Phil Seuling

Philip Nicholas Seuling (/ˈsjuːlɪŋ/; January 20, 1934 – August 21, 1984) 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.

Seuling was born in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, and spent his entire life as a resident of that borough. He had a sister, Barbara and a brother Dennis, 13 years younger. He graduated from the City College of New York with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and earned several credits beyond.

In 1958, he and a friend began buying and selling back-issue comic books, though his primary career was as an English teacher at Brooklyn's Lafayette High School. By 1970, Seuling was also operating the After Hours Book Shop in Brooklyn.

In 1968, Seuling — who as a sideline was president of the newly founded but short-lived Society for Comic Art Research and Preservation, Inc. (SCARP) — staged the First International Convention of Comic Art under that organization's auspices, holding it at New York City's Statler Hilton Hotel. He held another comics convention at that hotel the following year, launching the New York Comic Art Convention series. On March 11, 1973, Seuling was arrested at the Second Sunday monthly comic book show for allegedly "selling indecent material to a minor". Seuling wrote a guest editorial in Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror-comics magazine Vampirella #25 detailing his experience and denying the claim he had sold an underground comic book to someone under 18.

Seuling performed as a voice actor in Ralph Bakshi's 1972 Fritz the Cat movie, doing voices for two characters.

In 1974, at the Brooklyn Museum's Community Gallery, he staged the exhibit "Brooklyn's Comic Book Artists", featuring artwork by 13 comics artists who were born or lived in Brooklyn. Identified by neighborhood on the poster for the show, these included Neal Adams, then living in the Coney Island neighborhood; Will Eisner; Carmine Infantino, of Greenpoint; Joe Kubert; Harvey Kurtzman, who lived along Eastern Parkway; and Gray Morrow, formerly of East Flatbush.

Seuling appeared on the July 28, 1977 episode of the Mike Douglas Show to discuss comic book collecting and conventions along with a surprise appearance by Wendy Pini cosplaying as Red Sonja.

In 1972, Seuling founded Sea Gate Distributors, named after the Brooklyn community Sea Gate, where he lived as an adult. Seuling cut deals with Archie, DC, Marvel, and Warren to ship their comic books from a new distribution center in Sparta, Illinois beginning in Fall 1973, thereby developing 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. The move from newsstand distribution to the direct market (nonreturnable, heavily discounted, direct purchasing of comics from publishers) went hand-in-hand with the growth of specialty comics shops that catered to collectors who could then buy back issues months after a newsstand issue had disappeared.