Gear Live Comic Book News: Articles Tagged Comic Books

Comic Book Circulation: 1965

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Independent,

Comic Book Plus has loaded up a ton of old stuff, including complete copies of Capa-Alpha, the legendary (and still publishing) apa (amateur press association), of which I was once a member in reasonable good standing. This is from K-a #20 (May 1966), pages 21 and 21 at the link. It’s from a zine by Andy Zerbe called Saraband.

Zerbe collected the circulation reports from the various comics that published them and posted them in a list. These should be referring to the average sales from 1965. And not every title is listed; Zerbe reminded in his introduction that not every publisher and not every title had a circulation report.

There are some Marvel and DC titles included, but you’ll have to go to the link to check them out. I find this kind of thing fascinating as a snapshot of the industry at a specific time.

Naturally, looking at the numbers, any publisher today would kill to have sales like these, but it was a different era, newsstand only and there’s no going back. Here are four of the publishers Zerbe tracked: Charlton, Archie, Dell and Gold Key.

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Go Now: Green Valley Book Fair

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

I love a book sale and one of the best ones in the country is the annual book clearing house that goes on several times a year in Mt Crawford, VA. It’s the Green Valley Book Fair.

I’ve written about them before, and what a great place they are for a variety of terrific remaindered books. In addition to all the usual categories, they always have a nice selection of graphic novels and trades at discounted prices and it’s impossible to get out of there without dropping $50 (at least).

Opening day is October 6 and the sale runs through October 21 and then it’ll close for a while so they can restock.

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Top 10 Surprises @ BEA

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Editorials,

I love BEA, better known as Book Expo America. It’s the premiere American book show - a place to mingle with publishers, authors, editors, bookstore owners and see what books will be coming out in the very near future.

Before BEA took up permanent residence in NYC, it used to pop up periodically in Los Angeles, and I always made it a point to drop in.

One time, while I was eavesdropping, I heard two publishing stereotypes - one even wore a brown corduroy sportcoat with leather elbow patches - discussing the future of the industry: “These blogs, they’re just so much nonsense, right?”

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Comic Con International Stays In San Diego!

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Editorials,

Dear Comic Con,
Thank you.
That is all.
—Tom

[Artwork: Photo of the San Diego Convention Center, by and © Tom Mason]

Warner Bros. Comics & Stories

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Movies, Television, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,

Well, at least Batman will still be published out of New York!

I’m no pundit and I’m certainly no reporter or journalist, and I’m not even a DC insider, although I should point out that before Paul Levitz bought Wildstorm, he tried to buy the company I co-founded, Malibu Comics.

I was saddened, though not surprised that Warner Bros. was splitting DC Entertainment into two divisions and keeping all their old school business in Manhattan. My sympathies go out to all DC employees who are getting let go and to all freelancers who are getting their books cut out from under them. This is not an easy time, and it’s not going to get easier.

I think lost in all the discussion and rundown of DC’s recent shift is that the biggest piece of the puzzle has yet to be explained or admitted to. Warner Bros. which folded DC Comics into a new company called DC Entertainment just a year ago, now took DC Comics out of that company and moved DC Entertainment – along with all of the money-making portions of the company – to the West Coast.

DC Comics, the comic book division, is now its own stand-alone entity. An island of old-school publishing left without its support network. This has been hailed as a victory for the comic book people.

It isn’t. It’s a wake up call.

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The Twelve Days of Comics

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

[Sung to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas]

On The 12 Days of Comics My True Love Gave To Me:

12 Prices Increased
11 Books Rescheduled
10 Tweets from Tyrese
9 Failed Relaunches
8 Websites Bitching
7 Variant Covers
6 Lame Crossovers
5 Separate Earths
4 Big Events
3 Lawsuits
2 OGN’s
And some movie deals for books I don’t read!

Happy Holidays!

[Artwork: Cover to Batman #27, yanked from Tomztoyz.]

Comic Books And Saturn (The Cars)

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

Now that GM is shutting down their Saturn division, let me tell you how comic books helped me get a really nice, reliable car. Years ago, my old car went on life support and, reluctantly, since I could no longer count on my friends to keep picking me up by the side of the freeway, I had to get another one. I hate buying a car more than I hate trying to get a hotel room for Comic-Con International in March. So I needed a plan.

At the time, I was intrigued by the ads for Saturn cars. They were owned by GM but had a separate factory somewhere near Davy Crockett’s family home in Tennessee, used their own parts and built their cars using a team that wasn’t connected to GM corporate. Also, the happy TV commercials showed their smiling employees enjoying picnics in the park. It was, they claimed, a different way to make a car.

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