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Mile High Comics Owner Returned to Comic-Con & Still Hates It

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If you were a kid who read comics anytime from the 1970s on, then you were all too familiar with ever present advertisements from Denver, Colorado based Mile High Comics.

The company is headed up by CEO Chuck Rozanki who also happens to be a drag queen named Bettie Pages.

Rozanki, appearing as Bettie Pages for the first time in San Diego, returned to Comic-Con International after being absent for three years. Rozanki’s retail absence was due to what he felt was “bad management” at the world’s largest comic convention.

Rich Johnson of Bleeding Cool reported:

Mile High Comics has set up at San Diego Comic-Con for decades but pulled out three years ago, very unhappy at how the show was being run. This year, Chuck Rozanski was an invited guest at the show rather than a retailer. But it appears that San Diego Comic-Con will be getting two for one.

Posting as Charles Rozanski on Facebook, we learned about the change a couple of days ago.

After the truly horrendous manner in which we were treated while exhibiting at the convention three years ago, I swore that I would never again return to San Diego Comic-Con. Well, it’s the 50th anniversary this year, and I am an invited guest. In a spirit of reconciliation I agreed to attend. I do sincerely hope that this journey helps to heal all the remaining bitterness. So far, the convention staff has been incredibly kind to me.

But there were other changes to make. And on the floor of San Diego Comic-Con, we got to meet Bettie Pages. And, for the first time, so did many fellow prominent members of the comic book industry.

Rozanki seems to feel even more strongly about the management at SDCC, if his latest Facebook post is any indication:

In my innumerable essays about the convention, I have tried to illustrate in prose my fervent belief that the San Diego Comic-Con sold its soul to large media corporations and Hollywood in the early 2000’s in order to cover the prodigious costs of growing into the expensive new convention center. Check out these random photos that I took today. I think that they make my point for me pretty easily. Not a comic book to be seen ???? The very last photo features my own humorous take on who now controls Comic-Con, the world’s largest toy show…)

It’s been an interesting past few moths for Rozanki and Mile High. An ex-employee stole $50K worth of merchandise in what was dubbed an inside job, “The masked thief appeared to be aware of the store’s security system,” authorities said according to the NY Post, “Officials said he took off with the rarest and most expensive comics in the store, including Avengers #1, Iron Man #1, Justice League of America #1, Spider-Man #50, and a 1943 letter from the Superman Fan Club of America.”

Then two weeks ago in a story only reported on the Mile High site, Rozanki claims there was a near riot at his drag show.

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