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Mob Kills Batman, or - what if the direct market faced challenge?

Charles EP M.

Well-known member
Published by SLP
While reading through an old Comics Journal article on the comics direct market (originally from the 80s), this bit:

As the Direct Market continued to grow, it caught the attention of the old-line newsstand distributors, some of whom let it be known that they were not happy about the idea of a bunch of kids invading their distribution turf. As Rozanski put it, “You didn’t get those ID [Independent Distribution] wholesaler regional monopolies by being Mr. Nice Guy.” Steve Schanes preferred not to talk on the record about his experiences with representatives of certain newsstand distribution interests, fearing even after all these years to endanger himself and his family, but according to Rozanski, “They told me that Bill came home one day and found his tires slashed.”

San Diego Comics shop proprietor Greg Pharis told the San Diego Reader (Aug. 19, 2004), “Steve was really worried about rumors that guys from the local [newsstand distribution organization], which was said to be Mafia controlled, were out to get him and Bill. He told me once that someone had knocked out his windows and he’d been personally threatened a few times… he was obviously anxious and scared, rightfully so, but you could tell he was also a little pleased and proud that he’d gotten the big guys’ attention in such a big way.”

Such stories tended to circulate more on the two coasts, especially the Eastern one. Inland distributors like Rozanski’s Colorado-based Mile High and John Davis and Milton Griepp’s Capital City apparently went unthreatened by mobsters and thugs. Rozanski told the Journal, “There was a lot of racketeering going on and I got close enough to realize I didn’t want anything to do with it.” In 1995, Rozanski said he had an opportunity to purchase several pallets of Marvel back issues from an East Coast warehouse. It was fairly obvious to him that the comics must have been left over from newsstand affidavit-return scams, meaning they had been reported to the publisher as destroyed. The price was extremely low and he was able to overcome his scruples and buy the comics, but not without reporting the incident to Marvel: “I went to Marvel and told them who the distributor was and they said, ‘We’re not going to them.'”

Marvel’s Shukin said in the November 1994 issue of Capital’s Internal Correspondence trade newsletter, “As the Direct Market grew and [ID wholesalers] took notice, they did express their dismay at someone other than themselves distributing periodicals in their service areas. Their complaints were unfair discounts — How could they compete? Frankly, I offered them identical terms if they bought under identical conditions. But of course, firm sale to the IDs was unthinkable.” Ultimately, even the most belligerent of the distributors chose to back off rather than, as Shukin said, “expose themselves to restraint-of-trade or monopoly charges.”

Rozanski speculated that the ID wholesalers would have been more aggressive in repelling the Direct Market invasion if it had gotten off the ground in earlier years. By the 1970s, he said, “they didn’t really care that much about comics anyway. The whole economies of the distribution business were changing and they were too focused on saving their core business to go after comics business.”

So what happens if Phil Seuling does have his idea earlier, or someone comes up with it first - "What if instead of using unreliable newsstands, I buy specific comics and sell them to comic readers?" being an obvious one, after all - and the vested interests get more aggressive? Add in that some definitely are mob affiliated, at least, lot of that in the earlier days of US comics.

Because the comic market in America was dying during the 70s, in large part due to the traditional distribution channels. It seems plausible that not having the direct market (even just not having it on the coasts) might have wiped out large chunks of it. And no direct market, no explosion of indie publishers. No Ninja Turtles!

But the cratering on US comics won't impact on the UK ones, European ones, manga etc... or will it...?
 
It would be ironic for that to happen,all things considered.

This way of distributing comics might die after awhile though,especially after RICO becoming a thing and the downfall of the big crimes families in the Nineties.
 
Because the comic market in America was dying during the 70s, in large part due to the traditional distribution channels. It seems plausible that not having the direct market (even just not having it on the coasts) might have wiped out large chunks of it.

Since the "superheroes = big bucks, superhero comics = small bucks" paradigm was very present even back then, I wouldn't be surprised if it pushes the "comics as glorified trademark filing forms" up a lot for the survivors.
 
Since the "superheroes = big bucks, superhero comics = small bucks" paradigm was very present even back then, I wouldn't be surprised if it pushes the "comics as glorified trademark filing forms" up a lot for the survivors.

Which could be a problem - Marvel was still trying to get any films made by the early 80s and DC could only boast Superman and Swamp Thing. "Okay, we'll keep Spider-Man going but nobody's ever going to care about an Iron Man film"
 
Because the comic market in America was dying during the 70s, in large part due to the traditional distribution channels. It seems plausible that not having the direct market (even just not having it on the coasts) might have wiped out large chunks of it. And no direct market, no explosion of indie publishers. No Ninja Turtles!

But the cratering on US comics won't impact on the UK ones, European ones, manga etc... or will it...?
I wonder if the US comics scene ends up very manga influenced. So instead of having a western and eastern style, you have the European style and the US-Japanese one. As for the market structure, the OTL collapse of the American comics industry actually slightly postdates the webcomic, so a collapse in the 70s is going to have a very different impact on the independent scene.
 
I wonder if the US comics scene ends up very manga influenced.

Likely, if there's not much US comics but anime is still around as influence. There's one problem though - while manga was known about, the two companies that first brought it to American in a big way were First Comics and Eclipse. Both need the direct market to exist. Manga would probably make it over because anime will be around, but it could be delayed quite a bit. Who'll do it?

(Maybe Marvel! They did reprint Akira for a bit)
 
Likely, if there's not much US comics but anime is still around as influence. There's one problem though - while manga was known about, the two companies that first brought it to American in a big way were First Comics and Eclipse. Both need the direct market to exist. Manga would probably make it over because anime will be around, but it could be delayed quite a bit. Who'll do it?

(Maybe Marvel! They did reprint Akira for a bit)
I suppose another possibility is America going full graphic novel, discarding serialization for a while. Or a manga style system forms with magazines publishing (but not owning the work of) independents.
 
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