I thoroughly enjoyed setting up at comics for 25 years starting in
the El Cortez days of the show, and afterward at the former
convention center where the show was much more kick-ass in my opinion
than it is today
now it's all business
then we used to have all out costume contests where the girls wore pasties
today you have nothing but aggravation to do the show as a dealer and
the long tenured folks like myself were finally pushed aside in 2003
when I told the show promoters to kiss my hidden spot.
but it gets worse in lots of ways.. even dealers have to fight for
hotel rooms. The con does not require a certain number of rooms be
held for dealers specifically, so many dealers have to stay at hotels
as far as 20 miles away & drive in every morning. But if you don't
get there before 7am, you can no longer find parking for your vehicle
on some days which is another issue: why don't they even keep
reserved parking for dealers?? Also, hotel rooms for con folks are
not released until March 9th and they hotel rooms sell out faster
than Madonna concerts. Sp dealers make their reservations last year &
pay a rate 2x the con rate, or have to waste time trying to get the
hotel to think their reservations were made on March 9th and deserve
a con rate. It's three times as bad when a baseball game is going on
across the street from the convention center
For years they've been speaking of speaking of moving to another city
like Anaheim or here to Vegas where they have room for all attendees,
dealers and larger convention areas - but they refuse to leave San
Diego even though they know the city & the convention center cannot
handle the convention anymore. One of the worst is when driving in,
there are only 2 access points to get there and there are thousands
of cars on these two streets of 2 lanes each way and leaving through
the Gaslamp District of funnelling down to single lanes exiting is
ridiculous. The city is a long way past being useful for that show
the past 2 years, the fire marshall has shut down entry until other
attendees left. so last year on Saturday, several thousand people who
had waited on line for 6 hours to buy a ticket & get in couldn't buy
a ticket & never got inside to the show. Crap like that is
unacceptable as a business practice
of course, you all have to know that the show brings some
$100,000,000 or so into San Diego.. so why are the attendees &
dealers still treated like sh*t??
To be honest, as much as I liked the show from the 70s until 2003
when I stopped setting up (and I haven't made the last 2 as an
attendee either) for all the aggravation it had become.. I'm happy
not to be exhibiting there anymore
concerning David's girlfriend (at the time).. yeah, back then any
woman was outnumbered by at least 100-1 so I'm not surprised some
lech was following her around.. After all, at a 100-1 ratio, he may
never have seen a woman before!!!!
Rich
At 03:29 PM 3/15/2009, David Kusumoto wrote:
** I confess when my good-looking girlfriend (who's now my wife) and
I first walked into Comic-Con in the 1970s (which was then held in
the smallish El Cortez Hotel and later the Civic Center here in San
Diego) -- we were taken aback by the geek factor, people dressed up
in costumes and reciting every line in Star Trek, going over plot
lines and Trek-ideology, all that jazz. I have never been a Star
Trek fan or a collector of sports cards, but I did have an interest
in old comics and movies. Other than my aversion to Star Trek and
sports cards -- I confess I was still a little rattled that my
interests were otherwise very much aligned with others at Comic-Con
-- who seemed geeky in appearance and manner, very intellectual and
socially awkward if they had to talk about unrelated subjects like
their jobs or what was in the news. I seemed to need reassurance
because I asked my girlfriend (who went only because of my interest,
not hers) -- "do I seem that way to you?" And she said no. More
than 30 years later, she remains above my standing, not what people
expect; I obviously got lucky because I'm not an attractive match
for her and I'm not rich.
** But what was funny, I'll never forget this -- one year we went to
Comic-Con to buy more comics and folded one-sheets -- and this guy,
he looked like the square dude who plays the NBC page on "30 Rock"
-- kept following my then girlfriend around whenver I strayed into
another direction in the dealer's room, peppering her with questions
-- and I overheard this Boy Scout trying to pick her up, asking for
her phone number. I guess he was surprised to see a girl like her
at Comic-Con. (She worked at JC Penney at the time and eventually
became a department manager at Nordstrom.) My then girlfriend
politely declined to give out her personal information and then she
swiveled and gave me a glare that said, "get me outta of this place, NOW."
** Today, Comic-Con is gigantic, with crowds of around 100,000 or
more held at the huge San Diego Convention Center on the harbor --
and though the event still retains its geek factor -- it's far more
inclusive, with tons of stuff for children and movie-related
material and events going constantly. When Comic-Con started, its
only attendees were young adults and grumpy old men. The trouble
today is few can afford to attend Comic-Con. And I understand that
this year's bash is already sold out. In terms of its impact on
traffic and people crowding our streets -- Comic-Con is bigger than
the Super Bowls our city has hosted. Every Comic-Con, locals avoid
downtown. But now that we have a major league baseball stadium
downtown, it's a nightmare.
-d.
-----Original Message-----
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 09:13:34 -0700
From: <mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]
Subject: Re: Speaking of Stephen Fishler...
To: <mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]
Guilty on all counts (btw ... I finally got the beautiful woman, but
she was born waaaay after ST left the airwaves).
ad
--- On Sun, 3/15/09, David Kusumoto <[email protected]> wrote:
From: David Kusumoto <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Speaking of Stephen Fishler...
To: [email protected]
Date: Sunday, March 15, 2009, 2:46 AM
(truncated)
And we used to laugh because at lunch he would tell us off and on
that any woman he might marry in the future -- MUST first know all
about Star Trek and understand it. And oh, of course, that woman
would have to be gorgeous. He didn't collect movie posters, but he
DID collect comics and action figures. I bet if I drew a line
connecting all of MoPo's members -- that I would find (besides a
shared interest in posters) -- a past or present interest in
comics, sports cards and sci-fi/sorcery stuff.
-d.
-----Original Message-----
Date: Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:46:19 -0700
From: <mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]
Subject: Re: Speaking of Stephen Fishler...
To: <mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]
** I saw Fishler in person that one and only time -- and he struck
me then as a very quiet but intense young man, almost trying to hide
from any attention. When I tried to interview him, he was visibly
uncomfortable and gave me only a few one-breath quotes. But
everyone in the huge room was curious about him. "Who's the kid
with all the money who looks like he just got out of high school?,"
was the general buzz. Instead of letting someone else bid on his
behalf, Stephen flew from NY to L.A. to bid in person. That was a
helluva sale -- and it was striking in that you got the feeling that
Stephen himself knew he was not going to lose those two Universal
horror posters; he had no limit. It happened at Bruce's first
stand-alone showroom sale (Dec. 1998) -- after directing Christie's
previous poster sales in New York. Fishler struck me as a very
mysterious figure. Since then, I've seen him quoted many times and
have learned that he has ALWAYS been a big name in the comic book world.
** My wife and I have always found it intriguing that so many movie
poster collectors are hyper-intellectual guys who used to collect
sports cards or comic books, who love sci-fi and Star Trek -- who
have a high-geek factor that people (esp. women) can instantly spot
in a crowd. For example, the character "Dwight" in NBC's "The
Office" -- played by the hilarious Rainn Wilson -- is the sort of
guy you'd expect to collect comics and posters, a guy who treats the
Lord of the Rings or Star Trek-type universes like a religion. And
so he does.
** There used to be this quiet, portly guy in his 30s who was a
graphic designer in our office in San Diego. And we used to laugh
because at lunch he would tell us that any woman he might marry in
the future -- MUST first know all about Star Trek and understand
it. And oh, of course, that woman would have to be gorgeous. He
didn't collect movie posters, but he DID collect comics and action
figures. I bet if I drew a line connecting all of MoPo's members --
that I would find (besides a shared interest in posters) -- a past
or present interest in comics, sports cards and sci-fi/sorcery
stuff. Speaking for myself, I was real INTO comic books during the
first 5-6 years of Comic-Con before moving on to books and movies big-time.
-d.
-----Original Message-----
Date: Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:36:24 -0700
To: <mailto:[email protected]>[email protected];
<mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Speaking of Stephen Fishler...
David
first time I met Steve he was 12 years old looking for Fantastic
Four #1 and had the cash with him and much more.
a year later he was a dealer too.
Always a good friend, I know he won't be bothered by mentioning that
his father was a liquor distributor and that should tell you
everything. His mother is a sweet lady and Steve is a very smart businessman
Rich
At 04:28 PM 3/14/2009, David Kusumoto wrote:
On the AP wires today, see below.
[BTW, Fishler was/is a big buyer of movie posters and is loaded with
$$$. I saw him at Bruce's huge auction held in L.A.'s cavernous
Pacific Design Center that I covered 10 years ago for Movie
Collector's World. At the time he was only 31 -- and he walked away
with the biggest prizes of the day -- two unbacked one-sheets for
"Dracula" ($74,750) and "The Invisible Man" ($55,200).] -d.
----------------------
Rare Superman comic sells for $317,200
Mar 14, 5:44 PM (ET)
By DAVID B. CARUSO
NEW YORK (AP) - A rare copy of the first comic book featuring
Superman has sold for $317,200 in an Internet auction. The previous
owner had bought it for less than a buck.
It's one of the highest prices ever paid for a comic book, a
likely testament to the volume's rarity and its excellent
condition, said Stephen Fishler, co-owner of the auction site
ComicConnect.com and its sister dealership, Metropolis Collectibles.
The winning bid for the 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1,
which features Superman lifting a car on its cover, was submitted
Friday evening by John Dolmayan, drummer for the rock band System
of a Down, according to managers at ComicConnect.com.
Dolmayan, who is also a dealer of rare comic books, said he
acquired the Superman comic on behalf of a client he declined to identify.
"This is one of the premier books you could collect," he said
in a telephone interview. "It's considered the Holy Grail of comic
books. I talked to my client, and we made the move."
Dolmayan said the client has "a small collection, but
everything he has is incredible."
Only about 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 are known to exist
and they seldom come up for sale.
"Maybe in a booming economy, it would have done a hundred grand
more, but in this economy, I think the price is great," Fishler said.
The man who had previously owned the book purchased it in a
secondhand store in the early 1950s when he was nine years old.
He paid 35 cents.
---
Associated Press writer Adam Goldman in New York contributed to this report.
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