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What 1989 and 1990 San Francisco Comic Store Yellow Page Listings Looked Like

Published Mon, 22 Apr 2019 10:30:15 -0500

Last updated Tue, 23 Apr 2019 17:11:06 -0500

Brian Hibbs of Comix Experience in San Francisco has been around for a while. He is currently applying for 'legacy business status' for the longevity of his stores. which saw him dig out Yellow Pages ads for comic stores in the areas – including his own. As the comics boom was upon the direct market, it's a whole different world. Two pages from 1989, one from 1990 – which includes a Matt Wagner Superman original drawn for the store.

As Brian reminds us,

'what's great is that all of the display ads (except for Rory!) are DC comics? Why? Because DC used to co-op things like this. All of my store bags, too, A Dringenberg Sandman, then a Kyle Baker Joker, then the Transmetropolitan one. Shame those things don't exist any longer….'

Co-op meant that DC Comics would pay a large percentage of comic store advertising costs if they used DC Comics imagery to do so.

Though apparently approving the Superman imagery below took a little back and forth with DC Comics.

Well, on the original drawing, it didn't have the "S" Spitcurl. Neither Matt or I had ANY idea back then that this was actually a thing! When it was pointed out, I know that I (at least) though that was SUPERCOOL!