Confessions of a Comic Book Pusher

By The Comic Book Pusher
A customer came in the store a few minutes ago and asked for current-size comic book bags and boards. Not only do we carry a wide variety of collecting supplies, we happen to be having a sale on those items right now. I told him he could save more in the long run by buying two, because the third one would be free.     "I really don't need that many," he said blandly.     "Ah, but you will eventually need them," I said enthusiastically, "and you'll have saved yourself a lot of money in the long run," I encouraged.    "Wow," he said, rather deadpan. There was a flavor of apathy in his tone. "That's a good deal, but I'm actually cutting back on comics and trimming down my collection." Bam! Pow! The sudden, unexpected assault on my capitalistic senses slammed me in the hip, right around the wallet region. I began to feel a little dizzy.    "Cutting back"? "Trimming down"? I could hear …

By The Comic Book Pusher
  It was the end of the world as I knew it.
For me, moving to Florida from Michigan in 1972 at the tender age of fourteen was, at first, an assumed nightmare. I was about to go into ninth grade, which would have put me at the top of the social heap in junior high school, and I had just started going steady with my first girlfriend. Now I was being told that we were moving to Florida. I would have to forget about being among the scholastic social elite. I would now be the "new kid" at school. I would have to say goodbye to my very first ever girlfriend and all the new experiences that went along with that. Worst of all, I would not be allowed to take my comic books with me. 
Clearly, my parents were trying to ruin my life, having plotted this insane move to Florida, a place where, for all I knew, comic books would be unobtainable. However, things are not always what they seem, and events and experiences can give us new perspectives on life, which is exac…

By The Comic Book Pusher

Sometimes, the people around us can have a powerful impact on how our lives unfold. Several members of my family had a direct influence on my life as a comic book pusher, mostly without realizing the path their actions were steering me down. Certainly my mother had the earliest influence on what would eventually become my comic book pushing ways, however inadvertently. I have no doubt that if she could see how things would eventually turn out, she would go back, turn off that television and instead sit me down with a copy of the Holy Bible or The Art of War.
It's true. My mother would have preferred I become a priest, or perhaps a military general. I guess it depended on her mood that day, or, more likely, my own behavior that day. Sometimes when I look back at my childhood, I think that just maybe she wanted me to be both. (Perhaps a holy warrior? Sounds like a comic book I've read at sometime or other!)
   For instance, when I would do something especial…

By The Comic Book Pusher
Let me begin by openly and unapologetically admitting that I have been pushing comic books to almost every last person around me all of my reading life. From turning my childhood friends on to Harvey Comics titles like Hot Stuff and Richie Rich back in the early sixties, to hyping the latest issues of Brightest Day and Shadowland at The Comics Club to a clientele weary of seemingly endless "crossover events", I have coaxed and lured the uninitiated into reading comics, and pushed and pimped the literary art form known as the comic book continuously, tirelessly and without shame.
   Would I intentionally give a child a comic book to get them hooked on reading? No doubt. Just stop by The Comics Club the first Saturday in May and watch me. The first one's free, kid! An obsession? Perhaps. An occupation? Absolutely. A life worth living over if given the chance and the right financial incentive? An unmitigated "Yes!" I have led a truly blessed…