From Great Grape Ape to X-Men: 5 questions with professional comics collector Jason Miller

If Jason Miller's origin story were put into print, it might start with The Great Grape Ape comic he received 50 years ago when he was 5.

It was his first comic, and he still has it in a collection that has grown into a business career steeped in comics and collectibles.

Miller co-owns Magic City Comics in Barberton and Rubber City Comics on Mill Street in downtown Akron.

Likewise for the Akron Comicon , an annual show described as a celebration of mainstream and independent comics past, present and future. There's also Lil' John's Big Adios Muchachos Show in September. Both shows are held at Emidio and Sons Banquet Center in Cuyahoga Falls.

To help broaden his customer base, Miller holds a Facebook live presentation on Mondays and Wednesdays at 7 p.m.

Miller said he's worn a few different hats over the years, but has always returned to what he likes best.

He's certified as an auctioneer, has coached baseball, sold mums on the side of the road and even had a gig selling Christmas trees in Boston. That was one of his favorite non-comics jobs.

He's done reality shows.

"(I've) been on Ghost Adventures ... at a building in Dresden, Ohio," he said.

Miller said he's still got the love of comics and collectibles sparked when he was barely older than a toddler. But he's brought on partners to handle the accounting books.

"I enjoy the business," he said. "I hate the business side of this."

In a March 27 interview at Rubber City Comics, Miller talked about what sparked his career, some of the challenges for him and his stores, and what the future holds for them. This month, he's planned events to celebrate Rubber City Comics' 50th year in business after starting as Quaker Square Comics in 1975.

We asked him five questions about the comics world he's part of.

More about Rubber City Comics: Rubber City Comics survives name and location changes to celebrate 50 years in business

How did you get started in this business?

I started collecting comics when I was 5. I still have my first comic. Then I collected all through high school, college. When Spawn I came out, I bought 50 issues. I used to buy a whole bunch of stuff.

So, in 1994, maybe late 1993, I opened my first store in Green called Big Buddah's Comics and Collectibles. I had that from '94 to '99 and then shut that down and then just went on with my life — still collected comics and stuff like that.

When I came back to Ohio, I decided to open Stuff Genie in Barberton. That was, like, 12 years ago.

When you first started diving into this business, did you expect that you would have an entire career out of this?

No, I think it was kind of a dream of mine — to be in this business. I don't know if I dreamed of being in the business at this level with the (Akron) Comicons and the events and the stores and stuff like that.

For somebody who wants to start collecting, what would you recommend?

There's two ways of collecting.

You can collect what you like. Like what you read, and you like the story, you like the art. Or you can collect for speculation value and investment. So, there's two different ways of doing it.

Or you can do both, mix it together. We find there's typically just two — either speculators and investors (or) people who read them.

What's hot right now?

X-Men is hot. The Absolute series from DC is fairly hot. Superman is getting hot because next year is the anniversary and the movie and stuff like that.

A lot of the independent stuff is hot, too, like Walking Dead, Invincible, stuff that's become TV shows. TV shows and movies also drive the market.

What do you foresee for the future of Rubber City and Magic City Comics?

The city comics — Magic City and Rubber City — (have a) great future. We'll open a few more city comics in different cities. How we come up with the name is like, if we were to do Massillon, it would be Tiger City Comics. If we were to do Lorain, it would be River City Comics. … It would be cool to expand a little bit more.

Right now we're just trying, with the economy the way it is, to keep these two afloat. We're trying to expand our online presence with reactivating our website and doing some other platforms of selling. Unfortunately, today, you can't rely on people walking in the door.

This interview was edited for length and clarity. If you'd like to recommend someone for the "5 Questions With" series, email bjnews@thebeaconjournal.com. Leave a message for Alan Ashworth at 330-996-3859 or email him at aashworth@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @newsalanbeaconj or Facebook at www.facebook.com/alan.newsman.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: 5 questions with Jason Miller of Magic City, Rubber City Comics