Before you read Part 2 of this article, you might want to read Part 1.
If you know anything about comic book history, you know that the business endured a major slump in the fifties. Folks in the industry — some of them, at least — were worried that there would soon be no comic books. If that sounds insanely alarmist, you need to remember that almost all those people had grown up on pulp magazines and many had worked on them…and by the mid-fifties, there was almost no pulp industry left.
Comics had gotten a bad name because of the more violent and sexy ones, and a lot of newsstands were giving up on comics, plus there was the serious worry of government-imposed censorship. A lot of comic book publishers did go outta business and those that remained were not unhappy to see their competition thin out. In fact, some of them were jubilant. When most of the remaining publishers formed the Comics Code to self-censor comics and improve the image of the field, Jack Kirby believed that the primary goal — and if not the primary then certainly the secondary — was to stop new publishers from getting into the marketplace…and indeed, almost none did.
In the mid-to-late seventies, a new form of distribution took over getting comic books to the marketplace. It was called Direct Sales and under it, comic books were no longer returnable. The retailers bought them and sold them and if they didn't sell…well, that was the retailers' problem. Some would tell you that Direct Sales saved the industry. The old system had become dysfunctional and it wasn't working. The new system did…and there was a key difference once Direct Sales caught on: There were suddenly a lot of new publishers.
Between the time most of the major publishers formed the Comics Code and the time Direct Sales started up, it was almost impossible to start a new comic book company. The major publishers controlled distribution and they didn't let newcomers in. The few companies that tried — Tower, Milson, Myron Fass, Skywald, one or two others — didn't last long. Milson (aka Lightning Comics) published three issues of Fatman the Human Flying Saucer and two of Tod Holton, Super Green Beret before folding up shop.
In the early seventies, I was involved peripherally with two attempts to start new companies. The Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate wanted to publish their own comics of Tarzan, Korak, John Carter of Mars and a few other E.R.B. properties. They had popular characters and the necessary funding. What they didn't have and couldn't get was distribution. They finally decided the only way to get their characters on the stands was to let D.C. publish them and that arrangement did not end well for them.
Almost the exact same thing happened when Hanna-Barbera decided to try and publish their own comics. They wound up having to let Marvel publish them and that didn't end well for them. You might think those deals didn't end well for DC or Marvel either but I think at both companies, there were at least some folks who were very happy to have effectively blocked potential competitors.
There really were no new companies to speak of until Direct Sales Distribution became a significant way to sell comic books. Direct Sales offered something that regular magazine distribution did not. There were no off-sale dates. Comic books were not returned for credit. Like I said, the ones that didn't sell right away became the retailers' problem.
So now let's go back to the example of Action Comics that we talked about in Part 1 of this article. Under the old distribution method, an issue would go on sale and then it was supposed to remain on the racks until it was purchased or until the next issue arrived, at which point the unsold copies would be returned for credit. But that wasn't the way it usually worked. Usually, as new comics came in, the retailer would replace comics that had been on the rack for a while with newly-arriving comics.
After all, most stores didn't have room for an unlimited display of comic books. Comics didn't make them that much money. So that issue of Action Comics didn't get four weeks of display in most stores. It would be lucky to get two weeks and obviously, that cut deeply into sales. At one of the stores where I bought comics in my teens, display space was so limited that comics stayed on sale for one week. They were delivered every Tuesday and Thursday…and every Tuesday, the store sent back everything that was unsold.
The store was open for fifteen hours a day so a comic that arrived in the Tuesday shipment was purchasable for about 105 hours a week and one that arrived on Thursday got about 75. Which brings us back to the Big Town Market located at the corner of Pico Boulevard and La Cienega located — I just figured this out on Google maps — a 2.8 mile bus ride from my home. Here's that photo of the place again…
There were places closer to me that carried new comics…so why did I from time to time hop on a bus and ride to and from the Big Town Market? Because they sold old new comic books. Big Town was a big store and they had a big space devoted to big comic book racks and they didn't return their unsold comics promptly.
They only sent unsold comics back when they were so wrinkled and shabby from kids pawing through them that no one would buy them. If I missed the latest Action Comics at the stores that were closer to where I lived — and it was easy to do that at the store that sent everything back every Tuesday — I could almost surely find a copy at Big Town.
Those who collect current comics in this century have it easy. They may not have a comic book shop near them but whatever store they do get to probably has all the recently-released issues and in good condition. Back in my day — and yes, I know just using that phrase is showing one's years — we had to go to our newsstands at least once a week and then hunt about for what was sold out before we got there. So perhaps once a month, I had to make that long bus ride to and from Big Town. At least I had something to read on the ride home.
And as I said when I started this, I don't think I ever bought anything to eat at that market — not a candy bar or a bag o' chips or anything Just comic books. I know food is a necessity of life but when I was that age, so were the new comic books.