The Comics Buyer’s Guide: 1971-2013
In the early days of comic book fandom, it took its cues from science fiction fandom since there was quite a bit of overlap. The early SF zines included names and addresses so as others began publishing, they knew where to find eager subscribers. The first pure comics zine, Richard Lupoff’s Xero, didn’t arrive until 1960 but it merely ignited a new wave of comics-only zines. By the time I discovered fanzines or 1960 or 1970, you sent some money and/or some stamps and they sent you a zine.
My best friend Jeff and I wisely took our meager allowances and one of us subscribed to Don & Maggie Thompson’s Newfangles and the other ordered Paul Levitz’s The Comics Reader. This way, we could share the only two authoritative sources of comics news. By then, we were aware that a growing back issue market was fueled by RBCC, formerly known as the Rocket’s Blast Comics Collector, but as its editor GB Love’s health meant that venerable title had to end, the market for a publication for buyers and sellers remained strong.
Enter Alan Light, now a respected music writer. Back in 1971, he gave us The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom , a weekly tabloid that was chock full of ads. Over time, though, Light added columnists, giving us something read between ads. Columnists begat news and news begat reviews and suddenly, The Buyer’s Guide became the source for information about comics post and present along with a handy way to order things of interest. Within a year it went from monthly to biweekly and the Thompsons brought Newfangles back, renamed Beautiful Balloons making the free paper a must read. Of course, with success came a demand for more content and in 1972 the paper went to a subscription model but no one complained. It had become too vital a source for information and collectors. As a result, it went weekly in 1975.
TBG offered us exclusive news and interviews with gorgeous original cover artwork. It broke news and ran pictures from conventions around the country. Flipping through the back issues would be like sifting through a time capsule of the industry. Companies retrenched and crumbled, others rose and fell in a blink of an eye. While credited with inventing the direct sales market in t1975 or so, Phil Seuling didn’t start advertising for his own Sea Gate Distribution until 1977, a significant step in the evolution of the importance the comics shops would become.
Murray Bishoff joined Light as an assistant editor but to readers, his news columns were vital. When Cat Yronwode took over in 1980, her Fit to Print became the Bleeding Cool of its day and turned her into a force to be reckoned with (and led to her successful work at Eclipse Comics just a few years later).
Light, just 29, sold the publication to Krause in 1983 and turned management of the newspaper over to the Thompsons who lovingly put their own imprint on the publication starting with Comics in Your Future, the first TV Guide-style listings of comics since the passing of TCR just a few years earlier. But as comic publishers grew in number at this point, the listings were essential.
Yronwode left but other columnists came including Tony Isabella and Bo Ingersoll while Peter David’s But I Digress joined the roster in 1990. Tony and Peter have been contributing ever since, without fail, their pieces always entertaining.
Don’s passing in 1994 was a shock to all but Maggie persevered and kept the publication a place for people who loved all manner of comics. On the other hand, it was being pounded by new competition, notably Wizard magazine, which was slick, glossy, snarky and available on newsstands. It wasn’t long before that became the Must Read title and TBG, renamed the Comics Buyer’s Guide, or CBG, suddenly seemed quaint and old-fashioned.
And just as the 24/7 immediacy of the Internet made Wizard irrelevant, it spelled the slow agonizing death for CBG. It dropped pages, it went monthly and became a magazine in 2004, too little too late.
Today, it was announced that issue #1699, out in March, will be the final issue. You would think they would go out in grand style with #1700 but Krause management never seemed to appreciate the quirky world it inherited when it bought Light’s dreamchild.
Maggie had been working reduced hours for some time and when we chatted in San Diego, she was looking ahead, enjoying the free time afforded her and looking forward to moving ahead with new skills or new projects. She’s boldly striding towards tomorrow but let’s all pause for a moment and look back.
We’ll never see something like this again. There will never again be that sense of thrill and wonder when the new issue arrived in your mailbox and it cast a spotlight on a the behind-the-scenes world of comics. It carried generations of readers and its passing should be noted. Raise a glass on high and let’s give a toast to The Buyer’s Guide, last of the great fan publications about comics from the first age of comics fans.
John Jackson Miller gives a long history of CBG here. Maggie Thompson’s blog post appears here.
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Maggie Thompson is one of my heroes, and it’s always an honor when someone confuses me for her.
It is a shame the CBG is ceasing but I let my own subscription lapse a about 4 years ago because of all the news on the internet.
By the way, I am currently reading a book named, “The Holy or the Broken” about the Leonard Cohen song, Hallelujah. It is written by Alan Light. Does anyone know if this is the same Alan Light that started CBG?
Yep. Real shame.
Bet if they’d had more subscriptions it wouldn’t have happened.
Thank you for the very nice article. One minor correction: The Alan Light who is a music writer is a different guy.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alan-light/sets/7215…
Whoops! I put the link in, and I just took it out. My bad.
Sad news. I was a subscriber for over 20 years, but accidentally allowed it to lapse in late 2011. I kept meaning to renew, but never got around to it. The Internet really did make CBG superfluous as a news source, but the columns remained a steady source of enjoyment each month.
The end of an Era…
I’m sorry to see the zine end. I must admit when I got my first renewal notice this past summer I ultimately decided against renewing as I’d already read most of the “news” weeks before the issue ever arrived, and I was largely reading little more than the reviews (which, in some cases, were for titles that had come out 6 months prior–of course, that wasn’t as much of a problem with the reviews for the TPBs and OGNs) and some of the “special” columns, especially “Ask Mr Silver Age” and “Dear Captain” as well as the comic strips. Even reading “Oh, So?” didn’t seem as important, especially after the zine went to the monthly format.
As it turns out, renewal would’ve been a bittersweet deal. Choosing not to renew meant my final issue would be #1697 (Jan 2013). If I extended with a 1-year renewal, that would make my last issue #1709 (Jan 2014). As we now know, the last issue to be published will be #1699.
I do think it’s a bit silly to stop at #1699, though.
I received CBG #1699 in the mail today (Jan. 14), and it’s clear that it wasn’t published with the intention of being the last issue. On the bottom of page 4, there’s a blurb for issue 1700. Seems a bit odd that the folks at CBG wouldn’t acknowledge the final issue in the final issue. Looks like the decision to end publication was arbitrarily imposed on CBG by F+W Media. You’d think they’d let Maggie and company have a “farewell” issue.
As to “Wizard”, to the best of my recollection, I’ve only read one issue. So it was never a “must read” title for me. On the other hand, I’ve had a CBG subscription (initially shared with two co-workers) since the mid 1990s.
Ironically, I found I had less time to read the monthly incarnation of CBG than the weekly version, which I’d read cover to cover during lunch. That was especially true of the 200+ page issues in the early days of the monthly format. I’d try to read them cover to cover, but after a while, gave up. I still read all the columns, but I got into the habit of skimming a lot of other stuff. Issue 1699 is 58 pages. A more manageable chunk than 200+ pages. Maybe I’d have done less skimming these last few years if I hadn’t gotten in the habit back in the 200 page days.
I wonder if it might have been better had CBG remained a weekly? That, combined with the website, might have kept it viable.
Rick