The State of Comics in Plymouth

Young entrepreneur focused on giving customers great experience

Story and Photos by Ryan M. Place

In the realm of comics, collectibles, gaming, and popculture toys, State of Comics in downtown Plymouth is widely considered one of the best stores in Michigan.

Millennial owner Ryan Hetkowski is definitely the DIY go-getter independent entrepreneur type. His inspirational ‘just go for it’ attitude has paid off.

As you may expect from someone with creative vision, he took an unconventional route to small business ownership.

“I went to Canton High School at PCEP. Was supposed to graduate in 2006, but decided to go another route due to personal reasons,” says Hetkowski.

In February 2017, his life changed significantly when he launched an online store called State of Comics. “The first six months were insane,” he said. “I was running the online comic store out of a spare office at my regular job and realized we needed to expand.”

He was able to find a great space in downtown Plymouth.

“We opened our first 1,900-square-foot brick and mortar store in October 2017. It was located directly next door to where we are now,” he says.

On Labor Day last fall, they moved into the much larger 6,500-square-foot space at 575 Forest Avenue, location of the old Georgia’s Gift Gallery.

“Wheeling the racks over was easy. Moving the hundred-pound slatwall panel was a beast,” Hetkowski said.

Moving wasn’t the only obstacle. The unexpected worldwide scourge of COVID-19 directly impacted Ryan’s operation.

“COVID hitting the world was the turning point for us,” Hetkowski explains. “We started buying entire collections, doing online auctions via Facebook Live, selling exclusive covers. All the standard stores were closed, so our sales of Funko POPs skyrocketed.”

The pandemic forced Ryan and his team to pause and ask themselves, “what are we doing wrong and how can we improve things for the better? If you’re not progressing, you’re regressing,” he says.

Then a combination of factors led to a rapid uptick in business.

“We pivoted big time, and as a result, in-store sales exploded. We made significant changes to our infrastructure and added several product categories. So far, the results have been a big success,” Hetkowski said.

Born and raised in Canton, Ryan is now married with three kids. A lifelong fan of pop-culture offerings like the animated X-Men and Spider Man television series, Ryan loves superheroes and especially comics.

“I’m more of a DC than Marvel fan,” he says. “My favorite comic right now is Crisis on Infinite Earths. I’m also enjoying The New 52 Batman story arc by Scott Snyder. My favorite graphic novel is Watchmen. And I’m reading all the old detective comics from the 1940s and 60s-era Amazing Spider Man.”

Hetkowski says the indie comics market has experienced a ton of growth. “Something is Killing the Children is just a fantastic series. And we’re excited about Grant Morrison’s horror comic Proctor Valley Road and Keanu Reeves Brzrkr.”

Graphic novels and manga are also popular but what’s uberhot right now are Funko POPs, which feature more than 8,000 different characters. “What’s interesting about the POPs is you don’t have to be a dedicated collector,” says Ryan. “All types of consumers purchase Funko POPs.”

One thing is for sure, Hetkowski and his team absolutely love being in downtown Plymouth.

“The general public is great, fellow business owners are all incredibly supportive,” he says. “And we’re obsessed with Main Street Pizza. We order their pepperoni pizza and cheese bread at least 10 to 15 times per month at the shop here.”

Plymouth has a lot of young parents and sometimes getting their children interested in reading can be a struggle.

“As a parent myself, I can say that getting my six year old excited about reading sometimes proves a difficult task,” he reveals, “but comic books definitely attract their focus and attention. I feel that as a comic book store, we help produce joy in others.”

In addition to adding video games of all sorts–modern to retro–to their store in the near future, State of Comics has several exciting developments in the works.

“We have our first ever DC Comics cover done by none other than Neal Adams himself,” Hetkowski said. “Neal did an homage to his own original Batman #251 cover. It’s our first-ever in-store exclusive with DC, meaning that you can only get this cover at our store or our specified partner stores.”

The Taiwanese bubble tea craze will be hitting Plymouth in mid-April 2021.

“Z’s Bubble Tea is opening inside the café area of our store,” says Ryan. “We want to continue giving people a great experience. We also added some arcade games with several more on the way. And we’ll soon be adding CCG games like Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic, as well as tabletop gaming like D&D and Warhammer 40k.”

Ryan is always buying comics. “Especially Silver, Bronze, and Golden age stuff,” he explains. “Also buying key issues (first appearances), Funko POPs, and boxed and packaged vintage action figures.”

Plus, State of Comics is slated to begin a series of in-store signings and appearances, including Jason David Frank, the original Green Ranger from the television show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Hetkowski has some good advice for aspiring business owners.

“Just put in the work, learn how to do things, and fail as much as you can,” he says. “I failed a lot in the entrepreneur world and learned a lot of deep, valuable lessons that were otherwise unlearnable.

You cannot become successful without failure. Those failures were a huge part of our success.”