This Week in Geek: @GnBComics to close?
Horrors of horrors! The continuous changing of Singapore’s skyline continues, this time consuming the comic institution which many a comic fan in Singapore holds dear: GnB Comics. Now, this is not quite like the Comics Mart debacle, where lots of shit went down, most of which left a bitter taste in many a mouth, but this is still pretty tragic nonetheless. Mostly because this is totally not GnB’s fault.
You can read the full news here, but basically what’s happening is that the LTA has decided that to build a new expressway, the North-South Expressway, and to do so they have to knock down the building GnB is in (on top of a few other buildings). As the government puts it:
the road has to be of a certain level of straightness… because the cars would have to travel at a certain speed.
(Thanks to @kitsune_shoujo for that choice quote!)
Which, well, the government had to use public land, and GnB belongs to a place which is part of public housing.
My worry now is that GnB will find it difficult to find a central location that’s as good as they’ve been having so far. I mean, there are still a few other places right there so it’s not the end of the world, but they’ve had to move before for some reasons … Here’s hoping for the best. And if they do move far away – I will miss the days where I could walk between the 3 centralised comic shops in Singapore back when I had to search for one, just one, missing issue. Good days.
This is quite a mixed day for geeks – Community’s delayed indefinitely with renewal status unknown, but we might be getting a Doctor Who movie, except it’s probably going to be not Matt Smith.
As of press time, there seems to be no news from GnB. We’ll see…
(Thanks to Nicholas Yong for the scoop!)
omg, I don’t know what to say, I’m feeling pretty distraught already!
Well, on the up side we still have some more comic stores around, but as a real icon in the singapore comic book scene, this is really sudden and… yeah kinda depressing
Fear not, they will remain in their present premises until 2013. That should give them some time to find a new place. They are not closing down for sure.