New Media/Irjax

New Media Distribution/Irjax Enterprises was a comic book distributor and publisher active from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. In 1978, the company's legal actions against the dominant distributor of the era, Sea Gate Distributors, widened the field for the direct market to expand. In 1982, when Irjax's distribution arm went out of business, its processing centers and warehouses formed the basis for Diamond Comics Distributors, the now-dominant comics distributor.

The company's publishing arm, New Media, continued in the business until 1995. New Media mainly published periodicals for comics/fantasy/science fiction enthusiasts, including the long-running critical journal Comics Feature. Editors and writers with New Media included Carol Kalish, Richard Howell, Peter B. Gillis, Kurt Busiek, Don and Maggie Thompson, James Van Hise, Peter Sanderson, Max Allan Collins, Ron Goulart, Will Jacobs and Gerard Jones, Steve Perrin, and Roy Thomas.

Hal Schuster, his father, Irwin, and his brother, Jack, formed the distribution company Irjax Enterprises (a play on the names "Irwin" and "Jack"), based in Rockville, Maryland, in 1973.

By 1978, in addition to Irjax Enterprises, Hal Schuster had a comic book store in Rockville. After Phil Seuling established the direct market in 1972, his company Sea Gate Distributors maintained a virtual monopoly on comic book distribution, until a lawsuit brought by Irjax in 1978. Irjax sued the comic book publishers DC, Marvel, Archie, and Warren for their anti-competitive arrangement with Seagate. As a result of the lawsuit Irjax gained "a sizeable chunk of the direct-distribution market," with distribution centers in Boston and Tampa. The Boston-area division was known as Solar Spice and Liquors (named after a fictional corporation created by science fiction writer Poul Anderson);^{[citation needed]} and was staffed by Carol Kalish and her partner Richard Howell.

Meanwhile, Baltimore retailer Steve Geppi had four comic book stores and was acting as a sub-distributor, "doing a little informal distributing . . . for smaller retailers." By 1981, Geppi was one of New Media/Irjax's biggest accounts. In late 1981, the company, now known as New Media Distribution, or New Media/Irjax, filed for Chapter 11. One of the "last loyal customers" when New Media began having fiscal difficulties, Geppi made a deal with Schuster: "[t]he owner was going into retail," so Geppi agreed to provide Schuster with "free books for a period of time in return for his account list."

Hal Schuster relocated to Florida early in 1982, and he asked "Geppi to service more accounts for a bigger discount," thereby effectively selling Geppi the distribution end of the business. Geppi took over New Media/Irjax's office and warehouse space and had to "sort out the good customers from the bad overnight," negotiating with creditors to continue Schuster's distribution business as Diamond Comic Distributors.

In addition to their comics distribution business, in 1975 Hal and Jack Schuster set up a publishing operation, originally producing periodicals for comics/fantasy/science fiction enthusiasts. In a practice similar to the pulp magazine era, the brothers set up a number of publishing entities, especially during the period 1985–1987. Overall, the Schusters published material from 1975 to 1995.

Befitting the overall fly-by-night feeling, over the years the Schusters operated publishers out of Rockville, Maryland; Boston; the Tampa Bay area (Largo and Tampa); various Los Angeles locations (Studio City, Topanga, Canoga Park, and Granada Hills); and finally Las Vegas.