So what would be Platinum Age? Would that be those original, from-the-era collections of newspaper comics, like Little Nemo, Krazy Kat and the like, that were the forerunner of comics?

Tijuana Bibles?

Tijuana Bibles?

Heh.

Actually, one of the cool things about Watchmen that just occurred to me (it may have before, but I forgot it if I did), was that there was basically a Golden and a Silver age of heroes in the chronology.

what's your memory of when direct market sales really got to be the thing?

Here:

Dez Skinn: My vote goes for the cheapo toe-in-the-water that DC tried with its 1980 80% reprint $1 Superboy Spectacular. Only the covers and an 8-page Bridwell-Swan-Giella strip plus a (terrible) Sal Amendola map of Krypton made an editorial budget necessary. From little acorns, eh?

MK threw in a Marvel blockbuster: Dazzler #1, published by Marvel in March 1981, was the first Marvel comic to be distributed only through comics shops and be unavailable on the newsstands.

However, the direct market really began a few years earlier, not as the result of any specific comic but when Phil Seuling established his Seagate Distribution wholesale company to sell comics directly to comics shops, rather than by the sale or return system used by magazine distributors and newsstands.

Alternatively, many claim that the system was actually pioneered as early as 1970 by underground publishers/distributors such as Last Gasp.

However, the character faded into obscurity during the Silver Age and was only returned to a certain level of prominence once DC acquired the rights.

Actually, the story is weirder and sadder than that. Captain Marvel was driven out of business by its competitor DC in a very dubious court case that saw Capt. Marvel as infringing on Superman's copyright. Simply on the basis of CM being a super strong super hero.

Hec, what's your memory of when direct market sales really got to be the thing? I remember getting my mid-late 70s WW's at the drugstore or the supermarket, and my first real comics store experiences in the mid-80s. Somewhere in between, the racks in the drugstores disappeared, but I'm blanking on just when that happened.

The change started to happen in the late seventies when the number of comic stores nationwide hit a tipping point such that Cerebus and Elfquest could make money on just direct sales to comic stores. Previous to that, the main source for underground comics had been head shops. As those dried up, there was a gap for several years where independent comics didn't really have a place to be sold.

The number of comic stores steadily increased (and changed their focus from being places where primarily collectors went to get back issues, to being places where new comics were sold). By the time I got out of college in '83 and moved to Boston, Million Year Picnic and Newbury Comics were already well established institutions.

I don't have any numbers in front of me, but I'd bet you'd see a very steep increase in the number of comic shops going from the late seventies right up to the early 90s.

That was definitely one of my big epiphanies while working at Fantagraphics - simply that there were only a tiny handful of distribution networks for all the comics and magazines in the country. The steady movement towards direct sales was a HUGE change in the comics industry. It really created and reinforced a market driven by the quality of the work, rather than the LCD.

xpost with Tom, and again with the agreement

Although some would argue that comic books being non-returnable is a hinderance.

Ebay's time ranges are:

1897-1937 (Platnium)

1938-1955 (Gold)

1956-69 (Silver)

1970-1979 (Bronze)

1980-present (Modern)

Although some would argue that comic books being non-returnable is a hinderance.

Probably but we're talking about economics of scale. A national distributor racking Batman in every 7-11 in America can afford to eat the non-sellers in a way that the direct sales distribution system cannot. As I'm sure CaBil can attest, there have been times when the comics distribution system got incredibly shaky and almost took down the entire industry.

Newbury Comics

Although now they are primarily a CD and DVD store with one rack of comics hidden in the back.

Although now they are primarily a CD and DVD store with one rack of comics hidden in the back.

They were already leaning that way when I arrived in '83, though there were still plenty of comics. But I bought mine at Million Year Picnic with the other geeks who were standing there outside the door when they opened the boxes. It was a big ritual - was it on Tuesday? I think that's when they got their boxes. They'd close the store, and there'd be a little huddled mass of 15 comics fiends, jonesing for their hit with our noses pressed to the glass. They'd cut open the boxes, check the lists, put out the New Arrivals open the doors and in we'd come.

This is before pull lists were very common.