The Daily Item from Sunbury, Pennsylvania • 70

PageGlO The Daily Item Sunday, October 8, 2000 AntiquesCollectibles STAMPS COMICS Subsea ceremonies Marvel Comics, in distress, calls on Spider-Man stamps "It's like taking Sherlock Holmes and saying, 'I don't like him to be a detective anymore. Let's make him a Spider-Man creator Stan Lee, boom driven by speculators. As the industry started to cater to collectors, prices shot up. "In 1989. comics were still a dollar or $1.50.

Now they are $2.50 or $3.50 or sometimes even $5.00," said Nick Mamatas. a long-time comic book reader from Jersey "Before it made sense to go down to a store and buy a 50-cent soda and a 50-cent Comic. If makes less sense to go down to a store and buy a 75-cent soda and a $4 comic." Distributed in both comics stores and newsstands. Ultimate Spider-Man cover price $2.99 seems to be a success so far. Its debut issue in September was among the month's best sellers.

According to Marvel, the initial launch across all distribution channels including free samples and promotion programs is expected to be upwards of 250,000 copies. That would exceed the monthly distribution of the "Uncanny X-Men," the top-selling title in the industry. Marvel's plans for the new Spider-Man carries some risk turning off the webslinger's die-hard fans. "Hardcore fans are a little reluctant because they are used to their old Spider-Man" said Joseph Quesada, editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. But Bendis.

the series writer, compared comics storylines to Shakespeare, saying "if you take it from the context and play it today, it still works. We will win a lot of diehard people who were in shock at the beginning." So far, purists and hardcore fans say they are skeptical about the Ultimate Spider-Man, and at the same time, want to see more of it. "Characters have changed repeat- Spider-Man with artist Mark Bagley. "Marvel has acknowledged it and anything that can be done to make the medium fly is worth it." But whether comic book characters can survive such a repackaging andv save Marvel's publishing division remains to be seen. Despite a library of 4,700 characters The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, the, Fantastic Four and more Marvel comid book sales have been stagnant for a decade.

In 1999, the company's sales totaled $320 million, though only 10 percent came from the publishing branch. Far more revenue is generated by toys and games. For the six months of 2000, Marvel sales fell from $136 million to $94 million. Last year the company posted a loss of $34 million, and things look worse this year through June, the loss stood at $27 million. Marvel is not suffering alone.

Over the past decade, the number of publishers has plunged, and U.S. comic-book stores are down from 10,000 to around 3,500. The mainstream readership has shrunk to a hard core of mostly male fans in their mid-20s and earlv 30s. "In the 1940? 1950s and 1960s, comics were read by everyone children, teenagers, soldiers because it was part of the pop culture scene," said John Miller, editor of the Comics Retailer, a trade magazine based in Iola, Wis. "But today the entertainment market is becoming more and more fragmented." According to Miller, the industry sold around $275 million worth of comic books in 1999, about the same as 1989, and well below a peak of $850 million in 1993, during a herald sea By Dominic Sama Knight Ridder Newspapers The Postal Service annually promotes October as National Stamp Collecting Month and earlier this week held an event to drum up support for the hobby.

A strip of five commemoratives, each 33 cents, on deep-sea creatures was issued Monday with part of first-day ceremonies held underwater. About 1,500 feet below the surface of spacious Monterey Bay in California, and some 10 miles out in the Pacific Ocean, a radio-controlled robot tethered to a ship above raised its arm and unveiled the first-day cancellation of the stamps. The cancellations and stamps on cover were laminated and waterproof. The event was shown on a monitor to an audience at the nearby Monterey Bay Aquarium, where the real business of selling stamps and applying cancellations was under way. The five stamps depict the fanfin anglerffsh, sea cucumber, fangtooth, amphipod and medusa.

The designs are based on photographs taken of the live creatures in tanks. This is the second time the Postal Service went underwater for first-day ceremonies. On July 26, 1994, professional divers were engaged to unveil four 29-cent Wonders of the Seas commemoratives about 80 feet below the surface off Waikiki Beach in Hawaii. Since 1981, the Postal Service has been promoting October as National Stamp Collecting Month. This year's slogan is "Stamp Cool-lecting: Your Window to the World." Cancellations of the slogan will appear on some letters throughout the month.

In the 1994 promotion, the slogan was "Get in the swim of things Collect stamps!" First-day requests should be sent to Deep Sea Creatures Commemoratives, Postmaster, 565 Hartnell Monterey, urn, Knight Ridder Tribune photo The U.S. Postal Service has issued a series of commemoratives on deep-sea creatures as part of promotion of October as National Stamp Collecting Month. be ordered from the Stanfp. Fulfillment Services of the U.S. Posta! Service by calling (800) STAMP-24 Zfm I 1 L- f7 By Karine G.

Barzegar AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) Sure, he swings from building to building on his own web and smacks down evildoers with ease and elan. But a truer test of Spider-Man's superhuman powers remains: Can he sell decades-old comic book storylines to Web-savvy Generation To fight against a decline in sales. Marvel Comics is asking Spidey and its other heroes and "villains to change their look to appeal to younger readers. The result is Ultimate Marvel, a new series of comic books taking place in updated settings with hyper-realistic computer graphics and recast characters. "People who love, live and breathe comics enjoyed the continuity and complexity of the stories, but it had become very hard for new generations to read our comic books," acknowledged Bill Jemas, president of publishing and new media at New York-based Marvel Enterprises.

Starting with "Ultimate Spider-Man," Jemas hopes to draw 9- to 12-year-old readers into the adventures of Peter Parker, a shy, bookwormish teenager who accidentally acquires the agility, strength and senses of a spider. In the Ultimate series, Parker gives up his job as a newspaper photographer to become a webmaster for the online version of the Daily Bugle. And he gets bitten by a genetically engineered spider, rather than the radioactive-one of yore. "It's a different Spider-Man and you don't need to read the 400th issue to understand what's going on," said Brian Michael Bendis, writer for Ultimate Spider-Man. "The tone, the theme and the characters stay the same, but the setting and the context take place in 2000, and the storytelling is more sophisticated, more cinematographic." Following the Ultimate Spider-' Man, will come the "Ultimate X--Men," slated to hit newsstands in late November.

The effort hopes to hook onto the coattails of the hit movie "The X-Men," which has made more than $150 million this year. A film version of Spider-Man is due out in 12. "Comics need more readers and something needs to be done," said Bendis, who worked on Ultimate Mill 800-326-9542 570) 568-1412 LEASE edly over- the past 40 years, and most of them remain reasonably consistent," said Mamatas. "There has to be room for characters to grow, but not to be warped just for the sake of cashing in on trends." For Stan Lee, who created Spider-Man in 1962 but no longer has ties to Marvel, "the changes are in a way a mistake. "It's like taking Sherlock Holmes and saying don't like him to be a detective anymore.

Let's make him a said Lee, 77, who lives in Encino, and still creates comics. "People feel comfortable with characters they loved and don't like them to be changed, and yet I understand the problem the writers have so many stories have been done that it must be difficult to come up with new ideas." On The Net: Marvel Enterprises: http:www.marvel.com Stan Lee Media: rn 2 for $578 Black Heritage series honors Wilkins Whaf better than a LA-Z-BOY? Two LA-Z-BOYS! WOODLAND OWNERS Thinking of Selling Your Saw Timber? KUHNS BROS. LUMBER INC. Offers: professional forest management to match your objectives to a harvest highest prices, accurate bids given with no obligation full amount paid for in advance complete contract for your protection harvest operation using accepted soil and water conservation practices quality, professional work with care given to young trees buying hardwood, pine and hemlock By Syd Kronish for AP Special Features Roy Wilkins, former AACP executive director and civil rights leader, will be honored in January on the latest stamp in the Black Heritage series issued by the U.S. Postal Service.

The new stamp features a photo of Wilkins taken in the 1940s by Morgan and Marvin Smith, twjn brothers who have documented the history of blacks in America. Born in St. Louis on Aug. 30. 1901, Wilkins graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1923.

He joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1931 as assistant executive secretary. Fn 1955 to 1977 he served as executive secretary and executive director, the latter title making him the NAACP's top man. Wilkins advocated nonviolent means and the use of the legal system to help achieve racial equality in America. Under his leadership, the NAACP campaigned for many civil rights and voting acts. Wilkins died on Sept.

8. 1981. The new stamp will be available at local post offices. First-day covers with the first-day cancellations may r- V. 1 ft (, R.D.

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