Graffic Traffic

by Ryk McIntyre
illustration by Greg Prindeville

Ryk Goes to War with Marvel Empire (Pt.1)

“Hello Ma! Hello Pa! It was a great fight! I stood like this … but not for long!!!!”
– Curley Howard of the Three Stooges

For most of the time I’ve been writing this column, I worked as the manager of a comicbook store in the Boston area. I never made clear mention of this since we were also a paid advertiser for Lollipop. Conflict of interest, y’unnerstan’… But now that’s all gone, wiped out in what could be just another case of Darwinian business reality, and maybe that’s all it really is. Except that wouldn’t make a good read. And since I’m already as fond of Marvel as I am of loose bowel movements, I’ll just tell you the little epic I call “Don Quixote May Be A Moron, But He’s A Cool Moron.”

So let’s play Court Room. As prosecutor, I begin by charging the Marvel Empire with knowingly and premeditatedly betraying the same direct market that helped them become the entertainment hydra they are today, but smaller than they will be tomorrow. Let it be known that I will show how Marvel observed, tested, and manipulated the direct market even as it benefitted from this arrangement. Showing means, motive and opportunity stretching back over the last five or six years, I will prove that Marvel has been plotting the ruin of the direct market using deceptive and, quite possibly, illegal means. Business As Usual.

First off, let me explain to any who don’t know what exactly the “Direct Market” is (hereinafter referred to as DM). Basically this is a set-up of retailers, distributors and comic companies to create, market and profit from a network that allows Greater Selection and Greater Availability of comic books and related merchandise. It differs from newsstand distribution through,

A) Greater Discount – Because the merchandise is sold on a non-returnable basis.

B) Greater Selection – Most newsstand distributors are very conservative, still carrying code-approved books and little else. Also, their minimum numbers are prohibitive to small publishers.

Back in the late ’70s/early ’80s, the major companies like Marvel and DC were suffering losses. Even Archie, Disney, and such others had little room to grow. And comic stores were almost nonexistent. So along come people and ideas and distributors willing to chance it (this is a very general outline, y’unnerstan’). Move ahead now with me to the later ’80s; comics, along with the comics industry, have gone BOOM!

Now there are thousands of stores across the country, and new sensations like Cerebus, Nexus and those… those, umm, y’know, “Turtles.” All of them opened up a market that up ’til then consisted of two. The BIG TWO. Not too different from our political system (except that in comics, a 3rd, 4th, 5th party has at least a chance at survival and relevance).

So the market opened up and there was a wide choice of quality product and great deeds were done. DC Comics brought some respect to the comic art form when Frank Miller’s ultimate Batman story “Dark Knight Returns” and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s The Watchmen were reviewed favorably by the NY Times. It was “cool” to read comics! Hip people like me and you did it! (Well, you anyway…) Not to even mention the collectability! That Amazing Fantasy #15 (first Spiderman story…) was worth thousands in good condition, merely a few months after it hit the stores. TMNT (y’know… the Turtles) #1’s first printing was selling briskly at $300! Its cover price was what? $2.00? $2.50? (Honestly, I forget exactly, but we’re talking an appreciation of over 150 times the original price!) And the cry went out, “…there’s GOLD in them thar comics!”

And all the speculators, who, incidentally, had just ruined the sports card industry and coin collecting, moved in like sharks after chum. And in Marvel World, Satan stirred, sniffed the air, smelled the success of DC’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover (the 1st crossover that left permanent changes on the books involved, so that “action” stories had “consequence.” A good series – check it out if it’s ever collected in a trade paperback…) and vomited forth “Secret Wars” (y’know trees died for this…) and then “Secret Wars II” (HEY! DAMN IT! TREES DIED FOR THIS SHIT!). But the real evil wouldn’t start for another couple of years.

‘Til next time, court is adjourned.