- How I Came to Own a Comic Shop (a brief history):
I discovered comics around 1976-77 since my mom, who worked the pharmacy below our apartment, would bring home the ones I picked from the spinner rack. Two of the first Marvel comics I remember having were Marvel Team-Up #60 and Amazing Spider-Man #172 (the first appearance of Rocket Racer!). I remember being crazy about the treasury-size comics of the day, too. Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles, Batman (Neal Adams!), Marvel’s Holiday Grab Bag, and DC’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to name a few.
Eventually, I fell away from comics for a few years (Star Wars, Atari, and baseball cards are to blame).
Shortly after turning 15 I rediscovered comics. It was G.I. Joe #46 purchased from the local Waldenbooks that drew me back in to the hobby. Within a couple months I started a subscription to the title. I had no idea there WAS such a place as a comic book store. Later that year, a shop did open in my hometown of Washington, PA. After pleading and pleading for what seemed like forever I was hired on to work at the shop after school. That was January 1987. The shop, Second City Comics, eventually became a Phantom of the Attic location. I stayed on at Phantom and after high school worked that store and the Parkway Center Mall location until March 1989 when I was asked to manage the Monroeville store.
The Phantom of the Attic group of stores, under single ownership, were then broken up and sold individually. I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time and bought this location on August 1, 1990. After 20+ years, I still love what I do.