I watched Shopping for Superman, the new comic shop documentary by Wes Eastin, last weekend and was blown away by its quality, from the high-level journalism to the production values, especially given the micro-budget on which the feature-length film was made. I was most impressed with the fact that Eastin managed to communicate the deep sense of community in the direct market of comic stores and the eco-system that lives off them.
Eastin started work on the film in 2014 and made it for around $100,000 over the subsequent 10 years. It was first seen this summer, and got an immediate response, winning Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Film Fest and San Diego Comic Con. It’s now available for rental or purchase at Amazon, where I bought it, Apple, Google Play and YouTubeTV; and on Blu-ray soon.
The framing focused on the threats to comic stores, noting declining sales, the growth of ecommerce, and distributor turmoil, and asked the question, “Can our local comic shops be saved.” But the real story is the growth of the direct market over the past 50 years, which Eastin tracks from the beginning, when Phil Seuling and Jonni Levas created the direct distribution system to comic stores.
Eastin incorporated footage from Seuling’s 1977 appearance on The Mike Douglas Show, and takes viewers through the history of Seagate, including its decline, which was coupled with the explosion in the number of distributors that increased access to comics. Interviews with sources from that period include Chuck Rozanski of Mile High Comics and Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief at Marvel for a key stretch in the early days.
Eastin also notes the contributions of key individuals in the growth of the market, including Marvel Direct Sales Manager Carol Kalish, interviewing Mike Friedrich, her predecessor at Marvel, and her partner Rich Howell to provide insights into her short career, tragically cut short by her sudden passing at the age of 36.
Those are only a few of the over 50 interviews conducted by Eastin. In addition to comic shop owners, which included lots of familiar faces, he talked to creators, distributors (Diamond’s Steve Geppi, Pacific Comics’ Steve Schanes, and me) and got a lot of good material from two journalists: Dan Gearino, whose Comic Shop: The Retail Mavericks Who Gave Us a New Geek Culture is a great history of the direct market in book form, and Jim McLauchlin, currently of the Hero Initiative, and a writer for ICv2, Wizard Magazine, and other publications over the years.
In addition to the interviews, Eastin incorporates period footage and connective tissue to tie it all together. I was surprised at the number of notes he hit in the 1:26 run time, from distribution to the impact on the kinds of stories that could be told to the reasons why comic stores have survived all this time, and how he tied them all together.
He finishes with a series of interview clips on the place of comic stores in the culture (my favorite was from Mark Bowker of Alter Ego: “The world is missing that connection…” that they can get at the comic store), and things that could be done to keep comic stores healthy (Minimum Advertised Pricing and comic publisher advertising, for two).
I was inspired by the forceful presentation of the impact and power of the comic store in culture, and the showcasing of the passion for the medium that makes comic stores a special place. Promotional copy calls this film “a heartfelt love letter to comic stores,” and it’s definitely that.
Watch it yourself, show it and promote it to others, and keep it as a source document on how we got here – highly recommended.
For more on the history of the Direct Market, see “Comics Direct Market 50th Anniversary.”
Source: ICv2
