Bud Plant Inc.

Bud Plant, Inc.
Comic book distributor
Industry Comics
Founded 1970
Founder Bud Plant
Defunct 1988 (as distributor; still operates as mail-order business)
Headquarters San Jose, California, then Grass Valley, California

Bud Plant was a wholesale comics distributor active in the 1970s and 1980s during the growth of the direct market. Starting in 1970 as a mail-order distributor specializing in underground comix, Plant absorbed some of his smaller rivals in the 1980s, and then sold his business to Diamond Comics Distributors in 1988.

History

Origins

Plant (born 1952)[1] was a comics and illustrated books enthusiast[2] who founded Bud Plant, Inc. in 1970 as a mail order company specializing in the undergrounds. Throughout his high school years, Plant bought and sold back issue comic books through ads in fanzines such as Rocket's Blast/ComicCollector. His Holly Drive address appears as the publishing address of the first issue of Promethean Enterprises in 1969. In 1971, Plant and five friends spent the summer dealing comics at conventions in Houston, New York, Dallas, San Diego, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C.[3]

Plant had met direct market pioneer Phil Seuling on the convention circuit;[3] in late 1973 Seuling called Plant to inform him that he had just cut a deal to ship Archie, DC, Marvel, and Warren comic books from a new distribution center in Sparta, Illinois. Seuling offered the West Coast region to Plant, but Plant turned him down, preferring then to concentrate on the proliferating underground market.[4]

Comics & Comix

In August 1972, while still an undergraduate at San Jose State University,[5] Plant co-founded what became the comics retailer Comics & Comix in Berkeley, California, with John Barrett[6] and Plant's housemate Robert Beerbohm.[4] (Beerbohm later founded the "sub-distributor" Common Ground Distributors, in c. 1978, which was initially supplied by Detroit-based distributor Big Rapids Distribution, and acquired by Capital City Distribution in 1982.)

In 1973 Comics & Comix hosted the first Bay Area comics convention, Berkeleycon 73, in the Pauley Ballroom in the ASUC Building on the University of California, Berkeley campus. At that show, Comics & Comix acquired over 4,000 Golden Age comic books owned by Tom Reilly.[4]

Publishing

Plant entered the publishing field in 1969 as one of the three publishers, along with Al Davoren and Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., of Promethean Enterprises - a five-issue fanzine that attempted to straddle the comic/comix boundary. In 1972, Plant took over the publishing responsibilities of the fanzine Anomaly from Jan Strnad who had published three issues since 1969. Plant published issue four of Anomaly evolving it into an underground comic.

In 1974, Plant published one issue of the underground/sword and sorcery hybrid Barbarian Killer Funnies; moving from there to the similarly themed The First Kingdom, written and illustrated by Jack Katz. (Plant published 24 issues of The First Kingdom, from 1974 to 1986.)

From 1980 to 1985, Comics & Comix also published the industry trade journal Telegraph Wire.

Expansion

In the early 1980s Plant supplied product to Destiny Distributors, a sub-distributor based in Seattle and Vancouver, started by Phil Pankow (which was acquired by Diamond in 1990).[7] In 1982, Plant bought out regional rival Charles Abar Distribution, based in Belmont, California.[8]

The year 1985 brought two important developments in the distribution industry, the bankruptcy of Seuling's Sea Gate Distributors (Seuling himself had died in 1984),[9] and the failure of Plant's West Coast rival Pacific Comics (which by that point was also a large independent comics publisher).[10] Plant and Midwestern distributor Capital City Distributors opened "an expanded facility in Seagate's old space in Sparta, Illinois, alongside [Pacific's old] printing plant".[11] In 1987, Plant acquired Alternate Realities Distributing, Inc., based in Denver, Colorado, a wholesale distribution operation run by Nanette Rozanski.[12]

By 1988, Plant dominated distribution of comics in the West Coast, finally fulfilling Seuling's 1974 vision.

Sale to Diamond

In the summer of 1988, Steve Geppi of Diamond Comics Distribution bought Plant's distribution warehouses,[13] allowing Diamond to go "national",[14] "thereby assuming control of "40 percent of the direct-sales market".[8]

Later in 1988, Plant also sold Comics & Comix.[15]

Back to basics

Since divesting himself of his distribution and brick-and-mortar retail businesses, Plant has maintained a mail-order (and now Internet) presence in art books, trade paperbacks, and rare books.[8] Plant is known for the colorful titles of his sales catalogs:

Realignment

On July 5, 2011, Plant announced plans to sell his mail-order business and retire.[16] Then in April 2012 (after failing to find a buyer) he announced plans to downsize (eliminating print catalogs) but continue operations.[17]

Awards

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Plank" to "Plantu", Michigan State University Libraries, Special Collections Division, Reading Room Index to the Comic Art Collection.
  2. ↑ Plant is listed as a member of the Merry Marvel Marching Society in Fantastic Four #40, published July 1965.
  3. 1 2 Jacobson, Aileen. "Serious Comics Fans", The Washington Post (Aug 16, 1971), p. B2.
  4. 1 2 3 Beerbohm, Bob. "Please Consider Buying Some Comics From Industry Icon Robert Beerbohm", The Comics Reporter (March 14, 2008).
  5. ↑ Beerbohm, Robert. "Comics Dealer Extraordinaire Robert Beerbohm: In His Own Words", Comic-Convention Memories (Jan. 6, 2010).
  6. ↑ Nolan, Michelle. "Newswatch: Pioneering Comics Retailer John Barrett Dies at 50", The Comics Journal #233 (May 2001), p. 18: Barrett died March 14, 2001.
  7. ↑ "Newswatch: Independent Meets Its Destiny", The Comics Journal #139 (December 1990), pp. 12–13.
  8. 1 2 3 Duin, Steve and Richardson, Mike (eds.) "Bud Plant" in Comics Between the Panels (Dark Horse Publishing, 1998) ISBN 1-56971-344-8, p. 356–357.
  9. ↑ "Phil Seuling, father of the direct-sales Market, dies at age of 50", The Comics Journal #93 (September 1984), pp. 13-14.
  10. ↑ "Newswatch: Pacific Comics liquidated", The Comics Journal #95 (February 1985), p. 10.
  11. ↑ Sanford, Jay Allen. "Two Men and their Comic Books", San Diego Reader blog (Aug. 19, 2004).
  12. ↑ Rozanski, Chuck. "Returning to the Topic of My 1979 Visit to the Marvel Offices", Tales From the Database, MileHighComics.com (March 2004).
  13. ↑ "Bud Plant Sells Out to Diamond", The Comics Journal #124 (Aug. 1988), pp. 9–10.
  14. ↑ Warshaw, Michael. "From Mailman to Tycoon", Success (June, 1994), pp. 28–32.
  15. ↑ "Newswatch: "Comics & Comix Sold", The Comics Journal #125 (October 1988), pp. 23–24.
  16. ↑ Bud Plant (July 5, 2011). "Bud Plant to Retire-- Offers Catalog & Internet Business of 41 Years for Sale". blog of BudsArtBooks.com. Archived from the original on August 12, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2011.
  17. ↑ We're Back! Big News.
  18. ↑ Marx, Barry, Cavalieri, Joey and Hill, Thomas (w), Petruccio, Steven (a), Marx, Barry (ed). "Bud Plant Comics Retailing Expands" Fifty Who Made DC Great: 47 (1985), DC Comics

Further reading

External links

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