The square, at first glance, would hardly attract attention. A supermarket, a children’s store, a beauty center, some other establishment. And cars parked along a concrete square like many in Madrid, or in any city. The best comics bookstore in the world is not precisely in the best place. Although the Marugán family, which has been running Akira Comics for three decades, would surely disagree: it is their lifelong neighborhood. There were born and raised Jesús and Iván, and there the four, parents and children, opened, in 1993, the space that has changed their history. And, at least a little, that of the comic: never the Eisner (the so -called Oscar of the sector) had twice awarded the same place as the best library of the planet dedicated to the ninth art.
Akira won in 2012. And, again, on July 25. Without moving from the neighborhood of Pilar, 13 kilometers from the heart of Madrid. Nor of their firm convictions, which have even overturned in a manifesto: they mix commitment, vocation, aesthetics and innovation with a business model measured to the millimeter, where almost everything is reinvested, but there are also multiple free initiatives or donations to NGOs such as Amnesty International, Caritas or Red Cross.
“We are not very similar to the rest of the guild,” Jesus summarizes it. Their rooms are far from the center, they celebrate both the books that are sorry, leave room for dolls and other marketing, and usually welcome workshops, storytelling or guidance courses, along with a permanent micromusus. Myths like Goku or Spiderman watch the entrance. But the message that welcomes the visitor after crossing the door welcomes him “home.”
Each type of comic also has its home in Akira. The American or Japanese comic shelves mimic those of those countries, and are surrounded by winks to both cultures. European comics are exposed within an authentic cathedral, also literally: made of stone, with identical architectural technique, although with stained glass windows starring Luke Skywalker, the ninja or Katlyn Everdeen turtles.
There is a place to recreate the residence in the Hobbit Bilbo Bosón region, but also for an internal elevator, which optimizes the cast. In a column Thor’s hammer is crashed; Another contains a hidden tribute to prime numbers, because mathematics is another passion of the Marugan. Art and economy here are also quarrel, but they always make peace. “We are still very rare,” says Jesus.
The origin of the project was rare. In the early nineties, Mariano Marugán wanted to leave the computer sector and launch with his wife, Justi Escobar, a family business. But in what area? They shuffled restaurant, mechanic, cafeteria. Only the boys, then 20 and 17 years old, had it very clear.
Father and mother seriously listened to their own reading passion, added a market study: a colossal shopping center near (La Vaguada) and a district with 200,000 inhabitants contributed to persuade them. On September 11, 1993, Akira opened, by the name of the manga that Iván adored. In a place, at the beginning, of 25 square meters: cultural ambition, but also of profitability, already from the beginning.
Although the start reveals more about the identity of the store: it survived the first and immediate economic crisis in the country, and learned how to deal with future. “It is said that the world of comic is very bohemian, but at the same time we are a company, and the first thing is to get it forward. We try to have the bookstore always prepared for bad times,” explains Jesus.
In a country shaken by the GAL and the Olympic hangover, the Marugán knew how to see that the glass was also filled with opportunities: that same year the letters began to emerge Magic and the manga Dragon Ball. They bet on it, and won. Just when, in 2008, Spain came down again, Akira was able to expand template beyond the family. There have been more multiplications: after two moves, they settled in 2004 in the current space, about 28 times greater than the original.
In 2010, they started the storyteller with four children; Today about 120. The activities themselves, in general, have shot themselves. And, in 2011, they dared to run for Eisner. To the second, it was already the defeated. Ex Aequo With the Canadian The Dragon, who added four attempts.
“He gave us for the first time the certainty that something was doing well,” recalls Jesus. The second award, recently, put the icing on the cake. Although he also left a bitter aftertaste. Marugán accepted it in San Diego, USA, with a six -minute speech made of thanks, a mention to his deceased grandmother and an appointment of Jrr Tolkien. In between, he said: “It is a very difficult award to obtain in this dystopian reality in which we live, and I do not mean your country but mine.”
In Spain, some understood it as an attack on the progressive government and even described the bookseller in social networks. Asked about it, first clarifies: “Of 100 messages, 99 congratulated us and one was critical.” And, then, he explains: “My intention was to say that we have lived for many years in a dystopian society for a series of factors, such as people do not read, there is more technology than culture, economic news makes it very difficult for a bookstore to get far away. Almost what intervenes is the least the government on duty. “Nobody cares what side I am, but, anyway, even if I wanted to criticize the government, it would necessarily be right -wing? Julio Anguita (famous and deceased general secretary of the Communist Party) many times with the worst thing he took was with the PSOE. In the family that simple reading is what saddens us the most,” he adds.
The bookseller insists that he never thought he would return from San Diego with a small controversy. He is much more accustomed to returning loaded with ideas: in 2012, Jenn Haines, responsible for the other winner, The Dragon, was the first to make her see the importance of the visit to the bookstore became “experience.” And Marugán is constantly pointing in his notebook inspirations from the most disparate sources: he has drawn teachings from the furniture stores or the sex-shopsby Steve Jobs or Marie Curie. Of the film The founder, On the emergence of McDonald’s, they copied the perfectionist measurement of the spaces: today Akira avoids crowding their visitors, for aesthetics and to enjoy with more pause and pleasure of the books.
In another meeting in the US, he heard the triangle theory: impossible to highlight at the same time for prices, quality and stock; cOnly two battles of three. “Some users complain that we have no offers or discounts,” Jesus makes clear for which Akira opted. Among so many books, they have accumulated their own library on management, with essays and reflections by Luis Bassat or Ferran Adrià. And precisely the gastronomic revolution of haute cuisine is the reference that the bookseller repeats the most. His biggest challenge, he says, is to attract non -reader public. Every time someone enters to take a picture and ends up looking at the shelves, Jesús Marugán repeats that it was worth it.
For this he always imagines, viewing, designing. Proposes internal works, changes, news. He has five years old plans. He always liked to draw, but says he did not give the size, so he has dedicated himself to “the second best”: sell comics. But Akira’s aesthetics is the result of her pencils. His brother Ivan submits such a storm of ideas to the proof of numbers. If you endure, go ahead. What does not work, on the other hand, falls from the shelves. When he concluded that the posters did not generate enough income, he eliminated them to leave more comics.
Jesus explains that they are also about to renounce the Funkosperhaps the dolls with more world pull in the sector: he believes they are destined to deflate. His argument, incidentally, quotes the comics Obélix and companywhere screenwriter Renée Goscinny explained through the menhires bubble in 1976 very contemporary economic delusions. In addition, the original plan of the marshes was always a store only of comics and books. That is what they aspire, sooner or later.
Meanwhile, Jesus has seen more dreams fulfilled. “The comic in Spain lives a moment that I had not even imagined. I was the one who as a child read the X-Men hidden. Today it is better than ever,” he says. He talks about the triumph of manga, that he is half of comics sales and has triggered the reading of younger generations, Z and Alpha. He says that women already represent the majority of Akira’s public. And prepare new initiatives and surprises for the coming months and years. “We have to work within the capitalist system, but we do not see it as a way to enrich ourselves. We are still a middle class family. It is not a posture, it is as we are,” he promises. Faithful to his neighborhood. And to his ideas. So rare, the Marugán. So successful.
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