Byron Canady

Byron Canady is a co-founder and co-owner of Gulf Coast Cosmos Comicbook Co., a Black-owned, queer-owned comic book store in Houston, Texas. A Houston native, Canady met his business partner Sharmane Fury while both were pursuing master's degrees in Entertainment Business at Full Sail University. After completing the Emancipation Economic Development Council's Small Business Entrepreneurship Program in Houston's Third Ward, Canady and Fury launched Gulf Coast Cosmos in 2020, operating first as an e-commerce retailer and through pop-up appearances before opening a brick-and-mortar location near Emancipation Park.

Gulf Coast Cosmos is the only Black, Blasian, and queer-owned comic shop in Houston, and one of the few in the country. The store's mission is to provide a safe space for nerds of all kinds, with particular emphasis on reflecting Black and brown communities in its curation and programming. Canady and Fury are affectionately known in the Houston community as The Wonder Twins.