The Comics Rack

Comic Book Memories Pt. 6

   As I mentioned last time, the early part of the 80s are a bit of a blur in my mind. I'm pretty sure that I came on board at Wonderworld Books around 1982 and that Richard hired me full time in 1983 during a period of change for the store. Richard bought out his partner Fred's interest in the business over a period of time and in (I believe) 1982, changed the name from Wonderworld Books to Richard Kyle, Books; a name that better reflected the content of the store. About the time that I came aboard, the store was still about comics, but had expanded its selection of genre fiction (science fiction, mystery, horror and fantasy) and also began an expansion of the general magazines (By the mid-80s, we were probably the largest independent bookstore in the Long Beach/Los Angeles area and had the largest selection of general magazines in Long Beach). Sometime in the midst of all this, I also received the title of manager and I pretty much took over the ordering of the comic books and also made all the trips to the various distributors. I don't remember the circumstances of why Richard made me manager, but I do recall that doing all the distributor runs was a result of Richard's taking a vacation.
   Dennis Wheary, a good friend of Richard's was getting married, after having moved to (I think?) Washington state (Dennis had known Richard for a number of years and, in 1976, co-published the first modern graphic novel, Beyond Time and Again by George Metzger, with Richard, under the imprint of Kyle and Wheary). Richard decided to go to the wedding and left the majority of the running of the store to me, including the trips to the distributors. Why this particular incident is burned into my brain is because it was: 1) the only time Richard ever took a vacation in known memory and, 2) Frank Miller's Ronin shipped the week Richard was gone and I was in an absolute panic over how to best display what was a very non-descript cover (Miller's popularity won out over the book's design). Upon Richard's return, I told him that I actually enjoyed going to make the various pickups and we decided that this would become a regular part of my work week. Two of my regular stops each week were at Pacific Comics.
   Pacific Comics Distributors was an outgrowth of a successful chain of San Diego comic book stores founded by Steve and Bill Schanes. Although I'm not clear on the date of their opening, I'm fairly sure that Pacific opened not long after Seagate distributors: probably within about 2 years. The main corporate offices of Pacific were located in San Diego, but they had a distribution warehouse located in Los Angeles just down the street from the Shrine Auditorium and USC. They also had a breakdown warehouse in Sparta, Illinois, where, I guess, they were able to save some money by sending smaller shipments to the west coast, but I don't know for sure.
   There are a number of memories that come to mind when I think about the old days of Pacific, particularly how the whole operation of getting the comics for the store took place. Ordering was always a challenge. In the old days, we had an order form, lots of posters and flyers from the comic companies about what was coming out, a description of creative teams on the books (mostly complete) and then whatever we picked up from the fan press and our customers. That was it! When I first started working on the ordering, I also recall that there was a split discount rate for books and that we had to order in quantities of 5: not 3, not 187, just 5 or 190, or whatever, so long as it was divisible by 5 (both these hurdles changed very soon after).
   The Friday morning pickup of new comics was always interesting. The Pacific warehouse was an old, cinderblock building that looked quite industrial. There was never any parking on the streeet and, if you parked in the driveway, you could depend on having to move your car to let someone else leave. Upon entering, you would see numerous stacks of boxes along a counter with store names written on them in magic marker. The bleary-eyed staff would be in various states of collapse around this area after pulling another all-nighter, yet always available to help you load your books in your car. Behind the counter would be stacks of extra copies of the week's comics, which could be picked up and added to the week's order. Some of you with inquiring minds may wonder why there were extras and there was some method to the madness. First, there were always some comics that arrived damaged or were damgaged in packing, so Pacific (and other distributors) always ordered extras as replacement copies. Secondly, each comic distributor always had the option of ordering extra copies of any title above the regular orders, especially for a "hot" book that they thought had been under-ordered by the comic stores (in the back of my mind, there is also something about the distributors having a minimum order on a title, but I can't come up with it at the moment). After all, just as there were no comics catalogs of any real worth, there also wasn't any way to get a reorder of any regular comic once it had been released. The distributor, of course, was taking a chance on the overage just like each store took a chance on its initial order, but most of the time, it paid off.
MEMORY INTERRUPTIONS:
    1)The first order that I put together on my own was something I agonized over and sweated bullets on. I thought I had pared down our overages to the point that we would have NO leftover comics from the direct shipments. What I hadn't taken into account was that our sales were steadily increasing. We sold out of most titles over the weekend. Fortunately, the overage that Pacific ordered allowed us to get sort of back on track.
   2) I entered Pacific on the morning that Thor #337 (first Simonson issue) was released. They had about 200 extra copies on the back counter. I had increased our order on the title, but only took an extra 25 because I didn't think it would sell that well. Dumb! By the afternoon, we were getting calls asking if we had copies and we sold out early Saturday.
   As a fan turned retailer, the Pacific warehouse was sort of like a hungry man entering a buffet. Along the middle of the warehouse were wooden racks with magazines, limited edition hardbacks, graphic novels and other odds and ends. Behind this were floor to ceiling shelves filled with comic boxes: the overstock that the warehouse had ordered. In many cases you could find a year's worth of a given title. Once Pacific began publishing their own books, they took center stage at the front of the warehouse (we always had full set of Groo on hand). And amidst all this wonderment were harried, but friendly employees.
   The person I remember most from the Pacific days is manager Jon Hartz. Whether discussing the early days of running a comic shop, or discussing new trends in comics, Jon was always a pleasure. He also embodied the type of service one used to get from a comic distributor. At one point we had booked Marv Wolfman to come in and do an autograph session at the store around the time The New Teen Titans was selling really well. Jon knew that we didn't carry any back issues and was willing to let us take a selection of Titans back issues on consignment, so we could maximize some comic sales while Wolfman was there. Jon didn't have to do this, but he did, and that's what service is all about. Eventually, Jon moved on and, last time I ran into him, he had bought a farm in Vermont (!). I, and I'm sure many others, wish him well.