Genuine Florida

Here we find Swampy visiting the southeasts largest comic book show, the MegaCon. Swampy is with Phil Boyle (L) and Jim Ivey.

You’re basically looking at the history of the comic book store from past to present. Jim open the first comic book store in Central Florida and one of the first in the South back in the early ’70s in St. Petersburg. Later he moved it to Orlando. Along the way he started one of the first comic book conventions in the South, the OrlandoCon. The OrlandoCon brought in the top named cartoonists from all over to Central Florida once a year. It also brought in collectors and enthusiasts. That included Harris Rosen who helped Jim produce the show by providing the location at the former International Inn (Now a Travel Lodge. The Shogun restaurant is the same.) on International Drive. Once a year a cartoonist was honored with the ‘Ignatz Award’, named after the mouse character in the Krazy Kat comic strip.

It should also be mentioned that Jim’s comic shop start was located where he worked. He was editorial cartoonist for the St. Petersburg Times. After he cartooned at other papers before ending up at The Sentinel Star (Now Orlando Sentinel) as editorial cartoonist. He was also a founding member of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists and extremely active with the National Cartoonists Society.

Along comes 1983 and the very young Phil Boyle decides to open his own store. He’d been going to Jim’s store and liked what he was doing. With help from family Phil began the Coliseum of Comics on South Orange Blossom Trail snug between some questionable establishments that enticed many a sailor from the Naval Training Center, amongst others. The store changed locations, grew, more stores were added. Now Phil has stores that stretch from Ormond Beach to Tampa. Phil is also the official sponsor of the annual MegaCon. Phil has continued what Jim started and credits Jim for starting on the road to great success. That success is celebrating 25 years this year. For Phil’s store locations and more about Coliseum of Comics click here .

You can catch up with Jim Ivey with his weekly entry in the cartooning blog about the history of cartooning - Strippers Guide  - by clicking here.