Real Life ‘Comic Store Heroes’
This is Comic Store Heroes, a wild and wacky adventure into the subculture of comic book super fans, where dreams are everything… and with a bit of faith and spandex, they really can come true.
Amid the dark and dangerous shadows of New York, the real life Gotham City, shines a bright light that lures comic fans from every corner: America’s largest comic store, Midtown Comics. While dealing with eccentric super fans, daily battles for geekdom supremacy, men dressed as bananas, and one million customers a year, boss Gerry is also preparing for the biggest day of his comic year – New York Comic Con. And it’s just six weeks away!
So he’s put his main men, Thor “The Marketeer” and Alex “The Negotiator” on the case. Thor has to track down a comic celebrity to appear at the store’s Comic Con booth, while Alex has to buy 10,000 old comics from super-collectors to then sell at the Con as well as completing a personal mission for his boss: finding Gerry’s elusive holy grail comic, “Hot Stuff, The Little Devil No.1″. This was the first comic Gerry ever read as a kid, and without it Midtown Comics wouldn’t exist. As an incentive, Gerry has offered Alex a cash bonus if he finds it. But it’s gonna be a challenge – it’s one of the rarest comics in the world!
Throughout the adventures of the Comic Store Heroes we meet some of the planet’s biggest super-fans. Chris, an aspiring comic book creator, dreams of getting his original comic onto the hallowed shelves of Midtown Comics. To persuade Thor of his creative genius, he not only draws his comic but also shoots a promotional film. Chris has put everything on the line, but with rent to pay and food stamps running out he needs this to work. Then there is A.J., the super-collector. Every Wednesday for the past thirty years, A.J. buys the newest edition of his favourite superhero’s comic books in perfect condition. He is obsessive about their quality – they can’t have a scratch or a bent page or a rip, they must be perfect.
And who could forget Jill, a real life superhero and an inspiration to her thousands of fans in the comic book community. Superheroes mean something more to Jill than to most people, that’s because Jill suffers from Muscular dystrophy and spends most of her time in a wheelchair. And it’s her favorite character – Barbara Gordon, a wheelchair bound superhero in the Batman comics – that inspires her to believe that ordinary people with human difficulties can still achieve great things. Today Jill is a comic book journalist, blogger and costumer, and now has an incredible 15,000 followers on Twitter.
Prepare yourself for a fascinating and entertaining ride through a transformational and inspirational sub-culture brimming with enthusiasm, eccentrics, passion and priceless treasures. This is Comic Store Heroes, a heart-warming look at the world of real life comic book superheroes, as seen through the eyes of staff and customers at America’s largest comic store.
