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Tim Stolzfus, owner of More Fun Comics in Denton, Texas, talks about his lifelong love of comics — he started his first comics business when he was still in high school. [Denton Record-Chronicle]
www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20160603-drawn-to-comics.ece
Drawn to comics
Tim Stoltzfus, holding the head of comic book anti-hero Deadpool, owns More Fun Comics and Games in Denton. In 2008, he jumped at the chance to move his business from Fry Street to a space on the Square.
By Julian Gill Staff Writer jgill@dentonrc.com
Published: 03 June 2016 11:20 PM
Tim Stoltzfus turned an obsession into a vocation.
The 41-year-old owner of More Fun Comics and Games on Denton’s downtown Square used to read his way through hundreds of comics in the backroom of an old comic shop in Pennsylvania. In middle school, he pored through about 15 to 20 comics a week. And by the time he was a junior in high school, Stoltzfus already owned his own comic book shop, Tim’s Cards and Comics.
Now a Denton business owner for the past 13 years, Stoltzfus talks about comics as though he’s still a kid in Lancaster. He reads The Walking Dead comics religiously and is especially fond of comics in the noir crime genre. But Stoltzfus doesn’t have nearly as much time as he used to. He spends most days managing employees and selecting content to line the shelves at More Fun.
Although he mostly works behind the scenes, those close to the self-proclaimed nerd say he has quietly put Denton on the map as a haven for geek culture.
“There’s a million and one reasons to love a good comic — it could be the story; it could be the art; it could be the collectability; it could be the nostalgia — and each person finds their own niche within comics,” he said. “There are books out there of every stripe, and it’s just a matter of finding the one that grabs you.”
25-cent comics
Stoltzfus’ obsession started at Captain Blue Hen Comics in his hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The shop was in the basement of an old church, and he would spend most of his time in the backroom reading boxes filled with 25-cent comics.
“There was at least 200 boxes, and I would just spend all day digging through, finding gems,” he said.
He started reading Transformers and G.I. Joe comics, and eventually migrated to Batman and other superheroes from the publisher DC Comics.
Stoltzfus said he’s always been a voracious reader, but after reading dozens of comics on a weekly basis, he said some of his middle school teachers started to notice his high-level diction.
He remembered one instance when he surprised his eighth-grade English teacher by using the word “incognito” during a vocabulary exercise. After the class, Stoltzfus explained he learned it by reading a science-fiction comic called The Outsiders.
“She said, ‘As long as you’re reading words, you can learn them from anywhere. So keep going,’” Stoltzfus said. “That was the first time I had a person in a position of authority, besides the guy behind the counter at the comic book store, telling me, ‘Hey, this is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.’”
As a junior in high school, Stoltzfus continued to dive deeper into the comic book world when his mother helped him open his shop. At that time, he didn’t think Tim’s Cards and Comics was the first step in his career. It was just something he enjoyed doing after school and on the weekends.
“It was more of a hangout than a business, to be honest,” he said. “It just got the bug in me to work for myself.”
The business closed about six months after he graduated high school. About three years later, he decided he wanted to get away from Lancaster’s snowy scenery. He found himself in Cedar Hill, southwest of Dallas, in the winter of 1996.
Finding a niche
Stoltzfus worked a few random jobs in Texas while, of course, reading multiple comics a week. He later found a job with a distributor for a comics and games store in Dallas.
Then in 2003, Stoltzfus hit a turning point at San Diego Comic-Con International, an annual event that now draws crowds of 130,000, including comic book creators, artists, film directors and sci-fi authors.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, this is what I need to be doing again,’ and I started putting my plans in place,” he said.
Stoltzfus left his job with the comic distributor and partnered with Keith Colvin, who owns Keith’s Comics in Dallas. Together, they created the first More Fun Comics and Games in Lancaster, Texas.
They quickly set their sights on Denton when they had the opportunity to buy Treasure Aisles, a comic shop on Fry Street, which later became More Fun. Stoltzfus jumped at the opportunity for a more central location when he saw an open storefront on the Square in 2008.
Around that time, Stoltzfus said he noticed a burgeoning market for comics in Denton, especially with the college town atmosphere. He started tending to the Denton store more than the shop in Lancaster.
That’s when he met Shaun Treat, another comic enthusiast and a University of North Texas professor at the time. Treat approached Stoltzfus with an idea for a comic book studies class that would examine the craft as well as the industry.
“In talking to him about comics and the kinds of things I wanted to teach, it became really apparent that this guy is super smart, and that he’s a very well-read guy,” Treat said.
Treat got approval to teach the class and invited Stoltzfus to give lectures about specific comic books and graphic novels once a week. Treat said he eventually realized Stoltzfus was much more than a small-business owner in Denton.
“He’s an entrepreneur, and he’s built a business and built a niche in Denton that I think people take for granted,” Treat said.
Sharing the obsession
Treat said Stoltzfus has fanned the flames of Denton’s geek culture in several ways, but some of his most recent accomplishments have helped Denton become a destination for comics and game enthusiasts across the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Last year, Stoltzfus unveiled a limited-edition Doctor Who comic book cover that features Denton’s Courthouse on the Square. It represented a year’s worth of labor, coordinating with the publisher and recruiting an artist to craft the illustration.
In April 2015, Stoltzfus hosted a special “Doctor Who Day” event at the shop to celebrate the issue’s release. He didn’t expect to see a line of eager customers wrapped around the building.
“It was a really awesome day,” he said. “The fans and their love for the characters is what really makes these things take off, and it’s awesome.”
Stoltzfus said he expected to have the comic book in stock for about six months. He sold out in four days, and it was the last time he would underestimate the local fan base in Denton, he said.
Jake Ekiss, the artist who created the Doctor Who cover art, said Stoltzfus was specific about what he wanted on the book’s cover. But most comic shop owners are passionate and specific about comic book designs in general, he said.
What sets Stoltzfus apart from others is his commitment to broaden the fan base, Ekiss said.
“One of the things I really like about Tim is he actively thinks about the engagement of new types of fans who have traditionally been undeserved,” he said. “He very much has a thought process that is inclusive of a wider fan community.”
Since the Doctor Who cover, Stoltzfus has been able to coordinate two more custom covers that feature the Courthouse on the Square. In October, More Fun unveiled a cover of The Amazing Spider-Man showing the superhero swinging through downtown Denton. And on June 15, Stoltzfus will start selling a limited-edition Batman cover.
Stoltzfus is now a staple in Denton’s business community. He sponsors social runs, Pint Night at local bars, the new Nerd Nite Denton at J&J’s Pizza and Comic Book Trivia Night at Mulberry Street Cantina.
Although he’s no longer buried in comic books, Stoltzfus is still eager to talk about his childhood and how much geek culture has changed since then. During a conversation, he quickly rattles through his favorite comic book titles, and he talks about the industry with the authority of a tenured professor.
But his work is no longer centered on his own obsession. He simply wants to expose others to the stories he grew up reading.
“All of this stuff has created this sense of community up here in a very short period of time,” he said. “We get a lot of fresh faces that walk in who have never read a comic or have only ever seen the movies, and we get to put awesome comics in people’s hands.”
Tim Stolzfus, owner of More Fun Comics in Denton, Texas, talks about his lifelong love of comics — he started his first comics business when he was still in high school. [Denton Record-Chronicle]
www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20160603-drawn-to-comics.ece
Drawn to comics
Tim Stoltzfus, holding the head of comic book anti-hero Deadpool, owns More Fun Comics and Games in Denton. In 2008, he jumped at the chance to move his business from Fry Street to a space on the Square.
By Julian Gill Staff Writer jgill@dentonrc.com
Published: 03 June 2016 11:20 PM
Tim Stoltzfus turned an obsession into a vocation.
The 41-year-old owner of More Fun Comics and Games on Denton’s downtown Square used to read his way through hundreds of comics in the backroom of an old comic shop in Pennsylvania. In middle school, he pored through about 15 to 20 comics a week. And by the time he was a junior in high school, Stoltzfus already owned his own comic book shop, Tim’s Cards and Comics.
Now a Denton business owner for the past 13 years, Stoltzfus talks about comics as though he’s still a kid in Lancaster. He reads The Walking Dead comics religiously and is especially fond of comics in the noir crime genre. But Stoltzfus doesn’t have nearly as much time as he used to. He spends most days managing employees and selecting content to line the shelves at More Fun.
Although he mostly works behind the scenes, those close to the self-proclaimed nerd say he has quietly put Denton on the map as a haven for geek culture.
“There’s a million and one reasons to love a good comic — it could be the story; it could be the art; it could be the collectability; it could be the nostalgia — and each person finds their own niche within comics,” he said. “There are books out there of every stripe, and it’s just a matter of finding the one that grabs you.”
25-cent comics
Stoltzfus’ obsession started at Captain Blue Hen Comics in his hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The shop was in the basement of an old church, and he would spend most of his time in the backroom reading boxes filled with 25-cent comics.
“There was at least 200 boxes, and I would just spend all day digging through, finding gems,” he said.
He started reading Transformers and G.I. Joe comics, and eventually migrated to Batman and other superheroes from the publisher DC Comics.
Stoltzfus said he’s always been a voracious reader, but after reading dozens of comics on a weekly basis, he said some of his middle school teachers started to notice his high-level diction.
He remembered one instance when he surprised his eighth-grade English teacher by using the word “incognito” during a vocabulary exercise. After the class, Stoltzfus explained he learned it by reading a science-fiction comic called The Outsiders.
“She said, ‘As long as you’re reading words, you can learn them from anywhere. So keep going,’” Stoltzfus said. “That was the first time I had a person in a position of authority, besides the guy behind the counter at the comic book store, telling me, ‘Hey, this is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.’”
As a junior in high school, Stoltzfus continued to dive deeper into the comic book world when his mother helped him open his shop. At that time, he didn’t think Tim’s Cards and Comics was the first step in his career. It was just something he enjoyed doing after school and on the weekends.
“It was more of a hangout than a business, to be honest,” he said. “It just got the bug in me to work for myself.”
The business closed about six months after he graduated high school. About three years later, he decided he wanted to get away from Lancaster’s snowy scenery. He found himself in Cedar Hill, southwest of Dallas, in the winter of 1996.
Finding a niche
Stoltzfus worked a few random jobs in Texas while, of course, reading multiple comics a week. He later found a job with a distributor for a comics and games store in Dallas.
Then in 2003, Stoltzfus hit a turning point at San Diego Comic-Con International, an annual event that now draws crowds of 130,000, including comic book creators, artists, film directors and sci-fi authors.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, this is what I need to be doing again,’ and I started putting my plans in place,” he said.
Stoltzfus left his job with the comic distributor and partnered with Keith Colvin, who owns Keith’s Comics in Dallas. Together, they created the first More Fun Comics and Games in Lancaster, Texas.
They quickly set their sights on Denton when they had the opportunity to buy Treasure Aisles, a comic shop on Fry Street, which later became More Fun. Stoltzfus jumped at the opportunity for a more central location when he saw an open storefront on the Square in 2008.
Around that time, Stoltzfus said he noticed a burgeoning market for comics in Denton, especially with the college town atmosphere. He started tending to the Denton store more than the shop in Lancaster.
That’s when he met Shaun Treat, another comic enthusiast and a University of North Texas professor at the time. Treat approached Stoltzfus with an idea for a comic book studies class that would examine the craft as well as the industry.
“In talking to him about comics and the kinds of things I wanted to teach, it became really apparent that this guy is super smart, and that he’s a very well-read guy,” Treat said.
Treat got approval to teach the class and invited Stoltzfus to give lectures about specific comic books and graphic novels once a week. Treat said he eventually realized Stoltzfus was much more than a small-business owner in Denton.
“He’s an entrepreneur, and he’s built a business and built a niche in Denton that I think people take for granted,” Treat said.
Sharing the obsession
Treat said Stoltzfus has fanned the flames of Denton’s geek culture in several ways, but some of his most recent accomplishments have helped Denton become a destination for comics and game enthusiasts across the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Last year, Stoltzfus unveiled a limited-edition Doctor Who comic book cover that features Denton’s Courthouse on the Square. It represented a year’s worth of labor, coordinating with the publisher and recruiting an artist to craft the illustration.
In April 2015, Stoltzfus hosted a special “Doctor Who Day” event at the shop to celebrate the issue’s release. He didn’t expect to see a line of eager customers wrapped around the building.
“It was a really awesome day,” he said. “The fans and their love for the characters is what really makes these things take off, and it’s awesome.”
Stoltzfus said he expected to have the comic book in stock for about six months. He sold out in four days, and it was the last time he would underestimate the local fan base in Denton, he said.
Jake Ekiss, the artist who created the Doctor Who cover art, said Stoltzfus was specific about what he wanted on the book’s cover. But most comic shop owners are passionate and specific about comic book designs in general, he said.
What sets Stoltzfus apart from others is his commitment to broaden the fan base, Ekiss said.
“One of the things I really like about Tim is he actively thinks about the engagement of new types of fans who have traditionally been undeserved,” he said. “He very much has a thought process that is inclusive of a wider fan community.”
Since the Doctor Who cover, Stoltzfus has been able to coordinate two more custom covers that feature the Courthouse on the Square. In October, More Fun unveiled a cover of The Amazing Spider-Man showing the superhero swinging through downtown Denton. And on June 15, Stoltzfus will start selling a limited-edition Batman cover.
Stoltzfus is now a staple in Denton’s business community. He sponsors social runs, Pint Night at local bars, the new Nerd Nite Denton at J&J’s Pizza and Comic Book Trivia Night at Mulberry Street Cantina.
Although he’s no longer buried in comic books, Stoltzfus is still eager to talk about his childhood and how much geek culture has changed since then. During a conversation, he quickly rattles through his favorite comic book titles, and he talks about the industry with the authority of a tenured professor.
But his work is no longer centered on his own obsession. He simply wants to expose others to the stories he grew up reading.
“All of this stuff has created this sense of community up here in a very short period of time,” he said. “We get a lot of fresh faces that walk in who have never read a comic or have only ever seen the movies, and we get to put awesome comics in people’s hands.”