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Pacific Comics
Pacific Comics was a comic book distributor and publisher active from 1971 to 1984. The company began as a San Diego, California, comic book shop owned by brothers Bill and Steve Schanes, later moving into comics distribution and then publishing.
As a publisher, starting in 1981, Pacific took early advantage of the growing direct market, attracting a number of writers and artists from DC Comics and Marvel Comics to produce creator-owned titles, which were not subject to the Comics Code, and thus were free to feature more mature content.
In 1971, the Schanes brothers (Steve Schanes, age 17, and Bill Schanes, age 13) co-founded Pacific Comics, which started out as a mail-order company, selling to consumers via advertisements in the Comics Buyer's Guide. This led to ads inside some Marvel comics, and ultimately to tangible retail stores. The first Pacific Comics store opened in Pacific Beach, California, in 1974, and business was soon doing so well that the brothers realized they "couldn't get merchandise" for the stores, and so set up a distribution system, which was soon supplying neighboring stores also.
The move from newsstand distribution to the direct market (non-returnable, heavily discounted, direct purchasing of comics from publishers) happened in the 1970s, in large part due to the work of Phil Seuling and his Sea Gate Distributors company (founded in 1972), as well as a number of individuals, including the Schanes brothers and Bud Plant. The direct market went hand-in-hand with the creation of specialist comics shops to cater to the collectors who could then buy back issues months after a newsstand issue had disappeared. By the late 1970s, thanks partly to the success of films such as Star Wars and Superman: The Movie, comics were selling well, and Pacific expanded its distribution system nationwide, raising $200,000 by closing its four San Diego retail locations and selling off inventory, rising rapidly to the top of the new distribution system.
In the six years between 1974 and 1980, comic or fantasy-related specialty shops rose from numbering 200–300 to around 1500, while Pacific was operating out of a 2,200-square-foot (200 m2) office warehouse in Kearny Mesa, with 500 wholesale accounts. According to elder brother Steve, the company "grossed just under a million dollars that year," soon doubling its floorspace.
In 1979, Pacific dipped its feet into publishing when they released Warriors of Shadow Realm, a John Buscema portfolio of six signed, colored plates meant to accompany a Doug Moench and Buscema three-issue Weirdworld epic-fantasy tale which ran in Marvel Comics Super Special #11-13 (June-Oct. 1979).
In 1981, rival distributor Capital City launched a black-and-white title, Nexus, and distributed it through their own system. The Schanes brothers took note, and decided to follow suit, even though they were still paying off debt from a $300,000 bank loan taken out in 1979 at 25 percent interest. Steve — who, with a degree in sculpture had a background in art — handled negotiations with creators, while Bill took on the business and accounting end. The brothers turned to Jack Kirby. Steve Schanes recalled, "I figured if you want to get people's attention with a new comic book, who better to do it with than the King of Comics, Jack Kirby! We were already friends with Jack. We used to send him free copies of comics he'd drawn for other publishers because they never sent him any! So I just went ahead and called him on the phone, and he turned out to be a nice guy, completely accessible. ... We negotiated a whole detailed publishing deal between the two of us. No middlemen."
The Schaneses asked Kirby, who had effectively quit comics in 1978, for only the publishing rights, assuring him that he could keep full ownership and copyrights, and said they would even help him license characters for use overseas or in other media. Thus, Pacific claims to have become the first company to pay royalty payments to Kirby. Kirby provided Pacific with Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers, which was published bimonthly from August 1981. Though the Schaneses anticipated sales of less than 25,000, the first issue sold 110,000 copies. Kirby then let Pacific publish his Silver Star, and the brothers decided to start a line of full-color mainstream comic books.
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Pacific Comics
Pacific Comics was a comic book distributor and publisher active from 1971 to 1984. The company began as a San Diego, California, comic book shop owned by brothers Bill and Steve Schanes, later moving into comics distribution and then publishing.
As a publisher, starting in 1981, Pacific took early advantage of the growing direct market, attracting a number of writers and artists from DC Comics and Marvel Comics to produce creator-owned titles, which were not subject to the Comics Code, and thus were free to feature more mature content.
In 1971, the Schanes brothers (Steve Schanes, age 17, and Bill Schanes, age 13) co-founded Pacific Comics, which started out as a mail-order company, selling to consumers via advertisements in the Comics Buyer's Guide. This led to ads inside some Marvel comics, and ultimately to tangible retail stores. The first Pacific Comics store opened in Pacific Beach, California, in 1974, and business was soon doing so well that the brothers realized they "couldn't get merchandise" for the stores, and so set up a distribution system, which was soon supplying neighboring stores also.
The move from newsstand distribution to the direct market (non-returnable, heavily discounted, direct purchasing of comics from publishers) happened in the 1970s, in large part due to the work of Phil Seuling and his Sea Gate Distributors company (founded in 1972), as well as a number of individuals, including the Schanes brothers and Bud Plant. The direct market went hand-in-hand with the creation of specialist comics shops to cater to the collectors who could then buy back issues months after a newsstand issue had disappeared. By the late 1970s, thanks partly to the success of films such as Star Wars and Superman: The Movie, comics were selling well, and Pacific expanded its distribution system nationwide, raising $200,000 by closing its four San Diego retail locations and selling off inventory, rising rapidly to the top of the new distribution system.
In the six years between 1974 and 1980, comic or fantasy-related specialty shops rose from numbering 200–300 to around 1500, while Pacific was operating out of a 2,200-square-foot (200 m2) office warehouse in Kearny Mesa, with 500 wholesale accounts. According to elder brother Steve, the company "grossed just under a million dollars that year," soon doubling its floorspace.
In 1979, Pacific dipped its feet into publishing when they released Warriors of Shadow Realm, a John Buscema portfolio of six signed, colored plates meant to accompany a Doug Moench and Buscema three-issue Weirdworld epic-fantasy tale which ran in Marvel Comics Super Special #11-13 (June-Oct. 1979).
In 1981, rival distributor Capital City launched a black-and-white title, Nexus, and distributed it through their own system. The Schanes brothers took note, and decided to follow suit, even though they were still paying off debt from a $300,000 bank loan taken out in 1979 at 25 percent interest. Steve — who, with a degree in sculpture had a background in art — handled negotiations with creators, while Bill took on the business and accounting end. The brothers turned to Jack Kirby. Steve Schanes recalled, "I figured if you want to get people's attention with a new comic book, who better to do it with than the King of Comics, Jack Kirby! We were already friends with Jack. We used to send him free copies of comics he'd drawn for other publishers because they never sent him any! So I just went ahead and called him on the phone, and he turned out to be a nice guy, completely accessible. ... We negotiated a whole detailed publishing deal between the two of us. No middlemen."
The Schaneses asked Kirby, who had effectively quit comics in 1978, for only the publishing rights, assuring him that he could keep full ownership and copyrights, and said they would even help him license characters for use overseas or in other media. Thus, Pacific claims to have become the first company to pay royalty payments to Kirby. Kirby provided Pacific with Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers, which was published bimonthly from August 1981. Though the Schaneses anticipated sales of less than 25,000, the first issue sold 110,000 copies. Kirby then let Pacific publish his Silver Star, and the brothers decided to start a line of full-color mainstream comic books.