Lighthouse Comics – Graphic novels for all ages

Lighthouse Comics is based on The Old High Street and run by Jake Tomlin. After being made redundant as an operations manager for a start-up company, Jake had been wondering what to do.  He tried to buy a graphic novel in town and realised he couldn’t.  So he started his own shop in order to provide Folkestone with what it clearly needed.  Lighthouse Comics opened in December 2024 and is now established on The Old High Street.  Folkelife went to meet Jake.

“My dad used to sell comics, and when I was a kid, I would go around in his van with him to all the newsagents.  It’s something I’ve grown up with and know something about. But in my working life, I’ve been a mental health worker, and an operations manager in a tech company so I’ve not done retail before.  It’s been a learning curve for the past year, but it’s also been a lot of fun too.”

superman et al

“Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman are characters that have been going for over 80 years or so.  There are loads of successful films that have come off the back of their stories.  But that’s what people think of when they think of comics – people running around in their underwear with super powers.  What I wanted to do in opening up this place is to show that there are many other stories to be told. 

“I wanted my shop to be one where people would walk by and see the comics on offer and then realise that there was one about David Bowie. And if they’re a David Bowie fan, that would be just the thing for them.”

A revolution in reading

“There has been a revolution over the past 30 years and there are a lot more biographical novels about people’s lives, and adaptations of novels. We’ve got one about a lady’s breast cancer diagnosis and how she dealt with that. There are lots of art books and more besides. 

“In Japan, Manga is huge; everyone reads it, and they print volumes of it.  In France, there are three-storey graphic novel book shops that everyone goes to. But for some reason, in the UK, it’s seen as a niche, geeky thing.”

59 The Old High Street

“This venue is the perfect spot.  I had looked around at many places but this is just right.  It’s not too big and therefore not a huge risk businesswise.  It’s also not so small that we can only fit 10 books in here.  There’s also a basement where I can run workshops to create your own graphic novel, which is something I want to do in the future. 

“There’s also the footfall here already on The Old High Street, and a very supportive community around us.  I opened just before Christmas in 2024, with half the stock I have now.  I guess 10% of our customer base knew about us then, and it’s grown so much.

“Every year there’s Free Comic Book Day, and in 2026 it’s on 2nd May.  That’s a great day to run events here and I’d like us to be a community hub for that sort of thing. I want to run a monthly graphic novel club which would be fun too.”

haru and the unique gift

“If you are looking for that special gift for someone we have a great selection.  The kids’ books are at the front as you walk in.  The most popular series are Bunny vs Monkey and Dog Man.  These account for about 60% of our kids’ sales.  We have Hilda, and there’s a new Hilda book out called Wake The Iceman. Hilda is a Netflix series that I used to watch with my kids.  

“Haru is one of our best-selling books.  It’s published by Andrews McMeel and it’s a story of a bird and a pig that go on a journey across three books. The next one comes out on 4th December 2025, and the author has done some unique book plates for our shop.  He’s done it for four comic shops in the country, and ours is one of them.”

gateway books

“We have copies of The Lord Of The Flies and The Road which people love.  I call these gateway books as people might have read some of them at school or for pleasure, and then see them here as graphics and it’s a good way in to the genre.

“Alison Bechdel wrote a really influential book called Fun Home.  It was a memoir and popularised that method in the graphic novel. This is her latest book about living, with her wife, in the middle of the country in the US. 

“We have lots of Manga, which, gross generalisation, but teenagers love. Next you’ll find Invincible, which comes as individual books or the compendium.  Amazon release one every so often and they do really well.  There’s the Hip Hop Family tree which is great for anyone into underground art and the history of hip hop in America… it goes on.  

“We also have the usual Marvel and DC comics too.”

The ragged Trousered philanthropist

“This is by Sophie and Scarlett Rickard who are local.  It’s the book that got me back into graphic novels actually.  I’d read the novel, and then a few years’ later saw this and thought ‘I’ll give that a go.’ And now I sell it in my shop.”

Lighthouse Comics is based at 59 The Old High Street, Folkestone.