Fire That Guts Store Is Called Hate Crime : Arson: Thousand Oaks comic book shop is marked with anti-Semitic graffiti. Blaze damages three other businesses.

In what authorities say is the latest in a series of hate crimes, a Thousand Oaks comic book store was set ablaze Friday morning and the building was desecrated with swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti.

The blaze, which caused nearly $300,000 in damage to the Heroes and Legends comic book store and three adjoining businesses, began at 12:40 a.m.

“This is a tragedy of the first order,” said Rabbi Alan Greenbaum of Temple Adat Elohim, where three arson fires were set in 1991. “This was an all-encompassing remark against a group of people.”

Myron Cohen-Ross, 59, who owns the Thousand Oaks store and another in Agoura Hills, said he has never had problems of this kind in the eight years he has been in business. “I get weird types of customers in here,” he said, “and we get along well. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

By Friday afternoon no suspects had been identified. The fire was being investigated by the Ventura County Fire Department and the Sheriff’s Department.

Cheryl Azair, associate director of the Los Angeles office of the Anti-Defamation League, said the fire Friday “confirms a trend that we have seen in the last year that anti-Semitic incidents are more violent.”

The study, conducted by the league, found that violent acts directed against synagogues, cemeteries and individuals rose 29% nationwide from 1990 to 1991.

“No community is immune from this kind of hate,” said Azair.

Cohen-Ross, who was at his Thousand Oaks store Friday morning trying to salvage the few collectibles spared by the fire, said he kept most of his valuable stock in the shop.

“I had irreplaceable collectibles,” he said. “I had original artwork, gold albums, autographs. How do you replace all that?” The merchandise destroyed in the fire was worth about $200,000 he said.

Among the collection were original comic strips, signed first-edition books, and Disney and Hanna Barbera cels.