{"id":23893,"date":"2014-11-17T21:19:55","date_gmt":"2014-11-17T21:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jomec.co.uk\/altcardiff\/?p=23893"},"modified":"2014-11-17T21:19:55","modified_gmt":"2014-11-17T21:19:55","slug":"cardiff-character-kristian-st-john-barry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/2014\/11\/17\/cardiff-character-kristian-st-john-barry\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardiff Character: Kristian St John Barry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Christian

Kristian St John Barry is the owner of Comic Guru, one of Cardiff\u2019s premier independent comic book retailers.\u00a0 A stocky man of 43 and a former children\u2019s entertainer, Barry has been trading for nearly 15 years and has seen everything and knows everyone in the business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI helped out at a friend\u2019s shop for three years first,\u201d he said. \u201cI made an offer to that friend to buy the place off him and our relationship went downhill very quickly. A year later I bumped into a few friends, and they said \u2018we all miss you \u2013 open up.\u2019 People\u2019s generosity broke me out of the funk I was in, and I was able to move on from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems Barry has never liked being under anyone\u2019s thumb. \u201cI\u2019ve never been very good at being told what to do,\u201d he admits. \u201cI can\u2019t handle people being deliberately stupid. I got fed up of patronising attitudes towards me, but I like the people and I enjoy my hobby. And that\u2019s what it\u2019s really about when you get down to it. The hobby.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Hobby.<\/h2>\n

<\/strong>Comic books being referred to as ‘the hobby’ may seem strange to some, but although many comics are still being made for children, the demographic has undoubtedly changed to an older clientele now that generations fuelled by comics have reached adulthood. But Barry remembers his first comic from a very<\/em> early age.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was 18-months-old, it was Uncanny X-Men #1, and it tasted awful. That comic was about the price of a small house now, and I really did eat part of it! My father reckons I destroyed Action Comics #1,<\/i> although I don\u2019t believe him!\u201d he says, revealing that his father\u2019s valuable collection was his introduction into the subculture. \u201cI think I was influenced by my parents. Some people are, others rebel, and some go both ways,\u201d he grinned. \u201cInnuendos are a great way of relaxing me.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Business.<\/h2>\n

Although Barry himself is of a cheerful disposition, it\u2019s in stark contrast to the amount of work he packs in as an entrepreneur attempting to keep pace with the larger chain of stores, Forbidden Planet.<\/p>\n

If it was just the two of us, I would have beaten them years ago\u201d he laughs, referring to Planet\u2019s parent company, distribution giant Titan. \u201cBut for me, actually paying someone is impossible. I can barely pay myself. I get friends and volunteers to help, but the one component of self-employment that cannot fail is yourself. Unfortunately, I\u2019m only human.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Bailiffs.<\/h2>\n

Barry has had some near misses over the years, especially before he was in his current location. \u201cWhen we were having some trouble in the Wyndham arcade, the landlords walked in with the bailiffs and took over \u00a3360,000 worth of stock. Bailiffs are terrifying and frightening, and while most of them just want to get paid, with some of them, you can\u2019t trust their word. But I kept trading.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barry takes his comics seriously. When asked about popping his head into one of the biggest comic events of the year, the Cardiff Film and Comic Con, his response was simply \u201cgood God, no.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""I've

\u201cFor three years those conventions had been built up by a very small group, and then Showmasters [a sizeable company specialising in collector events] walked in with very deep pockets and said \u2018we want it\u2019. If you\u2019re going to set up a different event, there\u2019s no need to bully-boy others out of your way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s more dressing up than actual comics. I have more comics in this shop than in the entirety of that room. I get narked at this greed, in this climate. Comics are the hobby. It should be preserved.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The owner of Comic Guru talks conventions, unpaid debts, and Uncanny X-men.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":252,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-23893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture"],"yoast_head":"\nCardiff Character: Kristian St John Barry - alt.cardiff<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/2014\/11\/17\/cardiff-character-kristian-st-john-barry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cardiff Character: Kristian St John Barry - 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