The Comics Rack

Comic Book Memories Pt. 3

   Since the last installment of this memoir, I've come across some bits of business that I either 1) glossed over in an attempt to meet a deadline, or 2) just located in one of my many boxes of magazines. So, to set the record straight, here is a bit of addendum:
   Wonderworld Books originally opened under the name of Graphic Story Bookshop and I have narrowed the date to sometime (probably spring or summer) in 1973.
   In a similar fashion, the magazine Wonderworld was originally named Graphic Story World and the name change of the magazine occurred at the same time as the name change of the store.
   The first location for the store was on Broadway, but east of Long Beach Blvd. Within a short amount of time, it moved to the west side of Long Beach Blvd., and didn't move to the 3rd Street location until the late 1970s.
Now, back to our narrative...
   Just as comic shops were a rarity in the early 70s, Wonderworld Books was a rarity among comic shops. First, was its stock of European comic albums and manga. These European collections looked very much like the graphic novel collections that we see today, except they were of a larger size (think the old Marvel Graphic Novels), although some contained a number of issues of European comics bound into hardcover. The manga were of the same size as the standard manga on shelves today. The art of these books, both European and manga, was astounding to say the least, especially to someone like me, who had been raised on Disney and DC and paging through them was always a treat. The problem, however, was that these books were all, with few exceptions, printed in the native language of the publisher: primarily French and Italian for the European volumes with the manga in Japanese. Since I have always believed that comics need both the pictures AND the words to tell their story, I passed on these, except for the rare book that had been translated into English.
   Second, was the amount of American comic material that Richard and Fred stocked, something that was a bit time consuming in the days before the direct market. To those of you who are only familiar with Previews it may come as a shock that the early comic shops did not have any one-stop source for comics, fanzines and the like. Rather, the store stock had to be gathered from a number of sources.
   Most fanzines, like The Comic Reader and RBCC, could only be purchased direct from the publisher and a store could only get a discount rate by buying a certain number of issues. Fortunately, most of these publishers allowed a store to have a standing order, but there was still time involved in paying each publisher separately and in setting up terms. For comic specialty items, such as portfolios, comic art books and the US editions of comic reprints, these were usually purchased from Bud Plant, who had opened his doors in 1970 (the same Bud Plant who is still in business today!). I recall that there was a certain dollar amount that had to be met to get a decent discount. In order to reach this dollar amount, and also just to help out all of us collector types, I recall that Richard would let us know when he was planning to make an order with Plant and then would let us peruse the Bud Plant catalog and pick out any choice items we would like ordered.
   For US comics, Wonderworld Books depended on a magazine distributor, just like other early comic shops. The direct market was just in its infancy during the early to mid-70s and this meant that most stores had to obtain their comics through the same distribution channels that serviced grocery stores and your local 7-11. The comics and comic magazines purchased in this way were completely returnable, so there were no unsold copies left over, meaning that comic shops did not have to worry about over-ordering any titles. If the local magazine distributor was interested in working with a comic shop, then it was also possible to increase orders, keep a minimum number of copies of low selling titles or to even buy the comics that were returned from other outlets, if the comic shop found they had sold out on a particularly hot item.
   These advantages came at a price, however. The discount on comics from a magazine distributor was only 30%, which, at the price of comics at the time, meant that a comic dealer only made 6¢ profit on each 20¢ comic sold (by contrast, it is possible today to get 40%-50% discount through a direct distributor). This minuscule profit was the reason most stores carried back issues: it was impossible in the early 70s to run a successful comic store just on the sale of new comics alone(and it probably wasn't even possible during the height of comic sales in the 80s). There just wasn't enough profit, which was one reason DC experimented with the 60¢ 100 pagers and Dollar comics: to increase the profitability of comic sales. Wonderworld Books' magazine distributor was a local firm at first, but they weren't interested in the needs of the store. Richard soon found a magazine distributor in Whittier, Kolb News Agency, who was interested in selling their comic allotment and was willing to keep Richard supplied. Because Long Beach wasn't within Kolb's territory, Richard had to drive up to Kolb's warehouse to pick up the comics, but the service he received was worth the inconvenience and they continued their business relationship until Richard closed in 1996.
   It was in the treatment of the comic books, however, where Wonderworld Books was true rarity. Richard did not believe in selling back issues, especially in an era when, according to Overstreet, any comic was worth double cover as a back issue. Rather, comics were for reading, discussing and enjoying. The only reason to collect comics was in the intrinsic worth that one might find in any given book, whether it be the art or the story. This is one reason why the early direct shipment of comics from Seagate was not used. Aside from the shipping costs, which would have eaten up any extra profit gained from the higher discount, the idea of having to eat a publisher's mistake was something that Richard did not want to do. As mentioned above, comics alone couldn't pay the rent, so, although they were an important part of the operation, Wonderworld Books also stocked a full line of science fiction and mystery books, along with many of the science fiction and mystery magazines and pulp reprints of the time: making the store a double threat in a time when interest in popular culture was on the upswing.