Retailer Ilan Strasser of Fat Moose Comics & Games in Whippany, New Jersey sent us this comment on his feelings about the year since the 9-11 attacks.
Well, I am sitting here 26 minutes past midnight during the early morning of September 12, 2002 and thinking -- thank God we got through yesterday. A year ago, I was transfixed in front of a neighboring stores' television set, watching the horror of the WTC tragedy. I felt outrage, anger, shock, sadness, disbelief, incomprehension and every other conceivable emotion -- my feelings so overwhelmed me that I eventually became numb. The ensuing barrage of facts and figures and faces made the events of 9-11 manageable and encyclopedic; the dry information provided form and context to something that could not be given shape or name, or be immediately understood in all its' complexity.
A year has passed. A year in which I continued to go to my store everyday and do what it is I do for a living. I ordered comics, sought customers, bought fixtures and planned displays, cleaned shelves and windows, and wrote newsletters. I planned promotions, debated which product lines to add or drop, dealt with problems related to product, employees, customers, distributors, etc., etc., etc. A year has passed -- one in which I found myself doing far better than the year before in terms of sales and profits. A year has passed -- a year in which I met and have become both business partner and friend with many comics retailers I didn't know before.
A year has passed and my daughter is older, in another grade, preparing for and worrying about her upcoming challenges and anticipating the comforting schedule of school, the joy of playtime, the solidity of family, the recklessness and joyous abandonment of youth. She knows of 9-11 and like her parents, is confused and hurt by it, unsure sometimes of her safety, sad for the losses others have been burdened with and sometimes fearful of any that may attach themselves to her. A year has passed and later today, during the 24 hours that will be my September 12th, I will sit in front of a computer again and begin to work on another Diamond order.
My world, like yours, is the same and different, all at the same time. I look for the next hot book, check that my payables do not exceed my receivables in any excessive fashion, read the comics that I also sell to the wonderful customers that sustain me. I don't know, as you may not, exactly how I (and you) got here -- how these past 365 days have passed in the same way they have passed very year since I opened my shop in 1982. But I do know this - when I go to sleep tonight in just a short while, I will sleep the sleep of the blessed. Why?
Because I live in America. I live in freedom. I work at something I genuinely like that also puts food on the table and clothes on the back and leaves a little for niceties like vacations and Xboxes and movies and stuff. And most importantly, because 9-11 has brought me closer to my family, my friends, and my country. I wish 9-11 had never happened, but it did. The greatest lesson I've learned is that the state of comics is just a state of mind - another part of the blessed life I have been given. I pray that all of you find comfort and guidance and hope in your families and in your day-to-day lives as comic retailers. And as you live through those days, remember that comics are doing just great. Hey, they're still here. AND SO ARE WE.