Things that make you go hmmmmm?

[shadroch]

So,in the last few weeks,the chuckmiester,the big cheese himself has admitted(Bragged?) about creating a scheme with his employees to obtain bank financing that seems straight out of Enron.Then he tells of his shadowy meetings with drug addicted Mafioso types to conspire to market the largest bunchof stolen comics in history.Next he regales us with a tale of how he convinced a few local dealers to participate in a conspiricy to defraud the general comic buying public by causing them to spend more on a common book.First the bankers, then the publishers, finally the buyers. None are spared his wrath.Reading his rants, my thoughts were- Why is he telling us this? This is certainly not going to enhance his reputation, every one has a few skelitons in the closetbut they don't go around bragging about them.Then it dawned on me.I had read this before.In a comic book. In fact In many comicbooks. This was an origin story.Like so many hacks and underlings before him,after years of being unappreciated and scorned by his peers,realizing he could never achieve his life goal of being a superhero, Chuckies turned to the dark side and is becoming a full blown Super-Villian. Just like every second rate villian from a Batman story, he needs to leave clues behind so as to aid in his being stopped. Or he might just have the worlds biggest ego. HMMMMM?

[garthgantu]

I've done my share of ranting about Rozanski... and I agree that it's curious he's so eager/willing to share the dark side of his "success" over the years.

 

In an interesting coincidence, I found out last week that a guy I've dealt with professionally for 12 years - not in the comics biz but in a completely unrelated field - worked for Chuck R. when Chuck had just opened his first 'store' in the back of a Colorado sci-fi bookstore. This friend of mine described his working for Chuck as a real love-hate relationship, and said that Chuck was very boastful about ripping off the heirs of Edgar Church when he acquired the "Mile High collection." (My friend worked for Chuck for more than a few years.)

 

I honestly think the answer may be that Chuck is simply very "socially challenged" when it comes to relating his misadventures in the comics biz...

[Smokinghawk]

Mental health issue? As a therapist I see grandiosity and exaggerated disclosure of one's own misdeeds routinely among those desperate for personal significance.

 

P.S. That's not a genuine attempt at diagnosis, which would be unethical. I just intended it for conversation.

 

[Mushroom]

:rantpostChuckies turned to the dark side and is becoming a full blown Super-Villian. Just like every second rate villian from a Batman story, he needs to leave clues behind so as to aid in his being stopped. Or he might just have the worlds biggest ego. HMMMMM?

 

Not necessarily a second rate villain but maybe we should start calling him two face. We could buy him a coin and he can go the full nine yards.

[minutekev@50]

What's amazing is that Chuck really believes he saved the comic industry singlehandedly.

On the other hand I have no real problem with Big C and actually enjoy his TFTD columns (one-sided though they may be). I've done, and still do business with MH, if he has what I'm looking for and I don't mind paying the price. (Which, as everyone knows, you will).

[shadroch]

For the record: I too have have had deals with Mr. R and have no real bone to grind. Its just reading some of his last few columns have had me wondering WTF. Then this explanation hit me. I'm sure there are other more plausible reasons why he wishes to denigrate his reputation. As they say- It's all fun and games til someone loses an eye.

[joe_collector]

Maybe Chuck is physically or terminally ill and he wants to "tell his story"? Even before his "life story" in TFTDB, he was a pretty seedy character, and maybe he wants to create some sort of "dark legacy" before he passes on?

 

Kind of like Chuck Barris and his (cough) CIA Hitman days...

 

And I loved the comment that Chuck bragged about scamming the Church's, as that is a story anyone remotely involved in comics personally can attest to. Then again, be prepared to beat back the wags, who apparently think his business methods are totally cool and want to be "Lttle Chuckies".

[ghoulaid]

"This friend of mine described his working for Chuck as a real love-hate relationship, and said that Chuck was very boastful about ripping off the heirs of Edgar Church when he acquired the "Mile High collection.""

 

You have to consider the source. Chuck has had more than one disgruntled employee.

[cansecofan]

I ALWAYS read Chuck's article first!!! It is rather entertaining.

 

-Adam

[joe_collector]

You have to consider the source. Chuck has had more than one disgruntled employee.

 

Thanks for proving me right.

[Aman619]

You have to consider the source. Chuck has had more than one disgruntled employee.

 

Thanks for proving me right.

 

boy JC you sure nailed that one!!! bravo!

 

Thats a great analogy about Chuck as a real-life super-villain who must explain hi scrimes and how clever he was!!!! I love it! He's someone who has achieved recognition and riches through one coup he did early on in his career. And now 30 years later, he cant stand that that's STILL the one thing he will always be known for, when, in his mind, he has accomplished so much more.

 

Be sensitive for poor Chuck and try to imagine the personal he|| he is in 24/7!! Nobody understands how great he is beyound that one early shady deal he'd like us all to forget already!! boo-hoo, poor chuck.

[Ares]

where did this chuck say all this?

[Bugaboo-migration]

Mile High Comics website......in the TFTD section (Tales from the Database).......Read the multi part story about how he found and purchased the Mile High/Edgar Church comic book collection.

[Aman619]

where did this chuck say all this?

 

actually he said it to me....I went over to him and told him it mustve been unbelievably cool to have found the MH/Church collection etc etc. and he was very unhappy discussing it. Told me he was sick of everyone he meets talking about the same thing with him, as if everything he had ever done since was meaningless. Which, to the rest of us, it IS!!! Hes Rodney Dangerfield: never gets any respect!!

 

He'll never live down the one event in his life that "made" him. As Stan would undoubtedly say it (if he cared a rats about Chuck) "Lo,--A veritable Shakespearean Tragedy is Chuck" or "Lo, there shall NEVER be an ending!"

[shadroch]

where did this chuck say all this?

In his weekly column on his web sites. The bank scheme and the mafia stories are in the MH2 threads and the Conan 3 is one of his most recent. Completly forgot about the oath he claims to have taken to do no harm to the industry.

[garthgantu]

"This friend of mine described his working for Chuck as a real love-hate relationship, and said that Chuck was very boastful about ripping off the heirs of Edgar Church when he acquired the "Mile High collection.""

 

You have to consider the source. Chuck has had more than one disgruntled employee.

 

This is a very fair point... but the guy in question is the most easy-going, friendly person I've probably ever known. Whether the situation is grim or great, he maintains equanimity. I've had to break bad news to him on more than one occasion, and he didn't bat an eye, didn't say one negative word... he's just a really nice person. Frankly, if anything, I think his comments to me about Chuck have been tempered simply because he doesn't generally have a bad word to say about anyone.

[shadroch]

The funny thing is that I never felt he ripped the Churchs off. He made them a fair offer and they accepted. I don't think he knew at the time that they would sell for multiples of guide. He did a monster job of marketing them as the top condition collection and the buyers set the market.

[garthgantu]

The funny thing is that I never felt he ripped the Churchs off. He made them a fair offer and they accepted. I don't think he knew at the time that they would sell for multiples of guide. He did a monster job of marketing them as the top condition collection and the buyers set the market.

 

Not sure how any of us can know whether he "ripped them off." We really only have Chuck's first-hand account of the deal to go by... But between my friend's account of Chuck's gleeful bragging at the time, and the fact that Chuck "doth protest too much" in his 47-chapter tome on the subject, I think he's got a guilty conscience.

 

Also, by Chuck's own admission, his job of "marketing them as the top condition collection" didn't really go over well at the time. The first 2,000 (10%) of the Church collection was sold by Chuck for less than guide, and that 10% of the collection included a fair number of Golden Age keys...

 

I would say that he did a reasonably good job of milking that initial find over the years, in large part simply by labelling the pedigree "The Mile High Collection." That alone has probably been worth several million in marketing dollars, in terms of brand perception and awareness. Look at it this way: there are people - both new to collecting and (infatuated?) veterans - who still buy from Mile High despite what I consider overgrading and inflated prices (especially for the mid-grade stuff). In many instances, those buyers probably just want to be associated with the Mile High Collection any way they can...

 

I prefer to think of it as "The Edgar Church Collection" - let's face it, Mr. Church did all the heavy lifting, Chuck just lucked into the motherlode ...!

 

 

[ghoulaid]

garthgantu, I appreciate the level headed reply. After describing your friend, I would be more willing to believe what he says. As an EX employee of Chucks (probably lose another rating star by admitting it), I wonder if I know your friend. Probably not, if he left before 1981.

 

I guess, since I knew Chuck, I'm just fascinated by all the bashing he gets and have concluded (for now) that the primary cause is. . . envy. Who wouldn't be envious of anyone who found the Church collection? I'm no psychologist but it's interesting how envy is expressed by bashing the individual. I realise too there could be OTHER reasons for not liking him. I not saying YOU specifically but that's just the general sense I get whenever his name comes up.

[THE_BEYONDER]

Chuck.....?