Gene Park grew up in San Diego, California, though it was during a five-year spell in Colorado during the 1980s where a junior high school classmate introduced him to the world of comic book collecting. After his family moved back to San Diego, he attended high school there before moving east attend the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. After earning his degree in economics, Park moved to New York and worked as an analyst for a major investment bank. After completing his M.B.A. at New York University, he specialized in mergers and acquisitions for several years. Currently a trader at a leading macro hedge fund, he manages the firm's equity investments. All this may seem at first like it's a long way from comic books and original comic art, but Scoop talked with Park to get his insights about both worlds.

Scoop: What was the first comic book you remember buying and what were the circumstances?
Gene Park: I'd like to be able to say that the first comic book I remember buying was a classic like Daredevil #181 or Uncanny X-Men #137, but I'm afraid that it was actually Marvel's Man-Thing (vol. 2) #6. I believe I picked it up at a newsstand while on a family vacation. A few years later, a couple of friends lent me some comics to read, which included Uncanny X-Men #172 and #173. I was blown away - not only did it have ninjas and loads of martial arts action, which I was very much into at the time, but the characterization of the outcast Rogue and the tragic figure of Wolverine, fated not to marry Mariko, was just perfect. Needless to say, I was hooked.

Scoop: How long from the time you first bought a comic book until you considered yourself a collector?
GP: One of my friends was a big comic collector and he introduced me to the ins and outs of collecting soon after I decided to start picking up Uncanny X-Men on a regular basis. The first comic book that I bought as a collector was Uncanny X-Men #176. I was pretty diligent back then about bagging all of my comics, but, sadly, I neglected to board them as well, so many of the books that I purchased in the 1980s are not as well preserved as those I bought later on. Not that I had the means or wherewithal to buy anything really nice back then, though!

Scoop: What were your early favorites?
GP: I focused mainly on Marvels back then. I was very much into the mutant books - Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants and Alpha Flight were among my early favorites. I jumped on board Walt Simonson's Thor run pretty early on, as well as those early G.I. Joe issues. I also recall enjoying the Amazing Spider-Man and the Lee-Ditko-Romita classics reprinted in Marvel Tales, though I could never quite get over the goofiness of Spidey's early Silver Age adventures. Red Sonja was also an early favorite as I had borrowed several issues from friends to read before I became a full-fledged collector. The only DC title that I read with any regularity was the New Teen Titans by Wolfman and Perez; I also picked up the occasional indie like Eagle's Judge Dredd series and First's Jon Sable, Freelance, though the $1.00 cover price of those titles versus the 60 cent cover price of Marvels made a big difference when I was a kid with no money!

Scoop: What are your all-time favorite comics and storylines?
GP: I've lost track of how many times I've read Daredevil #181 - that's my all-time favorite issue, though I think Frank Miller's complete obliteration of Matt Murdock's life in Daredevil #227 was absolutely masterful as well. Amazing Spider-Man #121-122 (featuring the deaths of Gwen Stacy and the Green Goblin) has got to rank up there among my all-time favorites, along with the run-up to the death of Phoenix (Uncanny X-Men #129-137) and the Wolverine/X-Men in Japan saga (Wolverine Limited Series #1-4, Uncanny X-Men #172-173). As far as DC goes, I'd say that the New Teen Titans "Judas Contract" storyline and the Batman: The Dark Knight Returns limited series from the 1980s are among my all-time favorites. Indie-wise, the Judge Dredd storyline "Block Mania/The Apocalypse War" is an underappreciated classic and one of my all-time favorites.

Scoop: How did your family react to your collecting? Were they supportive?
GP: I think outright hostile might be a better description! Not only was I spending more and more time reading and collecting comics, but I was pursuing baseball card collecting with a religious zeal back then as well. My parents thought it was all just a colossal waste of time and money. Though, I do recall that my dad drove me around from convenience store to convenience store in search of a copy of Thor #339 back when I was just starting collecting, which is a fond memory.

Scoop: Did you drift away from collecting at any point, or did you stick with them as you grew up?
GP: I was a very active collector during junior high and high school. In college, I pretty much cut back to reading just a couple of titles (Uncanny X-Men and X-Men) and spent most of the 1990s just casually collecting (though I did acquire a killer high-grade run of mid-1970s to mid-1980s Amazing Spider-Man books during this time, including what would become some of the highest CGC-certified 30¢ variants). I was also very happy when I finally acquired a copy of X-Men #94 - the book I had wanted most as a kid - in 1996. When I was younger, the thought of spending $100 for a copy of X-Men #94 had been pretty unfathomable, so I felt that I had made it as a comic collector when I finally got a copy of that book. By 1998, though, I was preoccupied with my career and so I quit collecting cold turkey. However, that hiatus didn't last long as I discovered eBay the following year.

Scoop: How did your collecting develop from that point?
GP: eBay and the Internet, followed soon after by the introduction of independent third-party grading through CGC, really injected new life into my collecting by facilitating the buying and selling of comics and leveling the playing field for everyone. Suddenly, I found myself being able to easily acquire nice, strictly graded copies of books that I had always wanted as a kid. For about 3 years, I became very active in collecting high grade books. I focused mainly on CGC-certified copies of Bronze Age, Copper Age and Modern Marvels, DCs and independents. I generally collected "mini-runs" (usually based on creative teams) of books I really enjoyed, such as Frank Miller's two stints on Daredevil, Simonson's Thor run, the Claremont-Cockrum-Byrne X-Men issues and Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing, for example.

Scoop: You have a very unusual user name on eBay and the CGC Forum message boards. How did that come about?
GP: Well, "de lekkerste" is the official slogan for FEBO, a popular fast-food chain in the Netherlands where I was an exchange student during graduate school. During that time, I developed an unhealthy appetite for FEBO's curious delicacies, from greasy croquettes to oddly tasty sandwiches. And, of course, the obligatory French fries with mayonnaise. Anyway, "de lekkerste" translates as "the most delicious" or "the tastiest."Come to think of it, I suppose it would actually make a better username for a pretty girl with an attitude.

Scoop: Do you collect any specific area of comics?
GP: I have always read and collected Moderns (though I guess they were actually Copper Age when I started collecting). I have always enjoyed reading Bronze Age books as well - Silver Age stories, with a few notable exceptions like the brilliant Thomas-Adams run on X-Men, were always a little too hokey for my tastes, and don't get me started on Golden Age! I enjoy reading the occasional pre-code horror book, but Golden Age superhero stories...forget about it.

In more recent years, I have become more of a reader than a collector of books, and have become more interested in non-superhero comics. I read most of the Robert E. Howard Conan stories as a kid and I have greatly enjoyed reading those classic Roy Thomas-scripted Conan stories through the Dark Horse trade paperbacks of the past couple of years; my CGC certified 9.8 copy of Marvel's Conan #24 is among my favorite books in my collection. I have also developed a huge appreciation for those old Warren horror magazines as well - the creative talent working on those books back then was unbelievable. I acquired a complete run of Vampirella a while back and never get tired of reading those brilliantly illustrated classic horror stories.

Scoop: You have a fairly extensive original art collection. How did you get involved in this hobby? What type of art do you collect?
GP: I somehow came across a Mike Deodato Elektra double-page splash on eBay in 2002, not really knowing what comic book original art was and never having searched it out before. Around this time, I was starting to lose interest in collecting high grade comic books, having acquired most of what I wanted (and having very modest collecting ambitions, to be sure) and not feeling really that excited by additional purchases. I ended up winning the Deodato Elektra splash and liked the idea of owning an original piece of the creative process, so I decided to become an original art collector. The next piece I purchased was a Vampirella pin-up by Neal Adams and I began collecting pen & ink covers, splashes and a few panel pages of mostly modern vintage, focusing more on fantasy and horror subjects than superheroes.

However, it was after I bought my first Enrich (Spanish artist Enric Torres) Vampirella painting in 2003 that I became a bit spoiled on pen & ink artwork and shifted my focus to collecting painted comic book and illustration art. With few exceptions, I prefer color pieces to black & white ones; I actually like those Steve Oliffe hand-colored pages out there, though not many of those pages fall under my collecting purview. Although, after focusing mainly on paintings the past couple of years, I have since gotten back into collecting pen & ink art as well, especially pieces by the Spanish masters like Jose "Pepe" Gonzalez and Esteban Maroto.


Scoop: What are your favorite pieces of original art in your collection?
GP: I would have to say that the Enrich painting "Vampirella and the Hordes of Chaos" is my absolute favorite piece - it's more than ten times larger than a regular comic art page and the image is simply gorgeous. I've since acquired other paintings by Enrich, but this one remains my favorite by far. I also greatly enjoy the one painting I have by the late American pin-up master Gil Elvgren, entitled "Stepping High" from 1964. It's hanging above my desk at home and it's a piece I never get tired of admiring. As for regular comic art, I'd say my favorite pieces are the G.I. Joe #21 complete story and my Elektra #3 cover by Greg Horn. Whether you love or hate Greg's unique style, there's no denying that the #3 cover is one of the most memorable comic book images of the modern era.

Scoop: In 2003 you purchased that complete interior art to G.I. Joe #21 by Larry Hama and Steve Leialoha, which is the famed silent issue without any word balloons. How did that come about?
GP: I won some eBay auctions for some Larry Hama Daredevil #196 pencil prelims from Ben Smith at GothamCityArt.com in 2003. When I found out that Ben, who has since become a good friend, was located just down the street (in the offices of Metropolis Collectibles) from where I was working at the time, I decided to pick up the prelims in person. While I was there, Ben mentioned that he had gotten the complete interiors to "Silent Interlude" on consignment from Mr. Hama and showed them to me. As a huge fan of the Marvel G.I. Joe series and the cartoon in the 1980s, I expressed an interest in purchasing the complete story - one of my all-time favorites and the one that absolutely everybody remembers - and we were able to reach a deal shortly thereafter. As part of the purchase, I pledged not to break up the book and I hope that whoever owns the book after me decides to keep it together as it should remain.

Scoop: Are you planning on holding this art long term in your collection?
GP: I don't have any plans to sell or trade the artwork, though who knows what the future holds. Maybe at some point I'll feel like it's time to let somebody else enjoy it. Right now, though, I'm thrilled to be the custodian of this very memorable artwork.

Scoop: What are you collecting at the moment?
GP: My love affair with Vampirella continues and I'm looking to add some published Enrich covers to my collection as well as more interior artwork by Jose Gonzalez. I'm also currently trying to collect the nicer 1970s Marvel pages featuring Red Sonja, from both her own series and her various guest appearances in Conan and other titles. In the future, I'd also like to get another Elvgren pin-up painting, a Boris Vallejo oil painting from his prime period and move further into painted illustration art, but right now I have my hands full with Vampi and Sonja and am in no hurry to expand my collecting focus!

Scoop: Do you have any specific comics or art that you sold that you wish you had kept?
GP: Nothing that comes to mind. I never buy a book or piece of art with the intention to re-sell it. If I sell something, it's most likely because I've either acquired a better comparable example or am no longer thrilled by it.

Scoop: In you opinion what do you find the most rewarding about comics and collecting in general?
GP: Over the past five years, through the magic of online venues such as the CGC Forums and ComicArt-L, as well as finally discovering the convention circuit (although I grew up in San Diego, I never made it to Comic-Con until 2001), I have had the opportunity to meet and communicate with a lot of fellow collectors and dealers with similar interests, some of whom I now count among my best friends. I would say the social aspect of the hobby has been the most rewarding by far.

Scoop: What advice do you have for people interested in collecting comics and or original comic art?
GP: I think that most people who collect what they like and stick to a budget usually end up pretty happy with their collections in the end. I don't think that those who collect for the purpose of speculation or to impress others usually fare as well.

For the original art collectors out there, my #1 piece of advice is not to get too carried away with the "original art is one of a kind" mantra that sellers have invented like a Hallmark holiday to convince you to pay any amount for a piece of artwork! Companies are one of a kind too. Real estate is one of a kind (no two properties can occupy the exact same space, right?) Fine art is one of a kind. That does not mean there aren't, in many/most cases, close comparables. It usually also doesn't mean that you are insulated against loss if you overpay, just as with any object, whether "one of a kind" or not.