Exile On Main St

I grew up in The Bronx in the 60s and 70s. When I started buying comic books in the early 70s, I noticed they had numbers, and that got me interested in the earlier numbered issues, AKA back issues. I called up Marvel Comics (the number was in the phone book) and asked where I could get back issues. Whoever answered the phone told me to go to Supersnipe on 2nd Avenue in Manhattan. That's how I became a customer. My mother worked at a law firm in Manhattan, so if I couldn't wait until she could take me to Supersnipe, I would give her a want list of things to pick up on her way home after work. Apparently, my mother was talking to Ed Summer one day and she made the comment that the place looked like it could use "a woman's touch," meaning she saw how things could be straightened out a bit to be a little neater, that sort of thing. So Ed asked her if she'd do it -- basically offering her a part-time job. Since she thought Ed was someone she could get along well with, and was already spending time each week and money at the store, she figured she'd take Ed up on the offer. Worked out well for me -- I got comics, both old and new, at a discount price, and at a certain point, Ed started putting me to work too -- my first job! Hey, I was a kid, so I worked cheap, and I was honest, intelligent and conscientious, and most of all, interested. Mostly I worked at the crypt, which was where the bulk of the back issues were stored. The crypt was a large subterranean space underneath a building a few blocks away from the store. There was always work to be done putting things in order, or pulling specific issues out for sale in the store or through the mail. I never met George Lucas while I was working or hanging out at Supersnipe, although I did meet Mark Hammill and quite a few comic book industry folks like Roy Thomas. I had no idea George Lucas was connected to Supersnipe (as silent partner) until AFTER my family moved away from NYC (in 1977), but my mom saw/spoke to Lucas quite a few times. I think Ed might have brought Lucas over to the crypt one day while I was working there, as I did remember Ed bringing someone I didn't know into the crypt that day, and this was VERY unusual, as the crypt was very closely held secret. It wouldn't have been too difficult to break in if anyone with unscrupulous ideas had known the location. I always had to make sure no one was following me if I went from the store to the crypt. I do remember that before the first STAR WARS film opened, the paperback book was very conspicuously displayed for sale at the counter of the store, something that puzzled me at the time, because the store really didn't sell ordinary paperback books. No one told me that the author was a partner in the store! A few years later, my mom told me a funny story about the day Federico Fellini came into Supersnipe. Maybe I'll post that next time. Anyway, Ed Summer was a good guy, and a good boss. I liked him, and missed him after my family left New York. I never saw or spoke to him again, although I continued collecting comics until the early 80s.