What To Be Thankful For?

Another Thanksgiving means another time to look back and reflect on what to be thankful for. The comic industry is still going. Sounds easy enough. Sadly, it was not that long ago when Covid-19 hit, and it was questionable if comics would return. Things changed, such as Diamond no longer being the only vendor for comics for comic stores, though the comic industry survived.

Thankful that Rodman Comics is still in business. Again, Covid-19 made that questionable. I learned no matter how long being in business, how good, or how smart one believes themself to be; there is always something that can throw a curve ball into life.

I am very thankful for having such great customers. A business needs customers, customers that are willing to spend money so a business may thrive. A lot of our customers I even call friends.

I am thankful I can still work. Getting older, as we say, sucks, though it is better than the alternative. Why hasn’t there been a Comic Store In Your Future for a while? I have been surprisingly super busy. We had our twelve-year anniversary in October, which I started writing about, and I did not get it done. We have on Black Friday our sale and one last sale that we are already working on for December 26th. Trying to push a lot of material out the door before the end of the year to make more money, so we do not get taxed on it for being unsold inventory.

I am still thankful for being able to write for Bleeding Cool. I have lost track of how many years of writing I have done with Bleeding Cool. As I have stated before, I hope people learn something new and see things from another perspective after reading a Comic Store In Your Future column. My thanks to Rich, Kaitlyn, Mark, Jude, and everyone at Bleeding Cool for having me on staff with them.

I wouldn’t be where I am today without my friends and family that, for whatever reason, still include me and help me despite my habit of working for the store so much.

I am thankful for those who are not here but have played a part in my life. I miss them and wish they could be with us, and though it hurts, I am fortunate to have known them.

The future is coming, thankfully. What will the future hold for the comic industry? I wish I knew. Marvel and DC used to hype their comics more, and I would like to see the return of them hyping their products more.

I know this old dog is still trying to learn new tricks. Next month we will have what I hope to be the start of regular podcasts to sell collectibles. Our first one will be mostly about action figures and some comics. My plan, which may never happen, is to have regular podcasts for comics, action figures, and Magic cards. I prefer to be behind the scenes and not in front of the camera though I know I need to try to stay current with the times and do things outside of my comfort zone.

I am thankful to everyone over the years who has taken the time to read these columns and hopefully enjoyed them.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!