Ray Wetzel is director of the Gadsden Museum of Art, but his home is something of a museum in its own right.
Wetzel discovered comic books at age 7, and as fast as you can say KAPOW!!, he became a collector. Today he owns about 23,000 comics, plus action figures of numerous heroes (his favorites are Green Lantern and Daredevil).
He’s not one of those guys who never takes his collection out of the plastic. Wetzel says he has the books because he enjoys reading them, although the collection isn’t growing as fast as it used to.
“It ebbs and flows,” he says. “With adult responsibilities, of course, my money goes to, like, homeownership and feeding myself. When in college, I would forgo that to buy comic books.”
Wetzel still has a wish list of issues he doesn’t have yet, but it’s not terribly long. Will he ever find his “dream book”? To be continued…
 
Collector Ray Wetzel celebrates the art of the comic book from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
(Courtesy of Alabama Newscenter)
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