There was a time when people believed Mike Sagert sold porn.

It was in the early 1970s, when Sagert was looking for a storefront to set up his new comic book shop.

But at the time, the idea of a shop that specialized in comics was strange. It didn’t matter how passionate Sagert was about comics, everyone else still viewed illustrated adventures as mutated reading material. They were uncanny. So when Sagert looked for storefronts, landlords misunderstood what he was trying to sell. In their minds, there was little difference between superheroes and strippers.

‘Everybody thought it was going to be a porno shop,’ said Sagert.

Sagert eventually found a hole in the wall: a small wedge-shaped space on Montgomery Street across from City Hall. It was no Fortress of Solitude, but it would do. Transforming the storefront into Dream Days – named after an illustrated novel painted by Maxfield Parrish – Sagert opened Syracuse’s first comic book shop.

And in effect, Sagert took the identity of Syracuse’s first ‘comic book guy.’ It’s been 20 years since he sold Dream Days, but Sagert has once again taken the mission to spread his love for comic books. His first attempt occurred on Saturday in Schine Student Center with a Syracuse University comic book convention.

When Sagert first opened Dream Days, he fought an uphill battle. In the early 1970s, when comics were primarily sold on newsstands, the idea of a specialty shop seemed to come from an alien planet. The shop’s initial kryptonite was public perception. People still thought comics were just funny books for ruffians. Kid stuff. As the ambassador of capes and spandex, Sagert remembers countless debates with mothers who wouldn’t allow their daughters to buy comic books.

‘No, they’re for everyone,’ Sagert said to the mothers.

‘It was an amazing time, nobody knew if the comic book store would work,’ said Tom Peyer, a Syracuse resident and professional comic book writer who has worked for DC and Marvel comics. ‘Mike made the comic scene possible here.’

Sagert is an old-school comic shop owner. Never afraid to roll up a tattered comic and stuff it into his back pocket, he represents a small community of comic fans who collect for pleasure, not profit. To him, there’s no sense in stuffing comics into plastic bags and preserving them for all eternity.

His love for the art form extended to his shop. Dream Days’ walls were lined with superhero posters and art from Steve Ditko, the original artist of ‘The Amazing Spiderman.’ When Sagert wasn’t discussing the ideological differences between Aquaman and the Sub-Mariner, he was recounting the history of Superman to a naive customer. He wasn’t Professor X, but he knew his clienteles’ tastes better than they did. By the time they reached the small rack filled with the week’s new comics, Sagert would already be there, offering different titles to explore and fresh creators to try out.

‘I remember (Sagert) would come from the back room and say, ‘Oh I just got some back issues of mostly late-60s Marvel’,’ said Kurt Busiek, an SU alumnus and high-profile comic book scribe who has written for ‘The Avengers’ and ‘Superman.’ ‘It wasn’t an impersonal buying experience.’

When he was an undergraduate student at SU, Busiek had a Thursday ritual. As soon as classes were finished, Busiek and his friends would walk a mile from campus down to Dream Days. And every Thursday, there was Sagert, always smiling as they entered the door.

‘The store was a welcoming environment for comic book fans,’ Busiek said. ‘If you had a tough week at school, it was an oasis.’

Sagert’s great power has come with great responsibility. If he can get a comic book into someone’s hands for the first time, he’s done his day’s work. He likes to start new readers out with something basic, a superhero story that fits all interests. Then he boosts the material up, giving readers more complex and challenging graphic novels, expanding their horizons as far as they see fit. He hopes that one day people will not make ?literary distinction between the content in a comic book shop and a bookstore.?

?’He’s not doing it to make money, he’s doing it to share the experience with people,’ Peyer said.?

With his old-school approach, the communities that comic books create are half the fun.

But evil forces have taken over the comic community, and it’s quickly dwindling. Instead of landing on the shelves of caring comic shops, Sagert sees an increasing amount ending up in chain bookstores and supermarkets. There’s no one there to point out the new artists. No one to recommend an interesting title. Even the comics themselves have lost their personal touch. With comics now sporting slick paper and with high price tags of $2.99 or $3.99 for a 22-page comic book, Sagert thinks comic companies have become too motivated by profit.

He may not have a cape or spandex, but Sagert wants to be the superhero that assembles that local comic society.

‘I want to unite everybody in the field, from the writers to artists to the comic store owners to the fans,’ Sagert said. ‘I want to bring a little more community to it.’

SU students are a part of that community. With Schine’s convention connecting students with local comic creators, the team-ups can happen right on campus. Sarah Hudkins, a member of SU’s Illustrated Narrative Nights comic club, or INK, said a campus convention is a rare opportunity for students to discover comic books and make relationships with members of the industry.

‘That’s the whole idea,’ said Hudkins, a senior illustration major. ‘It fosters the community.’

Saturday’s comic convention at Schine was the start of Sagert’s fight for comic book truth and justice. He wants to make the old school the new school and wants to fill comic shops back with the passion that Dream Days once had. Even if he has to start putting pornography on the shelves to do it, he’ll make sure comic shops are able to leap all competition in a single bound.

‘That’s my role for things now as opposed to being behind the counter. I know enough now, seeing how the industry started and where it’s evolved to, that I can do a few things,’ Sager said. ‘This is just my starting point.’

ansteinb@syr.edu

 

Published on November 3, 2010 at 12:00 pm