Store sells fantasies to comic book fans
By STEPHANIE BONSANTI
Of Vm Emerald
Someone once called the
Fantasy Shop and asked if the
shop sold marital aids.
If the caller had seen the
store, located in the Smith
Family building on 13th Avenue,
he would have known its aids
are for the wandering mind in
terested in superheroes and vil
lains.
Comic books ranging in price
from $4.50 to $350 fill an upper
wall behind one of the store's
counters. Other walls are
decorated with cartoons, comic
book covers and a giant Mickey
Mouse watch belonging to store
owner Darrell Grimes.
Eugene-born Grimes bor
rowed money from his parents
to buy the store from a former
partner in 1974. The business
grossed $500 a month then, but
hlVGR SI I V=—
RAV61
DON’T GIVE UP!
Excursion Fares
Are Still Available
(In some markets)
For Thanksgiving and
Christmas Travel
SEE US NOW
683-5577
Smith Family Book Bldg.
774 E. 13th
It’s not hopeless
VOTE
NOV. 4
FOR
ELECTION INFO.
PHONE: 687-4234
(Lane County Elections)
Sponsored by
ASUO STATE AFFAIRS
now grosses $3,900 a month, he
says.
Grimes and the store’s only
employee, Don Collver, share
an interest in soccer, the fan
tasy table game Dungeons and
Dragons, and comic books.
Friday afternoons at the Fan
tasy Shop are busy. A bearded,
balding art teacher rushes in
and asks, "Any new X-men?"
"No new X-men, sorry,”
Collver calls back.
Collver pulls out stacks of the
more valuable comics for
collector Pat Slemko, who sorts
through each stack quickly and
mechanically. Slemko spends
from $100 to $125 a month on
comics, but most collectors
spend between $10 and $20 a
month.
While a few children read
comics in the store aisles, a
14-year-old collector searches
for comics scribbled on a list.
He's trying to complete sets, he
says, even though he no longer
reads some of the comics.
Collectors usually try to ac
quire complete series, Grimes
says. "It’s just fun trying. . to
get a whole set — value in
creases and that just adds to the
enjoyment.”
"They’re something to read,”
Joe LeRoux says of his comics
collection. Recently, LeRoux
bought an $800 Batman 1, the
shop’s most expensive comic,
because, he said, he "decided
to start collecting Batman, and
that seemed like a good place to
start.”
During the early 1970s a
comic book collector was seen
as "a guy with subnormal intel
ligence who never had a bath or
a social life,” Collver says.
But now only a few of the
almost 200 regular customers fit
the old stereotype. Business
men and couples regularly visit
the shop, and most customers
are under 30.
Respect for comic books is
increasing, Grimes says. The
Wall Street Journal published
Photo by Dennis Tachibana
Young collector browses through the wide selection of comic
books in Fantasy Shop
an article about him and the
increasing investment in comic
books following his purchase of
a $7,500 Action 1 (first appear
ance of Superman) last spring.
Comic books are inflation
beaters. Value of the Action 1
has increased $1,000 every year
since 1974, Grimes says. He
estimates that most comics leap
25 to 50 percent in value each
year.
Comics with a believable
character, a good storyline and
good art — such as the X-men
comic by John Byrne and the
new Teen Titans drawn by
George Perez — appreciate
most in value.
But the value collectors place
on their comics isn’t just mone
tary. "If it ever turns out that I
need something more than I
need my comic books, then I’ll
part with them,’’ LeRoux says.
“But I haven’t found anything
I need that much yet.”
HALLOCRAMS^
Even old
witches and _
warlocks need love...
Send yours a HallogramJ^^^
This information is tor the Emerald only It will not appear in the ad
Name
Date
Address
Phone
DEADLINE FRIDAY 1 PM
Category
— 20 wordsTor $1.50—
_Date ad starts 10* SI * ftQ
Number of days to run
Number of words
Rate per word
Total amount