MASON CITY – A downtown Mason city business – Oak Leaf Collectibles – celebrated 37 years of offering comic books, action figures, games and other cool items with an anniversary party Saturday, October 25.
Dubbed by owner Mike Tickal as a “Halloween ComicFest”, the celebration featured door greeters, sweet deals on lots of items, free comic books, crafts, and other artwork. One of the stars of the show was Wonder Woman (Mercedes Gridley from Algona), who arrived shortly before 11:30 AM to greet some of the visitors and to take pictures.
“My husband dressed up as Batman on our wedding day and I had pretty much this same costume, except for a white skirt,” Mercedes said. “We like dressing up.”
Door greeters Nikie Offman and Ayana Homan ushered everyone in to the party, with plenty to do inside.
Jayson Cook, shopping around Oak Leaf, knew what he liked.
“Doctor Who is the Best,” he said, before he made himself a Doctor Who super cape.
Little Kasey McLaughlin, from Mason City, was enjoying walking around with her newly made superhero cape that her sister Taylor helped make her with. Several other kids were busy making theirs, too. Making super hero capes were: Dayde Allison, 13, Xander Allison, 10, Tony Porter, 10 and Liam Allison, 8, all from Mason City. They all were enthusiastically creating their capes before looking around the store and getting their free comic books.
Oak Leaf, located at 221 North Federal Avenue in Mason City, donated 5% of all sales to the North Iowa Youth Center, with a matching 5% from owners Carmen and Mike Tickal.
