FUNKY FUNKO ZOMBIES AT EVERETT COMICS SHOP

I've told you before that I get my comic book fix at EVERETT COMICS in downtown Everett, Washington. My friend Brandon manages the store and a more astute and erudite Comicologist cannot be found in the area. This week, Brandon was featured on the cover of THE EVERETT HERALD.

LYNNWOOD'S FUNKO TURNS BOBBLEHEADS INTO BIG BUCKS

By Amy Daybert, Herald Writer

LYNNWOOD -- Sean Wilkinson has gone from designing bobbleheads in a basement nearly 15 years ago to being the creative director of a fast-growing toy empire.

Wilkinson never believed his job working for a company called Funko would last. When he started, Wilkinson helped design a bobblehead for Big Boy, the national burger restaurant chain, whose icon is a boy dressed in red-and-white checkered overalls.

"We were just a mom-and-pop shop with two artists," he said.

Now Funko is one of the booming businesses in south Snohomish County with licensing contracts with Marvel and DC comics, Disney and Star Wars. They go after the hottest popular culture trends of the day, making bobbleheads for hit television shows including "The Game of Thrones" and "The Walking Dead."

And Funko's sales have skyrocketed.

The company is on pace to sell $20 million worth of merchandise this year, more than double what they sold in 2010.

"I've always loved toys," said Brian Mariotti, the company's president. "To be in this business you have to have a passion for collecting. Your enthusiasm will come through and you can usually achieve some pretty great things if you're passionate about what you're doing."

The company has grown from a staff of three to 29 employees. Three weeks ago it moved from a 17,000-square-foot office on 196th Street to a nearly 62,000-square-foot leased location at 6306 202nd St. SW. The new space includes a warehouse, a private showroom, a sales department and an art department.

"Our old space was nice but we've grown fast in the last year or two," Wilkinson said. "We just need room for it all and room to expand because we're just adding more and more lines and different toys."

The company was founded in 1998 in the Snohomish home of Mike Becker. The early product lines included bobbleheads and coin banks based on cereal advertising characters and other retro figures like Popeye and Evel Knievel. The company moved into a small office in Everett in 2000, Wilkinson remembers. Funko was in a Snohomish office in 2005 when Becker sold the business to a friend.

Becker "had a nice little run of success in comic book shops and gift and specialty shops and wanted to do something different, so I bought it off him," said Mariotti, who ran and built nightclubs before buying Funko. "He was just a guy who liked to talk toys, and I'm the same way."

Funko in 2011 distributed worldwide more than 2 million items, including bobbleheads, vinyl figures and plush dolls of pop culture icons. The company has grown much larger than its humble beginnings, agreed Mariotti, whose new Lynnwood office shelves hold easily recognizable Disney, Hanna-Barbera and DC Comics characters.

"We're going to be close to doubling our sales the past two years," Mariotti said. "We just want to continue to expand."

Funko's products are designed at the Lynnwood office. Artists in-house do the majority of the design work on computers, then the plans are sent to other artists throughout the country so models of the products can be constructed. The final products are made in China, shipped back to Funko and then distributed and sold online and in stores around the world. Funko's biggest customers include Target, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, Toys 'R' Us, Amazon, Urban Outfitters, Hot Topic and Spencer's. Their largest competition is NECA, or the National Entertainment Collectibles Association. The New Jersey-based company also makes bobbleheads, figures and plush toys.

Funko pursues any license that "makes a great collectible and that we feel people would enjoy," Marriotti said. Since becoming owner, he has worked to buy licenses from franchises including "The Simpsons," "Family Guy," "Star Wars" and Disney. In the past year, the company has obtained licenses for upcoming movies such as "Iron Man 3," "Monsters University" and "Man of Steel."

Funko manufactures 7-inch Wacky Wobbler Bobble Heads for an assortment of comic book heroes and villians such as Batman and the Joker and television icons including Cartman from "South Park" and Sheldon from "The Big Bang Theory." The company also manufactures stuffed toys, known as plushies; electronics, including headphones and lamps with character designs depicting "star Wars'" Darth Vader, Boba Fett and a stormtrooper; and hundreds of different POP! Vinyl figures.

The company began releasing the popular POP! Vinyls in 2010, said Shawndra Illingworth, a sales associate. Unlike the bobbleheads, the 3-3/4-inch-tall figures typically don't bobble or have a base. They offer much more stylized features. More than 200 types of the figures have been released.

"If you know any toy collectors, they know what a POP! is," Illingworth said.

Ron Cohen, who lives on Long Island in New York, runs a Funko collector's website at www.justanotherfunkoobserver.com. He's gone to San Diego's Comic Con for the past eight years to meet up with other "Funatics" and to work the Funko booth. Cohen, 48, has more than 2,000 Funko products and collects everything from the POP! Vinyl figures line.

"The products bring back some great nostalgic memories," Cohen wrote in an email. "It's fun to see a character from the past brought back to life by Funko's design team. ... I can't wait to see which characters they are going to add to POP! Culture."

The POP! Vinyls are extremely popular, said Ganny Hochberg, a buyer for Golden Age Collectables in Seattle.

The comic book store has sold Funko items since the company began, Hochberg said. She remembers that during the first few years, Underdog, Speed Racer and Betty Boop bobbleheads were part of the company's product line. Now, Wacky Wobbler Bobble Heads and POP! Vinyl figures from Funko's Marvel and DC Comics, Star Wars and Disney lines are routinely stocked on store shelves.

"Some of the people who buy them are fans of Funko themselves and some are fans of the licenses that they represent," she said.

She receives updates from Funko when new products are planned to be released and often hears from people who are looking for specific Funko items.

"I can tell you we get orders in from them a minimum of every other week and that's just to keep on top of restocks," she said. "That's not counting new orders. I totally want them to keep growing and growing."

HEY, MMW IS IN THE ANNOTATED FAMOUS MONSTERS NO. 1!

I remember a news story back in 2008, where a couple of attention-seekers who turned out to be scam artists solicited a monetary reward for what was purported to be a genuine (dead) body of the legendary Bigfoot. These people claimed that the body was real and that they had it stashed on ice in an "undisclosed location". Well, the payoff was made, the scammers left town and the poor sap who paid for the pleasure of being divested illegally from his income was left with the thawed out boy of a Halloween gorilla suit. Said simian suit was even confirmed as authentic costume parts by the manufacturer. So much for the historical cryptid discovery of the century.

Stories like this have been told over and over again throughout the years. People starved for attention -- or just being plain 'ol crackpots -- will sometimes stop at nothing to get it. Hoaxes have been around for centuries. I just think that they are more prevalent in today's world than ever before.

I waited with (fish) baited breath for THE ANNOTATED FAMOUS MONSTERS #1. I picked it up with the rest of my goodies from the cool comics guy Brandon at EVERETT COMICS. When I got it home, I rolled it over my hyper-excited cortexes. The first thing I noticed is that it really didn't look "annotated" at all, at least not the way that I'm used to seeing an annotated book. Maybe I've been living under a bat's wing too long, but this seemed to me to be simply alternate pages showing the typescript and the printed product. That part of it was disappointing.

Actually, it was very disappointing. I was expecting a page-by-page discussion, via footnotes and call-outs, of the creation of the first issue of the King of Monster Magazines. I would settle for nothing less than finally being witness to the entire, true story behind the birth of the Acker-Warren monster!

Well, it's not quite that, but it's a heckuva well-produced tome. For 25 bucks, you could do a lot worse. But, what exactly is inside this momentous publication? David Horne, Warrenophile extraordinaire, and author/publisher of the indispensable GATHERING HORROR explains:

“It is indeed almost all reprint material, although there are a couple of new things. Most of it is taken from "Forry's Folly," the 90th birthday publication [appears on page 522 of Horne’s GATHERING HORROR], although in somewhat different order. "The Birth of a Notion" is from Forry's own book on Famous Monsters [bottom of page 525 in GATHERING HORROR] – and it may have appeared in other places, too. The new material includes the introduction, the piece by Kevin Burns, "Forry's Stories" by Dennis Billows, "The House That Ack Built" (variations on this may have appeared elsewhere), and that page taken from your website [MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD Blogspot].”

Another knockout is the fabulous wrap-around cover by none other than Pete Von Sholly. I was curious to know about how such a great work of work could have come to be. So, I did the only thing that came to mind . . . I asked him! Here's Pete's explanation:

“I contacted Phil Kim and basically said I wanna be in FM! He replied enthusiastically and asked if I wanted to do a cover. Of course I said and what he wanted was "Forry surrounded by this favorite monsters" which was all he told me and all I really wanted to know. THEN he was to make it a wraparound which was great because it allowed me to get more stuff in without cramming and to do the Kong reach-around crushing the FM logo. Natch the front had to be FJ and the Big Five but for the rest I could reference Metropolis- and put Maria in Kong's hand instead of Faye and also I could get Lon Chaney in - plus Harryhausen- and Bradbury by association with the Foghorn/Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. I did it all in Photoshop using photo refs as sources and painting them up, adding lighting to try to tie it all together. I didn't know when I started the pic that it was going to be for the Annotated issue. But I like that very much, having been an FM reader from issue 1. Which makes me oooooollllld... but whatcha gonna do? If you're not old yet, you will be! If you're LUCKY! I will add that Phil was very pleasant and professional to deal with and PAID me the full fee immediately. So it was a good experience.”

What's left? The one-page spread entitled, "Fact or Fiction?" This has all got to do with the exclusive post that appeared here at MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD depicting an alternate cover to FAMOUS MONSTERS #1. The information was submitted by David Horne as a possible entry on the blogroll, and I think to get it out there to see if someone didn't have some more info on it as well. Here are the details as we know them. The text is re-posted from the earlier edition. David Horne wrote:

"Unfortunately, it was poorly reproduced in the publication I found it in. I've never seen this or heard of it anywhere else. The contributor who supplied the image (within his article) was Mark Carducci, who apparently owned the dummy cover. Carducci was a big FM fan and monster magazine collector."

Then I add:

The publication that Horne references is the Comic and Fantasy Art - Amateur Press Association (CFA-APA) membership publication Issue #33, dated January 1994. While provenance appears to be limited only to this publication, that it was offered by a serious fan of monster magazine lore suggests strong evidence in support of its authenticity.

The implication in the ANNOTATED FAMOUS MONSTERS #1 piece is that this could be a hoax (incidentally, the image shown on the page is to the left, not the right -- looks like the page design was changed without editing the text. Also, I'd like to hear from one or two of the historians that are mentioned that have also apparently heard of this).

Regardless, while anything's possible, I believe that, based on the existing info and both the time and the person from where it originated, the alternate cover is most likely for real. Is there a reason not to think so? Sometimes a monster magazine cover is just a monster magazine cover. I just think it's so obscure that there is virtually no empirical knowledge of the event ever taking place beyond the publication in which this most curious bit of forgotten Monsterology lore first appeared. Sort of like having just a hair or two of a genuine Bigfoot in your freezer instead of claiming to have the whole enchilada, isn't it?

BILL EVERETT'S CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

The exquisite draughtmanship of this pen and ink drawing displays the artistic magnificence of Bill "Sub-Mariner" Everett, one of the greatest of the Golden Age comic book artists. That it's of my favorite atomic-age monster is an added bonus! From Skywald's NIGHTMARE #2, February 1971.

This one's for Brandon up at the store with the artist's namesake, EVERETT COMICS.

EVERETT COMICS: THE HORROR TABLE

I've told you that EVERETT COMICS in beautiful downtown Everett, in the Evergreen State of Washington, is my preferred neighborhood independent comic shop dealer. Newly-retired Charlie, his charming spouse and store decorator, Tracy, and the guy whose job I wish I had if it only paid a little better, Brandon, store manager, all make for a unique and wonderful shopping experience. They are also only too eager to divest me of my hard-earned bucks on a painfully regular basis. But, if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have some of the stuff that I share with you all here at MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD.

Since the overnight success of the suddenly hip zombie cable TV series THE WALKING DEAD (another successful adaptation from a comic book), the folks at EVERETT COMICS have responded in kind with a special store section that we have dubbed "The Horror Table". Included with the comics is a box of Warren Pubs back issues. Looking for something special? Try contacting EVERETT COMICS!

Photography by Brandon

NEW ERA OF FAMOUS MONSTERS BEGINS TOMORROW!

I am looking foward with eager anticipation for tomorrow when the newly launched FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine arrives at my local comic shop. Brandon, malevolently marvy manager of EVERETT COMICS located in the heart of downtown Everett, WA, a.k.a. The Center of the Universe, informed me today that my copy of FM #251 is due to be stuffed into my subscriber box with tomorrow's Diamond Direct shipment. A bit of a bummer was, when I asked him how many people had ordered an advanced copy, he replied, "Just you, sicko!". However, chokingly cheery Charlie, the shop's owner went off the grid and ordered one rack copy. Since EVERETT COMICS usually only carries WIZARD, HEAVY METAL, and one or two other magazine titles at all, I consider this a good omen.

Anyway, since I deem the relaunching of FAMOUS MONSTERS something of a monstrous occasion all on its own, you will be hearing quite a bit about it on this BlogSpot for a little while at least. In the meantime, here's a couple of pics I plundered off the EVERETT COMICS website. And, if you're in the mood to buy anything you see listed, they'll ship anywhere that a mail truck can get to . . . after you pay for it, of course.