TAMPA, Fla. — The Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age, and the Modern Age.
What do all of these titles have in common? Comic books.
This weekend, comic book collectors will be gathering for the annual Tampa Bay Toy and Comic Expo, an event that is sure to bring plenty of nostalgia and fun for all. One local comic shop is keeping readers coming back for more.
From the amazing to the incredible, Tim Guerrieri has a comic for it all.
“They’re all fun. They’re all just stories that you can reread,” he said. “We’ve got plenty to choose from. When you get to Fantastic Four, well you know you’ve got to have a little Thing in your life. There’s some Thing in your life that you need and here’s the Thing that you need right here.”
For 50 years, Guerrieri has been reading and collecting comic books. He has a collection that will impress even the most savvy of collectors.
“When they said, ‘Oh my God- it’s the death of Superman! It’s going to be the rarest comic ever!’ And we’ve got lots of them,” laughs Guerrieri.
While his collection goes back in time, his store, We Love Comics, is a little fresher. It opened less than five years ago.
Guerrieri says his inspiration for opening the shop is his father, who died four years ago. A collector himself, but of a different sort.
“We would work on these cars with our father. But when he passed away, it taught us a very valuable lesson — you can’t take it with you. I came home, saw the size of my collection and said, I don’t want to burden my kids with all of this. So my brother said, well, why don’t we just open up a comic book store? And we did.”
What you see at the store is Guerrieri’s comic collection, along with an assortment of action figures and other collectibles. Of course, that also includes the latest issues of comic books. It attract audiences both young and old.
“There is something very special about holding a vintage comic book,” said Guerrieri. “There’s a smell that comes from the paper; there’s a texture from the cover; the shiny, glossy cover that touches your fingertips; the moving of the pages back and forth. It can’t compare to a digital comic book that you swipe left and just continue to read. It’s not the same.”
It’s this desire for physical books and their stories, Guerrieri says, that keeps customers coming back, providing a sense of escape to another world.
“Young people today, I think they’re looking for good role models. I think they’re looking for direction and sometimes losing themselves. Between the covers of a comic book can stimulate their imagination and, possibly, lead them down the right path,” he said. “Give them a good idea of what’s right and wrong and how we should be upstanding citizens and doing our part.”
For Guerrieri, it’s a hint of nostalgia.
“It takes me back to a time when I would sit down on my floor, or lay down on my floor, and read comics in front of the TV while watching cartoons,” he said. “I mean, don’t we all want to just remember being young again?”
The Tampa Bay Toy and Comic Expo will be taking place Saturday, May 16, at the Sons of Italy Lodge. Doors are open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with tickets starting at $5.
Kids 12 and under get in for free with an adult.