A Little Background About Me

Why in the world would I own a comic shop? I'm a professional Project Manager by trade, and made a very decent living at it. Was I simply nuts to take a year off and start up a new business in the comics industry? Why would I risk everything to open up a store with odds of not succeeding? Well, here's a bit of the background story:

I'm a child of the 70's from a small town in Texas with a population of about 200. I stopped reading comics somewhere around 1977 (Junior High), and lost my massive collection when I changed domicile from Texas to California. As I progressed through High School and College, I simply didn't have the discretionary income to buy comics, and although I lost my interest in them, I did not loose my love for them. When I was collecting comics, however, DC was my choice simply because the stories were rarely continued from issue to issue. In those days, I was never sure if I would have the funds to buy the latest comic, or if it would even be on the drug store rack (those terrible, terrible days prior to comic shops). It really helped that a friend of the family was a book distributor, and would let me raid his van for returned comics each month. Even though I would usually end up with multiple copies of the comics, my collection began to get quite sizeable. That, and garage sales, was probably how a poor kid like me was able to amass a very large comic collection.

My comics were my most prized possession. They taught me to read and to draw. I knew storylines just by glancing at the cover, and could remember all the interior art as well. (I still flash back on artwork now, as I run across older issues that I used to have). But, life happens, and all my comics were lost in the shuffle of time.

Then in the late 1980's and early 90's, I did pick up a couple of comics here and there at the local convenience store. But, they just didn't have the same flavor for me. Who was this new Robin who let a drug dealer die? What's up with these events that span multiple titles, requiring a huge outlay of cash to keep up? And gone were the 100-page titles full of stories from the Golden and Silver ages. So, in all that time, I maybe picked up about 100 comics. A far cry from the almost 10,000 I had as a child. But the new comics just didn't keep my interest. Perhaps I had outgrown comics? Maybe, but I still loved the Spider-Man and X-Men cartoons on TV!

Well, fast forward to this decade. I found a LCS (Local Comic Shop) with a combined Superman and Batman logo on their window that drew me in. Imagine my surprise when within that store, I found a title very similar to the old World's Finest Comics, starring two of my favorite heroes. I plunked down my $2.50 and tried out an issue. And, I was hooked again. So much so, that I spent part of my corporate bonus that year on EBay, buying up copies of Batman and Detective Comics that I had as a kid. Of course, this time around, I could get a much better collection, and finally accrued most of the issues from the 1950's on up (still working on a few gaps). My stops into the LCS became more frequent, and a lunchtime fad. And then, I went to my first Comic Book Convention with my kids. That was it, I was hooked all over again.

And my interest spread, as I tried out new titles. House of M was cool (although I wish now that I would have started my interest a bit sooner and read Avengers Disassembled first). But the Superman/Batman written by Loeb had me hooked. I got into the Supergirl story, and never looked back.

So, while it may seem odd to some that I left a very good job to open up a little ol' comic store, those of you who are into comics know the reason. It's a drive, a passion, a calling. Now that I have my store, I'm going back and reading those multi-events from the 80's and 90's. I'm catching up on the comics history that I missed out on. After all, it was almost a 30 year gap.

So, forgive me if you come into my store and I don't know diddly about Byrne's X-Men or all the ret-conned characters. I'm just catching up. But, one of the best moves I made as a business owner was hiring someone who did know all that. So, if you've got questions I can't answer, I'll turn you over to Tim. Like me, Tim just got into comics a few years ago. But his brain is young and fresh, and can absorb all the info much more quickly. Add to the fact that he has read just about every book in my store 3 times! I'll catch up on the comic book history, it'll just take me a bit more time. And hopefully, we'll have our store for a long time to come so I can accomplish just that.