Man battles disease with comics trove ADVERTISING Man battles disease with comics trove KILDEER, Ill. (AP) — It could be a plot from a classic comic book: A mild-mannered boy with the good Spidey sense to treat his comics like
Man battles disease with comics trove
KILDEER, Ill. (AP) — It could be a plot from a classic comic book: A mild-mannered boy with the good Spidey sense to treat his comics like priceless manuscripts grows into a man who must use the valuable collection to fight his greatest foe, a rare disease threatening to rob him of his ability to walk.
Fact is, for Steve Landman, it’s a real-life predicament.
Diagnosed with anti-MAG IgM peripheral neuropathy, an autoimmune disease that attacks the nerves, Landman for months has watched helplessly as the numbness that started in his toes crawled up his legs to the point where he now moves as if trudging through snow.
Landman, 62, is weighing his options while also hoping for a cure to the disease, which can upset a person’s sense of balance to the point that walking is impossible. And an alternative to some of the current treatments has side effects that, he’s learned, don’t always work.
So, he’s turning to his collection of 10,000 comics in an effort to raise enough money to live on and fight his affliction.
“I won’t really have an income in a few months,” said Landman, a Chicago dentist who has to sell his practice because of the disease. “Even though it’s a lot of money, it’s going to have to carry me to whenever, whatever.”
Word of the online auction of 420 of Landman’s more pristine comics, a collection that is worth an estimated $500,000, has lit up the comic book world like the Bat Signal.
He said the auction house’s
