Comic Shop: The Retail Mavericks Who Gave Us a New Geek Culture

Dan Gearino’s “Comic Shop: The Retail Mavericks Who Gave Us a New Geek Culture” examines the rise of comic shops as the local of fan communities after the development of the direct market of comic sales through case studies of various comic book stores in the United States, including The Laughing Ogre in Columbus, Ohio and distributors like Capital City Distribution. Discussing Phil Sueling’s creation of the direct market, Gearino writes, “Here was the new business model: retailers could order comics from Seuling and get shipments from the printing plants, bypassing the old-line distributors. This meant the comics would arrive sooner than at other outlets, and in precise quantities…This was possible because the major publishers did their printing with the same company in Sparta, Illinois. The printer would collate the orders and ship them to Seuling’s customers, just as they did for hundreds of news distributors” (pg. 33). Seuling entered the comics business full-time after he gave up his teaching job, following his arrest for “selling indecent material to a minor” on 11 March 1973 (pg. 26). This stemmed from a campaign in which church groups tried to ban comics after a story in Robert Crumb’s “Zap Comix” #4.Discussing figures, Gearino writes, “In 1977, there were about two hundred comics specialty shops in the United States” (pg. 38). Further, “From roughly 1979 to 1982, comics distribution was thrown wide open and the number of comic shops grew tremendously, although numbers are difficult to verify…the number of outlets rose from about two hundred in 1977 to five hundred in 1987. In addition, many small shops became big shops” (pg. 84-85). Gearino continues, “The number of retailers ballooned during this period, going from about one thousand stores in 1990s to an all-time high of about ten thousand in 1995” (pg. 133). By 1997, “the direct market that had begun with Phil Seuling and had grown to dozens of competing distributors was now down to one option for retailers. And many retailers were not happy about it. The Diamond exclusive era had begun, and continues to this day” (pg. 148).In terms of demographics, “When comic shops began to proliferate in the late 1970s, women customers tended to gravitate toward independent titles, such as ‘Elfquest’ and ‘Cerebus,’ according to shop owners from that era. In the early 1980s, women were a key part of the audiences for alternative publishers, with titles such as ‘Love and Rockets’” (pg. 75). Gearino continues, “Since the underground days, black-and-white printing had been an inexpensive way for artists to get their ideas to the public. By the mid-1980s, this had grown into a lively alterative comics scene, with groundbreaking titles such as ‘Love and Rockets’ from Fantagraphics. And now the greed of the black-and-white boom had been typified by products that seemed, to an untrained eye, similar to alternative comics” (pg. 106).Gearino concludes, “The shops began to proliferate in the 1970s when comics were shifting from a mass medium to a niche. Now, with the popularity of comics aimed at young readers and the growth of graphic novels as a publishing category, comics are again moving toward being a mass medium…The comic shops that thrive will be the ones whose spaces and people are best able to attract customers, even on items that may cost less somewhere else. This is far from easy, but many store owners and staff are doing it already” (pg. 151).

This book was exactly what I was hoping for and offered some really great insight. As far as comic retailing, I’ve read some about the 80s, lived/worked it in the tumultuous 90s, and followed it ever since. Gearino provided a great understanding of the complicated birth of the Direct Market and the subsequent transitions of the industry. The changes since 2017 could definitely use his follow-up analysis.

I really wanted to like this. It is a great idea: to write a book about comic book shops. I was under the impression I would get a history of comic book shops. Instead, I got a lot of history about the Laughing Ogre. And that's fine to write a book about that, but that isn't what I thought I was buying. Nothing against that shop. The author did well to contact Phil Seuling's old business partner, and even Robert Bell. But we hardly get anything on Bell. Some good insights are provided about Seuling, and I think that part is well done. But it would have been nice to get more on Bell or other early comic book shops. I didn't see anything about the Barbarian Book Shop, Queen City Book Store, or Eides Entertainment, which are the oldest still running comic stores in America. Tales From the DMV gives a thorough history of Carl Bridgers' Barbarian Book Shop, and that book also delves deeply into the lives of Hal and Jack Schuster. This author prides himself on his journalistic skills yet cannot even do research on the Schusters enough to spell their names correctly even though they published over a hundred different books and publications. His research is to do google searches and Wikipedia and considers those as reputable. He should know they are hit and miss. He then interviews Chuck at Mile High and gets his version of history that is like asking a cowboy for the history of the Indians. Chuck will talk about anything except for how he fleeced a family out of the greatest comic collection ever found in a day when everyone knew what comics were worth because of the price guide. The interview with Steve Geppi offers nothing new on his history and never mentions that Geppi built Diamond on top of what the Schusters had built. The "Shusters" are dismissed as "pugnacious." So much for research. The section at the end of the book is a nice survey of different shops the author visited around the country. If the book had been just that, more in depth, and more stores, or a book with history about the earliest shops like Pop Hollinger's in the 1930s, and Claude Held's in the 1940s, and so on, this would have been a killer book. Opportunity lost. So some good, some bad here. Just saying. I thought it would be much better and better researched.

It's about time someone wrote a book on comic shops, and how they came to be. I have a healthy respect for anyone who opens such a place, because I tried it back in 1986 and failed miserably. Thankfully, there are enough people who opened comics retail outlets who are smarter than me. Gearino has done his homework, and helped me finally feel like I understand how the Direct Market got started, and how it's evolved over the years.

I bought this book for screenplay research as I am writing a character who owns a comic book store. I found this book immensely helpful in that research as it confirmed much of what I had in mind but gave me ideas and portraits of store owners that I would have had to spend way longer obtaining. The history of the industry was very fascinating to me as a former comic book fan in the early 90s boom times. A small number of typos are unfortunate but don’t significantly impact readability.

An interesting book, loved reading about the older shops and distribution systems of comics which lead to today's business model. Could not make it through the back part talking about various current comic shop (list of best old school type shops). But that could just be me. Still it was worth reading the first part of the book.

Great history of the comic book store. Super trip down memory lane, as well as a look the modern comic shop and its successes and hardships.