Flying Colors Comics & Other Cool Stuff

During a ten year career in radio advertising in Stockton, Moraga-native and lifelong comics' fan Joe Field launched a drive to have Stockton named "the birthplace of Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four" on the occasion of Marvel's 25th Anniversary in 1986. The public relations' campaign was successful, netting tons of positive press for Stockton and for comics, making the front page of newspapers across the country. Ultimately, not only did Marvel agree to the Stockton designation (check out Fantastic Four #286), but Stan Lee came to Stockton to recognize the achievement. Months later, Stan hired Joe for a bit of free-lance public relations' work, which was followed by Joe becoming the advertising director for WonderCon, Northern California's largest comic book convention. The WonderCon gig gave Joe an excuse to hang out at comic book shops and led to his eventual professional move to comics' retailing. During the course of two years' researching the opening of a world class comics' retailing establishment, Joe and his wonderful marketing research team (his wife Libby and their three daughters Michelle, Jenny & Cindy) looked for the best location and discovered what made some comic stores better than others. After all that, FLYING COLORS COMICS & Other Cool Stuff opened on October 3, 1988. Joe & Libby Field proudly received the 1995 Will Eisner "Spirit of Comics" Award for Retailing Excellence, a "Hall-of-Fame" award recognized internationally among comic book professionals.