We've just lost Bill Liebowitz, owner of the Golden Apple comic book shops in Los Angeles and one of the most prominent, influential retailers in his field. Bill had been ill for some time with what seemed to be a very bad flu. He died last night of an apparent cardiac arrest and is survived by his wife and business partner Sharon and sons Damon and Ryan. Bill was 63 years old and had loved comics all his life. Somehow, he made a strange career turn and became an accountant but in 1979, he felt the calling and opened his first comic book shop in a small space on Melrose.
I was one of his first customers and I watched him grow to the point where he moved to the larger, current shop a block east on Melrose. At first, it was a part-time affair for him but the empire grew to include a few more outlets and the business grew to the point where around '85, he abandoned accounting — except for his own, of course — and became a full-time comic retailer. Comic book shops were still a relatively new institution and a lot of the early ones were run by fans who had more enthusiasm than business acumen. Bill had both, to the extent that executives at all the major publishing companies would cite him as the model of a guy who really knew how to operate a store. (He also knew how to operate a yo-yo with the best of them but that's another matter.) Golden Apple attracted an amazing clientele not only of comic book creators and fans but of movie stars and studio executives, and Bill's parties and in-store events were truly memorable affairs.
Bill was not shy about sharing his expertise. As long as you weren't in direct competition with him (and in a few cases, even when you were), he would gladly offer advice and help, and a lot of stores owe their very existence to Bill. Heck, the mere fact that there is a comic book industry today is in part due to the skill and passion of Bill Liebowitz…a heckuva good guy and a great friend to all who love comics.