Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Sept 14, 2014 19:56:43 GMT -6
www.greenvilleonline.com/story/money/business/being-my-own-boss/2014/08/10/robert-young-lives-dream-hero-comic-books/13792009/
When Robert Young sits at his desk at Borderlands Comics, he can peer out the front window of the comics store and see the place where he was first introduced to the business that would become his career, his passion and his family.
Over the bookcases, through the parking lot and across Laurens Road is the 800-square-foot retail space that was formerly known as Heroes Aren't Hard to Find. It was where the 21-year-old Young worked, recruited from his home in Winston-Salem to manage the store in a city he had never even visited.
Twenty-three years later, the store has grown, changed names and moved across the street. And it's now Young's, fulfilling his dream to literally own a piece of his history.
"When I'm working, I can see my inspiration, where I started," he said. "If I hadn't moved here to run the store, then I wouldn't have the life that I have, so I wanted it. When do you get that chance?"
From a time when he was living in his car to living the dream today, Young is proud to be part of the resurgence in the comic book industry that has seen a boom in recent years thanks in part to high-profile films and TV shows.
Comic-capital
Despite the oft-repeated death knell for publishing in general, the comics market is on a robust streak, said industry watchers.
Comics were an $870 million business in 2013 in North America, said John Jackson Miller, a comics researcher and author and curator of the research site Comichron. Print sales composed $780 million of that total (digital sales accounted for the remainder), and sales have been increasing over the past three years.
"The comic market is the healthiest part of the magazine market," Miller said.
A significant chunk of that income — more than 50 percent — is in the form of graphic novels. Essentially a series of comic books repackaged and bound into novel form, graphic novels have experienced a rapid increase in popularity. They're available in book stores as well as traditional comic shops and often appeal to those who perceive a stigma in traditional comic magazines, Young said.
The last several years' worth of comic book-based movies haven't hurt anything either, he said. Last weekend's "Guardians of the Galaxy" $94 million opening was the third largest film opening of the year, behind "Transformers: Age of Extinction" and "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" — comic books all.
A comic shop is also featured prominently in the CBS sitcom "Big Bang Theory," another level of exposure for the industry, Young said.
Hit TV shows and blockbuster movies don't automatically translate into a renewed interest in the comic source material, Young said, but they do offer great marketing opportunities for savvy business leaders, like setting up a booth at theaters for movie openings.
It's moves like that which have propelled comic shops into a healthy position in the market, Miller said.
"The comic shops are in better shape ... than I've seen in a long time," he said. "They've become pop culture destinations."
A Wednesday afternoon or Saturday evening at Borderlands may be the proof in the pudding. When the new comics come out on Wednesdays, there's a steady stream of devotees coming for the latest edition. Young said.
And on a weekend evening, you'll find dozens of people gathered around the store's several tall, felt-lined tables playing out some of the various games — historical, fictional, fantasy — that have come to go hand-in-hand with comic culture.
With a collection of vintage books that number to about 500,000, Borderlands has also become known as the place to go for hard-to-find comics.
"I've gone to people's house and picked through basements," Young said with a laugh, drawing comparisons to the TV show "American Pickers."
Comic-consciousness
Young took over Borderlands Comics at the start of 2011, after buying it from Stan Reed, the man he used to work for.
He said his love of comics started with a neighbor's broken arm.
The teenage skateboarder had collected some comic books during his recuperation. When he was back on his wheels, he flagged down the kid down the street, a 5- or 6-year-old Young, and offered them to him.
"I guess I owe my whole career to that guy," said Young, now a bespectacled, bearded man of 44.
The top one on the stack was a Captain America comic. It remains Young's favorite to this day.
In the years that followed, Young continued to read comics regularly. As a Navy brat often on the road, comics provided entertainment and solace in every new town.
"It was something no matter where we went, I could get comics and baseball cards," he said.
As a young adult, Young frequented the Heroes Aren't Hard to Find comics shop in Winston-Salem. Then one day they asked him to move to Greenville and run the chain's location here.
Turned away from military service as a teenager because of a childhood seizure disorder, Young said he looked on moving to a new place as his own adventure.
He worked at the Heroes shop for several years before moving on to another job. He came back about a year later when his former boss, Reed, bought the business out of the Heroes chain and transformed it into Borderlands Comics, a 5,000-square-foot retail store.
Young worked with Reed for a while to get the store going and then left comics again, this time for about a decade.
"I tried to buy the store almost every year for 10 or 15 years," he said. "I would take him (Reed) out to dinner and ask to buy the store and he would tell me 'no' and make me buy dinner.
"I went to him in 2010 and did the same thing. We went to dinner. He grabbed the check, paid for it and wrote a number on the back of the check, slid it to me and said, 'Think about it.'"
Comic-character
Young admitted to a sentimental streak a mile wide, and the view from his desk to the old shop isn't the only example.
Young pointed out the original Borderlands sign hanging on the wall in the back of the store, unearthed from its basement storage, and emphasized that it would always follow where he goes.
He slipped off his wedding ring and turned it to highlight the famous Captain America shield emblem emblazoned on it. The tungsten ring, the superhero's shield, his marriage — they're all indestructible, he said.
That kind of emotion is part of what make comics so appealing to people, he said.
Take, for example, Captain America, created in the 1940s.
"My grandfather could've read it. My father could've read it. I could read it. My kids could read it. My grandkids might be reading it," he said. "There's not a lot of things that have that type of timeline where it just gets ingrained in our culture and our society."
Young said his sentimental attachment to the store, and the reason he was so eager to buy it for all those years, was about his own turnaround.
Leaving home at 18, Young found himself sleeping in his car for a few months because, although he worked, he hadn't saved enough to get himself an apartment.
When he got to Greenville at age 21, he knew no one. But it was in this growing town and in that comic shop in particular that he built a community of friends that he said defies the old convention that you can't choose your family.
Purchasing the store, he said, was about owning the place where his life really got started.
His early days as an entrepreneur were uneasy, he said — "The 15 minutes when I opened on that first day waiting on someone to come in was utterly terrifying" — but he soon developed a loyal following, many of whom remembered him from his early years with the Heroes store.
One boy who dubbed the comic shop "Rob's house" as a child is now back at Borderlands as a married man.
"There are still guys buying books here that I sold books to 23 years ago," Young said.
A wrestler, cross-country runner and tennis player in his youth, Young said any success he's found stems from a philosophy that has gotten him through the next mile, the next set, the next balance sheet.
"You frequently don't have to be better than someone else. You just have to quit last."
When Robert Young sits at his desk at Borderlands Comics, he can peer out the front window of the comics store and see the place where he was first introduced to the business that would become his career, his passion and his family.
Over the bookcases, through the parking lot and across Laurens Road is the 800-square-foot retail space that was formerly known as Heroes Aren't Hard to Find. It was where the 21-year-old Young worked, recruited from his home in Winston-Salem to manage the store in a city he had never even visited.
Twenty-three years later, the store has grown, changed names and moved across the street. And it's now Young's, fulfilling his dream to literally own a piece of his history.
"When I'm working, I can see my inspiration, where I started," he said. "If I hadn't moved here to run the store, then I wouldn't have the life that I have, so I wanted it. When do you get that chance?"
From a time when he was living in his car to living the dream today, Young is proud to be part of the resurgence in the comic book industry that has seen a boom in recent years thanks in part to high-profile films and TV shows.
Comic-capital
Despite the oft-repeated death knell for publishing in general, the comics market is on a robust streak, said industry watchers.
Comics were an $870 million business in 2013 in North America, said John Jackson Miller, a comics researcher and author and curator of the research site Comichron. Print sales composed $780 million of that total (digital sales accounted for the remainder), and sales have been increasing over the past three years.
"The comic market is the healthiest part of the magazine market," Miller said.
A significant chunk of that income — more than 50 percent — is in the form of graphic novels. Essentially a series of comic books repackaged and bound into novel form, graphic novels have experienced a rapid increase in popularity. They're available in book stores as well as traditional comic shops and often appeal to those who perceive a stigma in traditional comic magazines, Young said.
The last several years' worth of comic book-based movies haven't hurt anything either, he said. Last weekend's "Guardians of the Galaxy" $94 million opening was the third largest film opening of the year, behind "Transformers: Age of Extinction" and "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" — comic books all.
A comic shop is also featured prominently in the CBS sitcom "Big Bang Theory," another level of exposure for the industry, Young said.
Hit TV shows and blockbuster movies don't automatically translate into a renewed interest in the comic source material, Young said, but they do offer great marketing opportunities for savvy business leaders, like setting up a booth at theaters for movie openings.
It's moves like that which have propelled comic shops into a healthy position in the market, Miller said.
"The comic shops are in better shape ... than I've seen in a long time," he said. "They've become pop culture destinations."
A Wednesday afternoon or Saturday evening at Borderlands may be the proof in the pudding. When the new comics come out on Wednesdays, there's a steady stream of devotees coming for the latest edition. Young said.
And on a weekend evening, you'll find dozens of people gathered around the store's several tall, felt-lined tables playing out some of the various games — historical, fictional, fantasy — that have come to go hand-in-hand with comic culture.
With a collection of vintage books that number to about 500,000, Borderlands has also become known as the place to go for hard-to-find comics.
"I've gone to people's house and picked through basements," Young said with a laugh, drawing comparisons to the TV show "American Pickers."
Comic-consciousness
Young took over Borderlands Comics at the start of 2011, after buying it from Stan Reed, the man he used to work for.
He said his love of comics started with a neighbor's broken arm.
The teenage skateboarder had collected some comic books during his recuperation. When he was back on his wheels, he flagged down the kid down the street, a 5- or 6-year-old Young, and offered them to him.
"I guess I owe my whole career to that guy," said Young, now a bespectacled, bearded man of 44.
The top one on the stack was a Captain America comic. It remains Young's favorite to this day.
In the years that followed, Young continued to read comics regularly. As a Navy brat often on the road, comics provided entertainment and solace in every new town.
"It was something no matter where we went, I could get comics and baseball cards," he said.
As a young adult, Young frequented the Heroes Aren't Hard to Find comics shop in Winston-Salem. Then one day they asked him to move to Greenville and run the chain's location here.
Turned away from military service as a teenager because of a childhood seizure disorder, Young said he looked on moving to a new place as his own adventure.
He worked at the Heroes shop for several years before moving on to another job. He came back about a year later when his former boss, Reed, bought the business out of the Heroes chain and transformed it into Borderlands Comics, a 5,000-square-foot retail store.
Young worked with Reed for a while to get the store going and then left comics again, this time for about a decade.
"I tried to buy the store almost every year for 10 or 15 years," he said. "I would take him (Reed) out to dinner and ask to buy the store and he would tell me 'no' and make me buy dinner.
"I went to him in 2010 and did the same thing. We went to dinner. He grabbed the check, paid for it and wrote a number on the back of the check, slid it to me and said, 'Think about it.'"
Comic-character
Young admitted to a sentimental streak a mile wide, and the view from his desk to the old shop isn't the only example.
Young pointed out the original Borderlands sign hanging on the wall in the back of the store, unearthed from its basement storage, and emphasized that it would always follow where he goes.
He slipped off his wedding ring and turned it to highlight the famous Captain America shield emblem emblazoned on it. The tungsten ring, the superhero's shield, his marriage — they're all indestructible, he said.
That kind of emotion is part of what make comics so appealing to people, he said.
Take, for example, Captain America, created in the 1940s.
"My grandfather could've read it. My father could've read it. I could read it. My kids could read it. My grandkids might be reading it," he said. "There's not a lot of things that have that type of timeline where it just gets ingrained in our culture and our society."
Young said his sentimental attachment to the store, and the reason he was so eager to buy it for all those years, was about his own turnaround.
Leaving home at 18, Young found himself sleeping in his car for a few months because, although he worked, he hadn't saved enough to get himself an apartment.
When he got to Greenville at age 21, he knew no one. But it was in this growing town and in that comic shop in particular that he built a community of friends that he said defies the old convention that you can't choose your family.
Purchasing the store, he said, was about owning the place where his life really got started.
His early days as an entrepreneur were uneasy, he said — "The 15 minutes when I opened on that first day waiting on someone to come in was utterly terrifying" — but he soon developed a loyal following, many of whom remembered him from his early years with the Heroes store.
One boy who dubbed the comic shop "Rob's house" as a child is now back at Borderlands as a married man.
"There are still guys buying books here that I sold books to 23 years ago," Young said.
A wrestler, cross-country runner and tennis player in his youth, Young said any success he's found stems from a philosophy that has gotten him through the next mile, the next set, the next balance sheet.
"You frequently don't have to be better than someone else. You just have to quit last."