Paul Stock, co-owner of Montreal’s Librairie Astro (Astro Books) has died

Sad news to share today. Paul Stock, co-owner (with his wonderful sister Betty Handleman-Stock) of Montreal’s late and lamented comic book store Librairie Astro (aka Astro Books) has died. He died on May 22nd at the age of 74.

Paul was amazing. Grouchy and cantankerous on the outside, but that hid a really warm and welcoming personality once you got to know him. Both he and Betty were incredibly supportive of my art career, giving me both encouragement and retail space at a time when very few others did. And not just me; Astro was well-known for taking chances on indy creators and they cultivated an audience for small press titles, something that I dearly wish more stores would do.

Astro closed back in 2018 (covered here) and that was a discouraging loss, mainly because it really didn’t have much to do with their sales or anything like that. It had a lot to do with a number of other concerns, something that Paul himself wrote about:

“IT’S NOT ABOUT THE RENT. We’ve gotten a substantial amount of press since we announced the store’s closing, Unfortunately, they’ve all focused on a rent increase s the reason. While we couldn’t handle a jump to the new landlord’s asking of $9,500.00 a month, we had made the decision to shut down well before that number came up. In fact the number came as a result of a prospective store buyer making the call to the rental agent. It’s probably true, but it makes no difference to us. We’re finished any way you look at it. The actual reason is that neither Mark, Betty, Mary, nor I are physically capable of putting in the kind of effort needed to get the place flying again. To everything there is a season, and this happens to be the winter of our working lives.”

Paul was also notoriously camera shy, but my wife Samantha managed to snag a photo of Paul and I back in 2014. I treasure it now because we don’t have many. Paul had a stroke back in 2008 and his recovery was difficult, but he fought hard to put his life back together again. He obviously had a lot of support; from Betty, from his wife Mary, from his kids, and on and on. When Samantha — at that point my long time girlfriend — and I decided to finally get married, I sent Paul some photos of that happy day. He wrote back, “HEY, TERRIFIC! Congrats, and here’s hoping you have many years of looking just as happy as you do in that pic.”

CTV News also did a story some years ago that managed to get Paul on video. This is one of the only videos I’ve ever seen of him.



I still miss the store, but I dearly miss being able to drop by and see Paul and Betty when my wife and I visited Montreal. I miss those conversations. I miss being able to “shoot the shit.” I miss being able to talk (and bitch) about the comic book industry. Most of all, I simply miss being able to talk with Paul. I suspect I always will. There weren’t many like him out there. He was a mensch.

Goodbye, Paul.

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Astro Books is closing

2024 Update: The post below talks about my great affection for the store Astro Books (Librarie Astro) that was forced to close in 2018. Sadly, Paul Stock died at the age of 74 on May 22nd, 2024. Paul had gone through a number of health issues that I suspect would have killed most people, but Paul was a fighter. A cantankerous fighter, which probably helped. He was also extremely supportive of my art career and was very generous with his time. I miss him and I miss Astro. The comics community is lessened by his death and the closing of Astro. I wrote a little bit more on Paul here.

Now Back to My Original Post:

I'm very sad to report that Astro Books (Librairie Astro) in Montreal is going to be closing this summer. I believe the formal date is July 1st. Paul Stock and his sister Betty Stock Handleman, the owners, have tried pretty much everything to keep the store afloat, but it was not to be.

It's frustrating, especially when the decision is being made for you. As Paul noted on Astro's website, "It seems our *pfui* old landlord sold the building in October of 2017, and didn't even have the courtesy to let us know. We made contact with the new owners in January, but were unable to come to any mutually acceptable terms, so we have to be out (which means the place has to be empty) by July 1st., which is exactly 31 years since the day we started setting up here...It's been a lot of fun (and a lot of work), but frankly neither Mary, Betty, Mark, nor I, at ages 67, 72, 74 and 68 are in the kind of shape needed to start over with a new location."

Global News, in an article on the situation, added "Last October, the building that houses the bookstore was sold to a new owner, who decided to up their monthly rent from $3,500 to $9,500 — a cost Handleman said the store simply can’t afford."

If you know retail, you'll understand exactly how much stuff you'd have to sell to cover that type of increase. It's not tenable. René Bruemmer of the Montreal Gazette wrote a great summary of the situation (full disclosure: I'm interviewed for the piece). Bruemmer's article is actually from last year and covered the first shock: a higher municipal tax bill lead to the then landlord beginning to increase rent to recoup it. That situation has continued with the new landlord and, sadly, has forced Astro to close.

Update: Paul did add the following on Astro's website, "We've gotten a substantial amount of press since we announced the store's closing. Unfortunately, they've all focused on a rent increase as the reason. While we couldn't handle a jump to the new landlord's asking of $9500 a month, we had made the decision to shut down well before that number came up. In fact the number came as a result of a prospective store buyer making the call to the rental agent. It's probably true, but it makes no difference to us. We're finished any way you look at it. The actual reason is that neither Mark, Betty, Mary nor I are physically capable of putting in the kind of effort needed to get the place flying again. To everything there is a season, and this happens to be the winter of our working lives."

If you're in Montreal (or will be over the next two months or so), I'd strongly encourage you to go. It's a great store full of quirky titles and hard to find treasures that you might not come across anywhere else. It's part of what I loved about the store and something that will be very, very difficult to replace.

Astro Books (Librairie Astro)
1844 rue Ste-Catherine Ouest
Montréal, Que. H3H 1M1
(métro Guy)
http://www.astrolib.com

Oh, and here's a pic of me at Astro from a few year's back: