Date: Sun, 2 Jul 1995 17:13:39 -0400
From: [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu] (Metroplex)
Subject: FtP 534

THIS IS FIT TO PRINT NUMBER 534:  Oh boy...Friendly Frank's went down.
Just because an event is logical, it doesn't mean you have to like it. From
the moment Marvel acquired HWD and went exclusive, i knew that regional
distributors would start to fall. It wasn't a matter of "who." It was a
matter of "when" and "in what order." After DC gave Diamond an exclusive
brokerage deal, it was no longer a matter of "when." It was just a matter of
"in what order."
Frank Mangiaracina sold out to Capital City, and the best thing i can say
about it is that although CCD did not assume Frank's liabilities (read: the
money owed to pub-lishers), they did assume his outstanding pre-orders, which
meant there was no interruption in the shipping of new titles.
Frank ran a small, personal company. He is, as the nickname says, "friendly."
His staff paid attention to promoting books from independent publishers, and
his company really played fair with returns and damages, which sounds
inconsequential but is greatly to be admired in this industry. I don't know
what Friendly Frank's overall share of the distribution pie was, but at
Claypool, for whom i work now, his orders represented a very small percentage
of sales. The numbers varied by title, but averaged around 2%.
For small publishers, the fact that Capital picked up Frank's 2% was a good
sign, a return to normality after the abhorrent vacuum left in the wake of
Andromeda's collapse, when no one distributor would take all of Andromeda's
pre-ordered books.
For Capital City, gaining that 2% will be welcome news, but it is not going
to fix the problem caused by the pull-out of Marvel and DC. They will need a
lot more than that addition to keep operating at full capacity.
What about the remaining regional dis-tributors? Will Capital acquire them
all?
Let's see: Multi-Book, Andromeda, and Styx had Canada. Andromeda is gone.
Even in the event that one of the two  remaining outfits expires, the
survivor may not sell to Capital, although chances are they will.
Comics Hawaii serves an area so geo-graphically isolated that it presents a
poor target for take-over. With Marvel and DC on their own, Comics Hawaii may
be a bit short of product, but they are heavily into pogs and cards, and
their regional hold on such non-comics products may keep them afloat
indefinitely. If not, the only reason they'll sell out will be for lack of
product; no competitor will try to drive them under.
Today is a sunny spring day. The climb-ing roses i have planted all over my
place are in wild, abandoned bloom, cascades of pink and white falling from
the pergolas, drenching the courtyard between my house and office with
perfume. In this pastoral setting hundreds of comic books have had their
lettering corrected and their colour breaks coded. The work goes on to this
day.
Somewhere in an apartment or out on a rose-enlivened patio, someone is
reading a book that went through this production department. Perhaps the rosy
graduated fill of pink and burgundy i chose for a logo and drop shadow are
meeting with approval. Perhaps they are unimportant in the overall scheme of
story flow and pyrotechnic art. No matter; the work has found its audience.
But between this place and that there is a  a concrete warehouse or a
metal-skinned one, and in it someone is carrying boxes of comics. The boxes
weigh 30 to 35 pounds each, depending on where the comics were printed and
what grade of paper was used. If there are a lot of boxes and it's a big
warehouse, the boxes are on pallets and they are being moved around with a
forklift.
The air is cool in the warehouse, and the colour green is notable by its
absence. The boxes are pale brown. The floor is grey.
This is the battlefield, the site of the struggle for survival. Whose boxes
will be carried? Who will carry the them? Who will write the paychecks for
the forklift drivers? It's a quiet war, and no shots will be fired, but to
the victors go the spoils, and to the losersxa footnote in history.
So Friendly Frank's is gone. I guess i'll go outside now and sweep the fallen
petals from the paths.

====

Fit to Print appears in print each week in Comics Buyers Guide and is
available via e-mail.  Tell your friends!  To subscribe to Fit to Print via
e-mail send a request with the words "Subscribe FtP" in the subject header
and your address in the body of the message to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu.]  You
will be added to the list and receive the next available issue.  Back
issues are available.  FTP to cerebus.acusd.edu and look in the
Comics/About Comics/Comics
News/Fit to Print directory.  FtP is also available on the World Wide Web
at http://www.scar.utoronto.ca/~91mithra.  Responses are welcome and should
be directed to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu.]  Fit to Print is Copyright Cathrine
Yronwode.  All rights reserved.