GENESEO – Long-time Geneseo resident Soren Thomas, as manager of Main Street’s new comic book store, League of Comics, is pumped for the future of his business and Geneseo. As he enjoys his first few weeks at his new business, customers have been pouring in to browse his expansive selection of comic books, and chat about growing up with classic titles and series.
To Thomas, 55, running a bookstore is second nature. He remembers moving to Geneseo in 1969, where his love for books and comics flourished in his father’s used bookstore, Dante’s Books, at 90 Main Street, now Georgia’s Clothes Horse. His dad, Dante Thomas, was an English professor at SUNY Geneseo for 45 years, and was an insatiable reader and collector of books.
“I grew up in used book shops,” said Thomas. “I first learned to read from comic books, which were followed shortly by Dr. Dolittle. That was the life. Right now, my favorite author is Cormac McCarthy, same as my dad. McCarthy wrote The Road, No Country for Old Men, and a ton of other books that make up some of the best of American literature.”
An architecht by trade, Thomas is clearly in his element at his new beat. He says that he left work in architecture a long time ago, without a backward glance. His passion as a reader and collector over the years has put him at the center of the comic book business, making him one of 30 bookstores in the country to receive regular catalogs from Diamond, the largest distributor of comic books in the country.
“You can log on to comixology.com to order comics through us,” said Thomas with a proud smile. “You can literally hand me a list of what you want and I’ll order it for you.”
Thomas says that the Main Street atmosphere he grew up in was all about community integration,and that he intends to continue that tradition with his business. He recounted the days of the slam poetry scene in the ’70’s, when Dante’s Books regularly hosted slam poetry performances by incredible student talent. Thomas says he envisions his store as not only a great resource for comics, but a local hub for the Geneseo literary community.
“I always encouraged real interaction with the SUNY English Department, History Department, any department I could,” said Thomas. “Anything I could do to facilitate the proliferation of good books.”
PHOTO CAPTION: Soren Thomas holds an issue of Superboy inside League of Comics. Photo by Conrad Baker.