Comic book shop sues Texas hotel with elaborate comic illustrating years of grievances
Third Planet Sci-Fi and Fantasy Superstore is a Houston comic book shop tucked in the shadow of a high-rise hotel. Its owner, T.J. Johnson, said the store has put up with a litany of debris falling from its neighbor’s balconies over the years, from ceramic mugs to luggage racks.
And they all seem to land in one place — on top of his roof.
Now Johnson is suing the hotel’s owners for damages with the only tool he’s got: comic books. More than half of his 23-page amended complaint filed last month is dedicated to a full-color visual representation — in classic comic style — of his grievances.
Cris Feldman of Feldman & Feldman PC, who is representing Johnson and Third Planet, said the idea for a comic book within a complaint came from the hotel owners’ initial response to the lawsuit, in which they said several paragraphs about the history of Third Planet as a Houston comic book and sci-fi institution weren’t relevant to the allegations.
“I realized they just don’t get it,” Feldman told McClatchy News. “At that point we decided to literally illustrate it for them.”
Feldman said Johnson connected him with a couple of regular customers who own a company called Bad Cog, where some illustrators were willing to design what became a 13-page comic book detailing Third Planet’s misfortunes.
The story outlines the origins of Third Planet as a “Houston icon” that survived multiple hurricanes since opening its doors in 1975.
Johnson — a “legend in his own right” — now faces his “greatest challenge yet” in trying to keep Third Planet and its customers safe from the high-rise next door, according to the comic book in the complaint.
Flying fire extinguishers
The lawsuit names Crowne Plaza River Oaks Hotel and its owners, ASDN Houston LLC and Pacifica Companies LLC, as defendants. Lawyers representing the companies did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Wednesday.
The lawsuit hinges on what the comic book describes as a “barrage of projectiles.”
According to Feldman, Johnson has put up with guests at the Crowne Plaza River Oaks chucking cigarette butts, plates, silverware and cinder blocks off their balconies. Most of it lands either on Third Planet’s roof or in its parking lot.
On at least two occasions, the suit states those discarded cigarette butts started fires in the beds of pickup trucks parked at Third Planet.
Johnson patched the roof in various places to repair damages caused by the falling debris and complained to hotel management, Feldman said, but nothing was done.
Then, in March 2019, some particularly rowdy hotel guests caused significant damage launching at least 14 fire extinguishers from a hotel balcony on to Third Planet’s roof, according to the complaint. To make matters worse, it started to rain — causing water damage to multiple expensive comic books inside the store.
Feldman told McClatchy News the entire roof needs to be replaced and will cost Johnson “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
In response to Third Planet’s lawsuit, Pacifica Companies said it believes the group responsible for throwing the fire extinguishers were members of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s 2019 Intercollegiate Meats Judging Teams — namely, a bunch of college kids.
The company’s lawyers said Pacifica can’t be blamed for the actions of third parties over which it had “no control.”
‘Nothing wrong with having fun’
Feldman filed the initial complaint on Third Planet’s behalf in February. Crowne Plaza and its owners have issued a few briefs in response, but a judge has yet to weigh in on their claims.
The latest iteration with its full-color comic book was filed June 23.
As far as Feldman knows, it’s the first time something like it has been done. He’s not sure how the comic book will play out in court, and lawyers for the hotel didn’t acknowledge it in their latest brief.
But Feldman said he’s received support from other attorneys, which he attributes to legal documents ordinarily being “boring and dry and this is a departure that interjects quite a bit of color.”
“There’s nothing wrong with having fun when you can get your point across in an effective way,” he said. “Law is really an art, not a science.”
Feldman also said the owners of the Crowne Plaza “have never taken this issue seriously.” The comic book complaint is a way of poking fun at that.
“It’s an attempt to use some creative license and a little bit of levity to literally illustrate a very serious point — which is corporations cannot dump on local institutions and just get away with it, they will be held 100% liable,” he said. “If it takes illustrating how out of touch the defendant is, then so be it.”
