The Comic Book Store

Important Annoucement!

One of the reasons that I've enjoyed such a successful run with my pair of
comic book stores over the last 38 years has been the recognition of market trends, and always
shifting with them. I've often referred to retailing as a job that requites constantly wearing a pair
of roller skates to roll with the changes.

After June 27th I'll be adapting to change once again when Collector's Edition in
North Little Rock and The Comic Book Store in Little Rock transition from retail storefronts
to mail orders and online sales.

I'm not closing down--I'm just changing the way I do business.

I've already been handling mail order accounts for most of my 38 years, so this is not a new
endeavor. And recently my online sales through my (ID: rockark) Ebay Store have actually been
better than my storefront sales, and that's been with very little effort, so it was time to make a change.
With the pandemic, so many comic fans started letting their fingers do the walking online.

For all of my existing mail order customers, there will be no changes. You're good to go.

For my walk in customers, if you participate in my reserves service then you're already
halfway set up to convert to a mail order account. Please contact me as soon as possible if you'd
like to make the change. Everything about your account will remains the same--the only
difference is that you'll no longer need to make trips into the stores--your books will arrive at
your home.

I've had some customers cry when I started breaking the news yesterday. You and I have
been a part of each other's lives for so long, these letters look to me like a welt raised by a
whip. The only reason I didn't tell anyone sooner was because this decision hinged on the sale
of my JFK property. That agreement was struck today. So now it's official.

Four decades ago, after being International Graphics' youngest ever division manager at the
age of 22, people thought I was crazy when a few years later I quit the largest printing
conglomeration in the state. Since I'd opened my first store six months prior, it only took a
twenty minute drive before beginning my new career as a full time comics retailer. Not long after
that, technological changes began crashing the printing industry and International Graphics went out of business.

The comics industry has also changed shape many times since then. Comic collectors who
were once embarrassed to admit that they read comics are now the cool person who knows all
the pop culture. When I started, comics were still printed on letterpresses in Sparta, Illinois. Now
they are made everywhere, both on demand and digitally. The recent Covid-19 pandemic has
created challenges like the industry has never seen before, and it's time once again to adapt.

Over the last couple of years, I've also had an explosion of fiction and non-fiction books
published as a writer. The reviews have been incredible, and
right now I have contracts to produce 6 new books in the next 12 months.
That's on top of scripting, coloring, and lettering the weekly online comics that's been
running for the last two years. Other deals are waiting until I have the time.

So, the good news is that, just like when I left International Graphics, when I
walk for that last time out the door as a storefront retailer, I'll drive twenty minutes and
transition into several new careers that I've already begun--as an online retailer and mail order
service, as a elected public servant, and as a professional writer and colorist.

So, this is not goodbye!
Even should you elect not to continue doing business with me as a mail order account,
depending on which books you read, we may still be staying in touch.

When you're doing what you enjoy, it's not work, it's a labor of love.

That's what the last 38 years have been--and hopefully what the next 38 will be!

Michael was also featured in a 2005 Comics Buyer's Guide article about comics retailing, and again in 2009 the High Profile section of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper, in an article that focussed as much on his publishing (see the Wild Stars History) as on the stores.

The Comics Buyer's Guide issue #1604, May 2005 shown left, and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper, (Click this link, or the image above to read this article) Sunday August 9, 2009, shown right. (Click this link, or the image above, to read the article)

Also shown in this image is Jaimie Hernandez (of the Hernandez Brothers, creators of Love & Rockets) during his sketch session. Afterwards, Jaimie gifted the sketch shown,
described as "Penny Century after a dozen kids."

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