Bryan Neely
Founder and CEO

Bryan's interest in comics began at the age of 11 when he met his best friend and fellow comic book fanatic Tim Beck in middle school. Instead of spending their lunch money they would save it and visit their local comic shop where they would buy whatever comic books their meager funds could buy. Over the years Bryan's interest for comics grew as did his longstanding friendship with Tim. Tim tragically passed away in 1994 from leukemia leaving behind his three year old daughter.

Bryan attended college at Ball State University and graduated in 1997 with a degree in Telecommunications with a minor in English. In 1995 he began working in the telecommunications department at Ball State University in Indianapolis, where he discovered he had a natural talent for original ideas in computer programming. The school took notice and immediately hired him to design several well received websites for the university. During this time Bryan launched a website named Marvel World that featured data and related information exclusively focused on Marvel comic books. The website was started and continues to be Bryan's tribute to the memory of his best friend and comic aficionado Tim Beck.

Since the initial launch of Marvel World in 1995, the site has grown and was later renamed ComicsPriceGuide.com. The website features hundreds of publishers and thousands of individual comic book titles. It has integrated a wide variety of new and upcoming technology since being founded and was honored by Apple, Inc. as their featured web application of the day on the Apple website for the industry breakthrough iPhone on February 25, 2008.

Though Bryan works non-stop on ComicsPriceGuide.com he is still an avid collector of comic books, with a love for reading and collecting all ages and genres. However, the center of his comic book collection focuses mainly on Silver Age superhero titles and Dell photo covers.

Bryan can be contacted via email at: bryan@comicspriceguide.com

Tom Gordon III
President

From an early age, Tom has been surrounded by collectors. As a fifth generation collector in his family, his interests and knowledge are something he notes as being a genetic trait. He has been attending various flea markets, antique, comic, and toy shows over the past twenty years throughout the country. A truly passionate collector and historian, Tom has a life-long interest in comics and character memorabilia. While he is known for his knowledge in the field of comics, his expertise comprises a wide variety of collecting areas including numismatics, political Americana, civil war memorabilia, antique advertising, and general Americana.

Tom has been featured in a variety of interviews on the subject of comics. He was featured in Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine in April 1993. In 2006 he was an industry expert on VOOM HD network's television program Treasure Seekers, which spotlighted San Diego Comic Con International. He has also been a panelist at comic conventions.

In 1997 Tom founded Monumental Collectibles, which specialized in vintage comic book and character memorabilia. He has bought and sold rare comics from a variety of pedigree comic collections including the Edgar Church/Mile High, Pennsylvania, Okajima, Western Penn, and Gaines File copies. He is known for having a sharp eye for detail regarding comic grading. He has also spent time tracking many of the changes in the hobby and observing the collectibles marketplace. In 2000 he became a major supporter of CGC the only independent third party comic book grading and certification company. He believed, correctly, that CGC would create a more level hobby and allow entrance to new collectors.

In 2003, he joined Geppi's Entertainment Publishing & Auctions through Gemstone Publishing as Managing Editor where he assisted with a wide variety of publications including The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, Hake's Price Guide to Character Toys, Official Price Guide to Disney Toys, Scoop, and various other projects. He was also involved in the collecting, compiling, and documenting of pricing data relating to comic books, rare toys, and character collectibles.

Tom's ability for locating unknown and non-cataloged collectibles has allowed him to assist and contribute to various publications. He is an advisor and contributor to The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, Hake's Price Guide to Character Toys, and many other numerous industry publications. Tom is also a contributor/writer to The Political Bandwagon, an industry publication relating to political Americana.

His freelance writing was featured in the spring 2008 issue of Heritage Magazine when he authored an article on another one of his passions, historical Lincoln memorabilia and the history surrounding the Lincoln assassination.

In June of 2008, he joined ComicsPriceGuide.com and was named President of the company. He joined to assist in the continued development of an online comic book price guide which would have greater interaction and distribution of pricing data for the hobby.

Not only is he an avid collector, including pre-Golden Age comics to modern comics, radio premiums, coins, art, political memorabilia, Lincoln memorabilia, and historical Americana. He is widely respected and has formed lifelong friendships with many of the hobbies best and brightest.

Tom can be contacted via email at: tom@comicspriceguide.com

Brandon G. DeStefano
Production Coordinator

Possessing a lifelong love for the art of sequential storytelling, Brandon decided at an early age to dedicate his life to working professionally in the comic industry. After graduating from Frostburg State University in 2004 with a dual bachelors degree in Mass Communication and Graphic Design, he moved to New York to take part in an internship program with Wizard Entertainment.

Upon completion of the internship, Brandon returned home to Maryland to begin working for Diamond Comic Distributors (DCD). After a year of working in the Marketing Communications department on several of the publications produced by Diamond, Brandon was promoted to Editor for Gemstone Publishing, a sister company of DCD. While at Gemstone, Brandon contributed to the production of the book Pop Culture With Character – A Look Inside Geppi’s Entertainment Museum.

After leaving Gemstone in 2007, Brandon began a freelance career, which has included published articles in the Hake’s Guide to Character Toys, the Official Guide to Disney Collectibles and the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. In 2008, he joined the team at ComicsPriceGuide.com as a contributing writer and has since moved from Staff Writer to Production Coordinator.

In addition, in 2008 Brandon got his first professional break in the form of an 8-page back-up story in Starbridge Media’s NASCAR Heroes. The story was both written and lettered by Brandon. He most recently completed the lettering for the original graphic novel (OGN) Term Life, from Image Comics and has begun working on the lettering for an OGN called Cockatoo News.

Brandon will be graduating from the University of Baltimore in May 2011 with a Master’s Degree in Publications Design.

Brandon can be contacted via email at: brandon@comicspriceguide.com.

Mark Squirek
Editor

Like many collectors near his age, the Batman TV show made an indelible impression on Mark. But the truth is that he was collecting comics as early as his sixth birthday. His early love of the classic newspaper strip Peanuts led his Grandmother to buying him a paperback collection of those time-honored strips for that sixth birthday. Later that year, on a snowbound bus trip between Cleveland and Pittsburgh he picked up a Dennis the Menace Dell Giant off the spinner rack at a highway rest stop. Taking it to the register his Grandma also picked up the tab on that book as well.

This was the beginning for him. From there it was a quick jump to Batman and Superman. At 12 he was pestering the local library to order a copy of Coulton Waugh’s The Comics and Jules Feiffer’s The Great Comic Book Heroes so that he could find out more about the history of the medium.To finally see an a story about the Golden Age Hawkman is such a prestige format convinced him that comics were not only art, they were an part of American history.

Many years later his hobby became a job as he began working at Diamond Comic Distribution as a Customer Service Rep for the West Coast. Over the next six years he enjoyed building a rapport with retailers and vendors around the world. He also received an invaluable education about the inner workings of the industry from both inside and out. He began writing a column for Comics and Games Retailer which grew into a second column for Comic Book Marketplace. From there he moved into a sister company of Diamond’s called Diamond International Gallery where he was named as the Senior Manager of Comic Art and Auctions. As he set up a retail website dealing in collectibles, he also began writing for the weekly e-mail newsletter Scoop.It was then that he began dealing with auction houses, art, book collectors, and memorabilia dealers across the country.

DIG also held a small in-house museum for which Squirek conducted numerous tours for visiting retailers as well as private collectors. During this time he was also named the Comic Manager for Hake’s Americana and Collectibles. He wrote text for the Hake’s Guide to Disney Collectibles and also contributed work to many other books such as The Big Big Little Book Book and The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide . While working at DIG he also participated in the design and layout of the Geppi Entertainment Museum. After it opened he also conducted many tours for numerous visitors.