Well, the world has finally caught up with us.

POSTED BY , 08 March 2007

Way back in the 60’s when I was a kid and you could buy a month’s worth of Marvel Comics (every single title) for under a buck and still have change left for bubble gum, Stan (The Man) Lee was telling us that one day everyone would be reading comics – and that they wouldn’t be laughing.

 We were lone voices in the wilderness, those of us who had to trudge for miles (in the snow – uphill both ways – even in the summer!) in order to find our favorite comics (“Dad, could you drive me to Rocklins?”) because there WERE no comic book stores (believe it or not).  And when I reached my teens, a woman behind the counter at one stationary store actually LAUGHED at me when I bought my comics.

 Way to treat your customers, lady.

But, y’know, we all kind of WANTED people to stop thinking POW! BAM! WHAM!  when they thought of comic books.  We TRIED to share great comics like MAN-THING or Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ brilliant GREEN LANTERN-GREEN ARROW.   Finding others who shared our love for this stuff was frequently hard.

Comic conventions were fun.  The only place, in those days, to find those back issues we needed to fill our collections.  But those were few and far between.

Now, though, the world has finally caught up.

Those who grew up with the Marvel and DC Universes are now the folks running the show.  They’re the guys in charge of the movie studios and the TV networks and they’re using what they learned from the comics.

In my view, Stan Lee was the first blogger with his Bullpen Bulletins and Stan’s Soapbox.  He virtually invented the kind of community building that’s now happening all over the web. 

And there’s not a single person I’ve ever met in the field of marketing and promotion who didn’t learn a ton about their craft from the endlessly exhuberant Mr. Lee.

Today, well into his 80’s, Stan gets well-deserved standing ovations.whereever he goes.  Where he gets his energy, I’ll never know.  He’s featured in cameos on everything from the Simpsons to Heroes and even had his own TV show (Who Wants to Be A Super-Hero). 

From LOST, to BUFFY to HEROES and on and on, the way television tells stories these days owes a lot to the way comic books have been spinning yarns for decades.

It seems like every week there’s a new major motion picture coming out based on a comic book or graphic novel.

Magazines regularly review comic books as art.

Newspapers cover story-based events like the death of Captain America as if they were REALLY HAPPENING.

The TODAY show led its broadcast not long ago with an update on the NEW LOOK for BETTY AND VERONICA for Jack’s sake.

And now we have a video podcast network with a kind of “Entertainment Tonight” for comic book fans.  

I’m ridiculously enthusiastic about this thing. 

Pulp Secret is the work of a lot of hard-working people who love comics, just like you do.  As you get to know us better, we’d like to know you too.  Email, comment, blog and send us your video’s to be included on the show.  Tell us who and what you’d like to see.  Give us a sense of what you’re looking for. 

I read a blog by my college friend, Elayne Riggs, over on Comicmix.com earlier that talked about Stan’s credo “Because you demanded it!”  That’s going to be our mantra too. 

Okay, that’s enough from me for today.  Thanks to many people for making this happen:  Justin, Pete and Alex for hitting the ground running (go see their comic book club show at the PIT every Tuesday night), the guys at MIDTOWN COMICS in New York for their support, Ana for her enthusiastic start to the whole thing, tirelessly shooting at ComicCon, Jimmy for cutting our first few packages, Dave N. for keeping the whole shebang going, Maria and Marisa for watching my back, and Lizzie for helping with the “Get Smart” walk I took.

Of course MAJOR kudos all the hard working folks at Next New Networks who are amazing and you should send them lots of chocolate. If I name them and leave someone out, I’ll feel terrible – so for now I’ll just thank Fred and Herb and Tim for letting me play in this sandbox.

Finally, to the hordes who have asked me (Ed and Martha Hordes of Parsippiny) yes – I really am giving away my comic books – one at a time.  We just have to work out the details of how that is going to happen.  Have patience, and we’ll let you know in the next week or two. 

And thanks for checkin’ us out!

David