Fat Jack's Covid Recovery Fund

Spring is the season of rebirth. We feel like we're almost reborn. With your help. Thanks, so much!!

Batman? Superman? You could be a TRUE Superhero with a little help!!

We'd like to take this time to say THANKS! once again. Have a great weekend. BTW, do you have any friends who are into comics and collecting that might not see this effort? Could you maybe share on your socials? Thanks again.

Wow! Just Wow!!! Thanks for your help. We are really making progress. BECAUSE OF YOUR HELP. Now onto the next hurdle. Again. Sincerely. Thank You!

Thank you all for your support. It’s helped quite a bit and we were able to keep up with the COD payments to our distributor. Even after GoFundMe takes out their fees, we’re almost at $19,000. Hopefully with the money we’ve been paying our distributors we can go from COD back to terms. We’re working hard to get there. We still need to get to at least $80,0000, so we’ve moved the goal up to $35,000 now to get to the next hurdle, which is to catch up more on back distributor bills. It’s getting there a little at a time. I really want to thank you all for helping us to keep Fat Jack’s in business. The community is great, and if you can also help spread the word, it would mean a lot to us.

Well, friends, there’s no other way to say this. We’re in a terrible situation and we desperately need your help. Forgive me if this is all over the place. Mike didn’t want me to ask for help, as we received help before and gotten out of debt, and he’s been trying to make it work for the last year and a half, but it’s been tough and I was finally able to convince him to do this, and am asking as I'm putting my thoughts down.

We are working as hard as we can, to overcome the non-existent and slow sales while we were closed, we just can't 'get there. Right now, we need to put together $20,000, in a hurry. This is not the totality of our problems. That would need (at least) $80,000. but to keep our head above water and ensure we can get our new books still, we need to raise these funds as soon as possible to keep moving forward.

How did we get here? The main reason is, of course, covid closedowns from a year and a half ago have finally caught up to us. We took SUCH a hit during the pandemic, and even though we filled out the paperwork for the second PPP funds, the government ran out of money by the time they got to our paperwork. We’ve been trying to make it work ever since. But in addition to the shut down and lost sales, since then inflation and lost sales from some of our subscribers and regular customers unable to pick up their books has been adding to the problems and hitting harder and harder lately.

My boss, and friend, Mike has been pushing to not ask for help for over a year. He could have asked sooner, but didn’t want to burden anyone but himself. Mike thought we could make it with hard work and serving the community, but we’ve fallen further behind.

But who or what is Fat Jack's? Over 46 years ago, our founder and boss, Mike, started selling comics at the beginning of the comics market and helped build it in the Phil Seuling days and one of the first comic stores in the country, and what was to become the oldest comic shop in Philadelphia and one of the 10 oldest in the country, if not the world.

Through all of this, Mike's suffered a bout of illness and working while sick, even ending up for a very short time in the hospital. And you can imagine how hard it is to stay on top of things whether sick for an extended period of time or worse from a hospital bed.

Fat Jack's has been a staple in the comics industry. We've had great creators such as Matt Wagner, Joe Matt and Bill Willingham as customers and friends, and had signings with other creators including Neil Gaiman, Neal Adams, Tom King, Charles Soule, Garth Ennis, JG Jones, Darick Robertson and many others.

Who or what is Fat Jack's? The dedicated employees who work so hard to keep things running smoothly. And the past employees who are still like family.

The customers are also part of our family. Daily I hear from someone "I used to come here as a teenager!!" Some of these customers have been here nearly from the beginning.

I’m asking for all of us, and especially for Mike. He’s been running the store through thick and thin for almost 50 years. It would be great for Fat Jack’s to be here to celebrate our 50th Anniversary.

I know that's a bunch of people that you don't know, but they're deserving. and in need. Can you possibly help us out? Help us continue to bring comics to the community and fans?

Any and all help is appreciated.