Superheroes
There’s a certain type of person we have in mind when we curate a collection like this. The ones who grew up with these characters in just the right way that it never really fades. They know which issue is the “good” run of a comic. They’ll explain to you—verbally masturbating, usually—with very little prompting how a given film completely missed the point. To them, none of this is consummedatically ingestible bullshit. Buy enough things for them and it’s easy. Know what you’re doing. Don’t know what you’re doing? Good luck.
We know what we’re doing. We put this together because we’ve been on both sides of that transaction more times than we care to admit. We’ve bought the novelty mug with the logo on it and nodded and smiled, glad it was over. We’ve also handed someone something that hit. Something that resonated. Something that said to them that we actually knew what they cared about and, just as importantly, why.
That’s the line we’re trying to balance on here. Don’t get us wrong: we love merchandise as much as the next guy. But cheap merchandise. The kind of thing you’ll find in the bag you give to Goodwill because you didn’t want to lug it home from someone’s party? We’re not interested in that. That’s not geek gifts, that’s happy holidays from your hometown.
We’re looking for the things that earn a place on a shelf or a desk. We’re looking for that one thing you grab off said shelf or desk when your guest accidentally insult their favorite superhero and you want to say “fuck you, I know they’re awesome why don’t you.”
Superheroes mean something different to every person who loves them. To some it’s nostalgia; simple, innocent nostalgia. Morning cartoons and well loved paperback collections. To other people it’s something deeper. An appreciation for the writing. The mythology. Decades of built up storytelling that makes the best of it matter.
The gifts that work work because they understand that. They don’t talk down to you. They don’t try to simplify something that’s inherently complex. And they sure as hell don’t look like they came from a gift shop spinner rack at an airport.
Everything here is something we’d gift ourselves. We held up each and every one of these things to the person we had in mind and asked ourselves if it was good enough. A lot of stuff didn’t make that cut. What you’re seeing here made it because it just felt right. And not in a pervasive logo way. We know the difference. It’s why we made this collection.
