The Comics Rack

Comic Book Memories Pt. 8

Word reached us sometime in 1984 the Pacific Comics was going to declare bankruptcy and would be closing their doors. For those of you who follow the history of the direct market, it is interesting to note that Pacific and Seagate, both pioneers in the distribution of comics, went out in the same year. According to all the information I've been able to find on Seagate, they went out because of too much competition. With Pacific, however, it was apparently due to their publishing arm. Pacific Comics comics did not set the world on fire, the company overprinted on all titles and ended up taking money from the distribution business to cover the losses in the publishing end. Added to this was the extension of credit to many comic shops. With some of the accounts, Pacific couldn't afford to put the offending account into bankruptcy, since so much money was owed. Eventually, it all caught up with them.

The demise of a distributor is quite interesting to watch. First, though not necessarily tied to the money problems, Jon Hartz left Pacific to take a job with Neal Adams' Continuity Studios. Next, Pacific moved Ken Kruger from Sparta to Los Angeles, so he could take over the mangement of the LA warehouse.

As time went on, and we found out that Ken's move was the about the last hurrah of Pacific. Soon we were told that all stock in the warehouse would be available at increasingly larger discounts until the day when we were informed that they would be closing. Since we were already doing business with Glenwood, we made a complete transition over to Glenwood and didn't miss any comics or deliveries. For other stores, it was not quite as simple, because they had to establish credit with Glenwood, or find another distributor, often out of state, who would be willing to take them on. It was quite a mess.

The final closure of Pacific was something I didn't get to see first hand, but I found out about it second hand by way of George DiCaprio, a local publisher and distributor of underground comics, among other things (and, something that didn't mean much for a number of years, the father of Leonardo, the actor). As related to us by George, the final disbursement of Pacific's assets was to take place in an auction that I believe was held at their San Diego warehouse. People came from all over the country to take part in the auction and had most of a day to look over all the lots and decide on what they did, or didn't, wish to bid on. There were full pallets of unsold Pacific comics (probably thousands of copies per pallet) in sealed boxes. There was original art, books, portfolios, magazines, toys...most anything that a distributorship would have in their warehouse for their customers and an awful lot of material.

According to George, many deals were struck during the viewing, such as "if you don't bid on this, then I won't bid on that" and that sort of thing. It is also necessary to understand that this was a really large batch of stuff. As the time for the auction came around, all the participants gathered around the auctioneer and he began the auction by asking if he could entertain a bid for the entire lot, something that was stipulated in the auction rules. A small snicker went through the room, since it was such a batch of mixed stuff that nobody figured anyone would bid on it. Suddenly, a gentleman from (reportedly) Germany stood up and announced, "My company will offer 3.yadda,yadda cents per piece for the entire lot." Silence fell over the room and the auctioneer asked for further bids. Since no one offered any, the auction ended in around 2 minutes. The attendees went back to their respective homes and Pacific came to an end: not the first to go belly up in the direct market and, as we shall see, not the last either.