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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.
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).
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.
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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