Beginning with setting up at local comic conventions in the late 70's, a store was born. In 1979 during high school, a weekend only operation begun by me and my then girlfriend Cheryl Deel at Richmond Flea Market (originally called Whirlys, Cheryl's one time nick name) with second hand records, paperbacks, comics and other assorted merchandise. We quickly grew from a one booth operation to four booths jammed full of cool items. Eventually with the financial help of caring parents we were ready for the big plunge into a permanent location in the fashionable West End at 9047 West Broad. Our first attempt was less than successful and by the end of the first year (1982) we started a second store after Cheryl's college graduation. This store was at 5067 Forest Hill accross the river in Richmond's South Side. This location had a cheaper rent and more space so we began carrying for the first time new merchandise.

With the success of this enterprise we closed down our Broad street location, Got married in 1986, sold out all our records and began building up our surviving comics store. In no time we bought out our next door neighbor's bookstore and doubled our floor space. We also hired our first employee Bart Knowles. Bart brought to our operation a keen eye for detail and construction knowledge (single-handedly creating bookcases, shelves, comic displays etc) which I could write a book about in order to cover completely.

The three of us for the next couple of years doubled business and led the way for us to rent a third store (breaking through the walls) making us the largest comic store in Richmond. After all this we opened Stories II with Bart as manager one store down from my first location years ago on Broad Street. With Bart in the West End we hired Ian Dunwiddie (part time college student) to fill the void. A year later with business still increasing Katherine began work and as luck would have it we bought out a failing competitor, making her manager of our third store. To fill in Katherine's place at the main location, we wooed from a Hopewell store that would later become our fourth operation, Kat Jiannotti, our current main store manager. One year after that came Glenn Sprouse, Carmela Stotts, Grace (our ebay engineer extoidanaire) to help us in our expanding business. In 1999 we began our huge ebay operation which eventually expanded to all our stores. In 2000 Bart & I bought out a failing Hopewell store which became Stories 4, that was eventually relocated to Colonial Heights. Existing personel Sherry Chapel & Paul Wozniak ran that for a year until I bought Bart's share out and hired Maria Saunders as manager. With Bart wanting to step back from full time management, this enabeled us to hire Jason Hamlin to run the West End store and Jay Moritz to give him a helping hand.

Everyone involved in our stores collects and cares a great deal about the world of comics. We always emphasize reading and enjoying more than collecting prepackaged graded collectors items. Our current team of Barry, Cheryl, Kat, Katherine, Grace, Jason, Glenn, Maria, Jay and a host of Red Shirts (people who work part time for trade, named after all those nameless crewmen extras who died in the classic Star Trek show) welcome you to the world of Stories!!