Marvel Comics: The Early '80s Business Side

With the addition of its new president, James Galton, in 1977, and its new Editor in Chief, Jim Shooter, in 1978, Marvel Comics stood ready, at the beginning of the 1980’s, to once again take the comics world by storm.

Marvel Gets into Animation

Marvel had been licensing its characters to other media since Captain America did his first motion picture serial in 1944, but the success of the 1978 cartoon series The Fantastic Four gave Galton an idea. The Marvel president decided that it would be better for the company to establish its own animation studio instead of licensing its characters to others.

Stan Lee was tapped to head up the job and fortuitously the animation studio that had done The Fantastic Four, DePatie-Freleng, was closing its studio down. Stan swooped up David DePatie and together they founded Marvel Productions Ltd. in 1980. By the next year the studio had two successful shows on Saturday mornings, featuring Spider-Man and the Hulk, but before long their reputation for quality had gotten them involved with other companies’ properties, doing everything from G. I. Joe to Muppet Babies.

Marvel Takes Care of Its Own

One of the first ideas Jim Shooter got implemented was to raise the per-page rates for artists and to develop a compensation system for talent that stayed on books and for books that sold well. He also procured health insurance plans for all employees. The early result was Marvel having to dish out a hefty amount of cash, but the end result was increased productivity and profits.

Shooter then established a hierarchy of editors and assistant editors. Where, before, the Editor in Chief was responsible for editing every Marvel book, Shooter set up three editors below him who would lighten his load and report to him, and assistant editors for each of them who would lighten their load and report to them. It was a restructuring that was far more business-like than Marvel creators were used to and many bristled at the change.

Epic Magazine

While Stan Lee’s idea of producing more adult themed comics in a magazine form had failed in its initial black and white attempt in the ‘70s, he hadn’t given up on the idea. Before he left for California to oversea Marvel’s burgeoning production company, Lee started Marvel on the track to producing Epic Illustrated, a magazine-sized high quality production—in full color—that was geared towards adults.

In addition, Epic Illustrated only bought the rights to first publication from creators, leaving them copyright of their work. It brought in many talented creators, such as Wendy Pini and her series Elfquest. The magazine did well for six years, and while it never reached Marvel Comics’ expected level of sales, it did start an entire imprint line for Marvel, geared at producing the mature and high quality stories the magazine had been known for.

Direct Sales Save the Industry From the Death of the Newsstand

Entrepreneur Phil Seuling saw that dealers in comic book back issues were opening up storefronts and he reasoned that allowing them to sell new books simultaneously would just be good business. So was direct sales born, and it couldn’t have come sooner. Newsstands were losing business daily and stacks of returned comic books were coming back to Marvel. Direct Sales allowed Marvel to deal with shops who new how to and wanted to market Marvel Comics to their fans.

Direct Sales dealers bought their books at a deep discount but didn’t have the luxury of returning unsold books. Those dealers quickly, due to already being experienced with comic buyers, developed a feel for ordering the right amounts of comics and the end result was a business boom for both them and Marvel.

G. I. Joe, a Marvel Created Hero

Hasbro contacted Marvel Comics in 1982 to procure their assistance in the revamp of their G. I. Joe toy line. Hasbro wanted Marvel to do a comic book companion for the toys. Larry Hama was tapped to do the book and he began to collaborate closely with the folks at Hasbro. In the end is was Hama’s designs and ideas that became the G. I. Joe characters, he even wrote the identification cards on the back of the characters packages.

The series became a huge success for Marvel.

Jim Shooters tough editorial decisions and pro-talent compensation agenda fueled Marvel Comics growth in the early ‘80s, but there was another driving force that made Marvel great—the artists and writers of the company.

Read the previous article in this series:

Marvel Comics: The End of the ‘70s

Read the next article in this series:

Marvel Comics: The Early '80s the Creative Side

Jim Shooter

Print Article

Email Article

View All Articles

How to subscribe to feeds