The Comics Rack

Digression The Sixth

More odds and ends this time, covering all sorts of items.

• In the previous installment, I mentioned "stripped paperbacks." Books used to be sold on a returnable basis from the publisher, although in recent years I understand that many best sellers are sold to chains non-returnable for a higher discount. When time came to return unsold books, the hardbacks were shipped complete from the bookstore to the publisher and credit was issued. This was fairly expensive, since hardbacks weigh a great deal, and you had to figure out how much credit you would gain versus the cost of shipping. With paperbacks, it was a whole different ballgame and, to save on shipping costs, you ripped the cover off each book (*shudder*) you were returning, made a list of all covers and then shipped just the covers back to the publisher for your credit. As part of this, you were making a guarantee to the publisher that the books you were stripping would be destroyed in some fashion. Usually, this just meant throwing them in the trash, but dumpster divers would often pull all the stripped paperbacks from the trash and sell them to used bookstores for a couple of cents each. These stores would then sell them at a discount price. Our newsdealer, Kolb, took the position that stripped books had to be rendered unreadable, so they would spray water into their dumpster to ruin the stripped books.
• Magazines and comics from a wholesaler were handled in a similar fashion and the upper quarter or third of the cover was ripped from each individual periodical and these were shipped to the publisher for credit. Same rules applied as above, but you can still find stripped comics and magazines on occasion at used bookstores.
• With the advent of UPC codes and computers, magazine wholesalers were allowed to scan codes into the computer and then affidavit their returns without ripping the periodicals apart—thus saving time and labor. I'm not sure how paperbacks were handled in later years and, for all I know, they still may have to rip the cover off.
• Direct sale comics were not returnable except for damages, which the publishers seemed to limit to physical damage and not to printing errors. These copies were returned to the distributor, where they were written up for the publisher and, although I'm not sure, I think the entire comic was returned for credit.

Customers are the lifeblood of any bookstore and, as mentioned before, over time you develop a sort of love and hate relationship with them...

• They are always looking for some word of what's coming out and "hot" news is at a premium. In the days before the Internet, comic stores were the main source for news and it was fun, to an extent, to be the bearer of good, and bad, tidings. The problem was that after answering the same request for news for the 20th time, you really wanted to slap somebody!
• I recall at one point there was a customer who was enamored with Star Trek. He wanted all the details on upcoming ST novels and wouldn't take "we don't really know" as an answer. Finally, Richard pointed to a cover for an upcoming release and spun an absolutely wonderful tale of the entire plot of the book; all of which was untrue and made up on the spot. I had to retreat to the back room during part of this to keep from laughing hysterically (Eventually, this bled over into the comic book end of things and customers came to expect flights of fantasy on our part about the future of this character or that. It kept us, and them, amused.).
• There were many customers who felt their patronage just wasn't enough and would keep us supplied with food items, particularly around the holidays, and many were homemade. The fiance of one customer would bring us as plate of fudge now and then: her recipe took second place at the LA County Fair (it was so good, I couldn't even conceive of what the first place entrant must have been like!). A father and son duo used to bring us each a dozen Mrs. Field's cookies at Christmas. Still others would stop by on their way to various eateries and offer to pick up food or sodas for us as they were on their way to lunch or dinner and we were always appreciative of these offers.
• Customers also felt it was their main purpose in life to keep you, the store operator, up to date on the latest major film releases. They don't want to ruin the film for you, just tell you one really great bit. By the time you've heard the umpteenth great bit, there was no reason to see the film.

Many customers had their prolictivities...

• We had one customer who had a standing order: one copy of everything. The problem was that he only wanted copies that had the UPC code on the cover, since his comics up to that time had UPC codes in the box. The only direct sale copies he would accept were those that could not be had any other way. We did our best to keep him supplied. Eventually, he gave up on black and white comics all together, since the sheer volume of those titles was too much even for him.
• There were some who felt that buying two comics entitled them to read six...this in the day before Barnes & Noble put in couches and chairs.
• One customer had a "get rich quick" plan. For a short time, he ordered 300 copies of any first issue, 300 bags and boards and a long comic box. He would then spend an evening bagging and boarding the comics and then placed them, unread, in a storage facility. His theory was that the comics would become worth a great deal within 5-10 years (keep in mind that the comics only cost around 50¢ at the time, so the initial outlay of cash wasn't all that great). He didn't stay around very long, since we encouraged the reading of comics and not comics as an investment. I've often wondered what happened to him and his hoard of comics...
• Condition was very important to some of our clientele. One customer would bring his purchases up to the front and stand to one side and talk to us while he scanned each comic for printing errors. There were another two who would go to the new comics, pick up an entire stack and hunt through the comics looking for the "perfect" spine. We eventually broke them of the habit.
• There was one night when I was exhausted, looking for something to keep me going and one of our hard core collectors brought his comics up to the counter. As I was ringing him up, he noticed one of the comics was a bit bent. "Let me get another copy of that one, it looks a bit scruffy," he said. "What!" I exclaimed in a loud voice, "Richard, we seem to have a defective comic here." "Oh my," replied Richard in mock surprise and following my lead, "this I terrible occurrence!" The other customers have now started toward the front of the store to see what all the ruckus was about. The customer knew we were joking and began to laugh. "No, it's okay..." "No!" I bellowed, "we'll make sure that no one else is offended by this lesser grade book", picked up the comic, ripped it in half and tossed the halves in the air..."There!" Laughter followed, but the customer paled when the comic was ripped and I honestly thought he was going to faint.

Sometimes we're surprised..

• Around the mid to late 80s, a young high school student started coming into the store and showing us his sketches. This type of thing happened all the time and most of the drawings presented to us were crude, but this kid was good: melding an excellent sense of anatomy and layout with a Byrne and Rogers influence. After a time he became a regular around the store and we eventually hired him on as a clerk and, after he graduated high school, he became assistant manager. He could draw anything and soaked up art styles like a sponge. Often, he would entertain the customers, and himself, by doing spot drawings of most anything that crossed his mind and even did some full-size parody covers that we hung on the store wall. His name was Glen Murakami and he eventually moved on to work at Warner Brothers on the Bruce Timm Batman cartoons (among other projects) and also pencilling a couple of comics on his own. Far as I know, he's still at Warner's...

And, just to prove that karma is often at work in the comic store...

• It was a coolish spring day, probably during Easter break, and I was running the store by myself. Richard had gone to run errands and things were pretty quiet. Two kids, probably in their early teens came in and headed for the comics, which were in the back of the store. The store was long and narrow and, although I couldn't see them, I could hear them talking to one another. They were back there a long time. I got up to stretch my legs and see what they were up to. I noticed that they were hovering near the middle of the racks and had a large stack of comics set on one of the shelves. "You really don't want to stack comics up like that, guys," I said, "They block the view of other customers." "Oh we're just trying to figure out which ones to get, mister." Yeah, right. So, I went back up to the counter, expecting trouble all the way. Pretty soon the duo comes back to the front. One has about 4 comics in his hand and the other has his windbreaker zipped up and has gained around 3 or 4 inches just above his waist. "Pay the man, Harry," he says as he keeps walking rapidly out the door and disappears around the corner. Of course, this was a shoplifting in progress, but I decided the day was too nice to call the cops. I rang up the second kid, gave him his change and while handing him his bag of comics looked him straight in the eye and said in a very menacing tone, "I know your friend there has a bunch of comics under his jacket and if I ever see either one of you in here again, I will take you out in the alley and stomp the sh*t out of you." The kid paled a bit, did not protest and hurried out the door. I walked around the counter to go back to see what we had lost and saw money lying on the floor in front of the counter. It was a twenty folded around a fiver. Much more than what they could have made off with in comics and had probably fallen out of the kid's pocket in his haste to pay me. I picked up the money, added it to the cash drawer and had a good laugh.

Next time: The long-awaited end to our narrative.