One mom’s mess is another man’s moneymaker

Think having a hobby is a waste of time? Think again.

Mild mannered and innocuous looking Khalid Cheema has a secret identity. No, he isn’t a visitor from another planet. He’s not a masked vigilante who lurks in the shadows. Nor was he ever bitten by a radio-active spider.

By day, he works at a telecommunication company, but at night Khalid is an avid comic book collector, with a collection of over 20,000 comics, who runs an online comic book store named ‘Hobby Mutant’. In between, he tries to get some exercise, save the planet or the human race multiple times on one of his video game consoles, watch some good movies, and generally hang out with his family.

Rawalpindi native Khalid describes himself as a far less exaggerated version of the trio from ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons.  “My relatives think I am a bit soft in the noggin for collecting comic books or as they say bachon wali books and my mom is worried sick about the space they take up.”

Khalid’s love of comics began in 1989 when he first picked up an Archie comic digest. “After that I used to buy them every weekend. My dad used to take me to the Sunday bazaar, which at that time was the Juma bazaar, and I used to sift through the books to find the comics.” It was there that Khalid found his first DC comic — Superman#75.  Popularly known as The Death of Superman, the comic featured Superman squaring off against a monster named Doomsday and ‘dying’ at the end of the issue. “I bought a near mint copy for Rs.10,” he recalls proudly. He hasn’t stopped collecting since.

Khalid (centre) with cosplayers at Comic-Con

Now, Khalid purchases around 200 comics each month. “I currently have nearly twenty thousand comics. I stopped counting a couple of years back and I consider myself lucky if I get enough time to take them out of their boxes and admire their covers. I guess with age comes more responsibility and though I would love to read every single issue, I hardly get time.”

Khalid also has a hidden passion for collecting action figures and currently owns a few hundred. “I stopped collecting figures since I was running short of storage space and my wife gave me a choice: “Comics or action figures; pick one”. I went with comics. And it was a good decision; I was really tired of getting comments like ‘abhi tak khilono say khelta hai?’ from all sorts of relatives and friends.”

With all these comics and figures, Khalid has difficulties choosing his favourite. “I would go with a series instead of a single issue. I guess my collection of the Wonder Woman series is one of my favourites. For single issues, Sensational She Hulk & Savage She Hulk #1s after being signed by comic book legend Stan ‘The Man’ Lee are right there at the top of my prized collection. The Watchmen series signed by comic book artist Dave Gibbons and The New 52 Batman signed by its writer Scott Snyder are also great additions to my collection.”

In the category of action figures, Khalid’s favourite is the 12” Hot Toys figure of The Joker. “The figure is so realistic that if you take a close up shot you can’t tell the difference between Heath Ledger and the action figure. Don’t take my word for it, look up the images.”



Khalid’s comics are all lovingly stored in plastic sleeves in funny long boxes that are currently taking up way too much space in his house. Khalid expects that if he ever has to move, it will be because his comic books need their own room. “Since comic books don’t have a spine to stand up on, they have to be stored in polybags with an acid free back board to avoid bending or folding them. The bags and boards are acid free or else there would be a gradual yellowing of the comic books with age. The books are then kept in sturdy boxes known as short or long white boxes aptly named for their colour and their capacity.”

A few years ago, Khalid toyed with the idea of starting a business and when he met his future wife Maryam in 2008, she suggested he turn his hobby into a business. For Khalid it was an epiphany; he had always struggled to find comics in Pakistan and he was sure that others were probably having the same problem. With that in mind, Hobby Mutant started its operations in early 2010 as the first comic book specialty store in Pakistan. Khalid currently offers comic books, monthly subscriptions, graphic novels and posters. Complete comic book sets are also available and he also hosts competitions and auctions on a regular basis. While Hobby Mutant’s online presence is still its Facebook page, Khalid is hard at work making a dedicated website for his business.

Comic books have a very niche market in the country and it begs the question:  is a comic book store, even an online one, a profitable venture? “HM started off slow, but now sales have reached such a level that the business is self-sustaining and shows great promise.”

All the comics come directly from the United States. “We usually take advance orders from our customers and once the comic comes out in US, we get it here within 10-15 days. So readers in Pakistan aren’t that far behind when it comes to the latest issues.”

Stan Lee signing Khalid’s issue of Sensational She Hulk #1

Khalid has no plans to expand Hobby Mutant to a physical presence, “We need to keep the prices of comics at an affordable level while maintaining a healthy profit margin. If we add the operational expenses of a store, the prices would need to be revised up and we don’t want that.”

Once the website is launched, he will be offering an inventory of 12,000 comics with a price ranging from Rupees 150 to thousands, depending on the item. Currently subscriptions to each comic book range between Rs. 350 to Rs. 420 per issue. So you can get a $4.00 comic book for Rs.400 on average. “We are talking about getting issues such as Action Comics, Batman, X-Men, Avengers, Spiderman, and Justice League at that price. HM offers almost every comic book and publisher such as Marvel, DC, IDW, Dark Horse, Image, that is available in the US,” says Khalid.



Apart from collecting and managing the store, Khalid is also working on a top secret project, “We are looking for talented writers and artists. We plan on making HM into a hub where fellow enthusiasts, casual readers and artists come together and discuss everything superhero and comics related.”

Khalid dreams of a day when comics become as popular in Pakistan as they have around the world. Maybe then, we can have our own comic convention right here in Pakistan.

Contact Khalid at http://www.facebook.com/hobby.mutant

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, January 27^th, 2013.

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