Unswerving, that is, until he’s faced with the pressures of Father’s Day gifts. On the cover of Superman’s Pal: Jimmy Olsen #30 (Aug. 1958) Superman is being an uncharacteristic jerk by using his heat vision to incinerate the “S” shield emblazoned house coat his adopted son, Jimmy Olsen, has just given him. Surely it’s an imaginary story or sinister forces have taken control of the Man of Steel! Oh, if only the truth were that cool!

Jimmy is depressed that he cannot join in on a father and son picnic because he is an orphan. This changes when Superman arrives and tells Jimmy that he’s legally adopted the cub reporter and the two participate in the festivities. Later, Superman takes Jimmy to their new home, where Jimmy has his own room, however Superman cautions Jimmy to never enter his secret identity room where he keeps all the items he has to maintain his secret identity. Things begin to be less blissful when Superman brings Jimmy to his Fortress of Solitude and Jimmy asks to use a new device, and suddenly Superman snaps at him and acts as though he did not give Jimmy permission, as punishment Superman vows never to bring Jimmy back to the Fortress of Solitude again.

Later, when Superman goes off on another adventure, he leaves Jimmy behind to do the dishes. When the door to his secret identity room is left open, Superman instantly blames Jimmy and warns him against going in the room. When Jimmy realizes it’s fathers day, he gets Superman a house coat with the Superman emblem on it. Superman, scoffing at it’s imperfection promptly destroys it with his x-ray vision. Eventually things get bad enough, before the trial period of being father-and-son is over Jimmy asks the Judge to cancel the adoption proceedings.

After Superman reveals that her purposely was cruel to Jimmy because after adopting Jimmy one of his computers (Which can make predictions) warned him that Superman will destroy his own son. Jimmy suddenly realizes that the computer meant “Sun” not “Son” and points out that there is a star named after Superman. Realizing that the sun is collapsing, Superman speeds out into space and destroys it to insure that it’s not a threat to space travelers. Afterwords, Superman learns that the judge will not overturn the decision to cancel Superman’s adoption of Jimmy Olsen, and Superman apologizes to Jimmy. Jimmy takes it all on stride, glad that at least he is still Superman’s pal.

From the DC Comics Database

What?!?

So Superman is intentionally a jerk, instead of just telling Jimmy that he doesn’t want to adopt him because he has it on good authority that he’ll end up destroying his “son”. If a man who can bend steel told me that there’s a chance he might end up ripping me in half like a New York phone book if he adopts me, I’ll race him to the courthouse to call the thing off.

The cherry on top of this twisted tale is that the whole mess is a mistake because the computers in the Fortress of Solitude — Kryptonian Supercomputers a thousand years more advanced than an technology on Earth — don’t know the difference between “son” and “sun”? Who knew the Kryptonian’s used the same spell checker as Microsoft Word.

So this Father’s Day if you’re giving your Dad a hideous tie or bath robe and you notice a pained expression as he struggles to grin and bear it, remember it could be worse. He could have heat vision.

Happy Father’s Day!

In case you don’t believe anything this ridiculous could really happen, download the court documents

On May 21, a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California dismissed a complaint filed by a woman who said she had purchased “Cap’n Crunch with Crunch Berries” because she believed it contained real fruit. The plaintiff, Janine Sugawara, alleged that she had only recently learned to her dismay that said “berries” were in fact simply brightly-colored cereal balls, and that although the product did contain some strawberry fruit concentrate, it was not otherwise redeemed by fruit. She sued, on behalf of herself and all similarly situated consumers, some of whom may believe that there are fields somewhere in our land thronged by crunchberry bushes. Read the Full Article at Lowering the Bar

Cases as frivilous as this one amplify the need for tort reform in the United States. If Ms. (or Mrs.) Sugawara were liable for PepsiCo’s legal fees, she would be less inclined to file such a stupid lawsuit. Unfortunately, Sugawara (and others like her) knows that she is likely to be rewarded with an out of court settlement. The potential rewards under our current tort system outweigh the risks. In the end, society pays for her folly.

Over the years those comics — Superman, Batman, Amazing Spider-Man, G.I. Combat, et al. — passed from one house to the other and read repeatedly. The paper yellowed, the colors faded and the edges were worn and folded — dog-eared, if you will. Now that alot of summers have passed but my love of comics is still as crisp and fresh as a comic off the rack.

Dog-Eared Comics is my digital treehouse where I hope to share my love of the 4-color medium with all of you. In the coming weeks I plan to dog-ear some classic — and not so classic — stories. Up first is a retrospective of DC’s 1990s revival of the Archie Comics superheroes just in time for those heroes to join the DC Universe in The Brave & The Bold, as well as, seminal Batman stories that shaped the Dark Knight for decades to come.

I hope I’ve piqued your interest. Bookmark Macktropolis — the digital age’s version of dog-earing — and stop by from time to time and look over my shoulder and peer into four-color worlds…but be careful, you may just fall in.

IN THE BEGINNING…

Comics were distributed by magazine distributors to newsstands, bookstores, grocery stores, and convenience stores from their introduction in the 1930s until the early 1980s. This meant that comics were widely available to the public, but were generally treated like any other periodical. This method of distribution worked well for four decades, but in the late 1960s / early 1970s a new kind of Comic Book consumer arose. (Queue dramatic music)…The Comic Book Collector. These customers were not satisfied just reading comics casually. This new breed of comics reader could sometimes be sent into fits when finding that the two or three copies of Batman, The Amazing Spider-Man, or The Avengers the local drugstore normally carried were sold out. Asking the courteous staff (yeah, I’m joking) to reorder it did no good since:

1. The Magazine Distributor handled the ordering and stocking of the periodicals, not the store staff.
2. The Distributor rarely — meaning never — restocks sold out product because:
   1. Selling every copy is a good thing.
   2. There would be a ton of new product coming the very next week.
3. The store staff has more important things to do than worry about some kid’s “funny book”

Distribution to outlets not specializing in comics — or anything else, for that matter — was great for the distributor and the store since it was essentially a consignment agreement. The publisher assumes the lion’s share of the risk in selling the product. Any unsold copies get returned by the store to the distributor for credit and the distributor returns these copies to the publisher for a rebate. The publisher was stuck with these unsold copies. As the Comic Collector became more numerous, they started looking for a consistent way to get their favorite books each and every month.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: OK…I haven’t mentioned the publisher subscription option. DC and Marvel both offered annual subscriptions to most of their titles. I don’t really mention it as a valid alternative to buying month to month because most kids (well, me anyway) couldn’t afford to prepay for a year of comics. I still remember my mother’s laughter when I asked for $12 to subscribe to Batman, Detective Comics, Superman and Justice League of America. Do not misunderstand me, my mother and father loved me very much, but could not rationalize spending twelve hard-earned 1976 dollars for comics (or funny books, as my Mother insists on calling them to this day). Thirty cents here or there was one thing, but $12 was something else entirely.

In the early 1980s Phil Seuling, a comic convention organizer, approached comic publishers to purchase comics directly from them instead of magazine distributors. Seuling’s agreement stipulated that the comics he purchased were non—returnable. The publishers knew a good thing when they saw it since they could move the risk of unsold copies off themselves and onto the Seuling. This kind of distribution agreement started spreading to other retailers and the Direct Market was born.

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL…

With the growth of the Direct Market, specialty distributors — Diamond, Capital City and others — took over the ordering and fulfillment task from the publishers. In 1981 Marvel Comics published Dazzler #1 exclusively for the Direct Market, bypassing the newstand market completely. This was the first comic exclusively delivered to comic shops. The 400,000 pre—orders for #1 were more than double the average circulation for a single comic at the time. It didn’t take long for DC Comics to jump on board and by the 1990s the Direct Market was the primary means of distributing comics for the Big Two and the only means for independent publishers.

BROTHER CAN YOU SPARE A DIME…

The growth of the Direct Market accelerated unchecked until 1994 when the Speculator Bubble officially burst. Fueled by events (The Death of Superman, Knightfall, etc), the rise of rock star creators (Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, et al.), and a sickening array of gimmicks (foil covers, bagged issues, hologram covers etc.) circulation numbers for many comics reached levels not seen since the Golden Age of Comics from 1939 to the 1950s. Millions of copies of comics were ordered by the Direct Market for customers purchasing multiple copies of everything that was cranked out from Marvel, DC, Image, and Valiant. Unfortunately, the Speculators wanted to cash in on the comics gold rush since they were all sure their 100 copies of Spawn #1 would pay for college or a new Porsche. Most were never comic book readers and the comics they bought were just another security or commodity. Unfortunately the Law of Supply and Demand was working against them. Golden ( Action Comics #1, Detective Comics #27) and Silver ( Showcase #4, Amazing Fantasy #15) Age comics are extremely valuable because they are actually rare. Any remaining copies of these comics have survived paper drives during World War II or mothers cleaning out their son’s bedroom. With few exceptions, comics were not saved or collected until the late 1970s. Comics were just another magazine.

When the speculators tried to cash in on their investment, most were shocked to find the comics they’d hoped were priceless were virtually worthless. Millions of copies were printed and millions of copies were — and are — still around. So the speculators abandoned the marketplace in droves. Since comic shops have to pre-order comics up to three months in advance, inventory started piling up and retailers started running out of cash. During the newsstand era of comics, publishers were on the hook for any unsold copies so they tried to print as close to 100% sell-through as it was possible to estimate. Direct Market retailers bear the cost of any unsold copies so publishers printed as many copies as were pre-ordered. Most comic shops — the ones I’m personally familiar with anyway — run on pretty tight margins and cash on hand is usually in limited supply. So when the Direct Market had to swallow thousands — in some cases, millions — of unsold copies of comics many retailers just did not have deep enough pockets to stay afloat.

WARNING — FACETIOUS CONTENT: The comic direct market should have headed off to Washington, DC for a few billion dollars of bailout money. Who knew?

HERE WE GO AGAIN…

During the decade or more since the end of the Speculator Boom/Bust, the comics industry is a great place to be if you’re a comics reader. Marvel and DC are both in a renaissance period. Even though there are still gimmicks to sell more books (i.e. Variant Covers, Retailer Incentives, etc) the focus remains squarely on publishing great comics targeted at people who will actually read them. Comic Book-inspired movies are the blockbusters of the day. It is a great time to read comics.

It may not be a great time to SELL comics. The Internet, barely on society’s radar in the early/mid-1990s, is now a part of everyday life. eCommerce has changed the way many industries do business and allowed consumers access to information for cost comparison that was unimaginable just barely 10 years ago. What does this mean for the local comic shop? TheInternet is a double-edged sword for most comic shops. It offers a way to connect to a wider customer base to sell comics and drive more customers to their store. However, the rise of online comic retailers such as DCBS and Heroes Corner should be causing comic shop owners a few sleepless nights. The online services generally offer discounts of 35% or more, free shipping after a certain order total, and — sometimes — free bags and boards. In contrast, the comic shops in my part of central North Carolina offer discounts between 0% and 17% and only one of them offers free bags and boards. Shipping isn’t a cost factor when buying from a LCS unless you want count the cost of gasoline to drive to the store — but I won’t since I was probably going in that direction anyway. Many will argue that the benefits offered by a LCS make the lower discount or higher cost per unit worth it. Camaraderie with fellow comic fans, creator events, and other extra—curricular activities sponsored by many LCSs can be viewed as additional services that lower discounts make possible. Of course, if you do not participate in these activities you only get the higher price.

FINAL CRISIS…

With a recession now firmly gripping the US economy all of us are beginning to turn a critical eye on the things we buy. As much as I enjoy the company of my local LCS owner and his staff, I have had to make the switch to an online service. The discounts make it possible for me to keep reading the same number of comics each month while reducing the money I actually spend on comics by more than 1/3. On the downside, I now only get my comics fix once a month in order to get free shipping — and I really do want free shipping. I still visit all the LCSs in my area and try to buy issues that escaped my notice while pre—ordering my comics, but I question whether the comic book direct market will be the same place when we are out of this recession. LCSs can be the focus of a vibrant community of comics’ fans but cashflow and profitability are still king. Can the LCS survive against competition with lower overhead cost and better cashflow potential? The jury is out.

Can anything be done to save the LCS? Well, sure…I’m heard great ideas ranging from rebate programs, free bag and board service, higher discounts for prepaid orders and more. While all of these are wonderful ideas for increasing revenue they do not addressprofitability since each of these ideas involves additional cost to the retailer. LCSs should try to use their leverage as a group — since they still purchase the lion’s share of the output of all comics publishers — to get some level of return-ability from the publishers. There would be limits the publisher would be willing to accept in exchange for taking back some of the risk of unsold comics. Perhaps, the publishers would allow retailers to return 50-60% of the number of copies ordered after 60 or 90 days? There could also be a cap on the number of returns so that if a retailers orders a large quantity of a book, the additional risk for those “extra” copies would remain with him.

Like many other “non-essential” products, the comic book is going to be cut from many budgets over the next few months. Some readers — like me — will look for ways to keep up the hobby while saving money. Others will cut back on the number of comics to keep spending the same or lower. Some — I hope very few — will abandon comics altogether. When these prodigals return — we’ve all left at some point but we always come back — I think the landscape of the Direct Market is going to be a very different place. Will it be better or worse? Only time will tell…

WARNING! Have a towel near by to wipe the drool from your keyboard (or screen if viewing on your phone).

I work for a small health food company with fewer than 50 employees. Communication shouldn’t be a problem. However, the owners of the company (not particularly tech-savvy individuals) insist that every item be emailed to every officer (family members…everyone of them) and manager in the company, no matter how mundane or unrefined. This results in a log jam of responses to what, in most cases, are simple questions or idea seedlings (mental green shoots, if you will). Uninformed participants waste time and energy being brought up to speed on issues that will ultimately have no effect on their areas of operation.

When I send a simple email asking for the standard shipping rates so I can post them to the website, I immediately get buried under a flurry of emails from the Controller, the CFO, the Network Administrator and other employees who should have better things to do.

“Are we charging enough?”

“We aren’t getting ripped off are we?”

“What are shipping charges?”

ARGHHHHHHH!!!

What’s a weary web designer to do? Well, maybe I’ll take a break from the email treadmill for a while. As I’ve pointed out, it’s a small company, the walk isn’t very far and I think I could use the exercise.

Klein misses the basic business tenet that competitive advantage comes from having a superior product. Starbucks might have an all-pervasive brand image, but a real passion for great coffee and comfortable, well-appointed stores have made Starbucks the corporate superpower that it is. As unpopular as the idea may be in marketing circles, marketing alone will not build a successful company. Great marketing comes from great companies, not the other way around.

Well, I’d love to go on but I don’t want my Vanilla Latte to get cold. Until next time.