{"id":2633,"date":"2017-11-07T14:08:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T22:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/?p=2633"},"modified":"2024-01-09T14:11:41","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T22:11:41","slug":"maggies-world-056-shopping-for-comics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/maggies-world-056-shopping-for-comics\/","title":{"rendered":"Maggie\u2019s World 056: Shopping for Comics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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MAGGIE’S WORLD BY MAGGIE THOMPSON<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maggie\u2019s World 056: Shopping for Comics<\/h1>\n\n\n
Maggie Thompson<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Four decades ago, Phil Seuling and Jonni Levas announced incorporation of Sea Gate Distributors in The Buyer\u2019s Guide<\/em>. It was a formalization of the evolution of what would become the direct market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Just because I could find\u00a0All-Star Comics<\/em>\u00a0#38 in the late 1940s didn\u2019t mean the newsstand also carried\u00a0Little Lulu<\/em>\u00a0#1 from Dell. The distributors weren\u2019t the same. But I was a kid then and didn\u2019t realize it.\u00a0All-Star Comics<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9 2017 DC Comics.\u00a0Little Lulu<\/em>\u00a0\u00a9 2017 Classic Media, Inc.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
An Origin Story<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

You young whippersnappers may not recall the comics-collecting challenges that preceded November 1977, so let\u2019s take a trip in the WABAC machine. (Or maybe you don\u2019t even remember \u201cPeabody\u2019s Improbable History\u201d? Mr. Peabody and Sherman? But I digress.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was looking for comic books on the newsstand in the 1940s and 1950s, I didn\u2019t get to pick from all the comic books being released that month. I only saw what that specific newsstand put on display, and it didn\u2019t occur to me that I might be missing what others took for granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were many comic-book series, many comic-book publishers, and even a bunch of comic-book distributors back then. The racks for Gilberton\u2019s Classics Illustrated <\/em>titles were separate from the racks for Timely, DC, and Hillman comics. Dell was the name of the distribution company that also filled racks with paperbacks carrying the Dell logo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was 1955, and ads in E.C. titles carried ads for the company\u2019s \u201cNew Direction\u201d titles. I knew what I was looking for\u2014but\u00a0Extra<\/em>\u00a0#1 never showed up on my local newsstand. \u00a9 2017 E.C. Publications, Inc.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Wups!<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Come to think of it, I did eventually realize that there might be a problem. The year was 1955, and E.C. comics had been carrying announcements for its new titles. The ads for its \u201cNew Direction\u201d line listed the ones to look for, and I was keeping my eye out. I found Aces High<\/em>, Impact<\/em>, M.D.<\/em>, Psychoanalysis<\/em>, and Valor<\/em>. But Extra!<\/em> #1 never showed up at my local newsstand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was relieved to find Extra!<\/em> #2 later\u2014but it was years later (and long after the demise of the Extra!<\/em> series) before I was able to add that first issue to my collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And comics collecting in the 1960s continued to be a challenge. As Don and I tried to keep up with new comics, we discovered that it required weekly visits to a variety of shops large and small. In 1962 came the added twist of newsstands that might carry Dell but not Gold Key series\u2014or vice versa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, the publishers themselves were facing the problems inherent in not being able to tell how well titles were doing until they reimbursed sellers for what hadn\u2019t sold. (After all, a newsstand could claim its payment back by returning the cover or a portion of the cover as evidence that a copy hadn\u2019t sold. Later, \u201caffidavit returns\u201d meant a newsstand could simply report that copies hadn\u2019t sold.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Footnote: In 1966, editor Bill Harris told me that King Features had solved the problem: It would supply its King Comics line in packs that would ship from shop to shop; if they didn\u2019t sell in one location, they would simply be forwarded to the next vendor\u2014and so on, until someone bought them. I asked how he\u2019d know if he had a product that no one wanted to buy. He indicated that he didn\u2019t think it\u2019d be a problem. (The problem was for us. We wanted to buy the titles but couldn\u2019t find anyone selling them. Eventually, we did locate a seller: the gift shop of a local hospital.) King\u2019s Flash Gordon<\/em> #1 was September 1966; the last issue was #11, December 1967.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were, in other words, challenges for both buyers and sellers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comics Specialty Shops<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFair warning: For adult intellectuals only!\u201d Zap Comix<\/em> #1 came out in late 1967 and found distribution in shops catering to customers looking for \u2026 Well, many were adopting an alternative lifestyle, and a number of small publishers found those stores provided enough sales to justify producing new comic book titles. Collectors began to seek out \u201cunderground comix,\u201d back-issue sellers began to provide them, and a new distribution system evolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Comics collectors\u2014and current and would-be comics-shop owners\u2014were notified in this issue of\u00a0The Buyer\u2019s Guide<\/em>\u00a0of the incorporation of the company that had already begun to supply their wants for new comics. \u00a9 2017 Alan L. Light<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Within a decade, entrepreneurs approached mainstream comic-book publishers with a deal: They\u2019d pre-order comic books, agreeing not to demand a refund for unsold copies in return for a much higher discount than the newsstands (which received credit for unsold copies) got.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the direct sales market was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A variety of such distributors soon entered the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within a couple of decades after Phil Seuling and Jonni Levas announced the incorporation of their distribution company, nine separate comic-book distributors were members of the International Association for Direct Distribution. And there were a dozen or so comics publishers that focused distribution entirely within that direct comics shop market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heck, even the \u201cmajor\u201d publishers were producing material that shipped only to comics shops. Marvel\u2019s Dazzler<\/em> #1 was dated March 1981. DC\u2019s Camelot 3000<\/em> #1 was dated December 1982. Their target was the serious comic book collector, the customer who savored the variety offered by the artform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evolution<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Not that things were simple. One of the early complications came because newsstand comics eventually carried UPC codes\u2014and that meant that those copies could be returned for credit. So there had to be a different print run for the covers of comics shop issues. (You may have noticed back-issue comics that carry only a design, rather than a bar code, in the UPC box.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, though, the comics shops developed sales systems that meant even direct market copies needed UPC codes\u2014but codes that had to be different from those on newsstand copies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what about the increasing number of variant editions? (Marvel\u2019s Matt Ragone and Paul Curtis, for example, were given the job of developing bar codes for different versions of the same Marvel issue.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1996, Diamond became the industry-serving distributor and began to offer such outreach as its Comic Shop Locator Service. In 2002, it began the annual Free Comic Book Day in which comics shops provide a variety of samples from around the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the point of this trip down the twisting memory lane?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s to remind us all (yes, including me) that we should appreciate and support our comics shops, realizing that they offer us what we could only dream of in the 1950s. It\u2019s one-stop comics shopping in which comics shops (which, by the way, pay for those samples they hand out every May on Free Comic Book Day) are the focal point for comics readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s not true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I doubt any of us looking at comic books more than half a century ago could have dreamed of what comics shops offer us today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucky us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maggie\u2019s World by Maggie Thompson will return the first Tuesday in January 2018 here on<\/em> Toucan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Written by<\/p>\n\n\n

Maggie Thompson<\/div>\n\n\n

Published<\/p>\n\n\n