BID Mailbag

Originally published June 30, 1995, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1128

We’re cracking open the letter vault here at But I Digress; let’s see what we’ve got:

(Letters may be edited for length, but no meanings will be changed or distorted, such as: “Peter, The Incredible Hulk is the best example of lousy comics” becoming “Peter, The Incredible Hulk is the best example of… comics”.)

First, Rodney D. in Montoursville, Pa.: Rodney, a stouthearted conservative whose letter I ripped to shreds last time out, bravely enters the lion’s den once more:

Stop! Do not read this letter!! This letter may contain material that is offensive to you!! Yep, it’s me again, Mr. Conservative. The guy who felt insulted by your liberal attack on conservatives but still respects you enough to read your column and take time out of a busy day to write you this letter!

Peter, if I didn’t respect you I never would have written you that letter. If I had no respect for you I would have said to myself, ‘Here’s another crackpot liberal spouting off at the mouth with a vile attack on good conservative ideas and people,’ and it would have gone no further than that. But because I do respect you, as both a person and a writer, I must write and tell you that in my own opinion you are making a huge mistake with this refusal to write BID just because you might (probably) offend someone with it.

This stance makes you look like a coward. I am not calling you a coward; if I thought that about you then you wouldn’t be reading this letter (assuming you’ve read it to this point). But if you quit writing BID because you are afraid (?) of offending some of your readers, then you will certainly lose my respect. And I cannot in good conscience buy material written by someone I do not respect.

I can understand your getting tired of verbal assaults. My favorite commentator (Rush Limbaugh) is assaulted daily and I often wonder how he stands it…

I hope you don’t opt out of writing BID in this manner. I hope you’ll get your feet back under you and get back to writing.

To help you out here is an idea for a future BID column: Why would Marvel Comics open its own line of stores, if its only objective is the bottom line? The only advantage I see with this course of action is that Marvel will have a bit more control of how its products are promoted at the retail level. It doesn’t make any sense to me for Marvel to: 1) buy or rent a site location; 2) pay for the physical layout of the store (counters, shelf space, a sign, and a security system); 3) pay for the upkeep and maintenance of the store; 4) pay the utility bills; 5) pay the for the advertising needed to inform the public as to the location of their new store, and 6) pay the employee’s salaries and benefits.

As you can see (and probably already knew), setting up and operating a store is expensive. It doesn’t make sense to me for Marvel to pay these expenses, when there is already a retail system in place with which to sell and promote its product and which cost Marvel Comics absolutely nothing.

One last note: I don’t know who might have been offended by the Babylon 5 episodes you wrote, but I can tell you I really enjoyed them, and I hope you’ll write some more B5 episodes.

Whew, I hadn’t intended on writing this long a letter. Here’s hoping I can still respect you in the morning.

Well, as you can tell by this time, Rodney, the two weeks of the igloo was both to fill in time while I was off filming Space Cases (the conclusion to that foray running herein next week) and to try to drive home a point.

The point being, of course, that politically correct conduct and fear of giving offense, taken to its logical conclusion, renders one completely incapable of saying or doing anything. Indeed, I feel that’s been Bill Clinton’s greatest problem: wanting to be liked. As opposed to, say, Newt Gingrich or Rush Limbaugh, who apparently either don’t care if anyone hates them, or even thrive upon it.

I had only intended to do the igloo gag for one week. But in the intervening time, DC went exclusive with Diamond, as the column imagined it would, thereby putting the final icing on the entire scenario. So I couldn’t resist the idea of running it a second week with the addition of prohibit signs through Aquaman and Babylon 5, both products of Time-Warner.

Oh, and as for my B5 episodes: As a matter of fact, I did catch flak over “Soul Mates,” due to the subplot with the newly-human Delenn having a bad hair day and cramps. Some people considered such subject matter to be too trivial, too insulting, or too stereotypical. So, women everywhere: Don’t you dare complain about bad hair or cramps ever again. You’re playing to stereotypes.

As for your points about Marvel not opening a store: Your points are well taken. Unfortunately, Rodney, they’re not quite on the mark. You’re thinking too small. It’s not Marvel that would open the stores, per se; it’s New World, which I believe Ron Perelman is trying to build into an entertainment empire. All the difficulties about opening stores didn’t stop Disney, did it? Or Warner Bros., with a chain of stores currently crammed with Batman toys, shirts, figures, collectibles—indeed, everything except a single Batman comic (or, for that matter, the novelization of Batman Forever, grumble grumble.)

Indeed, the prototype Marvel “store” in FAO Schwarz is, likewise, devoid of comics, except for a few “collector’s packs” on a wall. It isn’t necessarily about comics anymore. Indeed, as Marvel has made clear, it’s hardly about the direct market anymore. It’s about licensing. It’s about cartoons, toys, games, pasta. Merchandising, Rodney. That’s where the big bucks are, and don’t think for a New York minute that comics are essential in the equation.

That’s one of the ironic aspects involving DC’s playing catch-up in all this. I’ll never forget a Marvel editor years ago, telling me that the difference between Marvel and DC was that Marvel was about producing comics, whereas at DC the comics were secondary to the licensing concerns. And now they’ve switched places, so much so that DC has to scramble to jump aboard the exclusivity bandwagon. Unnecessarily so, in my opinion. DC could have seized industry leadership and really undercut Marvel by swearing fealty to the direct market and supporting all the remaining distributors. Instead, it did what it did.

Of course, fans who were collectively yelling that they were going to boycott Marvel seem far more reluctant to say the same about DC. For DC they’ll make excuses, or they’ll say they don’t want to boycott DC because they like DC comics. It’s like saying you’re going on a diet and you’re swearing off boiled asparagus but not chocolate cake because you like chocolate cake. Ah, the joys of morality of convenience.

As for the Marvel stores: the latest I’ve heard on the grapevine is that not only is the FAO Schwarz Marvel department not an aberration, but also Ron Perelman is lusting after an entire toy store chain, namely Kay-Bee. Imagine, if you will, New World acquiring Kay-Bee. Nice fit, that. Outlets into malls and local communities throughout the country. A Marvel section in every store, consolidating all Marvel merchandise into one area, jacking up name recognition. Setting the stage for merchandise available only through Kay-Bee (not unprecedented: There’s merchandise that’s Toys ‘R’ Us- and FAO Schwarz-exclusive already). Not to mention tie-ins and cross-promotions with other hot licenses, such as Casper (Harvey Comics published by Marvel) or Power Rangers (a Power Rangers comic is coming from Marvel in September; Power Rangers shirts were on view at the Marvel department of FAO Schwarz).

I believe that Marvel/New World desires to reach a point where “comics,” “superheroes,” and “Marvel” are synonymous in the public eye. I believe that, and no less, is its goal, which is somewhat more involved than “a bit more control of how its products are promoted at the retail level.”

Think big, Rodney. Think big.

Moving on, we’ve a letter from Ben B. from Madison, Conn. I knew this was an important letter the moment I saw the envelope, because the front was festooned with the following admonitions: Read First Please, Please Read First, Very Important, Important, Urgent, Quadruple Urgent, Mr. David OPEN NOW.

All right, already, Ben! Let’s hear what you have to say:

I’ll get right to the point: I just read BID in CBG #1115. I am very scared. I’m an optimist, but what you wrote seems very likely to happen. I am 13 years old, and I have been reading comics since I was 11. You don’t seem the type of guy that always says that ‘those kids just like super-heroes, they don’t appreciate comics at all.’

I don’t think you’re one of those people, but, if you are, let me tell you right now I love comics. I have devoted my entire life to them and I study comics history with a passion.

I don’t just read super-heroes. I read stories that make you think and comics from small publishers and comics from all the genres there are such as ECs, Bone, Hepcats, Grendel, Dark Horse, Hulk, One Bad Rat, Eightball, and Milk & Cheese, and I love and cherish them all.

Now that you know, I hope you can take me for real. In fact, I know that I will be a very important person in comics. I can feel it, because I have determination that’s greater than anything and an indomitable will. Anyway, I agree with you that these events could happen and I would like to do something to try to stop it.

I understand that money is everything, but the industry as a whole is becoming way too corporate. I mean, whatever happened to the fun of comics? Everyone’s thinking of money and the retailers buying the stuff, but they’re thinking wrong. The readers, we are the ones holding all the cards. We have the power, and they don’t even realize it—and neither do most of us.

The Big Guys want to get younger readers. Well, fat chance with the prices on the comics. The only reason I’ve been able to afford them is because I’m away at school and make $20 a week. And then they get rid of all their older readers by making the stories for kids.

I want to form something that might save this wonderful art that we are blessed to have called comics. I want all the fans, readers, collectors—even, I hope, some of the professionals—to unite, come together, and show the Big Guys we’re not just bøøbš giving them money. We have to stop this before it becomes a complete oligopoly and we are the only ones who can stop it and saved this great medium of ours.

Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is a genuine, accept-no substitutes comic book fan. A reader of superheroes (hey, not just anyone uses the phrase “indomitable will” in a sentence, to say nothing of “oligopoly”) and yet also capable of appreciating the fine work turned out by smaller publishers, as well.

Ben, I think you’re great. I mean that. I wish there were a ton more fans like you. And the best way for there to be more fans like you is for you to get out there, as you’re trying to do, and get them excited about comics. Word of mouth remains the most reliable testimonial.

Realize, Ben, that the Big Guys have always been corporate. Always. And it’s always been about money. Always. Fantastic Four was begun, not because Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had a burning desire to publish their adventures, but because publisher Martin Goodman wanted to cash in on the popularity of the Justice League.

What’s changed is that fans have gotten smarter—or more cynical, take your pick—and that the companies have gotten sloppier and less able to toss clothes over the naked fact that comics to them is a business, just like IBM or American Airlines or Exxon.

The difference is that, in the publishers’ quest for money, they’ve wound up producing comic books and characters that live and breathe and touch something within people that fires their imaginations, excites them, and creates for them entire new modern mythologies.

It’s more important, now more than ever, for fans to support retailers. Buy small-circulation titles, buy Dark Horse and Image. Hëll, buy Marvel and DC, if you like the comics. There’s no more reason for dropping Marvels and DCs if you don’t like the corporate mindset than there is to stop reading Bone if you don’t like Image. And if you discontinue reading a title for any reason, find something else.

Because, as much as we dislike the notion that it’s all about money, ultimately that’s what it’s going to come down to: the retailers making enough to pay their bills (unless anyone advocates going to 100% subscriptions, which seems kinda clunky to me.)

I don’t think the superhero market is going to collapse, even if Marvel really does go in the direction I believe it will. Certainly, comics as an art form won’t. It may change, mutate, shrink—but go away? No. Because the bottom line is, as long as there is demand for something, there will also be someone there to provide it, be his name Stan Lee or Ben.

(Peter David, writer of stuff, can be written to at Second Age, Inc., PO Box 239, Bayport, NY 11705. Hey, was he the only one to hear about a movie called Braveheart and think it was about the Care Bears?)