kaculler

Dave Hutzley (owner of Dave's Comics in Royal Oak for many years) opened up a store in the 2000s that I think was in the Jackson vicinity. He had tons of toys and tons of great comics. He also used to set up at a number of shows. After a few years, I think he sold everything off to a dealer or a couple of dealers and moved to Arizona.

My first convention was King Kon in Ypsilanti, Michigan back in 1985. My older brother was a student at Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti and took me to the show. I was 15 at the time. It was pretty cool and I found some nice stuff. I also got to meet and talk with author Robert Asprin for a while.

The large location opened in Livonia in 1981. In the mid-90s, we had open spaces on either side of us and the landlord offered the owner a deal on rent if he moved to one of the other locations so that he could combine two spaces into a bike shop (Bike Nashbar I think). The rent had been rising a lot so in 1996, the owner took the deal and we moved next door. The new shop was much narrower and a lot of stuff got left behind. Most of what was lost was actually from the back room (overstock and the like). We kept our wall of back issues (there were tons of them on custom built wooden shelves). We did lose display space for the discount bins on the tables, though, and for stuff like tshirts and movie posters which used to hang from the ceiling. We kept some poster racks, but it was very much diminished. Gone also were the remnants of the video rental business we once had, though most of that was probably gone long before 1996. I can't remember for sure at this point. The store continued along like that for almost a decade before a variety of issues (rising rent, an aborted move, the owner's health) prompted the sale of the store. My understanding is that it was almost sold to customers who would have kept the store open, but it fell through and was eventually sold to Todd Lange, who wanted it mainly for the backstock to sell at shows. The store closed a week after he purchased it. I had started working at the store in 1986 when I was in high school. I worked about 30-40 hours per week through college and then a diminished schedule after becoming a teacher. Eventually it was just Saturdays year round and Wednesdays during the summer and breaks. I ran the card section for much of that time, though my real interest was always the comic books. It was a fun place to work and we had lots of great customers, but it all ended in the spring of 2005. It was sad, but all things end I guess.

I've been to Stadium and purchased comics there a few times. It's a nice shop. The best shop in the Detroit area these days is probably Big Ben's in Allen Park. Time Traveler's in Berkley has a lot of stuff and might be worth a look. If you get up to Flint, you might want to check out The Amazing Book-Store. Classic Movie and Comic Center was my first comic shop back in 1977 when it was still in Farmington. It was a great shop. I worked there from 1986-2005 and find it hard to believe that it has been gone for 15 years.

I recently had a media mail package ship in California on a Thursday and then it was delivered to me in Michigan two days later on Saturday. That's incredibly fast for media mail. It was definitely an outlier, but I was amazed. I had a lot of packages suffer delays back in April/May, but they have been a lot better for me over the past 5-6 weeks.

Three more Four Colors arrived in the mail. 126 more to go in Series II.

Four Color #602 and 805 arrived today. I also have a copy of #207 (posted above by Marty) coming in the mail.

There were two Archie Comics reprint series with that title in Australia in the 1950s. The first ran from about 1950-1955 and lasted 62 issues while the second ran from about 1956-1961 and lasted 59 issues, at least according to the information available at GCD and the ausreprints site. It appears that Archie #10 came out or was dated April 1957. Here's a link to the cover gallery. They don't have #10, but they do have #11 which seems to match the cover style. https://ausreprints.net/cover/series/4338/16973/2/200/50

Paramount Animated #5 arrived recently. I just need #6 to complete the series now.

This issue isn't high grade, but is good enough for me. Everything is complete and attached. I still need #1,2,4,9, and 20, but am getting closer to completing the first Casper series.

I just picked this one up from Series I.

I've got a friend of mine who has been looking for this issue for years in order to complete his Magazine Enterprises collection. He has every other comic that they published. I have a few issues of Robin Hood, The Brain, Tom-Tom plus a few others.

Two new arrivals - Four Color #48 with Porky Pig and Four Color #71 with The Three Cabelleros

This one arrived in the mail today. I'd almost given up hope after tracking went dark for three weeks, but it arrived safely. Some packages are seeing lots of delays with the current health crisis.

Weather-Bird was a shoe store giveaway back in the 1950s. Here are the 16 issues from the set. A number of these were file copies.

Reddy Goose was a shoe store giveaway back in the 1950s. Here are the 16 issues from the set.

Poll Parrot was a shoe store giveaway back in the 1950s. Here are the 16 issues from the set.

This one arrived in the mail today. Now I just need a copy of Batman #113 to have the series complete back to #99. I have a few earlier than that, but don't plan to actively pursue the series below #100.

I'd probably trade a few rolls for a Batman #1 (first series). Sound good?

I believe that this refers to Diamond customers and their invoices, not individual people.

Four Color #375 arrived in the mail today.

My latest acquisition.

Four Color #1305