Monday, August 31, 2009
Narramore Years Part 13
The Origins of Valiant Efforts Part 2
These reservations stemmed from study of the publishing industry
and actual involvement (albeit from a non-profit status) in production
of publications. The actual long term success rate of independent
comics publishers is vanishingly small. One can probably count on
one hand the success of independent comics publishers in the print realm.
For every Teen Age Mutant Ninja Turtles and Elfquest your have dozens
and dozens perhaps hundreds of well intentioned but failed publishing
enterprises. Part of this has to do with under capitalization (under financing),
what distributors will actually take (and their cut of the cover price) and
the actual ability for the fledgling company to actual produce material in
a regular timely manner. It also has to do with the ever diminishing
market for comic books.
During the 1940s and 1950s comic books were a true mass market publishing
industry printing hundreds of thousands of copies (and selling) for any given
title. There was that much market for comic books during that period.
With the advent of television and later video games, special effects movies,
the Internet and other entertainment options the audience for comic books
became increasingly fragmented and diminished. Comics became increasingly
a niche market catering to specialized age, gender, and thematics categories.
Even by the mid-1980s much of this was evident even if some of these factors
(Internet) were still future. With the direct sales market (comic speciality shops)
becoming a major factor in comics publishing several new companies were
launched during that time (Pacific, First, Eclipse, Comico, Valiant/Acclaim)
being the most prominent. Most of these companies were well financed efforts
with a certain amount of business salve, acumen and experience behind them.
They weren't fanboys doing this out of their homes. Having said that each of
the above companies are now a footnote in American comic book history.
My initial proposal of doing a fanzine type of publication (even though the
heyday of fanzines was long past—though something called small press was
very popular at the time). However Ralph and Charles were not to be deterred
by doing a mere fanzine. They wanted to do real comic books. Even with these
reservations I got talked into becoming a third partner in these efforts. My
non-negotiable was that we do comics with Christian themes and characters.
Why do expressly secular material with a market already glutted with such
material? Also I was looking at it from an eternal perspective. In 1987
Jack I. Martin, a local Christian comics fan and artist. would throw in with
us for a time. Out first meeting with Ralph and Charles in December 1986
developed a multi-year partnership that from an informal company
(Valiant Comics—not the Jim Shooter entity) and produced several issues
of our flagship and only title Valiant Efforts.
These meetings were part business meeting (we had agendas and fairly
detailed meeting notes) trying to structure a viable publishing company
and part bull sessions and part story/plotting sessions. Both Ralph and
Charles were quite loquacious. They bantered story and plot ideas around
with high energy and enthusiasm that I usually thought were reserved for
devotees of professional sports like football or basketball. This liveliness was
in marked contrast to the critical nay saying that I had been exposed to and
endured in the Santa Monica comics shop just a few short years before.
These were fanboys expounding excitedly on their own projects and the
wonderful characters they had created and the great stories they were hoping
to generate for these characters. The atmosphere of those meetings were
charged and exhilarating. I often sat in quiet amazement and rapt attention
at this fantastic expenditure of creative hot air.
These reservations stemmed from study of the publishing industry
and actual involvement (albeit from a non-profit status) in production
of publications. The actual long term success rate of independent
comics publishers is vanishingly small. One can probably count on
one hand the success of independent comics publishers in the print realm.
For every Teen Age Mutant Ninja Turtles and Elfquest your have dozens
and dozens perhaps hundreds of well intentioned but failed publishing
enterprises. Part of this has to do with under capitalization (under financing),
what distributors will actually take (and their cut of the cover price) and
the actual ability for the fledgling company to actual produce material in
a regular timely manner. It also has to do with the ever diminishing
market for comic books.
During the 1940s and 1950s comic books were a true mass market publishing
industry printing hundreds of thousands of copies (and selling) for any given
title. There was that much market for comic books during that period.
With the advent of television and later video games, special effects movies,
the Internet and other entertainment options the audience for comic books
became increasingly fragmented and diminished. Comics became increasingly
a niche market catering to specialized age, gender, and thematics categories.
Even by the mid-1980s much of this was evident even if some of these factors
(Internet) were still future. With the direct sales market (comic speciality shops)
becoming a major factor in comics publishing several new companies were
launched during that time (Pacific, First, Eclipse, Comico, Valiant/Acclaim)
being the most prominent. Most of these companies were well financed efforts
with a certain amount of business salve, acumen and experience behind them.
They weren't fanboys doing this out of their homes. Having said that each of
the above companies are now a footnote in American comic book history.
My initial proposal of doing a fanzine type of publication (even though the
heyday of fanzines was long past—though something called small press was
very popular at the time). However Ralph and Charles were not to be deterred
by doing a mere fanzine. They wanted to do real comic books. Even with these
reservations I got talked into becoming a third partner in these efforts. My
non-negotiable was that we do comics with Christian themes and characters.
Why do expressly secular material with a market already glutted with such
material? Also I was looking at it from an eternal perspective. In 1987
Jack I. Martin, a local Christian comics fan and artist. would throw in with
us for a time. Out first meeting with Ralph and Charles in December 1986
developed a multi-year partnership that from an informal company
(Valiant Comics—not the Jim Shooter entity) and produced several issues
of our flagship and only title Valiant Efforts.
These meetings were part business meeting (we had agendas and fairly
detailed meeting notes) trying to structure a viable publishing company
and part bull sessions and part story/plotting sessions. Both Ralph and
Charles were quite loquacious. They bantered story and plot ideas around
with high energy and enthusiasm that I usually thought were reserved for
devotees of professional sports like football or basketball. This liveliness was
in marked contrast to the critical nay saying that I had been exposed to and
endured in the Santa Monica comics shop just a few short years before.
These were fanboys expounding excitedly on their own projects and the
wonderful characters they had created and the great stories they were hoping
to generate for these characters. The atmosphere of those meetings were
charged and exhilarating. I often sat in quiet amazement and rapt attention
at this fantastic expenditure of creative hot air.
Labels: Elfquest, Jack I. Martin, Teen Age Mutant Ninja Turtles
# posted by Dino Don @ 9:35 AM 
