The United States of America brought to the world many
amazing things. To this reviewer the top three are baseball, jazz and comic
books, although I must admit I prefer comic books to jazz. Let's face facts
here, whether you love, despise, or are just 'eh' about comic books they are
among the very first things that children read. I loved them before I could
read. Consider that a disclaimer for the review about to follow.
Anthony Desiato is a life-long (so far) comic book fan,
podcaster and documentary filmmaker from Westchester County in New York. His
company is called Flat Squirrel Productions. In 2017, through Kickstarter, he
reached his goal of $15,000 to make the film he promised "will take you
behind the scenes and capture the business, culture, and fandom of the local
comic book store on a national level." He succeeded with the release of
"My Comic Shop Country". This film is a wonderfully interesting look
at the strange and familial world the industry has created, and now, is
possibly destroying. It hit home with me on a number of levels but more about
that later. For now, some history.
Comic books have traveled a rough road from their
beginnings. In 1933, Eastern Publications published what is regarded as the
first newsstand comic book in the format we know today, "Famous Funnies a
Carnival of Comics" which was basically combined newspaper strip reprints
with some original material. It started the industry. Eastern, and later Dell,
began to publish these on a regular (bi-monthly basis). Ron Goulart (comic book
historian and terrific novelist in his own right - read his Groucho Marx
mysteries series) called this publication: "the cornerstone for one of the
most lucrative branches of magazine publishing."
Five years later, two young men in Cleveland, Ohio
created (based somewhat upon Edgar Rice Burroughs' “John Carter, Man of Marsâ€)
a character that would change not only the industry but the world. Of course,
most of you know I mean Superman. Arguably the second most famous fictional
character in world history behind only Sherlock Holmes. The following year saw
the introduction of Batman. Timely Comics (which would eventually become
Marvel) also first appeared in 1939.
The comic book industry flourished. Romance, Westerns,
horror, anthropomorphic animals. Nothing was left out. For more than fifteen years
the industry grew not only in size but in pushing boundaries. Realizing that
most of their readers were teen-aged boys, comics started to feed their
adolescent...
well you know what I mean. Scantily clad women appeared
everywhere. From femme fatales to heroines, supporting characters to characters
who didn't wear support garments, pubescent fantasies were fulfilled. According
to a wacko psychiatrist named Fredric Wertham, who in 1954 published the book
"Seduction of the Innocent," claimed "that comic books were
responsible for an increase in juvenile delinquency, as well as potential
influence on a child's sexuality and morals." That led to the Senate
Committee on Juvenile Delinquency to investigate comics. Like parents
throughout eternity, Senators didn't have any idea what their children were
reading (well, maybe a dad or two did) and in an effort to hold off a
government response that would censor their industry, the Comic Code Authority
was formed and all comics had to pass through a censorship inspection. The Code
lasted into the 70s and was abolished formally in 2011.
"And now... back to our film"
Now that the Comic Book Ignorant (further referred to as
the CBI) have been brought up to speed on comic book history let me enlighten
you about the film.
Obviously, a labor of both love and regret for Desiato,
“My Comic Shop Country†stands out as an indictment against greed,
monopolization and poor manners. He was a regular customer, loiterer and
sometime employee of a comic shop called Alternate Realities in Scarsdale, NY.
He later became a podcaster. His shows discuss the comic book industry and life
in Westchester. A previous documentary, "My Comic Shop Documentary,"
made in 2011, was all about Alternate Realities and its owner, Steve Oto. For
this new film, Desiato visited twenty comic shops in nine states across the US
and built relationships with the owners.
The first dedicated comic book shop opened in the late
60s in Southern California. The direct market industry started to grow as the
dedicated comic shop industry grew. By the 90s there were over 12,000 in the
United States.
If the CBI don't know, there is a difference between
direct market distribution and the traditional newsstand distribution that
those of us of a certain age grew up with. The direct market in the 70s and 80s
allowed for independent comic book companies to distribute more adult fare. But
as things grew with more independent publishers such as First Comics, Capital
Comics, Pacific Comics, The Guild, Image Comics, etc., they began to flood the
market distributing the books themselves. But they also paid the creators fair
wages as opposed to the work-for-hire system that had existed for generations.
Famous comic book artists such as Jack Kirby, Frank Brunner, Howard Chaykin,
Neal Adams began to create content for these companies where the creators
retained licensing rights for their characters. Glut became an operative word.
Too much of a mediocre thing. As the smaller of these small companies died out,
so did the distribution channels. Eventually, distribution would become a
monopolistic ouroboros - the snake that eats itself.
In today's industry, direct shops must order books from
Diamond Comics Distributors' (the monopoly) Previews catalogue two months in
advance of shipping. In the 90s, Previews was published not by a monopoly but
by a company intent on spreading the word, thank Rao, (CBI, please web search)
and the catalogue was magazine thickness. Today, run by the existent monopoly,
its size is somewhere between a Montgomery Ward Christmas Catalogue and a
pre-cellphone Yellow Pages. And, unlike in newsstand, bookstore, luncheonette,
etc. distribution, the excess books cannot be returned. When I collected comics
as a child all the newsstand, et. al., had to do was return the torn corner of
the cover that held the price to receive a refund on the unsold books that sold
at the time for 12 cents. The store then sold them for a few pennies. I have
some books in my collection that are thusly marred. Direct market shops have to
eat the leftovers. Hence, the very large back-issue sections.
“My Comic Shop Country†is filled with colorful
characters. From the denizens who haunt the shops to some of the creators
themselves, Desaito discusses the state of the industry with all. It was a great
pleasure to meet these fellow geeks. Then again, everyone is a geek of some
order. Jocks are sports geeks, no?
Paul Levitz, former President and Publisher of DC comics:
"85% to 90% of the shops are mom and pop stores. Brick and mortar is not
at a great time in America today." "If you own a bake shop the
quality of the shop is up to you. If you run a comic shop the quality of the
shop is up to other people."
Sarah Titus, co-owner, The Comic Book Shop (Wilmington,
DE): "How do you have a million dollar comic book shop? You start with two
million dollars…When someone calls us a Comic Book Store, I say, "No, a
STORE is where you go to get, like, toilet paper. A SHOP is where you go to
look at all the cool things, and compare, and check, and take it all in." Has
there ever been a clearer dictionary definition between the two?
“My Comic Shop Countryâ€, whether you're a comic book fan
or not, is a trip to your past. There was something you loved. And collected.
Stuffed animals. Elephant figurines. Swine statues. Bobby Sherman albums. James
Bond collectibles. You loved it for whatever reasons appealed to you. THAT's
why you collected it. You still do. Even if it's just because of the memories
it invokes that make you smile and makes your day brighter. Cherish your past.
It is the only thing that will always belong to only you.
As for me; this film brought me back to my past. I knew
Steve Oto. I knew him before he opened Alternate Realities, just a piece up
Central Park Ave. from The Dragon's Den in Yonkers where I used to shop from
the late 70s to the mid- 90s. He was a regular there and back in the early 90s.
Back then, even though they were just a stone's throw from each other, three
comic/card stores coexisted and did well. One of Dragon's Den's employees, Mark
Rubin and his wife Donna, opened a store pretty much across the street from the
Den. Once called One if by Cards, Two if by Comics, now called American
Legends. They had NY Ranger season tickets one section over from me and I saw
them all the time.
A final sad addendum: The coronavirus has forced the
closure of all the comic shops and halted the distribution of comics and
ephemeral material to them. As comic fans have now become dependent upon
digital copies or ordering physical books online, it's going to make things
more difficult for the people that frequent the shops. It's not solely the
purchasing and the collecting. It's the family. As it's said in the film; "There
is a physical need to be out there with like-minded people." There are
many people that are comic fans and read comics regularly that may not have
anybody else in their life who has the same love for the medium that they do.
And as a human beings, we want to relate to people by the things that we like,
and if we like something we want someone else to like it too."
“My Comic Shop Country†is highly recommended.
("My Comic Shop Country" is available for streaming on iTunes.)