Joe Ferrara realizes dream with comic book store LIFE STUDIES A man's dreams are realized: one a pastime, the other, a life's work

Joe Ferrara, owner of the comic book store and museum Atlantis Fantasyworld, poses for a portrait with the Robot 2T2, from the Captain Cosmic TV show at his store on Wednesday, June 29, 2011, in Santa Cruz, Calif. Joe Ferrara has been in the comics/fantasy business for more than 35 years, starting when he opened a Star Trek-themed shop in Berkeley in the mid-1970s. He's also an accomplished singer with a warm tenor, and is about to sing the National Anthem at a Giants game for the 30th straight year. less Joe Ferrara, owner of the comic book store and museum Atlantis Fantasyworld, poses for a portrait with the Robot 2T2, from the Captain Cosmic TV show at his store on Wednesday, June 29, 2011, in Santa Cruz, ... more Photo: Tony Avelar, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Tony Avelar, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close Joe Ferrara realizes dream with comic book store 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

Joe Ferrara thought he was going to play music for a living, and comics would be a hobby.

But his collection grew quickly through his school years and beyond, and pretty soon he was sitting on more than 6,000 books. One day at dinner a relative asked what Ferrara was going to do with the cache. His mother said "Well, he'll probably open his own store."

"And as soon as she said that, it was like a tuning fork ... my whole body vibrated," Ferrara says. "I said 'Wow, of course.' And the next day I became driven basically."

That was August of 1976. Ferrara and a partner opened Atlantis Fantasyworld in Santa Cruz the following November, and more than a third of a century later the store is still thriving.

Ferrara's life is "Mr. Holland's Opus," except with Spider-Man, Mr. Spock and Frank Miller comics instead of the teaching career. The 61-year-old singer still has regular gigs, and is scheduled to sing his 30th national anthem for the San Francisco Giants. But exercising the rich baritone voice is a passion, not his calling. This is a man who was born to run a comic book store.

It's a quiet Wednesday morning, and Ferrara's record is perfect so far. Seven customers have walked in the store, and he knows all of their first names. The jet black hair and beard that Ferrara started with when Atlantis opened have turned completely white, making him even more recognizable around town.

"With any business that stays in the community for this long, I can tell you, we've had customers who came in the day I opened who are still with us," Ferrara says. "And many of the young boys who came in as 4 or 5 years old are bringing in their own children."

Ferrara is knowledgeable about comics. But his biggest asset may be as a tireless promoter. Atlantis Fantasyworld gives out movie tickets, partners with the local library and takes advantage of whatever business advantage Ferarra can find. With the movie "Green Lantern" in theaters, the green-spandexed superhero seems to be peeking around every corner in the store.

Ferrara milks every bit of fame out of the short cameo that Atlantis Fantasyworld played in the 1987 movie "The Lost Boys." Half of the store is built to look like the engineering deck of a "Star Trek" spaceship - with the Starship Enterprise hovering outside. And in a coup that only fans of 1970s children's sci-fi television can understand, Ferrara recently acquired for display the "2T2" robot from Bob Wilkins' "Captain Cosmic" program on KTVU.

Ferrara says the key to the store's survival is the personal touch.

"I know more about my regular customers' lives than my sisters' lives," Ferrara says. "I know when their dog is sick. I know when they're pregnant."

Ferrara, a San Jose native who bought his first comics as a kid at the neighborhood grocery store, thought he was going to be a singer/songwriter. He put out vinyl albums in 1976 and 1978. Photos of Ferrara in the early days are on display in the store - he has Frank Zappa hair, and looks a little surly in most of them.

Ferrara moved to Santa Cruz, got tired of driving back to San Jose for comics and figured there were others like him who would appreciate a store near the coast. "Atlantis Fantasyworld" was picked because it would come first in the phone book, and didn't limit the store to either comics or the growing science fiction boom in the wake of the first "Star Trek" series.

The fate of Atlantis Fantasyworld was detoured by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which forced Ferrara and his business partner from their first location. The store ended up in a tent city for three years, Ferrara bought out his partner and the store re-opened in 1992 at its Cedar Street location in downtown Santa Cruz.

The industry is suffering, with the latest threat coming from digital comics. Ferrara looks on the bright side. Santa Cruz has a healthy population of parents who don't own a television but think a trip to the comic book store is a great excursion. (The entrance area of the store is filled with Tintin, Asterix and other family-friendly titles.) And while the adult customer base may not be growing, the comics themselves are better than ever.

"It seems like the longer we stick around, the more exciting the diversity of the product is," Ferrara says. "It's a great time to be involved in comics."

Ferrara and his wife Dottie have been married for 24 years. He became father to her four children, and now has several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Ferrara has a regular Friday night gig in the lounge of the Shadowbrook Restaurant in Capitola, playing folk music, standards and a few originals. He says he knows more than 500 songs, and in 2008 the prostate cancer survivor played for 12 hours continuously without repeating. Ferrara's performances at Giants games date back to the Jack Clark era at Candlestick Park; he performs next on Aug. 3.

And then he'll be back behind the front desk at Atlantis Fantasyworld - where he says he belongs.

"If anybody had told me when I was 27 years old and started the business that I'd be behind a counter for 35 years, I would have said, 'Shoot me now,' " Ferrara says. "Because when you're young, you don't want to limit yourself. ... But what I discovered, as we all age, when you're the one choosing to close the door and go in a direction, it's OK. You just don't want somebody else to close that door for you."

Atlantis Fantasyworld is located at 1020 Cedar St. in Santa Cruz. www.atlantisfantasyworld.com. Ferrara performs on Friday nights at the Shadowbrook Restaurant in Capitola, and is scheduled to sing the national anthem at the San Francisco Giants game Aug. 3.

To see a video of Ferrara singing, go to The Poop, the Chronicle's parenting blog and pop culture emporium, at www.sfgate.com/blogs/parenting.