A YORK shop has been shortlisted for a major international award.

Travelling Man in Goodramgate is a haven for fans of comic books and gaming, and has been nominated for the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award.

Named for the artist who created The Spirit, the awards are given out each year to retailers who support the comic art medium in their local community, with fans, artists and customers around the world putting forward their local shops to the organisers of the San Diego Comic-Con - one of the world’s biggest conventions.

Ben Goldsmith is manager of the York shop, which has previously hosted visits from major names from the comic world, and which moved to its new, larger premises at the former Paper Kisses shop last summer.

Ben said: “We’re pretty excited about it. I think there’s an online entry that needs quite a lot of information so someone’s obviously gone to a lot of effort to put us through, so it’s nice to know someone thinks about the shop in that way.

“A lot of it’s to do with customer engagement, community and the atmosphere and everything around our shop is heavily community focussed. It’s what we do for our readership and how we help people find their own niche and steer them towards new and exciting things.”

Travelling Man founder Nabil Homsi will attend the Comic-Con this summer, where the winner of the award will be announced - but Ben said staff from the shop would be keeping up with the results via Twitter.

Ben said: “We’re not the first Travelling Man to be nominated, but it’s certainly the first time the York shop has been nominated in 20-odd years, so we’re really proud being the first store team to do that.”

Before the awards are announced, the shop will celebrate its first Free Comic Book Day in its new location, on Saturday, May 6. Hundreds of people are expected to line up for the event, which is run around the world to promote comic book shops.

Ben said: “It’s going to be much easier for the customers, as we’ve a much bigger space so I think we’re going to be able to get more people in without waiting as long, hang around, and we’re hoping it will be a bit more social, which will be nice.”