|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pacific Comics
Pacific Comic began life as a San Diego comic shop owned by Bill and Steve Schanes. They opened their first shop in 1971, and by the late 1970's their business had grown into a chain of West Coast-based stores. Tired of repeatedly arguing with distributors about what comics their stores would receive and when, the two men approached Warner Bros, the then owners of DC, and pled their case. The result? Warners told DC to "play fair" with all its customers, a proclamation that saw the birth of the direct sales comic shop, where a comic publisher could sell their wares direct to the stores, without having to go through a distributor. Suddenly comics creators could approach shops without having to go through one of the bigger companies, which meant they could sell their title to the public without first signing away all their rights as creators.
The Schanes spotted this, and decided to make use of the new situation. They decided to set up their own line of titles, using the carrot of creator's retaining both control and ownership of their characters as a carrot to draw in top names in the industry. The first title Pacific put out was Jack Kirby's Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers, but many others followed, including Sergio Aragonés' Groo the Wanderer, Neal Adams' Skateman and Ms.Mystic, and Dave Stevens' Rocketeer.
Pacific went bankrupt in 1983, but before they did so they forced both Marvel and DC to start acknowledging creator rights, and they helped open the doors for many other small publishers who followed them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All images and characters depicted on this site are copyright their respective holders, and are used for informational purposes only. No infringement is intended and copyrights remain at source.
