|
The market for comic books, as entertainment, as collectibles, and as investments, is already enormous, and is only showing further signs of growth. Vincent Zurzolo, Vice President of Metropolis Collectibles, knows this first hand.
"There´s a tremendous potential for our product because comics have touched every person in some way or another. The most popular fictional character in the world next to Santa Claus is Superman."
Metropolis Collectibles is cornering the comic book market with their high-end retail business and website, metropoliscomics.com. And their business doesn´t end with comic books—Metropolis is also known for their vast collection of rare and collectible movie posters as well. While many people only think of comics as a childhood hobby, the fact is that comic book collecting is serious business. In fact, so many people are turning to comics as an alternative to traditional investments that Metropolis plans on offering small group seminars to teach the fundamentals of comic book investment in 2003.
"Our clients are serious collectors, for the most part. Around the holidays, we get a lot of people who are buying presents for their husbands or boyfriends. 95% of our business is male. Maybe even 99%. And they´re very serious about recapturing a part of their childhood. Comics represent nostalgia-- they represent a better time."
"This is how I feel about comic books: You may be selling a comic book, a collectible, an investment, but most of all, you´re selling a story. It may be the story inside the comic book, or the story that comic represents in some person´s life. You´re selling something that has meaning to a person. And that´s something that a lot of people miss."
"Some people can´t remember what they had for lunch yesterday, but they´ll remember back in 1973 when they went to the newsstand and picked up their first copy of Spiderman and were drawn into this escapist form of entertainment, an alternate universe where the impossible was possible. And that means a lot to people, to be able to remember that feeling and have a piece of that around with them. It makes them happy."
