“And if California slides into the ocean like the mystics and statistics say it will, I predict this motel will be standin’ until I pay my bill.” From Desperados Under the Eaves, written by Warren Zevon
When word finally was released last week that Marvel, a.k.a. Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, Marvel Animation, Marvel Television, and Spaceballs the Marvel, is going to consolidate all of its operations in “Hollywood,” I think just about everybody had the same feeling.
“Holy shit, what took these people so long?”
However, the next thought differed from cynic to cynic. Some comments represent the chauvinism we have always seen between towns. “My city is better than your city and my dad can beat up your dad.” OK, fine. When it comes to comparing cities, it’s a matter of taste and choice. Honest, east coasters, there are good bagels in California.
Where Marvel and DC live does not dictate where the comics industry has any sort of Mecca. Combined the two publishers might have about 70% of domestic sales, and I say might because people are pretty tricky about what is a comic book and what is a children’s book. Bookstore sales take longer to track, as bookstores take returns. There’s lots of great comics to be found in that other 30%
Even so, their combined size does not represent the thousands of people who work on stuff published by all the houses combined, nor does it include those who are successful at self-publishing. They have a lower overhead, and they only have to deal with their own bullshit and not that heaped on by a bunch of bureaucrats who will be doing something else for a living in eighteen months. A bottom line that that wouldn’t motivate Disney or Warners to pull their faces out of their own puke easily could be an amount that would thrill a small publisher, as long as it’s typed in black ink and not red.
There was a camaraderie when most of the publishers were in Manhattan. Even though we all weren’t far from one another, each one (Marvel, DC, Warren, Valiant, Broadway (or whatever else Jim Shooter was running)) was close enough to about three dozen worthy restaurants and bars so walking over to hook up with each other was more of an option than a thing. But Los Angeles is a lot more spread out, and it almost always takes a car to get wherever you’re going. It often costs a lot of money and a tip to park said California car.
Different life styles abound. Either you like cold weather or you don’t. Either you like mud slides and forest conflagrations or you don’t. Either you like vegans or you don’t. As I said, you can get yourself good bagel either way. The ambience of New York City was a major factor in the creation of the Marvel Comics universe; The West Coast Avengers failed as a title more frequently than Kull, The Barbarian.
There’s been a lot of talk about Dark Horse Comics moving to Los Angeles, but from what I can tell right now that’s nothing more than conjecture. This is because the internet abhors a vacuum even more than nature does, and the owners and the new crew running DH are still working stuff out. Portland, with Dark Horse and Image and others, was growing into another comics publishing Mecca, and I really like that. I wish we had a big, viable Canadian company centered in Toronto or Vancouver so those cultural elements would be more of an influence on editorial output. Besides, both towns I noted have a lot of great restaurants.
Our readers live all over the planet. I like expanding the worldview of contemporary literature; this inures to the benefit of both readers and creators alike. Judge Dredd might be set in a post-apocalyptic United States, but believe me, he and his well-armed mates really are in London posing as Americans.
Well, at least they were before Trump.
I don’t think the move to the left coast to reside under Warner Bros.’ tutelage harmed the company, at least not very much. Still, it’s good for a creative industry to not have the fidgety stockholders always looking down their throats. Disney has much more of a hands-on attitude and is extraordinarily cheap, even by current standards. They seem to have offered all or most of their New York staffers positions in Hollywood; whether they pay for their moves remains to be seen.
There is one exception. Now former editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski is going in the other direction. He’s going to be working in Marvel’s Japan offices. Still, C.B. will be joining his fellow Marvelites on the Pacific ring of fire.
Personally, I’m holding out for Australia. I’ve always liked The Phantom.
