ricks comic city

About me:

chapter one History of rick’s Okay... it was a dark and stormy night, Or it was the best of times and the worst of times. No, IT WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE END! Wait a minute, not that either. oh yeah.... Once upon a time a guy named Rick (that’s me for those paying attention) decided he had way too many comics, cards and toys in his collection and by “he”, I mean “she”.And by “she”, I mean “the old woman”. I had over 80 long boxes of comics and dozens of boxes of cards plus over 50 cases of toys. It was my life's worth of collecting in a 2 bedroom at Biltmore place apartments, and I had my first daughter on the way. Like any browbeaten husband with a little one on the way, I tried to figure a way to sell some of my books for cash to help with baby furniture and millions of other things I had not even thought about. (Plus I needed to make ROOM for my angel.) I think there may have been a million and 2 things after she was born. Comic shops at the time were not paying very much for books so selling them in bulk was not an option. My friend, Mark,who at the time who owned Comic City talked me into doing a small comic show with him in Clarksville. I took about 20 long boxes and some toys I wouldn’t miss, had a great time, and made some good money that went a long way towards getting stuff for the family and buying more comics. YEAH!,This first show was exactly one week before my first daughter was born September '98. I did one show per month with Mark for about a year after that, rotating through Clarksville, Bowling Green and Nashville. These shows were the inspiration to open my first store. Now in the beginning, there was nothing but a hole in the wall called “Rick’s.” A brief flashback moment: before that could happen, Rick (that’s me again) had to get some money together for deposits and lights. Even though I had been doing a lot of shows, The money was spent on bills and our first home that we had just bought. Man does that cost money! My angel was about to turn 2, I was working for the Tennessean part time and working a full time job as a warehouse manager for the Christie Cookie Company and my wife was working full time at the Gaylord Opryland hotel. It felt like we made pretty good money and could try this store thing to see if it would work. But it didn't work quite that smoothly. Some of you know I've dabbled in artwork and been published a couple of times in comics (very small local stuff) and even a Christian coloring book. , The freelance work I did to pay for the store was designing a bunch of covers for some CD greeting cards. This one job paid for my first and last month's rent, paid almost all of my deposits, and in march of 2000 let me start my dream of owning my own comic store in a 250 square ft space that nobody could see behind 3 stores with no parking. YEAH!, I was in the money now! OK not so much. End of flashback It turns out that the old saying “location ,location, location” actually means something and some lessons you get to learn the hard way. Luckily for me my friend James did not have a lot going on at the time and would come and sit (“and by sit”, I mean “sleep in my floor until someone came in”) in the store during the day while I was at my day job and watch the place for me. Sometime you get exactly what you pay for. Is it any wonder it took me so long to become a real comic store? rick ..

Myspace Layouts - Myspace Editor - Image Hosting