Shadow mountain comics
New store, old issues:
Shadow Mountain Comics
debuts with focus on retro books
May 24, 2019
Chris Bourget and Nick Jacewitz are ready to share their “man cave” with the public. Maybe you can even call it a Spider-Man cave or a Batman cave.The grand opening for Shadow Mountain Comics, 6125 S. Sheridan Road, Suite C, is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 25.Shadow Mountain Comics is a new addition to a local comic book store roster that includes Comic Empire of Tulsa, Impulse Creations, Mammoth Comics, Wizard’s Asylum and World of Comics. Gardner’s Used Books & Music and Vintage Stock locations also deal in comics.Does Tulsa really need another comic seller?Here’s how Shadow Mountain Comics is different: It is common for comic book stores to pay the rent primarily through the sales of new comics that arrive on a weekly basis. Stores supplement income with the sale of back-issue books.Shadow Mountain Comics, at least at this time, has no plans to sell new comics, according to Bourget. The lifeblood of the store will be “collector” books: High-grade comics, “key” books and comics from eras referred to by collectors as the silver age (which encompasses the 1960s) and the bronze age (1970s overlapping into the 1980s).There’s a reason the inventory has a cut-off point. The vast majority of items in the store are from the owners’ personal stashes. Bourget said he stopped buying new comics in the early 1990s, but he continues to be a thrill-of-the-hunt collector for older books.DC Comics once published a title called Secret Origins. Asked about the origin of Shadow Mountain Comics, Bourget said he and Jacewitz are friends who own car lots and live in the same neighborhood. They were eating dinner one night and because of shared collector interests, Bourget said they began joking around about how it would be fun to open a book store.“I don’t know what happened, but it seemed like two days later we were signing a lease,” he said. “It was almost that quick.”Because Bourget and Jacewitz make a living selling vehicles, they don’t have to be dependent on the comic store for income.“This is, if you want to call it that, our man cave,” Bourget said, indicating that the man cave will be equipped with a big-screen TV (Netflix, DVD player) and a video game system.“I run another business, and I want to do that,” Bourget said. “But this one, I want to have for fun. Obviously, yes, I want to be able to sell some books and be able to replace them and etcetera, etcetera, but I want to enjoy myself while I am there.”Bourget said his wife will be in the store more than he will. “But if no one is in there, I will turn on a movie and kick back and enjoy myself.”Before becoming the co-owner of a comic store, Bourget sometimes sold coveted comics from his collection. He said he has sold two copies of Amazing Fantasy No. 15 (first appearance of Spider-Man), X-Men No. 1 and early issues of the Amazing Spider-Man and Daredevil. He said Shadow Mountain Comics is considering selling books on a layaway basis for customers who can’t immediately afford a book they want.The grand opening will include giveaways. Visitors can enter their names into a drawing for free comics.Jimmie Tramel jimmie.tramel@tulsaworld.comTwitter: @JimmieTramel
