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Comic World was the first fully-realized comic book store in the Tampa Bay Area. Whereas in the past, mom and pop book stores carried comic books on the side, Comic World stocked all of the latest new releases, thousands of back issues, and provided a subscription service that offered a regular discount off the cover price. Meanwhile, Diamond Comic Distributors wholesaled hundreds of thousands of new comics to stores all over the state of Florida, providing a much-needed resource for store owners who wanted to grow their comic book businesses but were unable to amply do so due to the constraints placed upon them by standard newsstand distributors.

I first stepped foot in the store in May of 1982, a typical fanboy wide-eyed with enthusiasm for the plethora of comic books that seemed to stare back at me - wall to wall and floor to ceiling - beckoning me to "...buy me!" "No!, Buy ME!" But at the time, the retail store was not yet open, and the Diamond warehouse manager explained to me that I would be able to come back after the grand opening, which coincidentally was on my wedding day! So I'm afraid I missed out on that BIG day in the history of the store!

I returned to meet and greet the new manager that summer and became a fixture of sorts here ever since. My first on-the-clock day was October 15th, 1982, as we set up for a visit by none other than Cerebus's own Dave Sim and his then-wife, Deni. It was a splendid visit, and Dave was very cheerful and friendly to fans who filled the shop. The very next day, our big weekend continued as the esteemed Jim Starlin joined us for another fan-filled day! I still recall Jim taking a break to step out on the front walk and inviting some of his fans to join him outside to hang out and shoot the breeze!

Before I knew it, I was working here full time, taking over for the then-store manager Jay Warmke before I was joined by Silver Spring, MD's Tom Fielding. Tom and I co-managed the store from October 1984 through the summer of 1988, when Tom left to open his own business venture, Comic Cave, with his wife Lisa. Throughout that time, the store saw a great many changes, from the black and white comics "explosion" onto the scene with the Teeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the "implosion" brought on by the plethora of small-press comic books that investors were snatching up right and left, reselling at ridiculous prices mere days later at local shows. The industry further bounced back with staggering successes like Frank Miller's Daredevil and Dark Knight, Alan Moore's Watchmen and V For Vendetta, DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths, Marvel's Secret Wars, featuring the creation of Spidey's famous black costume which later became Venom, and more. After that, comics continued to feature some wonderful stories, and the occasional duds, but saw the rise of several comics creators that brought a whole new meaning to the word "Image".

After Tom left, I was joined by Greg Limardi, who worked as Assistant Manager for a time before later leaving for college, to be replaced by Jim Fredrick (check out Jim's page at: http://www.myspace.com/jimfredrickwritercomic). In 1990, Steve sold the store to his friend and local comic shop dealer Richard Clear, who owned Tampa's Merlin's Books with his business partner Neal May. During Desert Storm and the Gulf War of 1990-91, Greg rejoined the team after Jim moved on. Kris Brownlow rounded out our Three Musketeers team, and together, the three of us took the store to new heights. Then, in March of 1991, local show promoter and sports card entrepreneur Ralph Boerker joined the Merlin's team, taking over as owner of this particular Merlin's outlet in the 3 store Bay Area chain. Downsizing, Ralph and I ran the store by ourselves from that point forward until the fall of 1992, when he uttered those famous words, "If you could -- would you want to buy the store?"

It was September of 1992, and Ralph had come to me out of the blue, asking me if I wanted to buy the store. I did, of course, but the choice he gave me was rather ominous, because if I didn't buy the store, then he was going to close it on December 1st of that year. I had to do some serious thinking and fast! Could I afford to make this purchase? Was it a wise move? I had been talking to my wife about visiting, and possibly moving to, Asheville, North Carolina. In the then recent past few months, everywhere I looked, I saw TV commercials, billboards, advertisements and more practically slapping me across the face with the words "Visit Asheville, North Carolina", and I kind of thought that maybe someone was trying to tell me something! But here I was faced with certain unemployment if Ralph closed the store and I hadn't moved yet, with three small kids, a wife, a house, and a lot of responsibility which I took very seriously. Talking to a few friends who offered to front me the money, I sat my family down and we made a decision that I would take this chance on the store. It was something I'd been doing since 1982, after all, and Asheville was an unknown. Would I have found work? What was the cost of living there? Remember, this is before the Internet put the world and all its data at our nimble fingertips! I would have had to go there and check things out, and I simply didn't have time to do that and work on a deal with Ralph. So buy the store I did!

Six months passed and we had many trials and tribulations, adjusting a family life around a business, but we all worked together. "Family-owned and operated," it said on the glass by the door. My sons adjusted somewhat to hanging out at the shop, and to this day, many people recall with great fondness the conversations with or comments by Megan, Johnny and Bryon. Ray Aquino became one of our biggest helpers, spending almost all his spare time in the shop, along with high school teacher Jim McKee, who put in hundreds of hours organizing the books and back issues. Later, we were joined by Jim Williams as Patty started nursing school in the mid-'90s. But in those first six months, we saw some amazing - and crazy - runs on product: Marvel books like Silver Surfer and Dr. Strange with their fancy foil and embossed covers, the Valiant era comics, the early Image comics like Spawn and Savage Dragon and of course, the ongoing aftermath following the Death of Superman! Suddenly and with little warning, in May of 1993, the comic market took a sharp nose-dive and we all frantically worked to counteract the decline in sales. Tough times were ahead, no doubt, but we ran in-store specials, broadening our selection of product to encompass just about anything that could be sold while running as many promotions as we could think of to bring people in the doors!

Check back for EVEN MORE of this massive missive as I expand on how Comic World came to be MY COMIC WORLD! In coming weeks, I will occasionally post a blog with anecdotes about other events in the life of COMIC WORLD! I'll even be adding some old pictures going back to the earliest days of the store, so stick around. You might even see yourself or someone you used to know here in the future! (updated, February 13, 2009)

Hey Gang!
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