Man Living Childhood Dream through Booming Comic Business

When Carl Bonasera was growing up, he dreamt of becoming a comic book artist.

While he didn’t become one, Bonasera became an integral part of the comic business in his own right. As the owner of , 3576 W. 95^th St., for the last 30 years, Bonasera has certainly accomplished his goal of working in the field.

“I wanted to be a comic artist as a kid,” Bonasera said. “I went backwards and started selling them.”

Open in Evergreen Park since 1981, Bonasera opened the shop while also working as the art director at the Daily Southtown newspaper. Eventually he was able to quit that job and make his booming comic business his full-time focus.

“At the time, I was working for the Southtown and knew the Southside real well,” Bonasera said. “There was only one other (comic) store on the Southside and I didn’t like the way they treated me. I knew the area (Evergreen Park) real well. At the time, I thought, we were accessible to the city and accessible to all the suburban communities.”

By 1993, Bonasera decided to expand his business and was the owner of seven comic book stores throughout the Chicago area and Joliet.

“It was a small entrepreneur’s dream,” he said, adding that his company was near the top of small business in its heyday.

Now back down to the original store, Bonasera said the other shops were closed not because he was forced to, but due to changing economic times. Because the stores were so successful in terms of a client base, he still has customers from old locations patronizing the Evergreen Park location.

“I didn’t get hurt by it. Every leaser got paid and every vendor got paid,” Bonasera said. “We’ve kept the best customers and they come to the store. One of the reasons we’ve lasted 30 years is because customers come drive to us.”

All-American Comics is one of the only comic books stores in the Chicago area to only sell books, not other paraphernalia such as posters and cards, Bonasera said. He believes that the books are the real value of the store and business in general.

“It’s all books all the time,” he said. “It’s the best of the hobby. Once you’ve got a handful of posters, where do you put the next one? There’s never a saying that says there’s too many books to read.”

The most common type of customers Bonasera sees in his store are men in their 30s, he said, who have been fans of comic books since they were children.

“Our best customers that have been with us for 30 years, were kids when we opened up,” Bonasera said. “Because kids (today) don’t read as much, the stories have matured, the art has sophisticated and we have a 35-year-old audience.”

While Bonasera would love to see more of today’s children come into the store and get into comic book collecting and reading, he doesn’t predict that happening anytime soon. Currently, the only kids that come into the store are ones whose fathers or grandfathers have passed the love of the hobby down to them.

“Illiteracy in America is going to have to improve before we see anther audience,” Bonasera said. “Kids are not reading for pleasure. The idea of reading a book and coming back every month is kind of lost on kids.”

Bonasera said the store’s sales are mainly done through its actual location, but they do have a small amount of Internet and mail-order business. He said he receives orders from customers who grew up in Evergreen Park and now live elsewhere in the country or world. Once, some comics ordered from his store were dropped from a helicopter to a Navy ship in the middle of an ocean for a U.S. Navy captain, he said.

“Comics is a strange hobby. There’s maybe one person who collects comics for every 10 square blocks,” he said. 

In today’s less-than-stellar economy, “customer service is more important than ever," said Bonasera, "It’s harder to get new customers, so take care of them.”

To learn more about All-American Comic Shop, stop by the store or call (708) 425-7555.