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Comic book store flooded, teens fly into action

Contributed by: Kathryn Richert/YourHub.com on 6/27/2008

When water rushed into Mile High Comics in Thornton, some fast-acting young people came to Superman and Spiderman's rescue.

On June 13, a water main broke at the comic book store at 9201 N. Washington St., flooding the 11,000 square-foot mega store with 4 inches of standing water.

The damage would have been far worse if 30 people weren't at the store for its weekly magic card tournament when the main burst in the back of the store gushing a geyser-like flood of water into the store, said store owner Chuck Rozanski, whose Thornton store is the largest comic book store in the county and specializes in hard-to-find back edition comics.

Tournament participants, mostly teens, positioned a foldout table against the spewing water to force it out the back door instead of directly into the store and scrambled to move comic books, posters, games and memorabilia to higher ground.

"If they wouldn't have been there willing to get themselves all wet, the damage could have been much worse," said Rozanski, who was in New York at a comic show convention when the flood occurred.

Still, the water wasn't turned off for four hours and the damage added up to $20,000, Rozanski said. He is still sorting out with his landlord and insurance company who will foot the bill, but likely Rozanski will have to pay for part of the his loss.

Rozanski, who has been selling comics for 38 years since he opened his first store when he was 19, said Mile High Comics, which opened in 1993, will move to another location in Thornton. Rozanski owns two other comic book stores in Lakewood and Denver.

Rosanski still feels lucky, despite his enormous loss.

Most of his business is through online sales and most of his inventory - in excess of 8 million comics - is stored in off-site warehouses.

Customers from around the country flooded his Web site during a post-flood comic book sale to raise money. More than 100,000 comics were sold in the days after the flood and comic book publisher DC Comics offered to foot Rosanski's weekly bills in order to stay afloat, an offer Rosanski graciously declined.

"We've been harmed by this definitely," he said. "But relative to stores that are 8 feet under water (in Iowa), it's something we can live with."

He's grateful for the support from the small community of comic book dealers and readers.

"It really is sort of a magical world," he said.

As a disaster recovery company works to dry out the store, it remains semi-operational with a small section in the front of the store still open for business.

Rosanski said he hopes to move locations within the next month.


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