With more than 17,000 comic books on hand, a local collector doesn't go for the most popular stories but found his own path of animated adventure.
Michael Slark read comics as a child, became a comic book store owner early in life and just as quickly sold it and returned to being a collector.
"As a young kid, comic books were all over the house," said Slark, whose aunt worked at a grocery store and would drop comic books off at his house.
A relative gave Slark a copy of Shazam No. 1 in 1973 and it was a funny comic, he said, with Captain Marvel brought back from suspended animation after a 20-year absence from the comic book world.
"I started to go to the drug store looking for Shazam No. 2 and then I picked up the Shadow and then more," said Slark. Some books were well read and worn but because there was a pile of comic books, they kept well and even as some people would buy two copies of each -- one for reading, one for collecting, Slark never did get to that point. He just really enjoys reading comic books.
Comic book mass producers try to offer consumers specialized copies of books by creating different coloured covers, shiny foil covers, embossed covers and first collector's editions.
As years past, Slark would frequent comic book shops that cropped up in the Vancouver area, including the Comicshop.
During that time, one of his favourite haunts came up for sale and he partnered with another fan to purchase the store. That only lasted until the two owners realized their vision for the comic book store clashed so Slark sold his interest to the other owner and went back to school to become a teacher.
"We never did make a lot of money at it but it was kinda fun to be a comic book store owner while it lasted," said Slark, a local elementary school teacher.
Now every Wednesday, new comic book day, Slark and son Colin visit the comic book store to see what's new. A long-standing tradition they both enjoy, Slark said.
Whenever his family goes on a trip, Slark will visit the area's comic book stores.
"My wife goes for a massage, I go to the comic book stores," said Slark, referring to his last trip to Vegas.
The selling part of collecting has never really interested Slark. He enjoys the books he buys and keeps them.
"When my wife and I first started dating I sold off some comic books to take her for dinner and buy her a big teddy bear," said Slark, who bought a series of three comic books for about $5 and sold them a few months later for more than $100. He sold one X-Men comic book for $25 that he bought for a quarter -- but now it's worth several hundred dollars. But other than that, it's all about collecting. Timing is everything in the business and nobody can predict when a comic book will peak, said Slark
His collection did reach about 30,000 at its bulk but slowly numbers have dwindled down to Slark's favourites, especially Doom Patrol. That leaves him with a mere 17,638 comic books, according to his data base.
Title, year, publisher, volume number, issue, writer, artist, inker, synopsis and where it's stored are all at Slark's fingertips.
Now comic books are offered digitally, which provides an ideal viewing opportunity on certain readers, like an iPad, said Slark.
"If comic books go completely digital, that might be it for me," Slark said. "I like holding them in my hand, I like turning the pages."
