CMT owner of Comic Den to Move On

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http://www.mississauga.com/mi/people/story/3916627p-4528062c.html

Popular Comic Den closing after 28 years

Clay

Mar 20, 2007

After nearly three decades, countless friends made and endless hours

of entertainment for superhero buffs, The Comic Den will close for

good this summer.

Proprietor Terry Visser, a Streetsville resident, cited several

reasons for the June 10 closure, chief among them a muscular

degenerative disease he lives with called Charcot-Marie-Tooth. The

illness robs him of feeling in his extremities.

With major surgery upcoming, and the four-month recovery time

associated with the procedure, it wasn't feasible to keep the

Cooksville store running.

" We'll all be sad when the day comes, " Visser said. " I get a bit

teary when I think about it, actually. This is my business, my baby,

but what can you do? I think some of the customers are more upset

than I am. "

Visser, who runs the shop with his brother, , and mother,

Rita, called the store his " hobby gone crazy. " It opened in the

early 1980s and evolved out of a small comic business Visser would

take to flea markets and bazaars while still in high school.

" I knew with my disability it would be hard to find a job, so I

decided to create one for myself, " said Visser, 43. " Now, it feels

like I'm being laid off. "

Located on Kirwin Ave., the cramped but cozy store houses about

8,500 graphic foreign-language novels, called trade paperbacks in

the industry, and 4,600 DVDs plus the usual collection of comics.

Visser will miss all the friends he made. A group of them, who met

at the store, still go out for dinner every Saturday after they've

picked up their comics.

" Sometimes I felt like a bartender; people would spend the whole day

here talking and telling me their problems, " said Visser, who

created his own comic, called Paladin. " I feel really bad about

closing the store, like I'm stabbing them in the back. Some have

been with us the whole 28 years and now I'm closing the door on

them. "

However, he's going to continue on in some capacity, calling it a

buying club for his devoted regulars.

The lure of comics and graphic novels, said , is that they

transport readers to a different world, with endless possibilities.

" To (readers), comics are a form of escapism, " he said. " Personally,

I like escapism because life can be just too dreary sometimes. "

Over the years, Visser has owned copies of valuable titles such as

The Amazing Spider-Man No. 1, X-Men No. 1 and Uncanny X-Men No. 1.

Still, he doesn't regret selling them to devoted collectors.

How serious are the store's regulars? Rita remembers when a couple,

married earlier that day, swung the limo by and, still dressed in

formal attire, hurried in to pick up a few issues before the

honeymoon.

Visser said he plans to take a vacation and wants to continue

writing for Quantum Leap and Star Trek fanzines, among other

publications.

For more information, visit www.thecomicden.com.