Flashback: Comics Retailer #31
August 1994 started with a trade show — and a lot of talkers
by John Jackson Miller
While the Comics Retailer magazine retrospective begun in the introduction and previous installment has been paused until my schedule allows me time to do it justice, the occasion of San Diego's first "at-home" event during the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020 has prompted me to share a bit of what happened at my first Comic-Con — including some photos that never appeared in the magazine.
Technically, I was a guest at the San Diego Comic-Book Expo, the retail trade show that during the 1990s preceded the consumer event. It took place in the same venue during Aug. 1-3, 1994, with the convention center exhibitor floor partitioned so that just the "publisher" end of the hall was available to walk. The exhibitor space was open on Tuesday and Wednesday, while Monday was reserved for retailer seminars, panels, and something else: Punchline Live.
Punchline Live!
"Punchline" was the column on the last page facing the inside-back cover of the magazine, and as Peter David's "But I Digress" column in the same position in Comics Buyer's Guide had become very popular, Greg Loescher, publisher of the Krause Publications Comics and Records Division, had sought to bring the same kind of attention to the retail magazine. Almost every issue's final column was written by a guest author, usually someone of note in the publishing, distribution, or retail world.
As a "live" event for David — his famous convention debate with Todd MacFarlane — had generated a lot of attention, Loescher sought from San Diego a panel that we could host, slated in a prominent place on the schedule. We received Monday night, at the end of the "retailer education day" — and sought our panelists. I would be the moderator, appearing at just my second trade show as the magazine's editor and my first San Diego overall. (Loescher appears in the shot above, about to introduce yours truly, fresh-faced and terrified.)
Two things conspired to increase the difficulty of that idea. In July, I had rolled my SUV in an encounter with a deer, and I was fortunate to walk away from that, I was still in a shoulder brace when I flew to the trade show.
Second, Loescher had decided that in order to accomodate the supplier-side of the industry, the panel would need representatives from both Diamond Comic Distributors and Capital City Distribution; a speaker apiece for Marvel and DC; and to have someone speak for the independents, one from Kitchen Sink Press. Those individuals were, respectively, Bill Schanes, Milton Griepp, Matt Ragone, Bob Wayne, and Denis Kitchen.
L-R: John Jackson Miller, Bill Schanes, Matt Ragone, Denis Kitchen, Bob Wayne, Milton Griepp, Greg Loescher
If that wasn't a formidable enough slate for a first-time moderator to run, Loescher further decided that there needed to be an equal number of retailers on the dais. And so we added Rory Root of Comic Relief in Berkeley, Calif.; Mimi Cruz of Night Flight Comics in Salt Lake City, Utah; Steve Solomos of The Beguiling in Toronto, Ont; Mike Smith of Hi De Ho Comics in Thousand Oaks, Calif.; and Gary Colabuono of Moondog's in Chicago, Ill.
L-R: Greg Loescher, Rory Root, Mimi Cruz, Steve Solomos, Mike Smith, Mimi Cruz, Gary Colabuono, John Jackson Miller
That's right: ten panelists, all of note. Two and a half Mount Rushmores of the Direct Market. And we further stationed magazine columnists Bruce Costa, Brian Hibbs, and, if my recollection is correct, Bob Gray in the aisles to ask questions in advance of the audience Q&A. So it was a pretty big production, and while I have hosted countless panels since, I have to say I've never run one with as many speakers.
So time was at a premium — and managing it all was a new magazine editor who must have looked twelve years old. I opened the talk by telling listeners that "I may look young, but I assure you I am older than Gareb Shamus," then the wunderkid founder of Wizard and publisher of a short-lived rival to our magazine. (It's a very 1994 joke, for sure.) I also decided to eschew the shoulder brace for the event, and you can see me holding my left arm in some of the photos.
We'd designed the format so the panel tackled two issues, with an hour to discuss each. While 1994 had started off poorly for the comics industry and there had been fireworks in the spring over Marvel Mart, the Distributor Wars still lay ahead. Nonetheless, Loescher was concerned about doing anything too contentious. As entertaining as having our advertisers fighting our readers — or each other — might have been, hosting a brawl probably wouldn't have served to promote the magazine.
Thus the two topics were calculated to find some common ground. Issue one was how retailers should respond to mass-market retailers getting into their sales space. It may seem comical now, but a major thread of 1993 (described in more detail here) had been that Blockbuster Video was looking to dabble in comics. There'd been a rumor — false — that Diamond had made a deal with the rental giant. Meanwhile, it certainly was true that mass-market retailers were selling other collectibles that comics retailers had previously monopolized. Indeed, later on in 1994, the new hit Magic: The Gathering would pop up at computer game stores like Electronics Boutique; sourced, it turned out, from one of the major comics distributors.
The second topic, how retailers might best compete with mail-order comics discounters, invited a little more contention simply because of the earlier Marvel Mart fiasco, though it was similarly chosen to put most of the speakers on the same side. (It also spoke to a matter that impacted Krause Publications directly, as many retailers refused to sell Comics Buyer's Guide because of the presumed — and, we felt, exaggerated — threat from back issue dealers advertising in the magazine.)
The discussion indeed transpired without incident, and I passed the questioning to the audience with what little time remained. The first question was asked by Meredith Woodwell, then manager of Zanadu Comics in Seattle. I had just met her that day; two years later, we were married. It wasn't just because she saved me from having to ask another question of the panel, but I was sure glad to stop talking!
No video recording exists of the event, so far as I know; I'm pretty sure our ad rep Jim Owens took most of the photos. I did make an audio recording, which I have yet to find — but the major points are encapsulated below in both my editorial, and the article I ran.
Here's the feature itself:
Quite a lot more happened at the Expo that year. One of the employees of one of our panelists, Rory Root, was stabbed while traveling alone in the Gaslamp Quarter on Tuesday night, and we also learned that the marriage between Classics International (of which panelist Colabuono was president) and the Dream Factory chain of comics shops was on the rocks. Both matters would receive coverage in the magazine.
Those and other events will be discussed later in this space as time allows.
