Schanes discusses retailing and the challenges of distribution in the 1970s.

Schanes talks about establishing their distribution business, dealing with Marvel Comics and DC Comics while still in his teens.

For our article on the early days of the Direct Market, ICv2 interviewed Bill Schanes, who with his brother Steve was an early retailer and distributor.

Being a comic collector was a tough slog in the early 70s, but the Direct Market changed everything: collecting comics, selling comics, and comics themselves.

One of the most massive movers of the direct market was a 14-store juggernaut until a new owner got busted on drug and weapons charges.

The omnibus collects not only the color comics but black and white magazine comics and the three-part Misty Knight/Colleen Wing side story.

Mike Friedrich, a key figure in the history of the comics Direct Market, shared this obituary for another key figure in that history, Mel Thompson.

David Wheeler, longtime comics and game retailer and current CEO of Dragon's Lair Comics & Fantasy shared this obituary for Mel Thompson.

The story begins: in 1965, a teenage Bud Plant rifled through a bin of comics.

In this first video, Plant talks about the very early days of the comics business in the 1960s, and some of the first comic stores in California.