Comics' boom ended in early 1990s, Fort Myers collector says

Brian Chandler, 39, remembers the good old days of comics. That is, the late 1980s and early 90s, when at some point every Superman fanatic and his uncle had golden dreams of the fortunes they would acquire years later from their collections.

FLORIDA WEEKLY PHOTO EVAN WILLIAMS Brian Chandler

Mostly, it didn't happen.

"Near the end of the boom years everybody was into comics like the stockmarket, thinking it was going to be the things they put their kids through college with," Chandler said. "It was kinda tough when it ended. People had been coming in snatching up everything there was, and then, nothing. It's slowly been building back up."

Chandler is owner/operator and self described "chief flunky" of Comics Cards and Stuff on Fowler Street since 1993. He blamed the downturn on comic companies, who were looking to get in on a piece of the thriving market, so they started printing editions in massive numbers. That ended the dreams of speculators by drowning the very thing that created them: rarity.

"Like 'The Death of Superman,'" Chandler said. "They reprinted that like four times. The bottom fell out. Everybody had them but no one wanted them.

"Being a collector myself, I kind of knew - even at the time - what was happening."

But for Chandler it wasn't such a tragedy. For people who genuinely liked to read comics or serious collectors, nothing much had changed; it was the speculators that lost out. And since collecting for financial gain lost popularity, it was other impulses - mostly his regular customer's greedless enjoyment of comics or desire to own this or that special edition for personal reasons - that has kept him in business for the last 15 years.

"If you're gonna get into (comic books) for an investment, you'd be better off playing the stock market," he said. "There are a lot of different factors that go into what a book will be worth and you don't know how much until it actually gets to be that much.

"For me at least, I grew up on comics, because that was in the age before Nintendo and other video games were common things. Back when I was growing up we all had was Atari."

As a child he was a voracious consumer of comics, before he started collecting and first got into comics "hard core" in middle school. Early favorites included Star Trek, Star Wars, Green Lantern, Superman and X-men.

"I was getting into comics collecting, rather than just reading them and tossing them in a box," he said. "…I've read so much stuff over the years."

He doesn't remember how it all started.

"Going back to my probably six-year-old mind - the super characters, the good versus evil thing, the artwork," he said. "And the writing - but that came later of course. Years later when I started getting into the collecting there were certain artists and stories that I gravitated to."

Those artists and stories included Chris Claremont and John Byrne's work on X-men; Neal Adam's on Batman; and Joe Stanton's on Green Lantern.

Even as a teenager at Bishop Verot High School, he thought about opening a comic book store even though he had other hobbies at the time - roller-skating, softball, computers. The opportunity arrived when he found a partner to go in with him, who backed out after the market collapsed.

"Once I bought him out and he kind of faded into the sunset, I added a little more and it just sort of grew over the years," Chandler said. "As far as my collection goes, I've got some comics dating back to the late 1940s. It's not something I'm ever gonna get rid of, it's just the pride of saying it's in my collection."

There are thousands of comic books at Comics Cards and Stuff, plus some collectible action figures. Some of the most recent arrivals are "summer crossovers" - comic publishing companies' seasonal mini-series. Titles include Marvel's "Secret Invasion," and DC's "Final Crisis."

Most of his major collectors are young adults, Chandler estimates, between 18 and 30. But not all.

"I've got some that are in their sixties, still buying comics," he said.

And most, like him, are in it for the love.

"Probably the easiest way to spot a speculator?" Chandler asked. "One of the first questions out of their mouth is, 'How much is this gonna be worth in 10 years?'"

Chandler still lives with his wife and stepson in Fort Myers, where he was born. Besides collecting comics, he goes to Disney World every couple of months with his family, and will soon be taking along a baby boy, due in September. He also wouldn't mind seeing snow in person sometime, since he never has.

"Probably the furthest North I've ever been is Kentucky," he said.