All For One And One For All
One of the things I do (besides writing endlessly for this blog) is running the Comic World News. Yesterday I got a very distressing letter from Chris Staros of Top Shelf Productions. Top Shelf puts out a series of quality independent comic books and graphic novels. It seems that LPC, the distributor that they and many other publishers use to get their graphic novels into bookstores, had filed chapter 11 (protection from creditors). Not only was the $80,000 that LPC owed Top Shelf now in question, but the check for $20,000 they had already sent them bounced. This put Top Shelf in serious danger of being out of business, immediately.
Staros put out a plea through the Internet to comic fans through a variety of different on-line comic media outlets. He said flat out that Top Shelf would have to shut their doors unless they were able to get 400-500 customers to buy $50 worth of products from their web site. After his announcement other publishers affected by the LPC filing put out press releases as well, but they were not pleading for themselves; every one of them said that they were not as bad off as Top Shelf and that fans should do what they could to help the publisher.
Today I got another letter from Staros. This one saying that in the twelve hours after the plea, Top Shelf’s web site and phone lines received over 1,000 orders. They did not reveal the exact totals, but Staros says that the company has been saved. One purchase of note was that of Mark Alessi, the owner/publisher of Crossgen Comics. Alessi made a purchase of $5,000 worth of books and had them donated to local libraries.
How many other industries do you know of where competitors would come in to help keep a company going? I applaud everyone who stepped up and helped out; whether it was making a purchase, posting the story or telling a friend the end result was a huge success.
Staros did apologize for one thing in his letter today. Top Shelf’s policy is to ship books out the next day… but with 1,000 new orders in 12 hours it may take them a little while to get them all out the door. That’s okay Chris, whenever you get my order to me is fine.
One of the things I do (besides writing endlessly for this blog) is running the Comic World News. Yesterday I got a very distressing letter from Chris Staros of Top Shelf Productions. Top Shelf puts out a series of quality independent comic books and graphic novels. It seems that LPC, the distributor that they and many other publishers use to get their graphic novels into bookstores, had filed chapter 11 (protection from creditors). Not only was the $80,000 that LPC owed Top Shelf now in question, but the check for $20,000 they had already sent them bounced. This put Top Shelf in serious danger of being out of business, immediately.
Staros put out a plea through the Internet to comic fans through a variety of different on-line comic media outlets. He said flat out that Top Shelf would have to shut their doors unless they were able to get 400-500 customers to buy $50 worth of products from their web site. After his announcement other publishers affected by the LPC filing put out press releases as well, but they were not pleading for themselves; every one of them said that they were not as bad off as Top Shelf and that fans should do what they could to help the publisher.
Today I got another letter from Staros. This one saying that in the twelve hours after the plea, Top Shelf’s web site and phone lines received over 1,000 orders. They did not reveal the exact totals, but Staros says that the company has been saved. One purchase of note was that of Mark Alessi, the owner/publisher of Crossgen Comics. Alessi made a purchase of $5,000 worth of books and had them donated to local libraries.
How many other industries do you know of where competitors would come in to help keep a company going? I applaud everyone who stepped up and helped out; whether it was making a purchase, posting the story or telling a friend the end result was a huge success.
Staros did apologize for one thing in his letter today. Top Shelf’s policy is to ship books out the next day… but with 1,000 new orders in 12 hours it may take them a little while to get them all out the door. That’s okay Chris, whenever you get my order to me is fine.
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