In this week’s episode, we welcome our very special guest, Richie Garofalo. We talk about what got him into comics, his favorite comic book characters, coming to Mint Condition, buying and owning the store during its Silver Age, what he misses about the store and much, much more. We were so delighted to have him on the show and for the opportunity to show our appreciation for everything he did for us and the Mint Community.
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:20 James introduces the show and our special guest, Richie Garofalo. We dive right in, talking about Richie’s childhood heroes. This leads us to why he liked Popeye. Richie also shares a funny story about him and his dad, talks about how he was introduced to comics, and he discusses his early days of collecting comics.
10:39 Chris asks Richie what he would have spent his money on instead of comics when he was growing up. This leads to a very humorous story about his first car.
14:30 James asks Richie how he came to Mint Condition, which leads Rich to share his thoughts about buying Mint, how he eventually came to the decision to buy Mint, how he managed to run Mint with his already busy life, which leads to an inspiring conversation about failure and learning from it.
23:30 Richie gives a shout to his daughter Adrienne for all she did for the store and the community of Mint. This transitions to us asking Richie about his inviting and generous spirit.
32:27 We talk about how we all met and why Richie decided to hire James and Chris to work at Mint Condition. This leads to us talking about graded comics and Richie taking a family member who’s a Red Sox’s fan to Yankee stadium.
39:50 James reads a question from friend of the show Jack Adrien about the birthday parties at the store. We talk about the origin of birthday parties at the store and some highlights from them.
47: James asks Richie for his favorite memory from the store. Richie and Joe both agree that it was and is the comradery. This transitions to a talk about the posse: the group of people who would hang out outside of the store and see movies and have dinner together.
53:25 Joe asks Richie about coming up with the Bull Sessions that took place after the store’s normal hours. This leads to Richie talking about how he doesn’t like bullies and a specific time this came up in Disney World.
57:00 James asks Richie to tell us what new merchandise he most anticipated on Wednesdays. This leads to a discussion of the amazing statues that passed through the store.
1:00:06 James asks Richie about his current heroes, which leads us through a conversation about Superman, Lois Lane, Captain America and the actors who currently portray them.
1:06:10 James asks Richie what things he’s currently reading or keeping up with in comics and pop culture. We discuss the book “March” again, how we wish Superman could be written better, the MCU movies and series he has been keeping up on. We end up talking about comfort television and how sometimes we need a break from the stresses of the world.
1:17:39 James asks another of Jack's questions for both Richie and Joe: do they miss the store? This sparks a conversation about what it would be like to try Mint again in the current environment. Joe talks about when he decided to take over the store, and how the location of the store on Long Island built the community we have.
1:26:36 We end with us discussing what we are reading, watching, or consuming that we would recommend to our audience.
