Superman has Clark Kent. Spider-Man has Peter Parker. But it’s not just superheroes who have secret identities. Wired.com’s new “Secret Lives” series looks at individuals you encounter every day and reveals a side of them you normally wouldn’t see.

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What better profession to begin with than the comic store employee? And what better time to start than now, as the WonderCon comic convention invades San Francisco this weekend?

From the sassy princess of underground comics to the pajama-wearing ex-convict, your local pulp-pushers are anything but ordinary. We’ve profiled nine comic crusaders, five from New York and four from the San Francisco Bay Area, photographing them in their shops and at home. We asked each employee roughly the same questions, and their responses are published alongside their photos.

Strap on your utility belts (fanny packs) and click through the gallery to remove the masks of these not-so-costumed heroes.

Use the thumbnails under the main image to navigate through the gallery or click through, page by page, using the links below.

Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com

Name: Ted Alexander

Store: Midtown Comics

Age: 33

Hometown: Grass Valley, California

Lives in: West Village, New York City

If you could be any comic book character, who would it be?

Obviously Superman because he has no weaknesses except a green rock. But realistically, I’d say Spider-Man.

Which title has fallen farthest from grace?

X-Men has fallen because there are so many titles bearing the X-Men name that they’ve forgotten what it was about.

Which has risen like a phoenix out of the ashes of suck-itude?

Daredevil. He was a good character before but the way he’s being written now and the character development is excellent.

How long have you worked in a comic store? How did you start?

I’ve been working here for 10 months. I worked at another store for two years at the end of the ’90s but got laid off when the store closed. The comic book industry crashed then. Then everyone started jumping in during Superman #75, when he died. All the different covers and new companies started coming in and flushing the market with bad books.

I think we’re actually higher now than we’ve ever been. With all the movies coming out, Ironman and Dark Knight, it’s definitely one of the biggest industries I can think of.

Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com

What are the best and worst parts about working in a comic store?

The best part is the people and talking comics everyday. The worst part is seeing the same comic over and over again. Or the actual shipments of comics. It’s more labor than you’d think. A big store like us gets a couple thousand of each book every week and we’re on the second floor without an elevator.

What’s the least nerdy thing about you?

I have a girlfriend and social life and a real life outside the store.

Biggest pet peeve about customers?

The perfectionists. Like the clerks with the eggs, inspecting each one. The people that look for the perfect, most valuable comic hoping to keep it for 10 years, but in reality it won’t be worth a lot of money because there are so many out there. They aren’t as rare as they used to be.

What’s the worst misconception about comic books and their fans?

That we’re fat, nerdy and don’t have any lives. Everyday I see businessmen and women come in. It’s all different types of people and that Simpsons Comic Book Store Guy doesn’t really represent any of them.

Why is there such a big crossover between comic book fans and tech junkies?

A lot of people raised on comics were also raised on computers and the internet presents new ways to keep up with the comics. Sites like Newsarama.com keep people informed on upcoming storylines and keep people connected. One promotes the other.

Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com

Name: Steven Norman

Store: Jim Hanley’s Universe

Age: 25

Hometown: Bronx, New York City

Lives in: Bronx, New York City

Background: Graduated with a degree in Cartooning from the School of Visual Arts, aspiring comic book artist

If you could be any comic book character, who would it be?

My two favorites are Superman and Spider-Man. Superman is the ideal. He was the first superhero and shows you the best of what humanity could be but it’s reflected through the eyes of an outsider, someone who is not human. Then I like Spider-Man because he discovers his powers and, in a very human way, uses them to get the girl and get some money and not be a geek anymore. Then he learns a lesson about responsibility and decides to use his powers for the good of all.

Which title has fallen farthest from grace?

That can vary on a month-to-month basis. The Ultimates is the least recognizable when compared to the run before it. Jeph Loeb and Joe Madureira are great writers but it’s such a tonal shift from what Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch did that it’s just too much of a shock.

Which has risen like a phoenix out of the ashes of suck-itude?

Green Lantern is on the way up. A while back they replaced the main character Hal Jordan with a new Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner. But he was never the equal of his predecessor. It was hard for fans to take. Then they had Hal turn evil. But when they restarted the title they brought Hal Jordan back but the writer Geoff Johns made a strong move and kept Kyle Rayner. It kept the new fans without upsetting the old fans. He also brought back the Green Lantern Core.

How long have you worked in a comic store? How did you start?

I’ve worked here for four years. I was recommended by a friend who had just become an assistant manager. It’s a very collegial atmosphere. I’ve made some of my best friends and met a lot of connections to the industry. There’s a lot of great talent that comes in and it’s good to be a part of that creative nexus.

Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com

What are the best and worst parts about working in a comic store?

The best part is doing a job that you enjoy. Nine times out of 10 if you work at a comic book store it’s because you love comics. Learning more about comics, talking to people who love them and working with people who love them. There is little more you could ask of your 9-to-5 job.

What’s the least nerdy thing about you?

That’s a bold question. Contrary to the popular belief regarding the average comic-book-reading male, I have a girlfriend.

Biggest pet peeve about customers?

It can be bothersome when someone is going to show you a pack of cards and ask you how much it is, and you see the price tag right there on it.

What’s the worst misconception about comic books and their fans?

That comics are only for kids and they’re infantile and immature. The thing that’s on the tip of everyone’s tongue right now is Alan Moore’s Watchmen, which is one of the most literary works in comics. You cannot call that anything less than artwork.

The biggest misconception of the fans is that we can’t hold a conversation in polite society. They think we’re just people who eat, sleep and breathe comics and science fiction. But we are people who have girlfriends and go out on Friday nights and we know how to be out in a social setting.

Why is there such a big crossover between comic book fans and tech junkies?

First of all, for the geek or nerd subculture the two things have always go together. The smart and nerdy people were ostracized in high school and they couldn’t get that level of social interaction so they live vicariously through comics. That’s why smarter people, tech junkies, can get into comics. Also, on another level it’s interesting to see where technology can go through comics. Like Ironman who bases all his inventions on things humanity may need in 10 or 20 years. It’s very much in line with what’s the next technology will be. It can be inspiring.

Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com

Name: Raymond Salvador

Store: Forbidden Planet

Age: 23

Hometown: Brooklyn, New York

Lives in: Queens, New York

Background: Aspiring comic book artist

If you could be any comic book character, who would it be?

That’s a strange question. I do like the idea of having a superpower or being a character, but I’ve never really wanted that to be me. I always liked the character Colossus because he’s a big guy and I was a really big kid. You get ideas about him because of his size but it turns out that he’s an artist, like I am as well. He’s a sensitive guy. He has a strength in his heart. So maybe him.

Which title has fallen farthest from grace?

Wow. Half of Marvel’s books. That’s mean. Marvel’s become very repetitive, redundant and kinda cookie-cutter. Just like gimmicky writing. They did terrible things with Spider-Man. The character was going in such a great direction when J. Michael Straczynski was writing him. Aunt May knew he was Spider-Man and he was growing exponentially and going to a different place. He wasn’t just this teenager anymore. He’s out of college now and 26 or 27 and some writers still treat him like a teen. They sacrifice quality over quantity and put out too many books.

Which has risen like a pheonix out of the ashes of suck-itude?

I think Justice Society of America is a wonderful book. They had a series in the late ’90s and early 2000s that was really good and now what they’re doing is super-relevant and superoriginal. It’s these characters that no one really knows or cares about but if any one really picked up that book, I think they’d be reading it. For the first 10 or 15 issues I was like a crackhead waiting for the next issue of JSA.

How long have you worked in a comic store? How did you start?

I’ve been working at Forbidden Planet for about eight months but my other store I started back in ’03 or ’02. I’ve asked the owner since I was 8 to hire me because I always wanted to be there. And finally I started picking up some Sundays and I’ve been doing it ever since.

Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com

What are the best and worst parts about working in a comic store?

The best parts are connecting people with comic books. It’s just wonderful. When you recommend something for someone and they come back later and say, “That was amazing! What else you got for me?” And they keep coming back. A lot of people have preconceived notions because of movies and cartoons and don’t understand how intelligent, original and inventive these books can be. Especially work by Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. Those guys are amazing.

The worst part would be the same as any retail job. You have a manager on your ass and people just don’t like you for some reason. Some bigger stores have like eight managers.

What’s the least nerdy thing about you?

I’m surprisingly smooth with ladies.

Biggest pet peeve about customers?

When people ask stupid questions or do stupid things. Typical rude things.

What’s the worst misconception about comic books and their fans?

That we’re the stereotype of the geek. Though I’m a geek and I’m proud. The biggest misconception about comic books is that they’re cheesy or corny or ridiculous or they’re not intelligent writing. The thing with comics is that it merges great writers with great artists; it’s two forms of art and storytelling combined. People just see them as 2-D, flat, with no structure. And to those people I say, read The Invisibles. Read Watchmen. And if you think these are the exceptions, get back to me and I’ll give you 15 other books that are just as good.

Why is there such a big crossover between comic book fans and tech junkies?

It’s that — I hate to say it — that escapist mindset. You just like to be in other worlds and be other people. Tech junkies like their massive multiplayer RPGs and a lot of comic book geeks do too. Not all the time, but it’s a factor.

Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com

Name: Raph Soohoo

Store: Midtown Comics

Age: 24

Hometown: New York City

Lives in: Lower East Side, New York City

Background: Aspiring comic book writer

If you could be any comic book character, who would it be?

Hands down, Superman. I’m a big Superman fan and I’m a big Batman fan. But Batman’s human and when he jumps off stuff, he gets hurt. When Superman jumps off stuff, he flies. It’s what you want to be rather than what’s real. I like that approach better.

Which title has fallen farthest from grace?

That’s hard. I’d say Superman/Batman. It started off really strong with Jeph Loeb, then he left and it’s just been passed around. It’s the book you’d think would be really good but it just isn’t. I feel horrible because those are my favorite characters. I don’t pick up that book anymore.

Which has risen like a pheonix out of the ashes of suck-itude?

I’m gonna say Action Comics. They had promised Richard Donner was gonna be on it and it would be really good but then it just fell of the face of the earth. Then Geoff Johns who was writing with Richard Donner went on his own and wrote some of the best Superman stories I’ve ever read. Superman just turned 70 this year. Seventy years of Superman stories and these are the best ones in the past few years. He knows how to retell a character’s story and make you care about it.

How long have you worked in a comic store? How did you start?

Six months last week. I’d been stalking Midtown Comics since college and once I graduated I really went for it. I told them how much I loved comics and eventually they hired me. I’ve been so involved in comics for a long time that how could I not do it? It just makes sense.

Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com

What are the best and worst parts about working in a comic store?

The best part is definitely just being around comics and getting to see new stuff before other people do. If you go into an office and walk from cubicle to cubicle you don’t hear people talking about comics. You hear, “Oh I have to do this report.” I get to talk comics at work. I get to recommend stuff to people. That’s also one of the hardest parts — not getting too carried away. It’s a job and I have to pay attention to the floor, make sure there are enough comics on the wall and do inventory. You can’t get too involved.

The real worst part is when it gets super busy on new-release day, Wednesday. Around 5 o’clock there’s a line goes from one end of the floor to the other and around the book shelves. The floor is huge. Keeping that in control is pretty crazy.

What’s the least nerdy thing about you?

I’m a big sports nut. I’m a huge Yankees fan. It’s still nerdy because I’m a stats guy. But I’m like any jock, screaming when someone scores.

What’s the worst misconception about comic books and their fans?

That we are people with no hygiene and that comics are for kids and that it’s stupid stuff and you can’t take it seriously. There are certainly fantasy elements, but why do people take Hollywood movies seriously and give them awards? I think the last few years with Dark Knight and Ironman, they legitimize the format for us. Go into a comic shop and pick up something. Don’t judge it until you try it.

Why is there such a big crossover between comic book fans and tech junkies?

That’s easy. You’ve got characters like Batman and Ironman who are human. But what makes them different is their training and their gadgets. What tech junkie wouldn’t love to get in the Batmobile and test that GPS and all the other gadgets in there? Who wouldn’t want to make their own piece of armor and fly around and shoot people? Comics have always had an element of sci-fi and have always had technology that was semi-futuristic. Techies love it. I’m also a Trekkie. I love new technology and stuff. It’s all sort of related.

You also write scripts?

Yeah, I have my own storylines and universes. I developed a character called Raph and combined all my favorite books, kung-fu movies, LOTR, fantasy and adventure. I’ve got the guy’s life mapped up from the moment he’s born until he’s 30. I know exactly what’s going to happen.

Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com

Name: Olive Panter

Store: Cosmic Comics

Age: 18

Hometown: Brooklyn, New York

Lives in: New York City

Background: Student at The School of Art at Cooper Union

If you could be any comic book character, who would it be?

I’m actually named after Olive Oyl. But seriously, I think I might shoot myself. That’s really hard. Probably because there isn’t a comic book character I’d want to be. I don’t live vicariously through comics. I think a lot of people tend to. It’s definitely escapist for me, but I don’t like to pretend I’m Superman. Especially as a girl, you don’t want to pretend to be the giant-breasted, platform-wearing…. It just wouldn’t be fun. But if I had to pick, it probably harkens back to when I was 12 and read Ghost World for the first time. It would probably be Enid from Ghost World.

Which title has fallen farthest from grace?

I don’t read superhero comics and that’s usually a superhero thing. From what I’ve heard — actually, I haven’t heard anything. I never listen to what the customers say. In my opinion, title-wise, potentially, Angry Youth Comix. I love Johnny Ryan and I always have. But it’s getting pretty repetitive these days. Less anal rape.

Which has risen like a phoenix out of the ashes of suck-itude?

I tend to believe that the people who have a grasp on writing comics have always kind of been good. Like Charles Burns and Adrian Tomine. Dash Shaw was a student of my dad’s and he has a grasp on it that I haven’t seen in a long time. I really like Leah Hayes who wrote Holy Moly and Funeral for a Heart.

Who’s your dad?

He’s Gary Panter. He does the comic Jimbo but he’s most well-known for designing the set for Pee-Wee’s Playhouse and having Matt Groening rip off Bart from Jimbo, which Matt has admitted many times.

How long have you worked in a comic store? How did you start?

Almost four years on and off. I started when I was 14 and quit and returned and quit and returned and quit and returned. My dad got me into it. He works at the School of Visual Arts and it’s nearby and Mark, the owner, really liked his comics. I started on Sundays bagging books and now I come and don’t do anything.

Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com

What are the best and worst parts about working in a comic store?

The best part is definitely the free comics. And I’ve made some pretty great friends. The worst part is that comics have a bad rap for a reason, because it really does tend to attract crazy people. Surely they’re not all like that, but I do get creepy stares all the time. I’m kind of used to it now. The clientele can just be a bit irritating.

What’s the least nerdy thing about you?

Nerdy. You have no idea. I grew up so embroiled in it that it’s kind of stupid to make myself not nerdy. I’m in a band, so maybe that’s not nerdy. But I even wear glasses and I go to art school and I work in a comic shop. There’s nothing not nerdy about me. I have a designer jean fixation, but that’s kind of retarded.

Biggest pet peeve about customers?

Odors. Most people are fine, but there is one that comes wearing just a pair of jogging shorts (he’s not in good shape), a wifebeater, and a towel around his neck. He’s perpetually mopping his head and his neck with his towel.

We also have two customers who compete on new comic book day to get the most intact comics. But they get mad at us when one arrives before the other and gets the best comics.

What’s the worst misconception about comic books and their fans?

It’s probably just that everyone is the stereotypical overweight, middle-aged, balding, lives-in-his-mother’s basement comic geek. I’m the antithesis of everything that is but I was raised on comics. And I love them and I wouldn’t trade them for anything. I’m going to read them until I die. And they’re easier to read than books when you’re too exhausted.

Why is there such a big crossover between comic book fans and tech junkies?

It goes back to the escapism. If you are immersed in comics than you are trying to get away from something. Kind of like videogames. But I can’t stand videogames. They scare me.

Do you have any anecdotes about working in a comic store?

On a Wednesday, a regular customer came and bought a ton of comics as per usual. Then the next day he came in he was completely scab-covered and bruised on his face. We were like, “Dude, what happened to you? Are you okay?” Turns out he started falling down on a escalator while holding his comics and rather than protecting his face he protected his comics. But they still got a little bent, so the next day he came back and re-bought them.

Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com

Name: John Crowe

Store: Neon Monster

Age: 39

Hometown: Kennesaw, Georgia

Background: Masters in Studio Art at Maryland Institute College of Art

If you could be any comic book character, who would it be?

Professor X so I could read the minds of my customers, no wheelchair though.

Which title has fallen farthest from grace?

I would’ve said the X-men, but it’s back and now I’m selling out of them. DC Comics in general, Superman straight up.

Which has risen like a phoenix out of the ashes of suck-itude?

All Star Batman & Robin started out shaky and now is the greatest thing ever.

How long have you worked in a comic store? How did you start?

I was in the Atlanta Journal Constitution at 14 because I was such a big comic book collector, a comics junkie hard-core. Neon has only been open for a year and I’m the new kid on the block. We have the chance to be the fresh start for people. We’re trying not to the be the dusty old comic store.

Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.com

What are the best and worst parts about working in a comic store?

Having all the comics at your disposal. Which is also the worst part because I don’t feel as compelled to collect them.

What’s the least nerdy thing about you?

My girlfriend, probably; everything else is pretty nerdy.

Biggest pet peeve about customers?

When people come in here and say ‘Hey it’s so great you’re here,’ when before they were coming in to say ‘This is a bad location, you’re never gonna make it.’

What’s the worst misconception about comic books and their fans?

It’s that they’re for kids exclusively; now they’re more sophisticated. And that all fans dress up in costumes and are all couch potatoes.

Why is there such a big crossover between comic book fans and tech junkies?

Now with digital processors and color, it just really appeals to that sort of person. And the tech sciences. Tech porn in comics — everyone’s using gadgets.

Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.com

Name: Gary Buechler

Store: Comic Outpost (Owner)

Age: 39

Hometown: San Diego, California

If you could be any comic book character, who would it be?

Multiple Man. If I could just copy myself a million times it’d make my life so much easier.

Which title has fallen farthest from grace?

Amazing Spider-Man. They did this thing to fix a continuity issue. Mary Jane and Peter Parker had been married so long it was starting to get boring and stagnate. So Marvel decided to fix it. Peter’s aunt is dying and Mary Jane and Peter make a deal with Mephisto and in exchange for Peter’s aunt’s life, they have their memories erased and never knew they loved each other, in an Eternal Sunshine sort of twist. Seventy percent of the customers hate it.

Which has risen like a phoenix out of the ashes of suck-itude?

Now that the Uncanny X-men are in San Francisco, it’s awesome.

How long have you worked in a comic store? How did you start?

I’ve worked here for 5 years. Started by being a customer and was selling auto parts for Acura and it came up in conversation that the owner was selling the store. We worked out a deal in a week.

Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.com

What are the best and worst parts about working in a comic store?

Best part: The hours, flexibility, working with something I love and have loved all my life and the clientele. Being my own boss.

Worst: Being my own boss, taxes, being bound to one distributor.

What’s the least nerdy thing about you?

Ha, I don’t if I should say this but … I’m an ex-con. It was a long time ago and I’m a good person now.

Biggest pet peeve about customers?

I don’t think I have one. All are welcome here.

What’s the worst misconception about comic books and their fans?

Comics: that they are not a literary medium because they are. And some are better than a lot of novels and I read both.

Fans: That they aren’t very rounded people. There is the fringe hardcore fanboy, but I sell to lawyers, meter maids, doctors, artists … and there’s a growing female audience. We have a new generation taking over, it’s not crabby old fat dudes with ponytails telling you not to touch the books. We want you to read it before you buy it. I equate comic books stores now to what record stores were in the early ’80s.

Why is there such a big crossover between comic book fans and tech junkies?

Both love the internet and their PS2’s. I think that’s our main competition, videogames. When a new Madden comes out we’re competing for those same dollars.

Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.com

Name: Palle Madsen

Store: Amazing Fantasy

Age: 38

Hometown: San Jose, California

Background: Broadcasting Degree and Certificate as a Forensic Identifier

If you could be any comic book character, who would it be?

Spider-Man, because he’s just as human as the rest of us.

Which title has fallen farthest from grace?

The whole Marvel Ultimate line, started off as a great concept and has just gotten silly.

Which has risen like a phoenix out of the ashes of suck-itude?

Storm Watch started off as typical and has turned into something great.

How long have you worked in a comic store? How did you start?

Seven years. I got started in it because I got laid off from my high-tech job and realized I’m not a very good corporate person so I should do something I like.

Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.com

What are the best and worst parts about working in a comic store?

Best part: Working with something I’ve loved all my life and at least something of an expert.

Worst: Any customer who comes in and we don’t have what they’re looking for and they take it personally.

What’s the least nerdy thing about you?

The fact that I help run a burlesque show.

Biggest pet peeve about customers?

People who refer to comic books as graphic novels.

What’s the worst misconception about comic books and their fans?

Comics: The big thing is that people think they are still just for kids which is entirely not the case and that reading comics is not acceptable as literature.

Fans: That we’re all like the comics store guy from The Simpsons. We’re just like everyone else.

Why is there such a big crossover between comic book fans and tech junkies?

There is a lot of history in comics and that appeals to people who are in detail-oriented jobs. There is an element of science in comic books, some of it is legitimate and some predicts future scientific developments.

Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.com

Name: Jack Eldredge

Store: Dr. Comics & Mr. Games

Age: 25

Lives in: Oakland, California

If you could be any comic book character, who would it be?

Most of my favorite characters are ones I really would not want to be — Hellboy, John Constantine, Spider-Man, Batman, Swamp Thing — I don’t really envy them. So I’m gonna have to say Tom Strong. He’s at the peak of human strength and physical perfection. He’s a brilliant scientist and inventor with an apparently unlimited budget. His aging is decelerated, but he’s not immortal (that’s key). He’s got a giant house/base on a tropical island with his gorgeous and wise wife and lovely daughter who both team up with him regularly for superheroics. Plus he’s got a pneumatic robot and a brain-altered gorilla for comic relief. Yup, Tom Strong for sure (from the truly fantastic comic of the same name by Alan Moore).

Which title has fallen farthest from grace?

Are we talking about long-running standards that have been through decades worth of storylines and creative teams, some with multiple classic or arguably classic periods with years in between? It really has a lot to do with when you first became interested in … The Amazing Spider-Man for example. To a lot of fans, the Lee/Romita issues of the late ’60s and early ’70s are it and always will be. I know a few Ditko purists who think even that’s too new, though. Then in the late ’80s, Venom made a huge impact on my generation, and that era became the basis for the past 20 years of a whole slew of spider-comics besides Amazing. And just recently, J. Michael Straczynski ended his years-long run as writer, most of which is widely considered excellent, so that’s like new classics. So fans of every era believe (or will believe) that “it used to be so good but now it sucks.”

Short opinionated answer: Ultimates 3 is a giant piece of crap. Frank Miller’s goddamn Batman is goddamn awful. The X-titles are currently all garbage. The new Hulk ongoing sucks horribly, too.

Which has risen like a phoenix out of the ashes of suck-itude?

DC’s Booster Gold and Marvel’s The Immortal Iron Fist are both characters that nobody expected to see returning in their own ongoing titles, much less that these books would be really good by all accounts. Also, the current runs of Green Lantern (by writer Geoff Johns) and Captain America (by writer Ed Brubaker) are in my opinion better than those titles have ever been in the modern age of comics.

How long have you worked in a comic store? How did you start?

I’ve been with Dr. Comics full time for about five years. I lived in the neighborhood and I’ve been into comics since I was a kid so I’d been a regular customer for a while before I mentioned to the boss that I could use another part-time job.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

What are the best and worst parts about working in a comic store?

The best part about it is the comics. They’re my world, and so obviously I love just being in such a fabulously stocked comic store, let alone making my living by being there. Most of what I do in the store is all about our inventory: filing, stocking, reordering, etc., so as a result I’ve become familiar with just about everything in the store.

The worst part about it is having to overhear and occasionally being asked to weigh in on the who-would-win-in-a-fights. Also, the constant barrage of comic book movie talk is unbearable. I do not care what you think is going to happen in a sequel that doesn’t come out for another five years and which is bound to disappoint.

What’s the least nerdy thing about you?

I get one pass, right? Pass.

Biggest pet peeve about customers?

What gets to me is the speculators. The people who are still collecting comics because they’re collectible, buying what they think is likely to become valuable later so they can get rich or something. This is flawed logic, and it devastated the comics industry just 10 years ago … and yet here we are again.

The comics that are worth real money today, are valuable for two reasons, one of which is that they weren’t valued when they were published. Comics from the ’60s and earlier are exceedingly rare because so many copies were destroyed or discarded, and the ones that are still around are very “well read,” hence the insanely high selling prices for the very few pristine copies of key issues.

Modern comics have relatively high print runs, and almost all of the copies in existence are being saved and kept in good condition. The real value of your comics is what you get out of reading them, so buy what you want to read, and keep what you want to read again sometime — which ties into the second reason that some comics are valuable: because they’re good stories that people remember and still want to read.

Your comics are not worth a thousand dollars each. You bought them in 1993 and so did literally a million other people. You have all kept them in near-mint condition. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you don’t understand basic economics, though, because as an adult you still think the “investment” you made as a 10-year-old was a sound one.

What’s the worst misconception about comic books and their fans?

That comics are a genre of story, rather than anything less than every different genre of story. There are people who say they don’t like comics, and they’re wrong. This is more like saying “I don’t like music” than “I don’t like rock music.” Sequential art is infinitely diverse, and this goes for the fans, too, because for every different type of person there is some form of sequential art that will appeal to them, whether they’ve been exposed to it or not. You can call it the funnies or you can call it a graphic novel, but you like comics. You do.

Why is there such a big crossover between comic book fans and tech junkies?

Well, I guess because they’re adults with their own money to spend on entertainment. Comics may be a necessity for a sad sack like me, but for almost everyone else they’re an indulgence, an expensive addiction. Same as new gadgets for the tech junkies. Although unlike the latest tech, your comics actually become cooler as they get older, instead of obsolete.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com