ComicBook now has its own comic book vending machine (check it out here), where you can get rare collectibles worth thousands of dollars. Every comic in the machine comes from a local comic book shop such as The Great Escape in Madison, TN.
Our series of interviews, ComicBook Shop Talk, allows us to speak with the people working on the frontlines of the business, the staff members responsible for keeping your local comic book shop alive. Also, since we are stopping by, we are also using this amazing opportunity to acquire some rare issues for our vending machine. This time, ComicBook’s Chris Killian sat down to chat with Greg Walker, the owner of The Great Escape stores. Selling comics since the 1970s, Greg has a unique perspective on how the industry has changed and adapted over the decades, with comics remaining a pillar of the collectible community.
Before we jump into the interview, check out some of the amazing comics we grabbed at The Great Escape.
Your favorite local comic book shop can also be featured in the next edition of ComicBook Shop Talk or be part of our shopping spree tour. Send us a message at[email protected] to explain why your local store is special and how it helps you to keep engaged in the hobby.
Chris: I want to know, just to kick it off, man, what’s the comic that made you fall in love with comics in the first place?
Greg: Spider-Man. And that started with the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon. And believe it or not, this is part of the funny story. My mother wouldn’t let me read comics when I was a kid. She was afraid I would just read that and not read regular literature. So I read a lot of Dr. Dolittle books when I was a kid. And then finally, when I was 12, I rebelled, and my friend in the band was extolling the virtues of Spider-Man. And I kind of rebelled and went out and bought one. And another part of the interest was the Batman ’66 show. That came out when I was in first grade. So, yeah, I’ve always loved superheroes. I watched the Batman show when I was a kid, wore a towel around my neck like a cape, and watched Mighty Mouse and Atom Ant. Anything that had to do with superheroes. So anyway, yeah, 1972, about March, is when I started reading Spider-Man.
Chris: That’s super cool. I also feel the same way. I mean, I would argue that comics are probably what taught me how to read, right? I think that I wanted to know the stories that were going on in there. And I think as a result, I learned how to read better than any regular book would have taught me.
Greg: It’s funny. Somebody was talking about how the Fantastic Four taught people bigger words. They’d look up in the dictionary.
Chris: So what’s the history behind The Great Escape? How long have you owned it?
Greg: Well, my father and I started selling comic books in the spring of 1974 at flea markets. That’s when it started, like maybe April of 74, the first big batch. And I don’t remember doing it until September when I turned sophomore in high school. We did it full-time for two years there on the road, going to flea markets in Memphis, Louisville, and Nashville. And the fourth weekend of every month, we’d try to find like a comic show or something. But I quit that around the time I turned 17 because I got tired of missing all the good teenage parties from being out of town every weekend. So I did other stuff for a couple of years. And then I started working at Great Escape almost exactly 47 years ago, in April of 79. Yeah. I didn’t get ownership until about 10 years ago, actually, even though I worked for it for a long time. I guess he thought I finally earned it when I was age 56 or something.
Chris: I mean, that’s awesome though. Yeah, man. So you’ve really gone through the gauntlet when it comes to selling comic books over the years. What’s the biggest way that selling comic books today has maybe changed from the way that you were selling them in the late 70s, 80s, 90s?
Greg: Well, obviously, we have online. But I am actually getting high enough up on the corporate ladder now that I’m not selling them myself. I’m not even involved in comics. I just help manage the managers and all the different operations. I mean, we’ve had some things. I can’t recall. I mean, I think we’ve had one Fantastic Four #1. In the late 70s, we had almost all the early Detective Comics and Batman at one time. Since I don’t personally sell them myself now, I’m not sure how it’s changed that much. I used to be neck deep in it. I used to order the new comics at our Bowling Green store and went up there to open that. But I would say the online is the obvious thing. It’s just a speculation.
Chris: Well, yeah, sure. I mean, a lot of comic shops come and go, though. So obviously, The Great Escapes longevity is something that I think is not an everyday occurrence, right? So what’s sort of the secret for Great Escape’s longevity in this business? And where do you see the comics business going in the next 5 to 10 years from your perspective, and what do you do with the business?
Greg: Well, the secret of longevity is that we’ve carried so many different products. And a lot of them have been our number one selling product throughout the years. Pretty quickly after we added comics, we also added records. And then, being close to Music Row in Nashville, records surged ahead pretty quickly after we got our second location on Broadway in Midtown. But at various times, our best-selling products have been cassettes, VHS, Pokémon cards, Beanie Babies, Magic cards, and video games. But it’s funny, after all that, after 47 years of me being at it, now it’s kind of back to music and comics, or records and comics specifically. So let’s see. I’m sorry, what was part 2 of that question?
Chris: So, just basically, where do you see the comic business going in the next 5 to 10 years? I think it’s very interesting that certain physical collectibles have kind of come and gone over the years, but vinyls and comic books are the mainstay for you.
Greg: Yeah, they are. Since the beginning, I guess, 1975 to now. That’s kind of a scary question. I wonder, since Diamond Comics went out of business, are you familiar with them?
Chris: Yes.
Greg: I didn’t even realize for a long time, as I said, I’m so high up in the corporate chain now, that they’ve been out of business for several months now. It’s kind of scary. I wonder what the future of new comics is going to be. It’s funny, I’m wondering if it’s going to shift more to back issues again. When I actually started working for The Great Escape when we had that title in 1979, there were only 20 Marvels and 20 DCs, and they cost $0.40 each. So you could read everything for $16 a month. And I think because of the price of new comics going up the way they are now, $0.40 does not translate into $4 now by inflation. And I think I’m seeing a little more shift over to back issues. Even though for a while it seemed like the new comics dominated people’s pocketbooks, because they didn’t have the money to buy the back issues. So that answer may not make any sense. But it is kind of scary to me, the future of new comics like that.
Chris: I think we’re starting to see a resurgence of physical media, and I think comic books are a huge part of that. I think about my son’s 18, and he’s obsessed with CDs right now. Because they’re affordable, they’re not as expensive as vinyls. But I think this generation, coming off of streaming and all of these music apps, I think they’re really getting sick and tired of being nickel and dimed and renting everything. And I think they want to own something, something that nobody can take from them. So I think that we’re slowly going to see a resurgence in physical media, and I hope that comic books kind of keep up with that. But to your point, I think it is going to depend on how cost-efficient it can be to print new comics and keep them in an affordable range. I think about Todd McFarlane as somebody who’s very interesting to me, because he has maintained that his comic books won’t go up in price, even as everybody else’s have. So he’s still got some of the more affordable books on the market compared to everyone else.
Greg: Are his comics at that basic $4 range? I mean, I look at the comics every week, I do Facebook posts, but is he doing Image now, or something else?
Chris: No, he’s still with Image, but he’s got his branch of Image with TMP. So basically, his stuff is all in the Spawn universe.
Greg: Oh, okay. Now that I think about it, the one thing that may have changed the most is the female readership. In 1979, I started working there, and usually if a female was in there, they were there with their boyfriend. But I think the Marvel movies and all that have spread the market, where females read comics a lot more now than they used to.
Chris: So, what’s the thing about running a comic book shop that no one who runs one would never understand?
Greg: Well, ordering new comics can be difficult to make a profit. I mean, I was doing it from 87 to 94 mainly, and I don’t know if there were more or fewer comics. Right before that is when the black and white indie revolution happened, and that put a lot of comic shops out of business. But the point I was making, you know, we use cycle sheets, so you can track your sales every month, and inventory once a week. And sometimes I would want to try to expand one title, like you’d sell one copy, one copy, one copy for like a year, and then you’d try to order two copies, and the second one wouldn’t sell. Or there’s a time thing on it where sometimes you reorder a second copy, you could sell it within the second week, or no, you couldn’t, let’s see, which was it? Sometimes you could order two and sell two, but if you ordered one and then you reordered, you wouldn’t sell the second. So I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know what the level is now. You know, if Indies versus Marvel and DC, like there used to be. So yeah, I guess I’m probably not the best person to ask right now, since I’m not ordering comics.
Chris: So, as a guy who’s been in the business for a long time, what’s your absolute favorite thing about owning a business like The Great Escape?
Greg: Just being able to see cool products all the time. That’s why I say I may never retire. But as long as I have something new to read and listen to and watch and play every week, you know, that’s our main four things. Music, movies, comics, and games. And just being able to walk around and see all that great stuff every day. What a great day job, right? I say day job because I originally wanted to be a rock star. And that was part of the fantasy when we were playing in different cities or selling comics in different cities. I was like, well, this is the way I want to live. You know, I want to be on tour and living out of motel rooms. Well, you know, I realized finally at age 65 or 66, I don’t think I really wanted to be a rock star. Because of all the stupid people being in your face all the time, you know. I would like to be a touring musician, making a full-time living at it, and have the respect of your peers and a few really cool fans. But I don’t think I’d like to be a massive superstar. But I guess you never know unless you try, right?
Chris: You know, my job involves interviewing a lot of celebrities. And the closer I get to that, the more I’m around them, the less I have any interest in that sort of lifestyle at all. I mean, I’m to the point now where I look forward to… I fantasize about leaving social media, getting a cabin, and some nice scenery and nature, and just being away from it all. Because it’s a rat race, man. Let me tell you.
Chris: Last question for you, man. What is the most expensive book that you’ve ever sold?
Greg: We had an Amazing Fantasy #15, maybe five years ago. But I’m trying to think if there’s been anything higher than that. You know, you’ve got your really top ones like Marvel Comics #1. And I can’t really think of any that pass, say, the $5,000 range. Well, that would be just a very good copy or a good copy of Amazing Fantasy. So I don’t know if Doug might have given you a better answer to that.
Chris: You know, funny enough, I don’t think he did. I think Doug was sort of talking about how you guys have had a lot of comics that you’ve sold in that $5,000 range, but he couldn’t think of any particular Grail item, like an Amazing Fantasy #15 or something that he sold that came to mind. But I also understand that because I think after you’ve been in the business for so long, a lot of this all bleeds together, you know what I mean?
Greg: Yeah, and the really expensive things were things that weren’t comics we sold on eBay. Like we had an original art Peanuts Sunday Strip once. Someone from Japan bought it, maybe for like $20,000 or something.
Chris: Oh, wow.
Greg: I just don’t know if we’ve gotten, you know, I don’t know that we’ve ever had an Action Comics #1. I know we had a real beat-up copy come in our Louisville store once, but I don’t think we got it. I think they brought it in to sell, but then they passed on the offer. Of course, that was shocking. I don’t know if you’ve seen the history of this. The first time a comic hit a million dollars which is an Action Comics #1. And then just some of the common stuff, like the Silver Age or Bronze Age. Silver Age was just all over the place, like in the late 70s, early 80s. And then you get stuff like the first Wolverine, the price that’s gone up, too. And, you know, there’s an interesting influence of the TV as a medium. Luke Cage #1, you know, when the TV show came on, and that shot up. So really, I mean, you could say that TV and movies are really, you know, influencing the comic market on the back issue at least.
Chris: Yeah, it seems to be the case. I mean, I always, if I’m going to sell something, I always try to buy something like two or three years ahead. I got Miles Morales’ first appearance like, I don’t know, a couple of years before like the game and the cartoon came out and everything. And now I’ve seen that comic, just like blow up like crazy. Yeah, I was telling Doug about how I had a Giant-Size X-Men #1 that I had at 9.2, which I unfortunately had to sell because I had a kid’s braces to pay for. And, you know, I sold it for like a thousand bucks. And then I was like, I’ll just buy it back, you know, a year or two from now or something, when I recoup the expenses. And man, that book has shot up like crazy. And it has reached a point where I was like, well, I’ll never have that book again. You know what I mean?
Greg: I sold it in the early 80s for $75 when I thought it would never go higher.
Chris: Yeah, dude, it’s crazy how those things happen. You know what I mean? And some stuff, it’s the weirdest stuff. Like I’m sitting on this copy of Dungeon Crawler Carl for Free Comic Book Day. I got this like last week, but apparently it was such a hot commodity that as it got, you know, people took it, you know, before the day was up, you know, all the copies were gone. And now it’s going up on eBay for like 20, 25 bucks. It’s so weird to me, like what books like hit and don’t and so forth. But anyway, man, well, I don’t want to take up any more of your time. I really appreciate you calling, especially with as busy as you’ve been and everything. So, dude, thank you so much. Again, I really appreciate you.
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If you own a comic book or card shop and would like us to do a shopping spree at your store (or if you’re a customer who would like to nominate your favorite retailer), reach out to us at [email protected]. We’re assembling a nationwide list of interested stores to visit – as well as some international locations!
Meanwhile, give the Vending Machine a spin. We wish you the best of luck in your pulls.
