Philip Nicholas Seuling (January 20, 1934–August 21, 1984)[1] was a comic book fan convention organizer and comics distributor primarily active in the 1970s. Seuling was the organizer of the annual New York Comic Art Convention, originally held in New York City every July 4 weekend throughout the 1970s. Later, with his East Coast Seagate Distribution company, Seuling developed the concept of the direct market distribution system for getting comics directly into comic book specialty shops, bypassing the then established newspaper/magazine distributor method, where no choices of title, quantity, or delivery directions were permitted.
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Seuling spent his entire life as a resident of Brooklyn, New York. He was an avid baseball fan and enjoyed watching the Brooklyn Dodgers and later the New York Mets play. He attended Lafayette High School in Brooklyn, where he acted in school plays and was known as a comic book fan and crossword puzzle enthusiast. Seuling went on to Baruch College briefly before joining the military. He graduated from the City College of New York in 1958.
Seuling's theatre training came in handy in 1972, when he performed as a voice actor in Ralph Bakshi's Fritz the Cat movie, doing voices for two characters.[2]
Beginning in 1958, Seuling worked as a Brooklyn school teacher (a pursuit he continued until he founded Seagate in 1974).[3]
In 1968, Seuling founded the New York Comic Art Convention and continued organizing the annual convention, originally held in New York City every July 4 weekend throughout the 1970s. (The 1977 and 1978 conventions had to be relocated to Philadelphia because of scheduling conflicts at the New York venue.)
The first large-scale comics convention, and one of the largest gatherings of its kind, the New York Comic Art Convention grew into a major trade and fan convention, with crowd attendance reaching five to seven thousand fans. Its growth in popularity coincided with the increasing media attention on comics that had been building since the mid-1960s, feeding off the then novel notions of comics being a subject worthy of serious critical study and collectibility. Fans and collectors of comic books now had an outlet for their passion, where they could congregate to discuss comic book art and writing, meet comic book collectors and dealers from around the world, hear artists and writers speaking about the details of the comic book industry, hear publishers share information on the business end of the comics industry, and attend an annual costume parade and auctions of collectible comic-related items.
In 1972, Seuling founded East Coast Seagate Distribution (named after the Brooklyn community where he lived as an adult,[4] near his original neighborhood of Bensonhurst and the lively oceanfront area of Coney Island, which he adored.) Seuling cut deals with Archie, DC, Marvel, and Warren to ship their comic books from a new distribution center in Sparta, Illinois,[5] thereby developing the concept of the direct market distribution system for getting comics directly into comic book specialty shops, bypassing the then established newspaper/magazine distributor method. The move from newsstand distribution to the direct market (non-returnable, heavily-discounted, direct purchasing of comics from publishers) went hand-in-hand with the growth of specialty comics shops which catered to the collectors who could then buy back issues months after a newsstand issue had disappeared.
Seuling ran Seagate with his then-girlfriend Joni Levas.[6] A key element of Seagate's new distribution system was a pre-pay requirement for customers, which, given the low margins of comics retailing at the time (and the fact that many books shipped late), was quite onerous for many of the stores.[6] By the late 1970s, however, thanks to Seuling's changes to distribution — and the merchandizing success of films such as Star Wars and Superman: The Movie — comics were selling well: in the six years between 1974 and 1980, U.S. "comic or fantasy-related specialty shops" rose from 200 or 300 to around 1500.[7]
In late 1977 or early 1978, Seagate set up regional sub-distributors who were buying product at a 50% discount. This reduced Seuling's paperwork and enabled the sub-distributors to sell smaller orders than Seagate's minimum of five copies of each comic book title.[6]
Seuling maintained a virtual monopoly on comics distribution, until a lawsuit brought by New Media/Irjax in 1978.[8] Irjax sued DC, Marvel, Archie, and Warren for their anti-competitive arrangement with Seagate.[9] As a result of the suit, Irjax eventually acquired "a sizable chunk of the direct-distribution market,"[8] and many of Seulings's sub-distributors left Seagate to become independent distributors.
Seuling died on August 21, 1984;[10] shortly thereafter, in 1985, Seagate closed down.[11] Distribution competitors Bud Plant, Inc., and Capital City Distribution opened "an expanded facility in Seagate's old space in Sparta, alongside the [defunct publisher Pacific Comics'] printing plant."[7]
Seuling and his wife Carole had two daughters, Gwenn and Heather. Carole Seuling wrote some issues of the Marvel Comics title Shanna the She-Devil in 1972–1973.[12] Phil Seuling's sister, Barbara Seuling, is a children's book author who lives in New York City and Vermont. His brother, Dennis, is a retired teacher and movie critic who lives in New Jersey.
Seuling was presented with an Inkpot Award at the 1974 San Diego Comic-Con. In 1985, he was posthumously named as one of the honorees by DC Comics in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great.[13]
Comics historian Mark Evanier:
| “ | . . . it became apparent that the old method was being destroyed, with or without selling books the Seuling way, so DC, Marvel and other companies tried it. Within a year, around 25% of all comic books were being sold via 'direct' distribution, through Seuling's company and about a dozen others, with 75% still on conventional newsstands. Within ten years, those percentages were reversed. Today, the 'direct market' is the primary market.[14] | ” |