What do you do?

BOOKSTORE CLERK
Clarence Thrun
Big Brain Comics

History in this line of work:
I’ve been here for five years. I was working at the Triple Rock as a kitchen manager, and one day a friend who worked at the College of Comic Book Knowledge in Uptown asked me to help out while the owner was at a convention. A month later, I was working full time. Later I came here.

What drew him to this vocation:
My father and his stepdad met at a drugstore, talking comic books. My grandma wondered who this guy is who’s talking to her son. So they met, started dating, and got married.

My dad doesn’t read comics anymore. He worked at U-Haul and occasionally a person would leave stuff behind. One day someone left a pile of comic books behind and Dad would read those to me. I remember Spider-Man as my first stories. I read those until about first grade and then got into books. In about sixth grade I started again with comics, but stopped abruptly as soon as Tim Burton’s Batman came out—I hated that! But when I quit smoking I wanted something to occupy my time and spend the money I was saving on cigarettes. So it was back to comics.

Health insurance benefits:
I pay for health benefits myself.

Fringe benefits or perks:
It’s weird. The hours and the salary are not benefits. The discounts are great, but there’s so much … there’s no “free” here. I respect the job and my boss is a good friend. There’s great conversation here—no Hulk vs. Thing arguments—and it’s nice we carry actual books. I enjoy working here, I really do.

Education and employment background:
I didn’t finish college. I’ve worked in restaurants, including a Mexican restaurant in Milaca, Minnesota. I did a punk rock show on KVSC in St. Cloud called Undercurrents.

Drawbacks, hassles, or hazards of the job:
I have free time. But I can’t take off for a month if I want. And the pay isn’t great—I happen to live in the cheapest place in downtown Minneapolis, and that helps keep me afloat.

Interests outside of work:
I’m a writer. Short stories, book reviews, no blog stuff, all autobiographical. I’m working on a series of short stories, a project where I try to do one a month over a year. I want to put out a small, self-published collection. My influences are Nabokov and Murakami—daily, mundane stuff with bits of the supernatural thrown in nonchalantly. That seems so real, doesn’t it? My stories are that way—bad dating tales—and tend to be funny.

Family:
I’m single.

Housing:
I do caretaking duties at this house and pay only $750 a month. But it’s a great house—three bedrooms in Eliot Park. I have a roommate and my friends live upstairs.

Transportation:
I almost always walk to work. I drive on payday so I can deposit my check, and I’ve got a secret spot where the parking’s cheap.

What he wanted to be as a child:
I wanted to be a writer. So I’m doing pretty much what I want.

What else, if anything, he’d rather be doing:
Nothing in Minneapolis. If I lived in another city, I wouldn’t work in a comic store. I can afford to do this in Minneapolis and it’s the right thing.

Where he sees himself in five years:
I can’t see a move not happening. I see myself in another city, like Los Angeles, or coming back from another city. For instance, I’d go to L.A. for a few years, establish myself as a writer and come back. I don’t want to never come back—I like Minnesota.


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