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About Us
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Howdy! I took some time yesterday to begin rebuilding a part of my life that disintegrated 16 years ago. My simple act of planting a couple of trees on my farm may not seem in any way significant, but when placed in the context of my having nearly died, it gains far more importance. In this instance, my planting of two sapling peach trees yesterday is the first step in my eventually replacing the newly-planted orchard that I lost in 2007, shortly after I was diagnosed with West Nile Fever-induced encephalitis of the hypothalamus for a second time.
With all four of our daughters by then having grown up and moved away, my planting of that initial 100-tree fruit orchard in 2007 was intended to be the first step in our transition from our laboriously tending annual row crops (such as organic lettuce, basil, eggplant, & peppers) on our awesome Jay Hill Farm, to a new world where my wife, Nanette, and I would instead harvest (and sell at our local farmer's market) high-value tree fruits and berries that grew as perennials. My 2nd brain illness blew that plan all to hell, however, as during the three years of rehabilitation that I suffered through as a result of the reoccurrence of that gawdawful brain infection, almost all of my newly-planted fruit trees died. Were my orchard trees all that I lost during my illness, I would have replanted them long ago, and today's story would thus have far less resonance with current events. Sadly, however, my 2nd illness coincided perfectly with the financially-devastating Great Recession (2007-2011), a catastrophic worldwide economic crisis that forced me to totally change the way that we do business at Mile High Comics.
As ghastly as it might sound, right in the midst of my recovery from my brain illness I had to make the heartbreaking decision to close our Garden Grove (California) Mega-Store, and to consolidate our operations in Denver down to eventually consist entirely of Jason St. I also made the strategic decision to gradually move away from selling new comic books as our primary product line, and instead refocus all of our efforts on back issues. That may sound like quite a logical pivot in today's collectibles-driven world, but my walking away from approximately $4,000,000 a year in gross revenues that were provided to us by new comics sales seemed completely suicidal to many at the time. Implementing that existential product pivot was also incredibly difficult, as we were deeply in debt at the time, and had barely any working capital. We did, however, have my stellar reputation that I had built during nearly 40 years of highly ethical wheeling-and-dealing in the comics world. My very positive "rep," allowed me to walk into innumerable East Coast comics conventions and comics shops during that critical period and easily strike deals to purchase hundreds of thousands of back issues and graphic novels, oftentimes through unsecured short-term time payments arrangements.
In the meantime, the Denver commercial real estate market unexpectedly blew up after the passage of our Marijuana legalization amendment in the fall of 2011, effectively tripling the value of our two huge warehouse buildings. I sold one (56th), and refinanced the other (Jason St. - four times!), and ended up with enough freed-up working capital by 2017 to pay off all (all!) of our commercial bank debt. Woo-hoo! It took me ten years to get us completely back on our financial feet, but thanks to the blessings of Providence, and my finally getting us off the hamster wheel of new comics retailing idiocy, we not only survived the Great Recession, but actually prospered. Returning to the original subject of my two new peach trees, during the decade that I was scrambling to reinvent (and then financially solidify) Mile High Comics, my beloved 32-acre Jay Hill Farm became a wasteland. Not only did most of our fruit trees die, but our beautiful pastures and (former) vegetable fields were overrun by huge expanses of invasive weeds, including 6' tall teasel and thistle plants that were completely covered in vicious thorns. Even my beautiful one-acre orchard area became an impenetrable thicket of teasel, made all the more perilous because I had hired a backhoe operator in 2007 to dig deep holes in our dense clay soil, specifically for our new trees. After my young trees died, those holes morphed into 100 death pits into which I accidentally drove my huge Toro mower far more times than I ever would care to recall. Sigh...
Long story a bit shorter, my having busted my butters for innumerable hours during the past four summers has resulted in an 80% diminishment in our teasel and thistle populations, with just a few large stands remaining on the east side of the farm. The main orchard area is now completely cleared, so (finally!) the replanting of our long-lost fruit trees could begin. The two peach trees of yesterday are (hopefully) going to be followed by three cherry trees that I am planning to plant this morning. if all goes as planned, even more fruit trees will follow, until our entire 100-tree orchard is fully replanted. Within the context of all of this positive news I do have to inject a few cautionary notes. First, I am just two weeks from having been forced to return to the hospital for (yet another) emergency brain scan. In all honesty, the degree of long term damage caused by my recent fall (and subsequent brain bleed) has yet to be calculated. My planting of my two trees went quite well yesterday, and I feel fine this morning, but I pragmatically realize that that could change at any moment. I was, after all, supposed to be in Sacramento during this past weekend for their 50th Coronation gala, but had to cancel because I remain too mentally blurry to drive that far by myself. Above all else, I am well aware that a proverbial Sword of Damocles continues to hang over me, so I am definitely not going to overexert, regardless of how quickly that I might wish for my orchard to return.
The same holds true for Mile High Comics, where the two-edged sword of escalating property values has led to a staggering 800% (!) increase in our property taxes over the past ten years. The good news is that I can now sell our Jason St. building at any time that I might wish for vastly more than our mortgage, and retire comfortably. That is a comfort and a blessing which very few people are allowed to have these days. That personal financial blessing would come at a horrific cost, however, as it would require a sale and/or liquidation of Mile High Comics, which is something that I definitely do not want to do. In a nutshell, that is why I keep asking (very nicely) for your continued financial support of Mile High Comics. I do believe that our little company creates great joy in the hearts of many people, yourself included, and that it is absolutely a community treasure for all of Colorado. But, Mile High Comics simply cannot survive only upon kind platitudes and heartfelt best wishes. Our $154,000 a year in property taxes on our Jason St. Mega-Store building must be paid, and we have no option but to rely upon those who share in the belief that we bring value into their lives to help us to keep our beloved company going.
That is precisely why your support, whether it be online or in-person, means so much to us. Individually, we as people generally cannot accomplish all that much on our own, but working as a community of like-minded souls, we truly can change our world for the better. To be most succinct, if every one of the 120,000+ comics fans who signed up to become a part of my newsletter community were to place just a single online order with us, or make even one small purchase in Jason St. during the course of 2023, then we would have absolutely no difficulty at all in keeping up with our taxes, and also with making Mile High Comics even better each year for decades to come. That is a positive outcome that I have great faith will transpire, and one that I hope that you anticipate as well. There are a whole heck of a lot of troubles in this world, but as I have already proven many times over, even when life throws seemingly insurmountable difficulties at you, it helps to keep right on working for an even better and brighter future. As long as hope springs eternal, I will keep planting for the future. Happy collecting!
Chuck Rozanski/Bettie Pages,
P.S. Our 60% off NEWYEAR! codeword sale has about two weeks left. It applies to all ten million+ of our back issue comics and magazines. Only new issues, a few variants and restored comics, and our professionally-graded items are exempt. 'Nuff said.
MARVEL
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2018) (#1-93) (MARVEL) #31 SMALLWOOD Near Mint/Mint
ASTONISHING THOR (MARVEL) (2010) #1 FOIL COVER Fine
ASTONISHING X-MEN (1996) (#1-4) (AGE OF APOCALYPSE) #1 Good
ASTONISHING X-MEN (2004) (#1-68) (MARVEL)(JOSS WHENDON) #9 Very Good
AVENGERS (1963) (#1-402) (MARVEL) #232 Fair
AVENGERS ANNUAL (1967) #15 Fine
CABLE (1993) (#1-107) (MARVEL) #9 Near Mint/Mint
DOROTHY & THE WIZARD IN OZ (2011) #1 Fine
EXCALIBUR (1988) (#1-125) (MARVEL) #1 Fine
EXCALIBUR: THE POSSESSION (1991) #1 Near Mint/Mint
IMMORTAL HULK (2018) #0 Near Mint/Mint
IMMORTAL HULK: GREAT POWER (2020) #1 Fine
IMMORTAL SHE-HULK (2020) #1 JOHNSON Near Mint/Mint
MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MAN HALLOWEEN COMICFEST (2019) #0 Near Mint/Mint
NEW MUTANTS (1983) (#1-100) (MARVEL) #93 Very Good
PETER PARKER (1976) (#1-263) (SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN) #132 Fine
SPIDER-MAN (2019) (#1-5) (MARVEL) (J J ABRAMS) #1 2ND PRINT Very Fine
STRYFE'S STRIKE FILE (1993) #1 2ND NEWS Very Good
THOR: SON OF ASGARD (2004) #7 Very Good
THUNDERBOLTS (1997) (#0-81, #100-174) (MARVEL) #8 Very Good
THUNDERBOLTS: FIRST STRIKES (1997) #1 NEWSSTAND Good
UNCANNY X-MEN (2019) (#1-UP) (MARVEL) #1 BARTEL Fine
WAR OF REALMS (2019) #1 DELL OTTO Near Mint/Mint
X-FACTOR (1986) (#1-149) (ORIGINAL X-MEN) #37 Very Good
X-FORCE (1991) (#1-129) (MARVEL) #1 DEADPOOL Very Good
DC
ALL-STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN THE BOY WONDER (2005) #1 Good
BATGIRL (2011) (#0-52) (DC NEW52) #36 Fine
BATMAN (2011) (#0-52) (DC NEW52) #21 Very Good
BATMAN (2016) (#1-UP) (DC REBIRTH) #1 Fine
BATMAN & ROBIN (2011) (#0-40) (NEW 52) #23 .1 DELUXE Good
BATMAN & ROBIN ADVENTURES (1995) #11 Near Mint/Mint
BATMAN AND ROBIN (2009) (#1-26) #21 VARIANT Fine
BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS ANNUAL (1984) #2 NEWSSTAND Very Good
BATMAN ANNUAL (1961) (#1-28) (DC) #28 Fine
BATMAN: LIL GOTHAM (2013) #11 Fine
BLUE BEETLE (1986) (#1-24) (DC) #18 NEWSSTAND Very Good
DC UNIVERSE HEROES SECRET FILES #1 Fine
DC UNIVERSE HOLIDAY BASH (1997) #3 Fine
DETECTIVE COMICS (2011) (#0-52) (DC NEW52) #39 Fine
DOOMSDAY ANNUAL #1 Fine
DR. FATE (1987) (#1-4) (DC) (DOCTOR FATE) #1 Very Good
DR. FATE (1988) (#1-41) (DC) (DOCTOR FATE) #6 Fine
DR. FATE (2015) (#1-18) (DC) (DOCTOR FATE) #1 Very Fine
GREEN LANTERN CORPS (2006) (#1-63) (DC) #2 Fine
GUY GARDNER (GUY GARDNER: WARRIOR #17-44) (1992) #30 Fine
WORLDS FINEST (1941) (#2-323) (DC) (WORLD'S FINEST) #243 Very Good
YOUNG HEROES IN LOVE (1997) #9 Near Mint/Mint
DARK HORSE COMICS
DR. HORRIBLE ONE-SHOT (2009) #1 A Fine
INDEPENDENTS
2000 A.D. (MAGAZINE) (1977) #147 (Fleetway-Quality Comics) Fine
APEX (AZTEC PRESS) (1991) #1 (Aztec Press) Very Good
DOOMSDAY +1 (1998) #1 (ACG
) Very Good
DOOMSDAY SQUAD (1986) #3 (Fantagraphics
) Fine
DOORWAYS (GEORGE R.R. MARTIN) (2010) #3 A (IDW Publishing
) Fine
DORIS DANGER: GREATEST ALL-OUT ARMY BATTLES (2006) #1 (Salt Peter Press
) Very Fine
DORK (1995) #2 (Slave Labor Graphics
) Very Good
DORK TOWER (1998) #33 (DORK STORM PRESS
) Near Mint/Mint
DOUBLE TAKE (2001) #1 (Funk-O-Tron, LLC
) Near Mint/Mint
DOUBLECROSS: MORE OR LESS (2002) #1 (Top Shelf Productions
) Very Good
DR. GOYLE SPECIAL #1 (Arrow Comics
) Very Fine
DR. RADIUM AND THE GIZMOS OF BOOLA-BOOLA (1992) #1 (Slave Labor Graphics
) Fine
DR. RADIUM: MAN OF SCIENCE (1992) #2 SIGNED (Slave Labor Graphics
) Near Mint/Mint
DRACULA CHRONICLES (1995) #1 (Topps Publishing
) Fine
DRACULA IN HELL #2 (Apple Comics
) Very Fine
DRACULA VS. CAPONE (2006) #1 (Silent Devil Productions
) Very Fine
DRACULA VS. KING ARTHUR (2005) #3 (Silent Devil Productions
) Near Mint/Mint
DRACULA VS. ZORRO (1993) #1 (Topps Publishing
) Fine
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