Bud Plant Inc.

Bud Plant was a wholesale comics distributor active in the 1970s and 1980s during the growth of the direct market. Starting in 1970 as a mail-order distributor specializing in underground comix, Plant absorbed some of his smaller rivals in the 1980s, and then sold his business to Diamond Comics Distributors in 1988.

History

Origins

Plant (born 1952)^[1] was a comics and illustrated books enthusiast^[2] who founded Bud Plant, Inc. in 1970 as a mail order company specializing in the undergrounds. Throughout his high school years, Plant bought and sold back issue comic books through ads in fanzines such as Rocket's Blast/ComicCollector. His Holly Drive address appears as the publishing address of the first issue of Promethean Enterprises in 1969. In 1971, Plant and five friends spent the summer dealing comics at conventions in Houston, New York, Dallas, San Diego, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C.^[3]

Plant had met direct market pioneer Phil Seuling on the convention circuit;^[3] in late 1973 Seuling called Plant to inform him that he had just cut a deal to ship Archie, DC, Marvel, and Warren comic books from a new distribution center in Sparta, Illinois. Seuling offered the West Coast region to Plant, but Plant turned him down, preferring then to concentrate on the proliferating underground market.^[4]

Publishing

Plant entered the publishing field in 1969 as one of the three publishers, along with Al Davoren and Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., of Promethean Enterprises — a five-issue fanzine that attempted to straddle the comic/comix boundary. (Promethean Enterprises lasted from 1969–1974.) In 1972, Plant took over the publishing responsibilities of the fanzine Anomaly from Jan Strnad who had published three issues since 1969. Plant published issue four of Anomaly, evolving it into an underground comic.

As part of his retailing enterprise Comics & Comix (see below), in 1974 Plant co-published one issue of the underground/sword and sorcery hybrid Barbarian Killer Funnies; moving from there to the similarly themed The First Kingdom, written and illustrated by Jack Katz. (Under various publishing names, Plant published 24 issues of The First Kingdom, from 1974 to 1986.) Comics & Comix also published three issues of Jim Pinkoski's Spaced in 1974–1976; two issues of Dan O'Neill's Comics and Stories in 1975; and two issues of Alfredo Alcala's Magic Carpet in 1977–1978.^[5]

From 1980 to 1985, Comics & Comix also published the industry trade journal Telegraph Wire.

Comics & Comix

In August 1972, while still an undergraduate at San Jose State University,^[6] Plant co-founded what became the comics retailer Comics & Comix in Berkeley, California, with John Barrett^[7] and Plant's housemate Robert Beerbohm.^[4] In 1973 Comics & Comix helped host the first Bay Area comics convention, Berkeleycon 73, in the Pauley Ballroom in the ASUC Building on the University of California, Berkeley campus. At that show, Comics & Comix acquired over 4,000 Golden Age comic books owned by Tom Reilly.^[4] The phenomenal sales of the Reilly collection enabled Comics & Comix to open more retail locations, first in San Francisco (May 1973), on Columbus Avenue (down from the North Beach area on the way to Fisherman's Wharf), and later in San Jose and Sacramento, making it the first comic book chain store in America.

Expansion

In the early 1980s Plant supplied product to Destiny Distributors, a sub-distributor based in Seattle and Vancouver, started by Phil Pankow (which was acquired by Diamond in 1990).^[8] In 1982, Plant bought out regional rival Charles Abar Distribution, based in Belmont, California.^[9]

The year 1985 brought two important developments in the distribution industry, the bankruptcy of Seuling's Sea Gate Distributors (Seuling himself had died in 1984),^[10] and the failure of Plant's West Coast rival Pacific Comics (which by that point was also a large independent comics publisher).^[11] Plant and Midwestern distributor Capital City Distributors opened "an expanded facility in Seagate's old space in Sparta, Illinois, alongside [Pacific's old] printing plant".^[12] In 1987, Plant acquired Alternate Realities Distributing, Inc., based in Denver, Colorado, a wholesale distribution operation run by Nanette Rozanski.^[13]

By 1988, Plant dominated distribution of comics in the West Coast, finally fulfilling Seuling's 1974 vision.

Sale to Diamond

In the summer of 1988, Steve Geppi of Diamond Comics Distribution bought Plant's distribution warehouses,^[14] allowing Diamond to go "national",^[15] "thereby assuming control of "40 percent of the direct-sales market".^[9]

Later in 1988, Plant also sold Comics & Comix.^[16]

Back to basics

Since divesting himself of his distribution and brick-and-mortar retail businesses, Plant has maintained a mail-order (and now Internet) presence in art books, trade paperbacks, and rare books.^[9] Plant is known for the colorful titles of his sales catalogs:

• Bud Plant's Incredible Catalog (1987–1994)
• Bud Plant Illustrated Books (1987–2005) — out-of-print/rare book catalog
• Bud Plant's Comic Art Update (1993–2002). Continued by Bud Plant's Incredible Update (2003–present)
• Bud Plant Comic Art Wholesale Catalog (Winter 1996)
• Bud Plant's Incorrigible Catalog—pinup art, erotic comic books, etc. (Winter 2001–2002)

Realignment

On July 5, 2011, Plant announced plans to sell his mail-order business and retire.^[17] Then in April 2012 (after failing to find a buyer) he announced plans to downsize (eliminating print catalogs) but continue operations.^[18]

Awards

• 1985: Named as one of the honorees by DC Comics in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great.^[19]
• Plant was the recipient of an Inkpot Award at the 1994 San Diego Comic-Con.

See also

• List of book distributors

References

Further reading

• Schelly, Bill. "Finding the Inner Bud". Pt. 1 Alter Ego #47 (April 2005) pp. 67–73; pt. 2 Alter Ego #48 (May 2005) pp. 68–73.
• Schelly, Bill. Founders of Comics Fandom. "Bud Plant (b. 1952)". Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2010. pp. 46–48.

External links

• Official website
• Bud Plant, Comics Retailing Expands Fifty Who Made DC Great. DC Comics, 1985. p. 47