Posted in: Comics | Tagged: comic shop, comic world, florida

Evicted Floridan Comic Shop Owner, Selling Comics To Pay Hotel Room

Pat Potter is the owner of the comic book store Comic World in Largo, Florida, for 38 years. In November 2019, he suffered a stroke and has been in recovery since, but this put the future of his comic store in jeopardy. The pandemic lockdown last year saw him face landlords that did not recognise the situation as a valid reason for struggling with rent payments, and despite payments coming in, they began eviction proceedings. Coupled with government grants, Potter was able to pay off everything including attorney's fees, but with his medical conditions, he found selling online was almost impossible. at the time and still causes him grief.

But then earlier this year, Pat and his wife Ashley lost their home. He wrote "I ended up in Largo Medical Center Friday with severe chest pain. Not a heart attack but I could not stay to have a stress test. They kept me Friday night and my wife stayed with me all night. Saturday morning we were notified that everything we owned was being put down to the road at 12 noon. A couple of my kids and son-in-law and grandson went to the house to save what they could with a box truck from U-Haul. Two other friends showed up and my son had a vehicle and they each loaded their vehicles. My wife and I rushed to the house after I checked out against medical advice. When we got to the house my wife had a panic attack and severe tachycardia. We had to call an ambulance and she was in the hospital half the day, released but heavily medicated. We were not allowed to go into the house and pack anything we owned past 12 noon on Saturday. Most of everything we owned was put in a huge pile. We have photographs. My wife and I scrambled to salvage anything and everything that we could all day Saturday, all day Sunday from 11 a.m. until around 10:30 p.m. and we then went to unload at our business. We have had to convert our comic book store in Largo into a temporary storage unit. My kids took what they got into another storage unit and another friend took the stuff and put it in his storage unit."

After receiving some funding from friends to stay in a hotel room for a short period, he is currently using Facebook for emergency sales to help cover his hotel expenses, insurance, food and hopefully get enough together for a deposit on a new home. He has, however, had to close the store, Comic World. He writes on Facebook, which he is using for most of his sales, "Selling or closing the comic store is nothing to be sad about. It's been over 38 years. I plan to return to substitute teaching. It will be a blessing. #NoTears" adding "We have been going through hell since February 5th but things got much worse. There's a lot that most people don't know. And between the unspoken and the heart attack it is time to let the store go. If I don't I would probably lose my wife because she cannot take anymore. No more stress, no more of the store and the landlords and all the problems we've had. It is past time that I step up and I know my kids probably feel that it is very unfair that I did not do this for their mother. I cannot change the past but my older son keeps telling me that if I keep repeating the same pattern that's basically being insane and I cannot continue repeating the same pattern. Hanging on to that store has become a crutch. It is time to move forward. Time for me to have a little faith in God which I realize I really never had before. It is time for me to really focus on my relationship with my wife and take care of what I have to take care of so that she and I can have a happy life because I have done her a great disservice, the same way I did that to my first wife and my kids too. I'm not going to repeat the same mistakes. It's time to focus on a new future and build something that is going to last. And working as a substitute teacher, I am contributing something of value and I am investing my work in the kids. I'm doing what I can to help the kids when I do that work and I don't do anything of any kind of value at all sitting there in the comic store trying to sell comic books. I justified it for a lot of years that we were giving the gift of reading and comic books promoted sequential art and storytelling. But I was just blowing smoke up my own ass. I had myself convinced that store was more important than it is. So I do recognize that people are shocked at my decision but I've been doing this for 38 years and it's past time."

He later added "The plan currently is to re-open for the summer, pack our personal stuff, clean and organize the store, assess what we have left, possibly reinvest a little into the store and put it up for sale for a decent price. It will be far below what I had been asking last year. But it hopefully will be enough to get Ashley and I into a house. Rental, mobile home, purchase we don't know."

We wish Pat and Ashley the best of luck, and if you want to buy any hardcover or big ticket comic books from Pat, now would be the time. Click here for his Facebook page. or here for the Comic World store Facebook page.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!