Bud Plant has announced that he is putting Bud’s Art Books, his catalogue and e-commerce art book business, up for sale.  The business currently releases 15 catalogues a year and runs an e-commerce site selling comic, pop culture, and art books from its headquarters in Grass Valley, California. Assets of the company include its brand, which stands for a unique product selection, careful packing and shipping, customer service, and informative catalogue and Web descriptions and recommendations; a secure e-commerce site; tens of thousands of customers; relationships with hundreds of publishers; and an experienced staff which has allowed Plant to devote his attention primarily to other interests in recent years. 

 

Bud’s Art Books traces its lineage of 1970, when Plant started the company in the bedroom of his parent’s house. In 1988, the company’s retail stores, Comics & Comix (seven stores, at the time the largest comic chain in the U.S.) were sold.  In that year, Plant also sold his distribution operations to Diamond Comic Distributors, making it the largest distributor in the country.

 

In his retirement, Plant plans to continue to operate Bud Plant Illustrated Books with his partner Anne Hutchison. That company sells used and rare illustrated books and out of print comics, fantasy, and art books at antiquarian book shows, comic book shows, on the Web (as Bud Plant & Hutchison Books), and in a local co-operative bookstore.