The Toronto comic book shop Silver Snail has launched a line of superhero-themed coffee cup sleeves to promote its in-house coffee shop, the Black Canary Cafe.
Created pro bono by a freelance team, including art directors Ryan Fox and Sarah Jackson, the simple designs made a big splash online, becoming the number one trending topic on Twitter in Toronto last Thursday.
The online buzz was amplified by interest from several comic world celebrities, including Marvel writer Dan Slott who has 42,000 followers, and Kim Cattrall, who once starred in the original The Hulk TV franchise, who shared the cups with her more than 100,000 followers.
Though the cups weren’t done in partnership with the creators of any of the characters, a rep from the store said it “promotes the store using imagery from all the major comics retailers” via a series of promotional agreements with comic publishers.