The Comics Rack

Comic Memories Pt. 7

Sometime in mid to late 1983, Richard sent me on an errand that was the result of the growing comic book sales in the LA area. I was to check out a new distributor that had just opened a branch in Downey, which put it, conviently, on our regular route to Kolb Magazine Distributors in Whittier. This new distributor also was accessible by surface streets if the freeways were jammed up: somehting that was not feasible when traveling to Pacific Comics. The new player in the LA market was Glenwood Distributors.

Glenwood was founded in 1980 by Russ Ernst and based somewhere near Chicago, Illinois. As the comic market had grown, Glenwood had expanded with it and, if memory serves me right, had warehouse locations in Texas, Georgia, Sparta, Ill. besides the main warehouse near Chicago and the new LA location. And like Pacific, they not only broke down their shipments in Sparta, they also had numerous overseas accounts ranging from Europe to Asia.

Glenwood had a different mix of products than Pacific. Besides the current comics, graphic novels, fan magazines and some backstock, they also stocked SF and Fantasy paperbacks, comic reprints from Pacific Comics Club, and they also had somehow acquired (I'm guessing) a large number of newspaper editions from (the late and lamented) Ed Aprill. Back issues of collector movie magazines and other odds and ends that were of interest to a store like ours that had a varied clientele and, since Illinois was also a hotbed of interest in Dr. Who, and there was lots of material for those fans, although most of it was quite cheap (not in cost, but in quality).

Aside from its location and stock, Glenwood had a couple of incentives for us. Establishing an account with Glenwood gave us a second source of supply for comics, just in case things went bad elsewhere. Word through the grapevine was that Pacific was having some cash flow problems, but at the time of Glenwood's opening these were only rumors. The other incentive, however, was much more tangible and had to do with air freight charges.

As the comic market grew, publishers began to experiment with new packages that would appeal to the rapidly expanding fan base. One such experiment were the Marvel graphic novels, another was the DC Dollar Comics and the 100 page Super Spectaculars. One other experiment was to print the comics on heavy cover stock, known as Baxter paper, and to use this format for specials and limited series. Baxter paper displayed colors better than newsprint and was nearly indestructible, guaranteed to last longer than the comic fans who bought it. The problem, however, was that the printing presses in Illinois, where all the newsprint comics were printed, couldn't handle the Baxter paper stock. Eventually, contracts were signed and the Baxter books were printed at Ronald's printing in Canada and became known, to those of us in the business, as "Ronald's" books.

While the heavier paper of the Ronald's books made the comics look very pretty, the weight of the books made them cheaper to ship by truck. This worked well at first, but soon the demand that the books arrive ASAP cause them to be air freighted just like the regular comics. The weight difference of the Ronald's books, however, made them much more expensive than the newsprint comics and it was here that Glenwood's incentive came into play. Glenwood, through their air freight contracts was able to offer us free shipping on the Ronald's books: a substantial saving. Since we were large enough at this point to allow us to split our comic ordeer and still maintain our discounts, we turned all of our Ronald's book orders over to Glenwood, along with a token amount of our regular newsprint comic order. Eventually, Glenwood was able to get the Ronald's shipment before Pacific, giving us an edge over our competition, back in the days when people used to line up outside the store on the day new comics arrived.

The Glenwood warehouse in Downey was established by Bob Somebody-or-other (I'm sorry, but I honestly can't remember his name). Within a short time, however, Bob was brought back to the Illinois location and was replaced by Pat Broderick, a fellow near my own age. Pat and I became friends over time and he eventually became my roommate for a number of years (and Pat, if you come across this, drop me a line, as I have no idea where you now live). Having the manager of your comics distributor does have its advantages, such as the day Watchman #1 was released. Pat brought a copy home so I could read it and I increased my order on the spot (something that proved to be a very good idea). I also recall heading off to bed while Pat sat up by the phone, waiting for the call that the truck was leaving the airport with the new comics shipment. He would then call the rest of his crew and, in the same way Pacific handled their shipments, they would break down the shipment overnight, so the comics would be ready in the morning. To Pat's credit, our store never received any special treatment because we roomed together and everyone was sadden when he was transferred back to Illinois, but that is getting a bit ahead of the story, since we must first deal with the demise of Pacific Comics.