Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Comics Pop Culture Collectables |
Genre | Retail, Publishing |
Founded | Berkeley, California, U.S., 1972 |
Founder | Bud Plant, Robert Beerbohm, John Barrett |
Fate | defunct (2004) |
Headquarters | , |
Number of locations | 9 [1] |
Area served | Northern California |
Key people | Dick Swan, Jim Buser, Scott Maple, [1] |
Products | Comics |
Comics and Comix Co. (C&C) was a comic book retailer based in Berkeley, California, that for a short time also had a publishing division. The company was founded by Bud Plant, Robert Beerbohm, and John Barrett. Comics & Comix operated from 1972 to 2004. At its peak, C&C had nine retail locations, [1] making it the first comic book chain store in America.
In late August 1972, while still an undergraduate at San Jose State University, [2] Bud Plant co-founded Comics & Comix with John Barrett (1950–2001) [3] and Plant's housemate Robert Beerbohm. [4] The store's first location was on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California.
In 1973 Comics & Comix helped organize the first Bay Area comics convention, Berkeleycon 73, in the Pauley Ballroom in the ASUC Building on the University of California, Berkeley campus. At that show, C&C acquired over 4,000 Golden Age comic books owned by Tom Reilly. [4] The phenomenal sales of the Reilly collection enabled Comics & Comix to open more retail locations, first in San Francisco (May 1973), on Columbus Avenue (down from the North Beach area on the way to Fisherman's Wharf), and later in San Jose and Sacramento, making it the first comic book chain store in America. [1]
In 1974, Comics & Comix organized Berkeleycon 74, also held at Berkeley's Pauley Ballroom. A 48-page comic called Tales from the Berkeley Con, co-published by local underground comics publishers Rip Off Press and Last Gasp, was produced to promote the convention. [5]
Founding partner Beerbohm left the company in 1975, soon opening his own store, Best of Two Worlds, in San Francisco.
As part of his distribution business, Plant supplied Comics & Comix with product while also handling distribution for much of the West Coast. [1]
In 1987, Barrett founded the Wonderful World of Comics Convention (later known as WonderCon), which was first held at the Oakland Convention Center. [6]
In 1988, Plant sold Comics & Comix [7] to the company's comptroller; who ran it successfully until c. 1996. [1] Retailer Ross Rojek acquired the chain of stores in 1996, during the speculation downturn, and by 2004 only two Comics & Comix stores remained open, in Berkeley and Sacramento. In April 2004, Rojek was indicted on eight counts of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud, and three counts of money laundering, and was accused of cheating 112 investors out of $2.5 million. At that point, the two remaining Comics & Comics locations closed down; [8] Rojek was sentenced to more than six years in federal prison in November 2004. [9]
Comics & Comix operated as a comics publisher from 1974 to 1978. The company ventured into publishing with Jack Katz's underground/sword and sorcery hybrid The First Kingdom . The company published 6 issues of that title until 1977, at which point it was continued under various publishing names by Plant until 1986. Comics & Comix also published comics by Jim Pinkoski, Dan O'Neill, and Alfredo Alcala.
From 1980 to 1985, Comics & Comix also published the industry trade journal the Telegraph Wire (named after the street of their flagship location). Under store employee Diana Schutz starting circa 1981, the Telegraph Wire blossomed into a bimonthly, 32-page newsletter which was modeled on The Comics Journal , with each issue containing an interview, reviews, news, and ads. [10]
The Print Mint, Inc. was a major publisher and distributor of underground comix based in the San Francisco Bay Area during the genre's late 1960s-early 1970s heyday. Starting as a retailer of psychedelic posters, the Print Mint soon evolved into a publisher, printer, and distributor. It was "ground zero" for the psychedelic poster. The Print Mint was originally owned by poet Don Schenker and his wife Alice, who later partnered in the business with Bob and Peggy Rita.
Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. is an American comic book distributor serving retailers in North America and worldwide. They transport comic books and graphic novels, as well as other popular culture products such as toys, games, and apparel from comic book publishers or suppliers to retailers.
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Comic book collecting is a hobby that treats comic books and related items as collectibles or artwork to be sought after and preserved. Though considerably more recent than the collecting of postage stamps (philately) or books (bibliophilia), it has a major following around the world today and is partially responsible for the increased interest in comics after the temporary slump experienced during the 1980s.
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Philip Nicholas Seuling was an American comic book fan convention organizer and comics distributor primarily active in the 1970s. Seuling was the organizer of the annual New York Comic Art Convention, originally held in New York City every July 4 weekend throughout the 1970s. Later, with his Sea Gate Distributors company, Seuling developed the concept of the direct market distribution system for getting comics directly into comic book specialty shops, bypassing the then established newspaper/magazine distributor method, where no choices of title, quantity, or delivery directions were permitted.
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Mile High Comics is an online retailer and comic book store founded by Chuck Rozanski.
Charles M. Rozanski is a German-American retailer and columnist, known as the President and CEO of the Denver, Colorado-based Mile High Comics Inc., and a former columnist for the Comics Buyer's Guide.
Notable events of 1973 in comics.
Capital City Distribution was a Madison, Wisconsin–based comic book distributor which operated from 1980 to 1996 when they were acquired by rival Diamond Comic Distributors. Under the name Capital Comics, they also published comics from 1981 to 1984.
Bud Plant Inc. was a wholesale comics distributor active in the 1970s and 1980s during the growth of the direct market. The company also published a selection of comics and zines during the same period. Starting in 1970 as a mail-order distributor specializing in underground comix, Bud Plant absorbed some of his smaller rivals in the 1980s, and then sold his business to Diamond Comics Distributors in 1988. He still, as Bud Plant's Art Books, sells quality reprints and graphic novels.
Roger Brand was an American cartoonist who created stories for both mainstream and underground comic books. His work showed a fascination with horror and eroticism, often combining the two.
Heroes World Distribution Co., originally named Superhero Enterprises, was an American comic book distributor. It was founded by Ivan Snyder, active from 1975 to 1997, during the growth and consolidation of the direct market. Heroes World was acquired by Marvel Comics in late 1994 to act as the publisher's sole distributor. This ill-fated move, combined with other marketplace factors of the time, resulted in the financial failure of many other comics distributors and retailers—and the near collapse of the entire North American comic book market.
Robert Lee Beerbohm was an American comic book historian and retailer who was intimately involved with the rise of comics fandom from 1966. Beginning as a teenager in the late 60s, he became a fixture in the growing comic convention scene, while in the 1970s and 1980s he was heavily involved in Bay Area comic book retailing and distribution.
Clay Geerdes was a writer, photojournalist, publisher, and teacher, who covered various events from anti-Vietnam war demonstrations in Berkeley, to productions of Freestore and The Cockettes, to the underground comics business.
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