There can be longtime contributors to the world of fantasy and science fiction who somehow never get not only the notice they may well deserve, but no attention, whatsoever, in the genre press.
Ron Forman ran Comics Unlimited from 1977 to 1994, along with business partner Walter Wang. Comics Unlimited was one of the major comics and science fiction distributors in the New York area.
(And I know — and hope Ron won’t be embarrassed for me to tell here, that in the tough days for some comic shops in the late 1980s, before the merchandising explosion of 1989’s Batman movie, it was their compassion that helped keep at least a few stores afloat.)
Ron had been a comic book fan just about forever, and was a dealer at one of the early, classic Phil Seuling International Comic Art Conventions, in 1970.
Ron and Walter later went on to work with Seuling, at his Seagate Distributors, before launching their own venture.
(Seuling helped invent, and was the foremost pioneer, of “direct distribution” of comics and other material to comics and specialty stores; a development that helped bolster, and possibly even save the comic book industry.)
Like most comic shop distributors, then and now, Comics Unlimited carried a wide range of science fiction related products….
When Comics Unlimited shut up shop, they sold their business to Steve Geppi’s Diamond Distributors.
But Ron never lost his love for the medium.
Or other things.
Read more of this wonderful article here.