Meet Tom Skulan | Publisher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tom Skulan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tom, do you disagree with some advice that is more or less universally accepted?
One of my biggest regrets in my life was that I followed the advice of everyone about going to college. I deeply regret the time and money spent on going to college. I would have been much better off starting my own business while still in high school.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
FantaCo Enterprises is a continuation of the tiny mail order company I started in the summer of 1968. I sold records, comics, coins, and magazines for 10 years. The business grew steadily, and I was able to pay my college tuition bills without taking any student loans. During the final year of college, I decided that I wanted the business to have its own store, so I set about searching for the ideal location. That may sound easy, but I was considering many factors and during the entire process I looked at 55 locations in 5 states. It took 6 months to decide on New York State’s capital city, Albany. It had an exceptionally large student population and no stores selling comic books or collectibles.
In August 1978 I registered as a NYS corporation and opened the business utilizing all the money I had plus an $8000 loan from my family. Unbelievably, for the time, we were well capitalized and were able to get a suitable location and buy all the supplies and inventory we needed.
We had a huge advantage too. I transitioned all the customers and inventory from my mail order company on Day One. So, we had orders coming in before we had even opened the doors of the store. That was an incredible help with cash flow.

I decided upon the name FantaCo Enterprises because I wanted the company to be multi-faceted. There were to be four “enterprises”: 1. the retail store, 2. the mail order firm, 3. an annual convention, and 4. a publishing company.
One year later, in 1979, I had accomplished all four ventures under one roof.

Today FantaCo has dropped the convention and the store and is a publishing company and mail order firm. Our comics, books and magazines are distributed all over the world.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well, this is a tough one for me because after decades of heavy snow and ice in Albany, we left for warmer climes. We recently relocated to North Carolina and honestly, we have not been here long enough to know the best places to take a visiting friend. So, if my best friend came to visit right now, I would simply entertain him in my home.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Phil Seuling and Peter Maresca were instrumental in my start-up success. They were my mentors and role models.

Website: https://www.fantaco.net

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fantacoenterprises/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fantacopublications

Image Credits
The Gurch Jim Whiting