In Toronto and surrounding cities (Canada) things are getting better with comic stores catering to independent publishers and artists (e.g.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beguiling).

Many local independent bookstores also contain a "graphic novel" section that tend to carry independent, literate examples of the medium.

I guess if you haven't been interested in comics for some time it can be disorienting to walk into any shop without doing a little research first.

Go indie! You'll do much better. One series I'm looking forward to getting my kids into is Mouseguard. But I also have comics about the fantastic women pioneers in science, the manhattan project, fairy tales, and so on.