Originally published July 6, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1442
Spider-Man, having just saved Mary Jane from the clutches of a super-villain, lands with her on the rooftop of a Manhattan building. He exchanges a few words with her, then quickly bolts, vaulting off the roof with a mid-air somersault thrown in for good measure.
From a comic book point of view, this is fairly routine stuff. Except it wasn’t a comic book.
Originally published June 22, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1440
April 27, 1994
Teacher: So class, today we’re going to discuss where you went on Take Your Daughter to Work Day!
Jessica: My Daddy’s a caterer, and he works in a restaurant!
Lindsay: I went to the gym, ’cause my Mommy’s an aerobics instructor.
Courtney: My Dad’s a doctor. He helps people feel better.
Gwen! (age 9): My Daddy has a very important job. He sits around all day and plays on his computer in the basement. I went with him to the Central Offices. It had a bunch of video games and toys and a Batmobile. Everybody there’s real nice and some of them even spend the whole day coloring! It’s so much fun.
Teacher: Gwen!, what exactly does your father do?
Gwen! (still age 9): He writes comic books!
I’m afraid that I’m going to come across like a cranky fan sitting in my rocking chair complaining about the kids running around on my lawn. Nevertheless, recent instances of fan entitlement are starting to get on my nerves.
I’m not talking about previously discussed situations such as fans coming up with all sorts of excuses for stealing material and claiming that it’s okay to do so. Those are entertaining as always, but not really big on my mind at the moment.
No, I’m thinking about the current fans of “Once Upon a Time” who are not only convinced that their views are not being represented on the series, but are going after such blameless targets as the actors, targeting them with hostile tweets and such. And you thought it was bad when a villainess in a soap opera couldn’t go food shopping without being harassed by customers.
Originally published June 15, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1439
Assorted stuff…
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Oh yes… summertime memories of comics…
There I was, six years old, relaxing on a playground, hearing the sounds of childish laughter from all around. I was leaning against a tree, enjoy a cool breeze wafting from the east. I was reading a Harvey Comic, the adventures of Casper.
I heard a low chuckle and looked up. Several boys towered over me. They appeared to be behemoths, gargantuan in stature. In retrospect, they were probably about nine years old.
“Look at the baby reading baby comics!” they hooted, grabbed it out of my hand and ripped it to shreds, leaving me fighting back tears.
Ah, summer memories…
Originally published June 8, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1438
Well, well… Wizard’s got itself some attention, hasn’t it.
The comic computer boards lit up when Frank Miller torn up an issue of Wizard in the course of his speech at the Harvey awards. The same refrain was heard repeatedly: Wizard had it coming. Wizard’s a piece of garbage. Every axe anyone had to grind with the magazine, every bone that had already been picked over, was resharpened and dusted off and brought out again. Because, y’know, “Frank Miller is a legend in the comics industry” (as Wizard president Fred Pierce told us) and when Frank Miller takes aim at you, you know you’ve been shot at.
Today is Kathleen’s birthday and I am reminded once more of how incredibly fortunate I am that she is in my life.
First of all, there’s the obvious: if she were not here, I’d be dead. The only reason I went to the hospital when I was stroking out was because she insisted I go. If it had happened at home, with me on my own, I’d have died on the living room couch certain that I was simply feeling tired.
Second, she takes care of me on a daily basis, doing everything from preparing meals to making sure I have my barrage of pills.
Third, she is a wonderful mom to our daughter.
Fourth, and most important, she is my best friend, my best advisor, my best everything. If she were not in my life, I wouldn’t have one.
Thank you for being with me.
PAD
Originally published June 1, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1437
I have to admit that, in the old days in Marvel direct sales, our best friends were the fine folks at DC Comics. Why? Because the programs, the approaches to sales, all the stuff that Carol Kalish (then-head of direct sales) came up with, was not only great in and of itself, but it always made DC look anemic in comparison. Most of the retailer programs had their origins at Marvel. Carol made them relatively easy to use, made the terms understandable. There was co-op advertising, rack programs, cash register programs, book programs (making books on improving business available at heavily discounted prices). In short, she made it a policy to go out of her way to make the retailers and distributors understand that Marvel was, and would always be, their friend.
And sure, the distributors used to get antsy, certain that at some point Marvel would try to shove aside the middle man by self-distributing, but those concerns would always be brushed aside. We didn’t have the manpower, we didn’t have the national set-up, and what it ultimately came down to is that Marvel simply wouldn’t be that stupid. Why go out of our way to shoot ourselves in the foot, when instead we could go out of our way to make our customers happy… our customers being the distributors, and by extension, the retailers (making the readers happy was editorial’s job.) When distributors would be angry about something, we went out of our way to placate them. When they were annoyed by a Marvel policy, we went out of our way to explain—to as many people as necessary, in as many ways as possible—why this particular policy had been developed. What need it filled. They may not have always agreed, but usually they understood, and I think on some level they appreciated that we had taken the time to go (say it with me) out of our way to address their concerns.
Now, y’know, we were just dumb sales folks back then, working for a company that was making money hand over fist, increasing sales, expanding the venues in which comics could be found, spreading good will. We lacked the foresight, the commercial acumen, the sheer business savvy of those who would come after us, all of whom were so much better, brighter, and cognizant of what was required to take a decades-old, thriving force in the industry and plunge it into bankruptcy.
We didn’t realize that all one had to do was go out of one’s way—not to make people happy—but to hack them off.
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