the Lottery Party: Two Step Three Step

Still being not an account of boobies, I realize the maelstrom of a fevered pitch from the last installment demands further clarification. As such, I want to share some additional thoughts on retail and distribution.

Each is a vital part in the chain, and each is symbolic of the middleman working magicks between the artist and the world. The window, the mirror. Think of the kinetic power that is unleashed when hammer meets anvil. Without that energy then both objects, both ends, are static and so meaningless, devoid of purpose for anything beyond simply being. Comic book stores and distributors alike are important, and each have their place in bringing the work of creators to the eyes of the readerships.
In similar vein, I feel lately as though I am that same center between too many damn worlds. I may not wholly identify with the plight behind the controversies of monopolized distribution practices and territorial shopowners, but I know now that my view has served me well enough that it may benefit others too.
Of retailers, that increasingly neglected link in the food chain that many believe is becoming an endangered species altogether, I have some ideas that I would kill to see transgress. Obviously, the very best thing they have going for them outside of pull lists is without a doubt Free Comic Book Day. Let’s see more of this level of ingenuity, please. Let’s see more stores hosting random events like cookouts where instead of traditional book signings creators can play the role of guest host for the day. Let’s see retailers reach beyond distributors and try to see things in broader terms, like extending more interesting arrangements so as to maintain relationships directly with the creative community itself. It’s one thing for a store to focus on gang warfare mentality in hopes of overpowering their competitor across town, but why not think in more regional terms, even a national level. I want to see retailers do what they can in thinking outside the box to better represent stores in general, to spread word of their existence near and far. Not just staying afloat in times of economic woe, or even stuck in the basic collector and hobbyist aims. Represent not only your location, but your trade at large, in all of your dealings. Set the example for how to not only stay alive, but to blossom and grow. It can be done. Competition alone is in actuality rarely, if ever, healthy. Competition can be its own variety of soulless poison. Anyone can destroy, but very few can build.
Of distributors, I have been looking into the history of the problems at hand. Currently, everyone is hooked on the crackdealer ethics of Diamond. In the early 90’s however, there were still a small number of valid distributors calling the shots. This was complicated when Marvel purchased Heroes World, and DC signed the first major exclusive with Diamond. In the 80’s, when the direct market was born and stumbling through its puberty, there were numerous distributors, to the point of a collective similar to a union in place, so that there might be bare minimum of stepping on anyone’s toes. Now, many folks today believe a big cause for the current state of distribution being somewhat directly stemming from Marvel’s gluttonous meltdown in the 90’s. There is more than a little truth to this. Although, what many people today are quick to forget is that DC had its own gluttonous era towards the end of the 70’s, known as the DC Implosion. Dozens of titles were cancelled underneath the weight of the greedy negligent business practices, some even before reaching the point of proper solicitation. This was, luckily enough for everyone, before the real age of the direct market system had been fully established and explored.
I always wondered if their surviving that brief downward spiral may have forced certain decision makers to begin to see things differently. It was not too many years later when the first major crossover was unveiled to the world, Crisis, wherein the entire mainstream universe of DC’s publishing line was completely reformatted to better fit the times. Books were cancelled, books were born, and books were changed forever. They even hired the writer Peter Sanderson to literally go through, read and study the entire history of the company’s output- every single comic they had ever produced- all for the purpose of having the needed angle to see how things could be restructured. And, they created continuity, which bled behind the scenes along with a matured pedigree of growth, from a lowly comic book publisher to a respected publishing division of the megalithic Time Warner. Comics grew up in the 1980’s, as evidenced by the post-Crisis Sandman, Watchmen, and Dark Knight. In turn, retailers adapted to this newfangled direct market system and its inherent promises of bounty. Also in turn, certain distributors made a ton of cash over this suddenly dire need to deliver these more adult-friendly reading materials to the longtime fans who had also grown up along the way.
Incidentally, I am of the mind that Jim Shooter was doing more than his share in keeping Marvel not just relevant throughout the period of onwards and upwards growth, but keeping them as the only real contender to DC. He may have rubbed some the wrong way, but Marvel still owes the man a hell of a lot.
And what does this history excursion mean exactly, with regards to the here and now?
Cycles. Beautiful cycles, is all that living ever was and ever will be. From the whiteness of the beginning to the blackness of the end to all of the many shades of gray inbetween. History repeats itself. Nothing is ever really as complicated as we make it out to be. But god how people today crave their drama! Times have been down before. Times are always down, in turn. The chain of the industry will keep pulling the load, back and forth and down and up. Provided, if retailers can aspire to be more like the lamented Rory Root, and if everyone can grow up enough to see the logic in having multiple alternatives in distribution. The wisdom of previous generations, if you will. I believe it may have a solid place in the current scenario.
Because ultimately, this is and will continue to be, a need for simplicity, for semantics. Keep things grounded and small enough so that a personal voice can still be attached, and you will guarantee better days ahead, for retailers and distribution. Keep the passion higher on the food chain than anything so short-lived as money, and everyone involved will want to keep the chain rolling along. Those who care not have no damn place hereabouts anyhow.
Black and white.

by Richard Caldwell, Managing Too Many Words
richardcaldwell@comicnews.info

space cowboy

Richard Caldwell

View all posts by Richard Caldwell
Richards website