In the X-Men comics, Kitty Pryde is a superhero who walks through walls and leaps across time. Her fans include Portland transplant Katie Pryde, 41, who took the character’s name as her own—and lived up to it by leading Southeast Division Street comic book shop Books With Pictures through a costly location change and a global pandemic.
The story of Books With Pictures is too colorful to be confined to the printed word. That’s why our Comics Issue is, appropriately, a comic strip, based on Pryde’s adventures and illustrated by visual artist (and former Books With Pictures staffer) Seaerra Miller.
With its triumph last year at the Eisner Awards, Books With Pictures has not only become one of the most famous comics shops in America, but in the world. Here’s how it happened.