The history of a now 50-year-old specialty store in Santa Cruz

Good Times wrote a whole article about Atlantis Fantasyworld, one of the oldest USA specialty stores, located in Santa Cruz, whose owner Joe Ferrara once knew comics writer Mike Friedrich, and they discussed, in example, how the store's been able to last as long as it has for nearly 5 decades:

Approaching its 50th anniversary, I sat down with owner Joe Ferrara to chronicle how a personal collection grew into a half-century institution—and to understand the quieter values that allowed it to outlast earthquakes, recessions, and the digital revolution while so many brick-and-mortar stores disappeared.

Founded in 1976, Atlantis is stocked with comics, graphic novels, toys, magazines, art books, and collectibles. Its longevity isn’t nostalgia alone.

It’s consistency, care, and an unshakable belief that stories matter.

In that case, I hope he focuses more attention on independent/creator owned products, because after the way DC/Marvel went since the turn of the century with divisive politics and woke directions, it'd be better to lavish some more focus on creator-owned stories and judge which are the best ones for promotion.

According to January 2025 retailer reports, there are between 2,000 and 3,000 specialty comic shops in North America. Even broader business directories count fewer than 4,000 stores nationwide—a figure that includes “hybrids” that act primarily as game centers or tournament venues rather than dedicated comic bookstores. No other California shop matches Atlantis’s nearly 50 years under the same ownership—a true survivor in a landscape where many independents have closed.

To be sure, that's because they relied far too heavily on modern DC/Marvel output, though that's obviously not the only reason any stores could've gone out of business. There's also, as I'm well aware, problems with rent prices going up. Of course, regarding the comics themselves, when divisive politics are shoved into the pages as viciously as they were since the turn of the century, that too is dispiriting.

Ferrara’s love of comics was born from a childhood obsession that initially worried his mother.

“I loved comics as a kid,” he recalls. “My mom complained to the nuns, ‘He only wants to read comics.’ And God bless them, the nuns of the ’50s didn’t say no. They said, ‘Mrs. Ferrara, he’s reading.’”

What could have been brushed aside became literacy, curiosity, and eventually a life’s work. Comics weren’t a phase. They were a language.

That's certainly amazing the Catholic representatives he studied under recognized the medium in itself is valid. It's just the content and suitability level at a young age that's in question. Of course, today that might've changed in ways that aren't for the better, sadly, and in the past decade, it was certainly evident some of the worst forms of censorship were being promoted by leftists who didn't uphold the values of their predecessors.

Ferrara’s passion for comics was reignited in college by his roommate Mike Friedrich, who went on to write for Marvel and DC on titles such as Spider-Man and Batman. By the time Ferrara moved to Santa Cruz in 1976, he’d amassed more than 6,000 comics.

The turning point came during a dinner at his mother’s house.

“My mom, between bites, says, ‘He’ll probably open his own store,’” Ferrara remembers. “Bang. That did it. That was like a tuning fork. My body just started vibrating.”

And it's great he wanted to work as a salesman for the medium. Of course, while I appreciate that he'd owned plenty of back issues at the time, I'd be even happier if he agreed the medium's got to make the shift to formats like paperback/hardcover, because pamphlets have long become too expensive in over 20 years, and the way DC/Marvel rely so heavily upon crossovers has worsened the situation, regardless of whether you have to read all connecting issues to understand the whole. Somebody's got to make clear within sales management itself that this cannot go on, no matter how "clever" they might claim it all is.

Atlantis holds a unique place in Santa Cruz film history as the comic store featured in The Lost Boys. The original location at 707 Pacific Ave. was transformed by director Joel Schumacher’s crew to create the illusion that the shop sat on the Boardwalk. They built a wall in the gutter, placed Laughing Sal in front of it, and shot at an angle that hid the actual street—even removing a tree from the beach in post-production.

Seriously, considering Schumacher was such a wokester in his own way, one who brought the live action Batman films of the times down to shoddy levels, that's why I'm really not impressed to know this. And it's just as troubling to know the following:

The Lost Boys connection runs deeper than souvenirs. DC Comics published a six-issue sequel series, written by Tim Seeley, based on what was supposed to be the next film. Ferrara invited Seeley to the store’s 40th anniversary, where he signed the first two issues. When Seeley went home and finished writing the series, he included a tribute: in the final issue, the vampires kill Joe Ferrara.

“I’m dead in the comics,” Ferrara grins. When Atlantis sells out of those issues, they’re gone—the series is out of print.

In that case, is this miniseries really some massive success? Obviously not, and if I were in Ferrara's position, I'd be repelled that they put me in a horror-thriller setting that awful. That aside, Schumacher was such an overrated director in his time, and his take on any kind of comics, Batman or anything else, did no favors for the medium.

While the global comic book market continues to expand into a multi-billion dollar industry driven by manga and digital access, brick-and-mortar specialty shops like Atlantis navigate distinct pressures. Many diversify with events and tournaments to thrive, but Atlantis has stayed true to its roots as a story-centered bookstore. Its genre-racking and welcoming vibe proves that heartfelt, innovative retail can remain a cultural anchor amid broader industry evolution.

This may be a cliche, but if manga's the big deal, are USA comics by contrast such a success if manga's surpassed them in popularity? That said, it is impressive the specialty store's stuck by its core mission, and not tried to water down the whole purpose they got into the business for. They also bring up a former publisher who proved a letdown in the long run:

Ferrara’s longevity has earned him deep respect across the industry. Paul Levitz, who spent 47 years at DC Comics and served as its president from 2002 to 2009, calls Ferrara a pioneer. Levitz played a central role in shaping modern comics publishing, helping hire influential creators like Alan Moore and building the Direct Market system that made independent comic bookshops financially viable in the first place.

“Joe Ferrara has been a stellar example of the independent comic shop owner almost from the beginning of comic shops in America,” Levitz says. “He’s led the recognition of successful shops, and been a gentle godfather to the growth of our industry.”

And Levitz became a huge disappointment over time, to the point where I seriously doubt he ever got into the business because he cared about the creations he got assignments to write.

Industry admiration has also taken formal shape. Atlantis Fantasyworld won the Eisner Award for Best Comic Shop in 1996, one of the highest honors in comics retail. The award was created by Will Eisner, widely regarded as the father of the graphic novel, to encourage professionalism and elevate standards across the industry.

“His intention was that comic book retailers would become more professional,” Ferrara says. “Not just being like, you know, indoor flea market guys.”

Well I'm not sure if all became as professional as Eisner must've hoped, nor did standards improve, based on where they've gotten to now. At this point, it's much more likely they could turn against him for publishing his last GN, The Plot. And the Eisner awards, IIRC, even ended up going to comics that didn't deserve it, like Identity Crisis, and there were other troubling choices made by the panel of judges for the ceremony. That the Eisner awards went down in quality is, predictably, not dwelled upon here. The writer even made the mistake of referencing a now disgraced author who did no favors for the medium in the long run:

Beyond comics, Ferrara’s long-standing advocacy for prostate cancer awareness earned him the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award, which honors individuals who have contributed to the comics community and public good beyond business success. Past recipients include science-fiction author Robert Heinlein, writer Neil Gaiman, and Jeannie Schulz, who has overseen and protected the legacy of her late husband, Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz.

Did they have to put somebody whose reputation and career have since plummeted due to the sexual assault allegations against him into this article? I do wonder if Ferrara's store and other business associates ever had figures like Mike Baron and Chuck Dixon as recipients? If not, that's decidedly a flaw.

Inspired by how breast cancer awareness made pink a universal symbol of solidarity, Ferrara worked to bring the same visibility to prostate cancer through the color blue. He convinced Marvel to create special blue-themed variant covers for awareness campaigns—an industry first that amplified life-saving messages nationwide. IDW Publishing followed suit, running ads inside their comics. This pioneering advocacy solidified blue as the cause’s symbol within the medium. At Comic-Con, Bob Clampett’s daughter Ruth presented Ferrara with the award that bears her father’s name.

While the subject of cancer is a valid concern, what good does it do to promote awareness through variant covers, which has made a joke out of the mainstream in particular, since it only obscured how the stories became monumentally awful? Anybody who's going to push variant covers at the expense of the interiors is undermining the belief in need for merit.

The staff reflects the shop’s ethos: everyone belongs here. Atlantis has always been a place where all are welcome—no gatekeeping, no judgment, just a shared love of stories.

“If you hire the right people, you don’t have to worry,” Joe says. “They care.”

Well I sure hope they don't take a naive view of certain ideologies, including how communism's made such a troubling presence in USA society these days. I think it's great Ferrara's been able to keep the store running as successfully as he has for 50 years, but when the talk of variant covers comes up, that can be a telling clue something's wrong with the approach, and when they don't discuss any seriously challenging issues involved, that only dampens the impact of the article, along with what the store's meant to be about. Retail specialists need to consider that if they want anything to improve, they certainly can't overlook what went wrong with the mainstream.