James Sime, Isotope comic lounge celebrate niche

James Sime didn't get bitten by a radioactive spider or doused with gamma rays. But his origin story still has a strong dramatic arc. The proud eccentric, who loved his job as a bartender during the dot-com boom, couldn't find a Bay Area comic book shop that felt like home.

"I had all these ideas. Why aren't these comic book stores more like these bars or restaurants I work at? Why aren't they like swanky lounges?" Sime says. "Why are they just little places to pick up stuff and leave? That's not what I think a comic store should be."

In June, Sime will celebrate his 10th year as proprietor of Isotope, San Francisco's first comic book lounge. The 39-year-old's mad scientist hair and flashy suits may be the initial thing newcomers notice when they walk in his Hayes Valley store, but his creativity infuses the space. Sime is also a patron of the arts, celebrating the mini-comic movement by selling books made by children as young as 7 years old, and creating a big-deal annual award for unknown artists.

Sime started small, saving cash he made as a bartender and taking over a cluttered store that was going under.

"I was so unprepared for my own business," Sime remembers. "I worked in the restaurant industry, this cash-based world, my entire adult life. I didn't even have a bank account or a checking account or a credit card."

When banks told the first-time shopkeeper that he needed two forms of identification to start a checking account, he enrolled at Laney College and promptly dropped out, just to get a student ID to pair with his driver's license.

But what the Wisconsin native lacked in credit history, he made up for in vision. From the beginning, his comic book store was funky, stylish and clean. And in an industry where browsing is often prohibited, he engaged in comic book store kryptonite, providing the most comfortable leather couches and chairs he could find to encourage his patrons to stay in the store and read.

Finally, he looked to fill niches that were being underrepresented in the industry.

"Nobody made a comic store for women. They just didn't exist," Sime says. "I think women love comics just as much as men do, maybe even more. And there's so many great comics out there for everybody that I had to try. Isn't San Francisco the city that's all about just trying new things?"

Sime, who fell in love with comics when he was 8, moved to San Francisco in his mid-20s. He's been living the dream ever since.

The comic lover shows up for his interview like he shows up for work every day: in a suit, with a carefully trimmed mustache that frames his mouth on three sides and a hair fountain that add another 3 or 4 inches to his lanky frame. There's even more awesomeness in the details. The tie appears to be secured in a Windsor knot. His cufflinks are a pair of silver scorpions.

"When I turned 25, I decided I was running my entire life wrong, and what I really needed to do was design my life in such a way that it would make 16-year-old me" soil himself, Sime says. "Anything I could do to blow my 16-year-old mind was correct."

Tough being boss

Sime says he likes his employees but hates having to be a boss. (His small staff is made up mostly of comic book artists.) He proudly notes that he hasn't owned a pair of blue jeans in eight years, and those were bought for a Halloween costume. He has around 30 suits, which he wears pretty much everywhere.

"If I go to a Gwar show, I have a suit that I wear to get completely bloody at the concert. Or if I'm working on my '65 Mustang, I have a suit that I wear for working under the hood of a dirty old car," Sime says. "I figure I'm an adult, and I own my own business. So I'm just going to wear suits every day. I just think it makes life so much more fun."