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The History
I
have loved comics since I was in 8th grade and read Alpha Flight #11
for the first time. I had been buying my comics from Silver
Spoon (RIP - downtown Belleville) and, when I made it to
Collinsville, the original Fantasy Books.
While in high school, I made
connections with various people including a guy named Mel who was
renting loft space to Jim Lee for his studio. Needless to say,
I had a unique source for signed comics. I got loads of
autographed stuff from Mel, you might recognize some of the names:
Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee (of course), Wilce Portacio, Todd McFarlane,
Jim Silvestri, and others. Tim Rank and I started Twilight
Cards and Comics as a Belleville Flea Market business to help fund
our growing need for new comics.
In 1990, Brent Murphy opened
Fantasy IV in Belleville (now Fantasy
Books Inc.), where he was Co-Owner. I provided
highly-prized signed books in exchange for new comics. Shortly
thereafter, I began working part time at Fantasy Books IV, when my
Little Caesars schedule would allow.
Poor, old Fantasy Books I
(opened in 1980 as the retail arm of Glenwood Comic Distributors) in
Collinsville, was in serious trouble. The chain owner, Nick,
had decided to close this historic store before the summer of 1991
came around. Brent convinced Nick that a friend of his (me)
could turn the store around by the end of the summer, and if I
couldn't he could just as easily shut it down a couple of months
later than scheduled.
I turned Fantasy Books around
200% in the positive direction within those few months! After
a year-and-a-half of managing the original Fantasy Books, Nick sold
me the store and that's when, in January of 1993, Twilight Comics
was officially born as a Brick-and-Mortar store.
Six months into Twilight's
existence, the building's roof leaked and we were forced to move to
300 East Main in Collinsville. A much smaller and decidedly
worse location. But, remember, this was the middle of 1993.
For those not in the know, this was the beginning of the downward
spiral of the entire comics industry AND the year of the Great Flood
(here in the Midwest). People were losing houses and jobs and
the speculators that LOVED the death of Superman, now soured at
comics that couldn't make them instant millionaires. 1/3 of
all comic book stores ceased to exist in 1993-1994.
More passion than business
sense, I began working on Twilight Comics Belleville, a second
location for the comics lovers from the area I grew up in -- west
Belleville. This store was going to be a departure from the
usually poorly lit, poorly kept hole-in-the-wall stores of the '70s
& '80s. It was going to be a REAL store, but one that focused
on comics. Remember, this was still in the beginning of that
spiral. Rent was hard to keep up with, but an understanding
landlord had banners printed and did whatever he could to help.
Unfortunately, he sold the property to a much less understanding
soul who demanded an EXTRA security deposit and an elevated two
months rent immediately. So we move to the temporary spot (the
motorcycle shop) across from west-end Schnuck's Supermarket.
On April 1st, 1995, I married
the love of my life, Shannon Oakley. Without her support and
love, I, nor Twilight Comics, would still exist. (And she
reads comics, too!)
In 1995-1996, Marvel distributed
their own comics and forced DC and everybody else to chose sides as
far as other distributors, killing another 1/3 of comic book stores
and all but Diamond Comic Distributors (formerly located in Sparta,
IL).
1996 would mark Twilight's final
move in Belleville to Bellevue Park Plaza where I lost focus on
comics for awhile because Warhammer seemed so cool! No doubt,
many comics customers must have wondered where all the comics had
gone in the Belleville store!
Collinsville Twilight Comics
continued to have problems and after long, agonizing thought, I had
to be the one to "pull the plug", in June of 1997, on the store that
had served THOUSANDS of comics lovers for 16+ years.
After Warhammer died for us
--due to Games Workshop's need to change main rules every two
years-- the decline in the comics industry REALLY began to effect
the now solo Twilight Comics. Sales began to decline across
the board, but Warhammer was a huge loss for Twilight and, since I
started to regain the comics focus, the few people interested in it
decided to try out the new Fantasy Shop (just acquired by Fantasy
Books Inc.!) that opened in Fairview Heights.
In
December of 2000, my first pet (after moving away from the
parents'), Mercedes, died in my arms. (I still miss him very
much.) I became lethargic and, truthfully, let my former
passion become an awful mess of a store. Trying to shake out
of my funk and get the store "back on track", in 2002, I wrote a
business plan and started the long road back to real-store-dom.
We rescued Tia from the pound.
Like Mercedes when we rescued him, she was four years old, declawed,
and needed a home. Despite the attempted promise of being a
one kitty home, a stray we called "Little Black Kitty" whose voice
sounded more like a crow than a cat, ended up giving birth to a
litter of five.
Little Black Kitty started life
on the street, a skinny begger. She now lives with the Cuetos
in Belleville and, last I heard, she was a fat-cat ruling the house.
Two of her offspring, Laurel (Fatty - 'cause (s)he had a giant head)
and Hardy (Freckle-Nose) went to live with Shannon's aunt.
Blacky (who looks just like his mom), Chicken-Head (a Denis Leary
reference), and Bonk stayed with us.
I cleaned up the store,
completely restocked the back issue comics, repainted, built a
decent selection of graphic novels, and added a game room.
People could tell throughout 2002 that I meant business and in just
fourteen months, I finally had a store that was worth presenting, so
I began advertising on cable in March of 2003. Response was
immediate and I could finally start clearing up my credit that
suffered horribly from the near decade of weathering storms
(figuratively and literally).
In August of 2005, cat number
five threw himself into our lives. Peeper caused a
restructuring of the hierarchy of our home, but everything is still
running just fine (but don't ask Tia).
Bellevue Park Plaza was in
steeper(?) decline than I thought Twilight could handle, so, in
November of 2006, I began negotiations to BUILD the Metro-East's
first PREMIERE comic book store. I found the booming Green
Mount Crossing in Shiloh to be the perfect place to go. Not
terribly far from the Belleville location, but the potential for
much, much more walk-in traffic. Holding steady on my comics
focus, and, continuing the trend toward a great graphic novel
selection, I didn't feel that the proximity of Medieval
Starship (now known as Fantasy Games) would be a problem for
either of us, since they were the area's only full-on game store.
Well, who knew that moving a
store, decking it out, getting the stock up to snuff, and all the
other bits-n-pieces would cost 10 to 15 times what it cost back in
1994 to start the whole thing from scratch?!? Still, I was
happy to see my dream store (within budgetary constraint) finally
exist. Just in time, too, because, in hind-sight, I don't
think Twilight would have survived at the Belleville location
through 2007-2008.
Bonk, who was my baby,
fell ill early in October of 2011. After tons of
money, blood transfusions, other treatments, and a
way-too-brief remission, we had to put him to sleep on
December 8th, 2011. It was the worst day of the last
decade for me. Please read more about Bonkie
here.
Well, if you've read this far,
you must really (not only) love comics, but think well of Twilight
Comics and (hopefully) me. We're seeing some rough times and
are being effected by the real-world economic troubles, just like
most businesses. Now, more than ever, we count on every single
dime you can spend and appreciate every visit you make. If I
can do ANYTHING to make your visit to Twilight Comics better,
please, let me know. With luck and your help, I will be able
to add ten or more years to this story!
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