Martha Thomases: The Comic Book Fan as Retailer

Martha Thomases

Martha Thomases brought more comics to the attention of more people than anyone else in the industry. Her work promoting The Death of Superman made an entire nation share in the tragedy of one of our most iconic American heroes. As a freelance journalist, she has been published in the Village Voice, High Times, Spy, the National Lampoon, Metropolitan Home, and more. For Marvel comics she created the series Dakota North. Martha worked as a researcher and assistant for the author Norman Mailer on several of his books, including the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Executioner's Song, On Women and Their Elegance, Ancient Evenings, and Harlot's Ghost.

You may also like...

1 Response

  1. Tammy Brown says:

    As someone who spent 7 years marketing and publicizing comics at Marvel and DC, your assessment is spot on. In the time when comics were generally consumed by the already millions of avid readers at comic stores, it was smart to emphasize the creative teams…great talent, big sales…no brainer. Now, with a Marvel movie or a DC TV show showing up every few months (or at least once a year) marketing as we know it in the traditional sense in the comics business is a waste of time, effort and money. General audiences need to be sold the story, they need to be sold the characters with their many personality facets. It’s business suicide to think that solely selling with talent is going to sell books. These days selling books is tied to selling toys, is tied to TV ratings, is tied to VOD, C3 and C7 DVR viewership and advertising revenue, and ultimately, is tied to movie box office gross. For those of us who know the writers and artists who craft these beautiful stories, it’s enough to get us/me to buy. But the fickle general public…you have to market with what they know – the characters.