Craig and Rich:
** Well, I remember one year -- five of us went, two adults and three nephews
and nieces; it was on a Saturday and it cost us more than $100 -- and to me,
well, I'm small potatoes and that seemed like a fortune for just one day's
worth of "browsing," and then you have to add more $$$ on top of that for
things you have to buy to keep the kids happy; it's a not pocket change to me,
but I admit everyone should go at least once to say they did it. The one and
only time Heritage chose to host a Signature movie poster auction at Comic-Con
-- I couldn't even get into the building. Traffic and parking were a mess and
the lines to get in were 10x longer than those you'd find at Disneyland's Space
Mountain, without the benefit of using a Fast Pass.
** Meanwhile, Rich -- your bit about that guy in the early years of Comic-Con
hitting on my girlfriend/wife because he'd probably never seen a woman before
is hilarious! Those were the good old days when I could buy a Hulk #1 for only
$50, a one-sheet to Jaws for $5 and a E.T. bike/moon poster for $40. And
although very few women attended, once in a while a pudgy imitation of
Vampirella or Elvira would show up for amusement. Today, starlets including
porn stars turn up at Comic-Con in some of the more "restricted" areas of the
center.
** But you're right about the headaches with the Comic-Con today. The fact is,
San Diego, despite being the 8th largest city in the U.S. -- has a small-town
mentality. Its skyline is too close to the airport, hence there are no
buildings/hotels downtown taller than 30-40 stories; it so hates to be confused
as part of the "greater L.A. area" by out-of-towners and has horrible public
transportation compared to other "major" cities. You can't even hail taxis
from the street like in Vegas, New York or S.F. I've been to Vegas many times
and while I don't consider Sin City my ideal place for a vacation -- it is A+,
#1 in the world -- better than Orlando -- when it comes to hosting big events.
The airport is close, taxis are abundant, and many hotels on the strip have
meeting centers with square footage larger than the San Diego Convention
Center. Vegas hotel prices, unlike San Diego -- are pretty consistent, simply
because Vegas hosts so many more events. Conversely, San Diego, which has tens
of thousands fewer hotel rooms, jacks up the price just for Comic-Con. Thank
God I live here and don't have to deal with that -- but then just getting in,
even if you have a pass, still requires serious planning. I've been to Vegas
for numerous business conferences -- and the rooms and accommodations and
organizational amenties for hosting conventions are the greatest.
** I think Comic-Con, unfortunately, will never leave San Diego, simply because
of tradition, just like the American Crossword Puzzle natl. conventions have
been in Stamford, CT for more than 30 years (I learned the latter factoid after
watching the 2006 documentary, "Word Play") -- even though it deserves a larger
venue. The plus for out-of-town newbies is learning that downtown San Diego,
unlike L.A. -- is located on the water, which makes for cooler days in late
July when the rest of the country swelters. Still, it makes total sense to
move Comic-Con to Vegas just so everyone can BREATHE indoors. But it'll never
happen.
-d.
-----Original Message-----
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:32:12 -0700
To: davidmkusum...@hotmail.com
From: cr...@wolfmill.com
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Speaking of Stephen Fishler...
CC: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
At 03:29 PM 3/15/2009, David Kusumoto wrote:
** Today, Comic-Con is gigantic, with crowds of around 100,000 or more held at
the huge San Diego Convention Center on the harbor -- and though the event
still retains its geek factor -- it's far more inclusive, with tons of stuff
for children and movie-related material and events going constantly. When
Comic-Con started, its only attendees were young adults and grumpy old men.
The trouble today is few can afford to attend Comic-Con. And I understand that
this year's bash is already sold out. In terms of its impact on traffic and
people crowding our streets -- Comic-Con is bigger than the Super Bowls our
city has hosted. Every Comic-Con, locals avoid downtown. But now that we have
a major league baseball stadium downtown, it's a nightmare.
Comic Con is gigantic but it's actually quite affordable. I've been attending
as a professional since the late 1970s so haven't paid for a membership in 30+
years but I believe a full (four-day) membership is around $65 or $75.
Individual days can be had for as little as $20.
Right now, it's only the four-day memberships that are sold out. There are
oodles of daily memberships still available. Saturday -- being the con's most
crowded day -- still had 75% of its memberships available. The other days had
still higher percentages available. I suspect that will change quite soon, now
that the full memberships are gone. But even buying four one-day memberships,
the freight is only $110. Not free but hardly out of reach for a high
percentage of the population who might be interested.
What is expensive are hotel rooms. San Diego is never a cheap town to stay in
and the hotels take advantage of what events are in town to raise their prices
to see what the traffic will bear. (Personally, I'm not willing to pay $200 a
night to stay in walking distance of the convention center so I stay about a
mile away, at a very nice little hotel in Little Italy, for about half that
rate.)
Craig.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Craig Miller Wolfmill Entertainment cr...@wolfmill.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-----Original Message-----
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:20:24 -0700
From: sa...@comic-art.com
Subject: Re: Speaking of Stephen Fishler...
To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
I thoroughly enjoyed setting up at comics for 25 years starting in the El
Cortez days of the show, and afterward at the former convention center where
the show was much more kick-ass in my opinion than it is today
now it's all business
then we used to have all out costume contests where the girls wore pasties
today you have nothing but aggravation to do the show as a dealer and the long
tenured folks like myself were finally pushed aside in 2003 when I told the
show promoters to kiss my hidden spot.
but it gets worse in lots of ways.. even dealers have to fight for hotel rooms.
The con does not require a certain number of rooms be held for dealers
specifically, so many dealers have to stay at hotels as far as 20 miles away &
drive in every morning. But if you don't get there before 7am, you can no
longer find parking for your vehicle on some days which is another issue: why
don't they even keep reserved parking for dealers?? Also, hotel rooms for con
folks are not released until March 9th and they hotel rooms sell out faster
than Madonna concerts. Sp dealers make their reservations last year & pay a
rate 2x the con rate, or have to waste time trying to get the hotel to think
their reservations were made on March 9th and deserve a con rate. It's three
times as bad when a baseball game is going on across the street from the
convention center
For years they've been speaking of speaking of moving to another city like
Anaheim or here to Vegas where they have room for all attendees, dealers and
larger convention areas - but they refuse to leave San Diego even though they
know the city & the convention center cannot handle the convention anymore. One
of the worst is when driving in, there are only 2 access points to get there
and there are thousands of cars on these two streets of 2 lanes each way and
leaving through the Gaslamp District of funnelling down to single lanes exiting
is ridiculous. The city is a long way past being useful for that show
the past 2 years, the fire marshall has shut down entry until other attendees
left. so last year on Saturday, several thousand people who had waited on line
for 6 hours to buy a ticket & get in couldn't buy a ticket & never got inside
to the show. Crap like that is unacceptable as a business practice
of course, you all have to know that the show brings some $100,000,000 or so
into San Diego.. so why are the attendees & dealers still treated like sh*t??
To be honest, as much as I liked the show from the 70s until 2003 when I
stopped setting up (and I haven't made the last 2 as an attendee either) for
all the aggravation it had become.. I'm happy not to be exhibiting there anymore
concerning David's girlfriend (at the time).. yeah, back then any woman was
outnumbered by at least 100-1 so I'm not surprised some lech was following her
around.. After all, at a 100-1 ratio, he may never have seen a woman before!!!!
Rich
At 03:29 PM 3/15/2009, David Kusumoto wrote:
** I confess when my good-looking girlfriend (who's now my wife) and I first
walked into Comic-Con in the 1970s (which was then held in the smallish El
Cortez Hotel and later the Civic Center here in San Diego) -- we were taken
aback by the geek factor, people dressed up in costumes and reciting every line
in Star Trek, going over plot lines and Trek-ideology, all that jazz. I have
never been a Star Trek fan or a collector of sports cards, but I did have an
interest in old comics and movies. Other than my aversion to Star Trek and
sports cards -- I confess I was still a little rattled that my interests were
otherwise very much aligned with others at Comic-Con -- who seemed geeky in
appearance and manner, very intellectual and socially awkward if they had to
talk about unrelated subjects like their jobs or what was in the news. I
seemed to need reassurance because I asked my girlfriend (who went only because
of my interest, not hers) -- "do I seem that way to you?" And she said no.
More than 30 years later, she remains above my standing, not what people
expect; I obviously got lucky because I'm not an attractive match for her and
I'm not rich.
** But what was funny, I'll never forget this -- one year we went to Comic-Con
to buy more comics and folded one-sheets -- and this guy, he looked like the
square dude who plays the NBC page on "30 Rock" -- kept following my then
girlfriend around whenver I strayed into another direction in the dealer's
room, peppering her with questions -- and I overheard this Boy Scout trying to
pick her up, asking for her phone number. I guess he was surprised to see a
girl like her at Comic-Con. (She worked at JC Penney at the time and
eventually became a department manager at Nordstrom.) My then girlfriend
politely declined to give out her personal information and then she swiveled
and gave me a glare that said, "get me outta of this place, NOW."
** Today, Comic-Con is gigantic, with crowds of around 100,000 or more held at
the huge San Diego Convention Center on the harbor -- and though the event
still retains its geek factor -- it's far more inclusive, with tons of stuff
for children and movie-related material and events going constantly. When
Comic-Con started, its only attendees were young adults and grumpy old men.
The trouble today is few can afford to attend Comic-Con. And I understand that
this year's bash is already sold out. In terms of its impact on traffic and
people crowding our streets -- Comic-Con is bigger than the Super Bowls our
city has hosted. Every Comic-Con, locals avoid downtown. But now that we have
a major league baseball stadium downtown, it's a nightmare.
-d.
-----Original Message-----
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 09:13:34 -0700
From: aday_5...@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Speaking of Stephen Fishler...
To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
Guilty on all counts (btw ... I finally got the beautiful woman, but she was
born waaaay after ST left the airwaves).
ad
--- On Sun, 3/15/09, David Kusumoto <davidmkusum...@hotmail.com> wrote:
From: David Kusumoto <davidmkusum...@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Speaking of Stephen Fishler...
To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
Date: Sunday, March 15, 2009, 2:46 AM
(truncated)
And we used to laugh because at lunch he would tell us off and on that any
woman he might marry in the future -- MUST first know all about Star Trek and
understand it. And oh, of course, that woman would have to be gorgeous. He
didn't collect movie posters, but he DID collect comics and action figures. I
bet if I drew a line connecting all of MoPo's members -- that I would find
(besides a shared interest in posters) -- a past or present interest in comics,
sports cards and sci-fi/sorcery stuff.
-d.
-----Original Message-----
Date: Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:46:19 -0700
From: davidmkusum...@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Speaking of Stephen Fishler...
To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
** I saw Fishler in person that one and only time -- and he struck me then as a
very quiet but intense young man, almost trying to hide from any attention.
When I tried to interview him, he was visibly uncomfortable and gave me only a
few one-breath quotes. But everyone in the huge room was curious about him.
"Who's the kid with all the money who looks like he just got out of high
school?," was the general buzz. Instead of letting someone else bid on his
behalf, Stephen flew from NY to L.A. to bid in person. That was a helluva sale
-- and it was striking in that you got the feeling that Stephen himself knew he
was not going to lose those two Universal horror posters; he had no limit. It
happened at Bruce's first stand-alone showroom sale (Dec. 1998) -- after
directing Christie's previous poster sales in New York. Fishler struck me as a
very mysterious figure. Since then, I've seen him quoted many times and have
learned that he has ALWAYS been a big name in the comic book world.
** My wife and I have always found it intriguing that so many movie poster
collectors are hyper-intellectual guys who used to collect sports cards or
comic books, who love sci-fi and Star Trek -- who have a high-geek factor that
people (esp. women) can instantly spot in a crowd. For example, the character
"Dwight" in NBC's "The Office" -- played by the hilarious Rainn Wilson -- is
the sort of guy you'd expect to collect comics and posters, a guy who treats
the Lord of the Rings or Star Trek-type universes like a religion. And so he
does.
** There used to be this quiet, portly guy in his 30s who was a graphic
designer in our office in San Diego. And we used to laugh because at lunch he
would tell us that any woman he might marry in the future -- MUST first know
all about Star Trek and understand it. And oh, of course, that woman would
have to be gorgeous. He didn't collect movie posters, but he DID collect
comics and action figures. I bet if I drew a line connecting all of MoPo's
members -- that I would find (besides a shared interest in posters) -- a past
or present interest in comics, sports cards and sci-fi/sorcery stuff. Speaking
for myself, I was real INTO comic books during the first 5-6 years of Comic-Con
before moving on to books and movies big-time.
-d.
-----Original Message-----
Date: Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:36:24 -0700
To: davidmkusum...@hotmail.com ; MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
From: sa...@comic-art.com
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Speaking of Stephen Fishler...
David
first time I met Steve he was 12 years old looking for Fantastic Four #1 and
had the cash with him and much more.
a year later he was a dealer too.
Always a good friend, I know he won't be bothered by mentioning that his father
was a liquor distributor and that should tell you everything. His mother is a
sweet lady and Steve is a very smart businessman
Rich
At 04:28 PM 3/14/2009, David Kusumoto wrote:
On the AP wires today, see below.
[BTW, Fishler was/is a big buyer of movie posters and is loaded with $$$. I
saw him at Bruce's huge auction held in L.A.'s cavernous Pacific Design Center
that I covered 10 years ago for Movie Collector's World. At the time he was
only 31 -- and he walked away with the biggest prizes of the day -- two
unbacked one-sheets for "Dracula" ($74,750) and "The Invisible Man" ($55,200).]
-d.
----------------------
Rare Superman comic sells for $317,200
Mar 14, 5:44 PM (ET)
By DAVID B. CARUSO
NEW YORK (AP) - A rare copy of the first comic book featuring Superman has
sold for $317,200 in an Internet auction. The previous owner had bought it for
less than a buck.
It's one of the highest prices ever paid for a comic book, a likely
testament to the volume's rarity and its excellent condition, said Stephen
Fishler, co-owner of the auction site ComicConnect.com and its sister
dealership, Metropolis Collectibles.
The winning bid for the 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1, which features
Superman lifting a car on its cover, was submitted Friday evening by John
Dolmayan, drummer for the rock band System of a Down, according to managers at
ComicConnect.com.
Dolmayan, who is also a dealer of rare comic books, said he acquired the
Superman comic on behalf of a client he declined to identify.
"This is one of the premier books you could collect," he said in a
telephone interview. "It's considered the Holy Grail of comic books. I talked
to my client, and we made the move."
Dolmayan said the client has "a small collection, but everything he has is
incredible."
Only about 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 are known to exist and they
seldom come up for sale.
"Maybe in a booming economy, it would have done a hundred grand more, but
in this economy, I think the price is great," Fishler said.
The man who had previously owned the book purchased it in a secondhand
store in the early 1950s when he was nine years old.
He paid 35 cents.
---
Associated Press writer Adam Goldman in New York contributed to this report.
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