Mike Carbonaro Retiring From Convention Promoting with Final 2012 NYCBM Show

Press Release:

MIKE CARBO’S LAST COMIC BOOK CONVENTION.

CONVENTION IMPRESARIO, MICHAEL CARBONARO, “THE PRINCE OF POP CULTURE’, AFTER 40 YEARS OF CONVENTION MAYHEM AND MAGIC IS DOING ONE FINAL COMICBOOK CONVENTION BEFORE LEAVING TO CONCENTRATE ON THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD OF COLLECTIBLES: BUYING AND SELLING GREAT STUFF.

New York, N.Y. – March 2012 – MIKE CARBO, founder of the Big Apple Comic Convention, and internationally renowned authority on American comic books will produce one last dynamite convention with none other than Stan the Man himself: Stan Lee. Mike, also known as “The Prince of Pop Culture,” states emphatically: “I am only retiring from running comic book conventions, but I will never retire from making deals buying and selling comic books. That’s why I have created my newest venture MIKE CARBO’s COMIC BOX to do just that!”

After successfully running many of the earliest and best comic book conventions in New York City for decades, Mike Carbo will host his very last comic convention Saturday, March 31st at Manhattan’s Penn Plaza Hotel, 31st street and Seventh Avenue across from Madison Square Garden. The convention, showcasing hundreds of dealers from around the nation, will also feature many of the world’s top comic book artists, and popular entertainment celebrities. The doors open at 10AM and the show will rock till 7PM. General admission is $12 at the door.

To kick off his latest comic books & collectibles buying company – Mike Carbo’s Comic Box – Mike will host a unique, and very private, two-hour party the evening before the convention, on Friday March 30th, at a still secret location in Manhattan. Mike’s Special Guest of Honor to help him kick off his new venture is none other than STAN LEE, 89-year-old Marvel Comics “father,” founder and ex-chairman of the board. A very limited number of guest invitations are on offer for $200 per person. Attendees will get to meet, greet, and chat up close and personal with Stan, including a photo with “The Man,” along with the opportunity to share in the conversation, and fine foods at our gourmet food bar.

An enterprising and successful entrepreneur since he began buying and selling comics at age ten, Mike remembers setting up comic sales from a milk crate, on the carpet “outside” the doors of Phil Seuling’s comic convention in New York City. Mike didn’t think he was doing anything wrong till Phil, the “godfather” and worldwide originator of comic book conventions, saw what Mike was up to. Phil kicked the box, saying “Hey, you didn’t pay for a table,” Mike started to cry. Phil then invited him inside to sell along with all the other dealers, if he paid the table fee. Mike was only 13 years-old at the time, and he and Phil became fast friends.

Immediately successful, Carbo put himself through private school with his earnings. Throughout the 1970s Mike was not only selling at other conventions, but he began his own comic book convention business. “The very first convention I ran myself was in 1974, at the “Italian Charities” center on Queens Boulevard, when I was 13. In 1977, we produced the Rolling Rock Show, a gigantic rock n roll amusement park in the old Americana Hotel.” A few years later, he ran the very first Baseball Card Convention ever at the New York Mets, Shea Stadium. Mike recalls, “it was bedlam in the outfield behind the bullpen, the place was swarmed with people.”

From 1981 to 1997, ‘Carbo’ ran his own very successful comic book store, Continental Comics, in Queens, New York. In 1996, Mike and Vincent Zurzuolo (presently of Metropolis Comics) created the very first Big Apple Convention Convention at St. Paul the Apostle church on 58th St. and Columbus in Manhattan. For 12 years the Big Apple Convention was the most successful privately owned comic convention in New York City, over a quarter of million tickets sold, thousands of dealers and artists presenting. In 2009, Wizard World took over the Big Apple Convention while Mike remains a consultant to this day.

After the March 31st Convention with Stan Lee, Mike will concentrate all his efforts on buying and selling comics and collectibles as he builds MIKE CARBO’s COMIC BOX COLLECTIBLES, his greatest entrepreneurial adventure yet!

To purchase tickets to either the Friday party or Saturday convention,

CONTACT US AT mikecarbo@gmail.com