Drawn To Comics

Ken vowed as a comic book reader to read every black costume Spider-man story ever printed before they would end the era of the black suit and he did. Ken had read every issue of the black costume in comic books before issue 300 and that issue would be the closing chapter of his comic book reading days.

Then someone or make that “the” creator came along and cracked open the door on Ken’s Comic collecting fate. Issue #298 of Amazing Spider-man was released and it featured the start for the new series artist Todd McFarlane. A relatively new and little known artist who recently worked on Hulk, Detective Comics and Infinity Inc among other 1-shot fill in issues at the time. His Art Adams shapes and Micheal Golden like facial expressions with Mike Zeck style Eyes in his Spider-man art was well excuse the pun, but Amazing! That was only the Spider-man art; he brought something that no other artist had ever done in 25 years of Spider-man Story-telling. He made the webbing look real! No more silly string or simple lines with spring looking coils, these webs looked real and actually strong enough to hold a human being’s weight like none other! Ken was awed by his art and the match was struck, but was it enough for Ken to come back to being a life long collector.

The early signs were no, as impactful as McFarlane’s art was in issue #298 it was not enough to keep Ken from taking his collection to the local comic shop and see what he could sell it for. He estimated his over 1000 different comic books collection to be worth a 1987 price guide value of about $2500. Ken called a local comic shop and asked if he could bring in some of his comics to sell. The local comic shop made an offer for his GI Joe #1-57 Collection and his few Silver Age issues including FF #12 of $60 Unlimited In Store Credit and $20 cash. Hesitantly, Ken took the offer even though he did not think he would use the comic book store credit. The rest of his collection with exception of his Alpha Flight 1-56 was sold thru a newspaper add for $80. There was no eBay in 1988 and the comic shop took all they wanted and left me with the rest to sell through the Arizona Republic Classified Ad.

Well Ken’s comic collecting days were over and so he still had his $60 store credit to use at the comic shop and since #300 was going to end his era he might as well pick it up at the comic shop he sold part of his collection to. He picked up the new Amazing Spider-man #300 plus #s 298 & 299 again to complete the story and 2 more comic issues Amazing Spider-man #252 and Secret Wars #8 which not only used up a chunk of his store credit but also represented his starting reason why he collected for nostalgic purposes. After reading issue #300 he was impressed with the issue as it was one of the best comics he had read during all of his collecting years; so much so that he would make a compromise with himself and pick up issue #301 and see what he thought from there.

Sure enough the new year of 1988 was there and Spider-man’s step back into to the red and blue suit was his biggest step forward. Ken loved the new tight webbing look on the Red and blue costume design, the big expressive mask eyes were all new and all awesome! The new poses and the fact that McFarlane inked his own pencils made the work jump off the page at the reader. This was another comic book like no other I have ever seen. How can an artist make something I detested so much the coolest think I had ever seen in all of my collecting years?! “Ok,” Ken Said to himself “so you got me I will read Spider-man as long as this artist stays on board but that’s it nothing but Spider-man.”

As Ken now read Todd McFalrane’s Amazing Spider-man on a regular basis he would stop by the 7-11 again to pick up new issues. This would keep his reading to a minimum as the temptation from walking into a comic shop and seeing other things may tempt him into picking up more comics. Freshman year of Highschool happens in September of 1988 and Ken still continues to read just the one title of Amazing Spider-man drawn by Todd McFarlane. Then one day at lunch during his Freshman year he sees another student reading Todd’s Spider-man and instantly they became friends over McFarlane’s Spider-man. Later that year Ken met 5 other people who were reading Spider-man and other comics and suddenly comics were ok to collect while in high school! Ken quickly learned, growing up could still include reading comics! Back were the return to comic shops, the exposure to the new upstart artists of Jim Lee on Uncanny X-Men, Rob Liefeld on New Mutants, Dale Keown on the Incredible Hulk and others. Ken was once again Drawn To Comics and he was hooked for life this time, or so he thought.

High School whizzed by with many new adventures in life and on the comic page over the best 4 years of Ken’s life. Sports and Comics were both staples in those 4 years. Comic books had hit an all time high in quality and popularity artistically with Marvel Comics leading the way with the best stable of comic artists ever formed. Comic fans everywhere were eating it up and so was Ken as he started collecting more then he ever had before. Getting a job not only fueled his social life it also fueled his comic reading hobby.

Then it happened Wizard Magazine came out! Wizard Magazine was one of the best things that ever happened to the comic industry, it offered Comic industry news for all of the companies, a monthly price guide with top picks of the recent and the upcoming comics to read or invest in and it had a social vibe sense about itself that made comics the “cool thing.” Comic books became like music it made their creators into fan idols. People would line up around blocks to see their favorite creators, creator appearances would be on news stations, multi-million single issue comic print run sell outs would happen in hours comics were huge!

In 1992 these rock star comic creators started their own company Image Comics and Ken was uber excited about being at the ground level era of a brand new comic company. First there was the DC Comics era, then the Marvel Age each Comic era taking place before Ken was even born. Now the Image Comics brand kicked off and Ken along with millions others were ready to collect it all. Ken missed the 10 Cent Action Comics #1 & Detective Comics #27, or Marvel’s the Fantastic Four #1, the 12 Cent Amazing Fantasy #15 & X-Men #1 but Ken would not miss the $1.95 Youngblood #1 or Spawn #1....along with every other comic created by the creators who were the most awesome creators of this generation!

Ken was on board the first year every image comic #1 issue was bought, Youngblood, Spawn, Wildcats, Shadow Hawk, Cyberforce, Wetworks, Pitt, Brigade, Boof even Splattered Image. Well that was until Spawn #16 was announced. Todd McFarlane would be handing over the art chores to another artist. What????? Another artist, isn’t this Todd McFarlane’s Spawn. Wasn’t that the reason they left the big company so they could have complete creative ownership and control? To Ken that meant no more reason to read Spawn, no more reason to read Wildcats, no more reason to read Youngblood. This was the first time a feeling of being part of a comic book Money Grab had ever come over Ken as a collector. He wanted to buy it all but he was on board from the beginning of the revolution of these rock stars. Ken compares it to the NFL Strike of 1987 when the NFL Locked out their players. Fans knew they were getting a 2nd rate product with replacement players. A similar feeling happened to Ken when he saw replacement artists going on creator owned characters.

The finances did not add up. The Death of Superman Sell out leading to frenzied prices, $1.95 to $2.95 Image comics being drawn by creators i never heard of much less were not as good as their mentors. Stack that up and college life expenses something had to be cut and comic books was the bottom line. From 1994 to 1995 there was a short hiatus from comic collecting the only thing Ken would read on a regular was Wizard Magazine so he could keep up with industry trends and catch anything of interest ahead of the game. There was casual reading of DarkChylde and Out There but nothing on a regular basis.

Then one month in 1995 the announcement was made in Wizard, Onslaught is coming and so are Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld in a big event return to Marvel. What an Onslaught of awesomeness this would be, Professor X becomes the X-men’s worst villain, All of those rumors foretold by the X-Men’s Bishop years earlier lead to Professor X being the betrayer of the X-men? Ken was on board with that and add the fact that Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld were going to to do the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Avengers and Captain America in the aftermath of the Onslaught event. In the words of Stan Lee, the sound of that was Excelsior! Marvel was on track again, a guy named Joe Maduieria was on board drawing Uncanny X-men, Andy Kubert was making X-Men look great again and Adam Kubert was killing it on Wolverine as well. Marvel had found their groove again with artists that were hitting on all cylinders. Ken was back collecting once again.

Ken, finished his major in Broadcast Business Management and Minored in Businesss Management from Arizona State University in 1999. While at ASU he started dating the love of his life Susan Lowry who is now the better half of ownership of Drawn To Comics. She has been dedicated to Ken’s crazy love for the industry of comics and never made him feel awkward about that love. She may not have been into the comic world as much as Ken but their love for each other would build the foundation for the doors opening at Drawn To Comics.

He would begin doing work in Promotions for a local Radio Station and soon after acquire a job in the sales department at the Phoenix Market ABC-TV Affiliate in August of 2000. There he loved meeting with other small businesses to find new ways of bringing new customers through their doors with the services of ABC-TV Advertising Time. This all went well for Ken as him and Susan Married in November of 2000 and gave birth to their first and only child in December of 2001. Although things were doing great in that 1st year at ABC-TV the world of Ken and his family would be affected by the Spetember 11th, 2001 tragedy. The Attack of 911 was a major hit on people working in the media sales industry as ad scheduling was put on hold for over 5 weeks as larger news coverage time made advertising schedule space altered and scarce. For Ken who worked in new business development this was tragic as a strict commission structure that lost the major portion of income was due to younger accounts being pushed to the back of the priority for replacement. As newspaper print ad space continued as scheudled much of Ken’s new business accounts were lost. By February 2002, Ken submitted his resignation to the Station and began working else where.

In late February 2002 Ken acquired a position at local Comic Shop chain as a store manager. He worked in this store for 6 months before parting ways for another opportunity.

In 2005, Ken and Susan had looked seriously as starting their own business. Ken had started a web-site known as the DowntownComicBox.com in early 2002. It was a web-site that shared with other the ins and outs of collecting comic books. The site also included give-aways, fan pics, recommended reading and market reviews of the industry. In that time Ken was interviewed by multiple news sources about comic books as an investment commodity. Ken discussed this with his wife Susan as becoming a foundation for the final step to opening the business both Susan and Ken looked locally for spots they thought might be great for opening a brick and mortar location. When they attended Cactus Comic-Con (Now Phoenix Fanfest) at the Glendale Convention Center the pieces started falling into place. Susan while walking around the Downtown Glendale Shops with my daughter talked with local merchants about the area. One merchant mentioned that an affordable spot was available on the 5600 W. block of Glendale Avenue. Susan mentioned to Ken about the space and maybe they should look into it. They agreed it was the time to move forward. Now they just needed a name. So Susan and Ken Brainstormed some names and the one they both liked was Drawn To Heroes Comics. Simply because Ken’s favorite comics were Super Hero Stories, all comics are drawn and the stories of comics when told well will draw in or “attract” a reader until the final conclusion. Now the doors to Drawn To “Heroes” Comics were within reach.

Late April 2005 Ken and Susan Brown signed a 2 year lease with their 1st Landlord and Drawn To Heroes Comics was born, the 1st Day open was Free Comic Book Day in 2005. The first 7 months were rough but hard work and a strong spirit of comics and a background in advertising got the message out. They were the smallest comic shop in the valley at the time but they can be said to have the biggest heart and biggest love for comics in the valley. On December 31st they were issues a cease and desist letter from another local shop in town for name confusion. After a quick deliberation and to avoid court complications the word “Heroes” was dropped from the name from 2006 to now is and forever will be Drawn To Comics.

2018 is here and my how the landscape has changed we are now in our 3rd stop that now has close to 3000 Square feet of 2 stories of Comic books and Toy Goodness. Main Level is 2200 square feet of over 400 comic book titles to choose from and upstairs is 500 square feet of toys that include Hasbro, Mattell, Funko and more and down below we have a storage basement with even more comics (About 50,000 of them). Plus they have a great staff of employees that have helped Drawn To Comics get to the present that they could not have done this without.

Well, do you still have any snacks left, if so finish them up! There you have it. We are honored you took the time to read as we share this origin story with you all. We hope you have enjoyed our Origin and we look forward to sharing new stories with you on the continued adventures of Drawn To Comics.

Drawn To Comics founded 2005