Current mood:	quixotic
Entry tags:	comic books, comics, kathy griffin, paul d. storrie, paul storrie, welcome

Welcome to the P(ull)-List!
With all due thanks and apologies to comedienne Kathy Griffin for the inspiration that led to this blog title.  If you’re not familiar with her Bravo TV show, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, check it out.

Hi, I’m Paul Storrie, semi-obscure comic book writer in a semi-obscure niche of the entertainment industry.  Most of you who find this particular corner of the Interweb are comic book fans and already have an idea of what a Pull List is.  For those who don’t, here’s the scoop:

Most comics in the American comic book industry (y’know, Batman, Spider-Man, Superman, Fantastic Four, Wonder Woman, Captain America, etc.) come out on a monthly basis and are sold in specialty retail stores known, appropriately enough, as comic shops.  Now these comic shops buy the comics that they sell to the general public (or the segment of it that reads comics) on a non-returnable basis.  That is, unlike bookstores, where they can send back books that don’t sell after a certain amount of time, comic book stores are stuck with anything they can’t sell.  To help them know how many copies to order, thus avoiding too much backstock, comic shops developed the Pull List. 

Regular customers provide a list of the titles that they plan to purchase upon release, which the retailers then “pull” – or set aside – when the new issues arrive.  Doing so helps the retailer know how many copies to order and enables the customer to be sure that they don’t miss an issue of their favorite comic mag.

So, why “My Life on the P(ull)-List”?  Because that’s where all of us working in the American comics industry hope to be: on the pull list of as many readers, fans, collectors, friends and relatives – hell, even enemies if that’ll increase sales – as possible.  Ultimately, more sales equal more money, either directly (via royalties/incentives/percentage of profits) or indirectly (via an increased profile leading to gigs that pay better).

This blog will be a chronicle of my adventures, struggles, triumphs and tragedies in the wacky world of freelance writing in general and the comics industry in specific.