The store's front window is crowded with unusual plants that aren't grown locally such as the Penwiper, a member of the Kalanchoe genus. Dennis E. Webb says this plant is grown in an island off Africa and he thinks it got its name from the spots on the leaves that look like they came from wiping a pen. Photo by Shirley Ruhe.
The front window of Exotic Planterium and Card and Comic Book Collectorama on Mount Vernon Avenue is crowded with plants of all varieties. Dennis E. Webb, owner of the store since 1974 said, "I try to keep plants that aren't grown so much around here like this Penwiper from a small island off Africa. It got the name, I think, because it has dots all over the leaves — looks liked you wiped a pen on it. I got this from a customer who stopped by."
Webb said, "I have been growing plants since I was a little boy and I studied Ornamental Horticulture at Virginia Tech. But, I've always liked comics, too." He says after college his mother gave him some spare space in her antique shop down the street. "So I put plants in the window and comics in the middle and added X-ray specs and all kinds of funny gadgets. There were a lot more gadgets back then." In a year he ran out of room so he moved to the current shop.
Webb says he had a whole section of books but comic books were the main thing people were buying up so he went in that direction. He inches down the narrow aisle to the back of the store where the comic books intermingle with gadgets to fill every spare inch on the walls, floor and in the cardboard boxes on the table. "My rarest comics are those Superman right on the wall, some from the 1940s. For a while the X-Men were the favorites." He reaches into a large bag on the floor and pulls out a newly arrived X-Men. "This could be near mint. See it is shiny and has hardly any creases." Webb uses the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide to look up the value of his comics. His finger scrolls down the page. "For instance, look at this one. This Action Comics Superman 1st issue is listed at $155,000 for good condition and — he double checks his spectacles — $2,500,000 for near mint condition." He says he thinks the most he ever got for a comic book is about $200. "It was an old Blue Beetle character."
Webb opens his book of trading cards in plastic envelopes. "Here are the original Batman cards from 1966. They sell for about $5. The first James Bond is here at $3.50. People come in looking for things like that." He turns the page to Westerns. Paladin cards were the most popular — remember ‘Have Gun, Will Travel?’” And he stops at a page of black and white Laurel and Hardy cards. As he browses through the book, he points to the Wacky Packages. "These were the only non-sports cards that were made over and over. They made fun of products like 'Blunder Bread' and 'El Polluto cigars.'"
Back in the corner sits a collection of alternative comics, "all kinds of unusual things like Cathair Apocalypse about talking cats with their own lives or Creepholes or Blood Thunder." Webb says he sells comics to all different ages. "Older people come in bringing their kids and say, 'that's what I used to read’ and buy something for them. Then the kids come back." But he says kids don't read comics like they used to with so many things to do. "They were so much bigger in the ‘80s and ‘90s." He points high on a shelf to a cardboard re-creation of his store constructed by a customer as a project for his elementary school. One-inch pots are lined up along his front window. "See the comic books on the wall in back and there is even a picture of me inside the store."
Some days Webb is unpacking his orders, checking to be sure the comics have all of the pages, pricing them and arranging them in order. He records his sales in a ledger, the old-fashioned way. These days his schedule is a little unpredictable since he is caring for his 91-year old mother and a handwritten card on the front door explains "the store may not be open until 1 p.m. on some days." Still some days it is crowded with "nice people moving away and giving me plants” or looking for that special missing collector's card.