A post from my Marvel blog of years ago talking about the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas in the comic book industry.
December 1, 2008 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General
The period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s is called the “Black Hole” in the industry, because it’s the period in which everybody’s got so many other things vying for their time and attention that getting comics finished and off to the printer slows to a crawl. It’s the worst time of the year for sending books out.
And right now, I’m stuck in the middle of it. Which means that posting is going to continue to be sparse for the next couple of days, until and assuming I can get out from under.
In the meantime, I’ve added a new icon to our blog lexicon, to replace or be used in addition to Mister Fish. It’s the image to the left, of one of Marvel’s most bizarre marketing products, the Marvel toilet paper featuring a new, original story. When you see this image, you can assume that I’m off “making comics” and that I’ll be back here just as soon as I can.
I was hoping to make my next post, the 500th anniversary post, a double-sized spectacular, but right now I’d settle for just having a moment to pound out the usual pap. I’d stick a reprint in if I didn’t think it’d have negative consequences down the line.
Anyway–more later.
Tom B
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The Tom Brevoort Experience 
Title of column: “The Black Hole.”
First thing you see: A roll of toilet paper.
My first thought: Tom, this is a family website!
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Worse than saying a newspaper is only good to house train puppies. “I wipe my @$$ with Marvel comics.” A gag joke, maybe, but Marvel actually went for it? Was it back in the late ’90’s bankruptcy days?
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No, this dates back to the 1979s.
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More comfortable than using the Spidey newspaper strip. But still wacky & tacky. 😉
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Per the box, “an original story!” Has it ever been reprinted anywhere? Who were the artist and writer? Not having been “lucky” enough to ever see this product in person, I’m curious.
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