Byron Canady was 8 years old when his father bought him a three-pack of Spiderman comic books. He excitedly flipped through the colorful pages, but couldn’t help but notice that something was missing — characters who looked like him.

Some 40 years later, Canady, who is Black, completed a small business program with plans to open a store in Third Ward featuring comics with racially diverse characters. Then the pandemic hit. But he didn’t want to delay the launch of the business, and decided to forge ahead anyway.