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A New Golden Age for Comics?
"I think we are in the middle of a new Golden Age for comic books," the Calfornia-based retailer said. "The writing is a lot better than what it was when I started collecting. The art is also at a higher level. The story telling is so original that each plays out like a mini-movie. Many of the producers in television and film have begun to recognize these talents and I think that we will see more extensions from comics to other media and popular culture in the near future," he said. In recent months, Mortenson has made a name for himself by offering a subscription service for certified high-grade modern comic book issues. "The certified 9.8 subscription service has been received well by those who are buying modern comics with the intention of holding them and preserving them for the long haul," he said. "Of course, we're now seeing certain titles just a couple months old going for $50-100 (and more) when certified 9.8. But I think our subscription customers are more interested in adding top-quality books to their ongoing collection rather than a quick turnaround." Like many others in the comic book business, though, he started out as a collector. "I had collected toys, football cards, and action figures since as young as I can remember. Even as a little kid, I was compulsive about saving boxes and preserving the toys in as good of condition as possible, though I did of course play with them. I suppose my parents contributed to the development of my collectors' personality by buying me every Star Wars figure and play set made in the years of the original Star Wars movies. As soon as I read my first comic book and loved it, I was a collector," he said. "This was a natural extension from my other collecting. I was practically obsessive about organizing, tracking, protecting and sorting my collections, especially my comics. I wasn't that interested in school, but I would spend countless hours adding up values and sorting numbers of books. I've always had a good eye for detail, and I learned when I was young how to grade comics. I was just so into it. I loved every part of collecting and selling books!" he said. He didn't know it at the time, of course, but his future profession was educating him even then. Mortenson was born December 10, 1971 in San Jose, California, and lived in Silicon Valley (Santa Clara) his whole life - except for a few childhood years in the valley college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo - in the same house. "My wife and I were married right out of college, and we bought the house I grew up in from my parents," he said. So how did a graphic design and internet development entrepreneur turn high-grade comic book retailer? Scoop talked with him to find out. Scoop: When did you begin to collect comics? I began collecting comics in 1984, at age twelve. Scoop: What was the first comic book you remember buying? Iron Man #184Scoop: What were the circumstances (where, when, etc)? I was on a road trip with my family to visit the East Coast, including New York City. Ironically, in the issue of Iron Man I bought, James Roads and Tony Stark were on a road trip together from New York City to Silicon Valley. Scoop: How long from the time you first bought a comic book until you considered yourself a collector? My desire to read more comics and collect comics developed immediately. Iron Man continued to be a favorite, as well as Uncanny X-Men, which make up the majority of my collection today. I spent several years searching comic stores, flea markets, antique stores and classified ads to build my Iron Man collection. Bob Layton was my favorite artist and I liked Chris Claremont's stories in Uncanny X-Men. About 1988 I had completed the run of Iron Man except for issue #1, which my dad eventually bought for me ($35 a VF copy) as a gift. At twelve, I had a paper route and I spent almost all my money on comic books. When I was fourteen, I met another teenage guy who collected and sold comics at the flea market. He made all his spending money working just one Saturday a month. I had some duplicate issues that I wanted to sell so I joined him one Saturday. That day I made as much money as what I was making seven days a week delivering papers, and I was suddenly hooked on the business of selling comics, as well as collecting. I eventually bought out this friend's inventory and began selling at flea markets every first Saturday. I made more in one day than many of my friends were making in a month of work. Scoop: How did your family react to collecting? Overall, my parents were supportive of my collecting. They allowed me to use my own earnings for whatever I wanted, which gave me the ability to buy quite a few books, and they sat out at the flea market with me once a month through high school. Scoop: Did any of your family members collect comics or other items? My dad read comics when he was growing up in the '40s. He and his friends called them "funny books." I showed him a picture of Action Comics #1 and he said "I read that one." I told him what it was worth and he just about passed out. My parents weren't collectors of anything specific, but they were meticulous with maintaining their things and taught me the same. For instance, I never lost a gun from my action figures because even at age 5 or 6 I would put them all away after playing with them. My parents also had a hard time throwing anything away and would explain, "That could be worth something someday!" I guess you could say these things contributed to the development of a collecting personality. Scoop: Did you drift away from collecting at any point, or did you stick with them as you grew up? I drifted away from collecting when I transferred into my junior year of college at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. At the time, collecting comics was considered by my peers to be a bit childish or unsophisticated. Being young, I allowed myself to be influenced and left many long boxes full of my collection to gather dust in my parents' hall closet. I was an art major in school, graduating with a degree in graphic design. I found immediate employment at a small studio in Palo Alto called Arias Associates. Arias Associates was like graduate school for me. I developed my love of typography, color and design fundamentals, working with clients like Pottery Barn, Four Seasons Resorts and Disney. It was a great experience. I then took a job at a larger agency just as the dot-com companies were booming, and enjoyed being an art director in their corporate identity group. Within two years the company went bankrupt. Next I spent a year in the graphic design department of Apple Computer, working on product packaging and creating graphics for the launch of their stores. The economy hit its low and soon I was no longer needed there. I was left to fend for myself. The next step for me was my own graphic design business (www.stevemortensen.com) I took on identity and Web design jobs for small companies and managed to get by for another year. During my free time I began getting interested in ebay. I still had my old collection of 8,000 comics sitting in the hall closet. To pick up some extra money and to open up some closet space (we had a baby), I began selling parts of my collection that were less meaningful to me. This process became very exciting for me and it reminded me of my experience selling at the flea market. I also began reading comics again, and remembered how much I enjoy it. In a search to figure out the best way to preserve the parts of my collection that meant the most to me, I found out about CGC. I began sending several books in at a time and then several dozen at a time. My renewed part-time hobby had begun to be a full-time operation. This made my wife quite nervous until I showed her that I was actually starting to make more money at this than in the design business! (She also saw that I was a lot happier and less stressed working with comics than working with clients.) In July 2003 I decided to take an indefinite departure from graphic design work and founded Colossus Comics. I started with about 100 ebay postings per week, including both CGC-graded and non-slabbed books. I built up my services and my ebay reputation fairly quickly. Today, just eight months later, I have six employees (most are part or half-time), and we are posting close to 1,000 auctions per week. We are also the first company to offer subscriptions to new comics with guaranteed 9.8 grades from CGC. I look at my life and business as coming full circle since my childhood. The eight years I spent away from comics focusing on art and design really fine-tuned my appreciation for comics and improved my eye for detail. I find my design skills come in handy for the work I'm doing, and I don't regret that part of my life at all. It's been a great ride, and I now feel like I'm really heading in the direction that's right for me. Scoop: What are the prizes of your collection? I've condensed my old collection of 8,000 books to 100 CGC graded books. My prize is my run of Cockrum/Byrne X-Men from issue #94-142, all CGC-graded. I'm constantly trying to improve it. Currently all issues are 9.2 or better with some 9.4, 9.6, 9.8s. I'd like to have the whole run at 9.6-9.8. Grading my own collection was one of the things that first turned me on to CGC. I've always been meticulous about grading, preserving, and tracking the value of my books; using CGC's services made it easier than ever to do this. Scoop: What are you collecting at the moment? I'm big into Conan. I've always loved the fantasy genre. I'm trying to read all the Barry Smith issues. I love the new Busiek/Nord Dark Horse issues. Nord's style is really pushing comic book art in a new direction. I also like Swamp Thing. Again I'm trying to put together a run of Berni Wrightson issues. I'm eager to read the new series. I'm trying to hold onto as many 9.4+ copies of silver age Marvels as I can. I believe these will be valuable for the long haul. Whenever I get a high-grade book like this slabbed at CGC, I also try to get a lower-grade copy to read and enjoy. I think this is the best way to go for comics that aren't yet too rare to potentially find a second copy. Scoop: Do you have any stories about "the one that got away?" I just think of my dad's old collection. He has no idea what happened to it. I'm wishfully hoping it will pop up someday in one of his siblings' garages. Scoop: What comics are on your want list? Reading copies of House of Secrets #92, Fantastic Four #1, Amazing Spider-Man #1, and Amazing Fantasy #15. Scoop: What do you find the most rewarding about comics and collecting in general? I find it to be a fantastic anti-depressant, which I needed after losing two jobs within a year). I'm sort of an obsessive compulsive and I find it very calming to go through boxes and put things in order. I also love reading and enjoying the stories. I think one reason life is worth living is the enjoyment of art. Scoop: Besides comic books do you collect anything else and if so what? Action figures. I still have my Star Wars collection and I'm continually on the look out for anything cool. I love the Simpsons figures; I have Sunday Best Grandpa and Homer holding their bacon and donut out to me from my monitor stand as I type. Scoop: What advice do you have for new collectors in comics? Collecting can be very expensive and habit-forming. Don't buy anything that you can't pay off at the end of the month! Scoop: How does your business factor into your collecting? My business is an extension of myself. I have an inventory of 100,000 comics. It's like my big collection. I take care in protecting them the same way I protect my own. For instance, we bag and double-board, as well as carefully grade, every comic we sell. We send them out in boxes, packed so carefully that customers have told us it could protect fine china or a dozen eggs. It's important to me that the buyer feels that they are receiving a product that has been cared for. Scoop: How did you come up with the idea of certified comic subscriptions? I came up with the idea as a product of my own collecting experience. As mentioned, I'm pretty compulsive with my own comics. I have my run of X-Men all graded and slabbed, making it easier to protect and track the value of the books. I figured there would be other collectors out there who would be interested in the same thing. After sending in hundreds of books to CGC (now it's in the thousands) I also found that I could sort and pre-grade new comics fairly well on my own. I can't always pick out a 9.8 or above, but I can identify which books are above 9.4 and send only those to CGC. We also recently started allowing customers to preorder any new comic with a guaranteed 9.8 grade, and this has been pretty popular. The most popular order is Superman #204, with many people ordering multiple copies. On average, we are taking in several individual preorders a day and at least one new yearly subscription a week. Our subscribers are very happy with the service. Scoop: Can you explain how your service works? For the CGC-graded 9.8 subscriptions (one-year or mini-series), subscribers pick which title(s) they want and pay either up-front or quarterly (it's $33/month). I add the titles to my order list and order multiples of that title from Diamond. When we receive the books, we go through them and send the best copies to CGC, who screens the copies further for the 9.8s. We have an arrangement with CGC to grade these books on an accelerated turnaround time so that, once we receive the books back from CGC, we can deliver them to the customer within 2-4 weeks of the comic's release date. Customers receive a 9.4+ grade (non-slabbed) reading copy of the same comic with each CGC book; as much as we advocate CGC as a tool for collecting (and slabbing is an inevitable part of that), we will always strongly support the reading and appreciation of those same comics. For CGC-graded 9.8 individual preorders, it works much in the same way. The title request and payment ($39.95) is made up front and the comics are delivered within the same timeframe. These do not include a reading copy, as they tend to be books people will want to buy from the newsstand. Scoop: What are your plans for Colossus Comics in 2004? We recently boosted our ebay auctions to about 1,000 postings a week. I'm pretty sure we're the only comic seller with this many auctions starting all at a penny. My customers love it when they score great deals on books that no one else has bid on. The individual issue 9.8 preorders are also a very recent addition to our services. We're starting to do some advertising in Overstreet's Comics Price Review, Comics Buyer's Guide and Wizard. My wife's a PR/marketing specialist, so she's helping get us noticed both on a local and national scale. Scoop: Have there been any surprises in the comic book marketplace in the past year worth noting? I think the biggest surprise is the evolution of the premiere collector - those who collect 9.9 and 10.0 grade moderns. It's been amazing what some of these books have sold for, like our JLA/Avengers #1 10.0 last month for $535.
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