”
Kelly moved to Calgary in 1993 and bought Redd Skull the year after. The small shop is full-to-bursting with comics, everything from DC and Marvel to Image, Dark Horse and smaller indie presses. Super-hero figurines line the shelves, packed with graphic novels, toys, posters, T-shirts and more. If you’re looking for a rare back issue, shoot Kelly an e-mail — he has 300 boxes packed full of comics (each holds up to 200 issues) stashed in a warehouse.