On the flip side, Alexander was mostly just waiting to act on his end of the offer.

All the while finalizing some of his other deals as well.

With the way things have progressed, everything should be falling into place.

As it should.

This was a plan that had long been set in motion and as of current, designated subordinates should be doing what they're tasked to do.

All in all, the likelihood of deviation is extremely unlikely and it won't be long before Alexander gets what he wants.

And as covered, all he had to do was wait.

Of course, while he's at it, he didn't hesitate to take another forced vacation.

According to his grandfather, he deserved it.

For once, Alexander actually agreed that a little break shouldn't be too bad.

Which was why he was by a sandy white beach...

Lounging...

And enjoying the whims of summer...

------

Then again, his workaholism still shows...

"Alex, why are you always looking at that bricky phone?" Swimsuited Milla, who was lounging by his side, couldn't help but point out.

This was hard to not notice. He was pretty much transfixed on the phone ever since.

"I'm just looking out for incoming calls." Very specific and very special calls. Calls that he was very much looking forward to.

"Don't they do that ringing stuff?" Milla blinkingly reminded. "It lets you do other things and not have to stare at it all the time."

"I do know that." Alexander rectified while noting to himself on what was wrong with phone staring.

Unfortunately, it wasn't just the novelty of using a DynaTAC, the cellphone's ancestor, that got his unwarranted attention.

Maybe this was just one of those days.

"Is it because you're worried and tense and nervous about the comic book industry?" Milla assumed. Alex rarely blunders like this so it must be so.

"Maybe." He assented since that really was the case.

Of course, his phone paranoia was more on a positive note than the bad.

Little Milica was still on the negative connotations though. "I heard that a lot of things happened at Comic-Con and most of it isn't really good."

Comic books being returned, awards being criticized, and the whole atmosphere just not being celebrative as past conventions.

She wasn't able to attend this year, however, Milla still had her sources. She just has a lot of friends in high places, nay, Creed places.

"Well, it is an event, so it is rather eventful." Alexander quipped. "Besides, it's not as bad as you think it is."

Well, it is bad for others, but not particularly bad on Creed's side of the equation.

Setting aside all the speculation bust and that timely Marvel offer, Comic-Con 1986 was actually as much of a splash as last year.

Merchandise had been sold, projects had been tested out, and Creed's popularity in the nerd community has been roused.

Of course, that's not to say that the comic book side of business wouldn't be affected by the upcoming downturn of the comic book market.

Creed Comics will more or less be implicated but Alexander was quite confident that they'll soldier through it.

With overall sales charts probably crashing to low lows from their steep peaks, the status of the printed medium is most likely to regress to the dreary niche that it had been.

All that effort, leading to the steady rise to ubiquity and mainstream popularity, went down the drain due to speculator stupidity.

Still, it was a sacrifice well worth it.

The call from his selected Marvel contacts won't be long now and one-half of the Comic Big Two should be as good as bagged under the Creed brand.

Granted, with Creed Comics serialization bumping down to a measly 5 or 6 titles, it can't be any more of a perfect match to a measly comic-buying market.

Yeah... Alexander, sarcastically, didn't plan that at all.

To add more heft to the "unplanned-ness" of it all... Creed's unit limit of 100,000-400,000 per issue would most likely be selling out, regardless of niche regression or mainstream popularity.

As it turns out, Creed Comics were the ones that were genuinely rare and worth the investment.

Making speculators, non-speculators, and publishers realize the meticulousness of such a simple limitation strategy.

It's just how multi-layered it was.

Even though everyone is supposed to have suffered a loss in this speculation boom and bust... an enviable party was actually thriving

Of course, their Volume Books would probably be affected but in the grand scheme of things... Creed Comics was the biggest winner of it all.

And if that wasn't enough of a freaking advantage... there are still Creed's non-comic businesses.

Each of them, more or less, on a progressive trajectory than the last.

With their own sets of nuance, of course.

However, they are guaranteed to put the entirety of Creed on the right track.

After all, they're not as bogged down by the downturned comic books despite the business synergy that they are all positioned to be.

Alexander didn't need to enumerate much, however, he did have some projects to highlight.

For instance, there's Top Gun. On its Nth week and still staying strong.

With the absence of Cameron's Aliens, the jet-piloting film actually had its second ascent and has a beeline to box office numbers that surpassed its predecessory run.

Top Gun toys and bomber jackets are not too far on that.

Creed Pictures' distribution capabilities are up to the test as well with the overseas film market being quite a tricky system to navigate.

Unfortunately, as a film about American heroism and the Naval profession, it probably won't be appreciated much.

Still, with the contacts established and the experienced gained, Creed Pictures should be able to build overseas distribution capabilities and Majors-independency would be achieved.

A rather polarizing achievement given its shaky foundations of it.

Of course, Alexander sought to build up on that as it's not just a film that's being distributed.

Part of Top Gun's overseas strategy is the tactic to introduce the Chaos units abroad.

Mass production had taken strides since Nintendo's provocation but instead of tailing the unconfident NES in traditional retail stores... Alexander decided to be bold on it.

Europe was being opened up by the Sega Master System and the Creed Chaos System's momentum swiping just needed to be applied once again.

Then again, Alexander's true goal was more on Japan, bearing down on the Famicom's homecourt dominance, rattling Nintendo on two fronts as a form of rare pettiness on his part.

Probably three fonts when considering that an arcade push was heavily implied during Comic-Con. It wasn't just Mega Man that was hyped up.

Granted, pushback is expected especially in Japan, however, it's not like Creed has done nothing in the Japanese market.

It may not be Shueisha or Kodansha but Creed had long taken over a wannabe, transformed it into a special translation front, and has long tested the viability of Japanese-version Volume Books to a steady degree.

It was a tiny internationalization experiment but it wasn't nothing.

And if that wasn't enough, an old pal of Creed Animations actually reached out just recently.

Namely Seasoned Hayao.

Ghibli's Laputa: Castle in the Sky needed a North American distributor and early lobbying wouldn't hurt. Especially with the existence of Creed Pictures and Creed Home Video.

One only needed to connect some dots from there and a whole structure is as good as formed.

Then there's the new Creed film production that's ongoing with a guy named Stan Winston taking part. Signifying a whole new layout to think of. VFX, of course.

Then there's the next month, which was September. The end of summer and the start of school are the ones that come to mind but Alexander's thoughts were more on September... the month that kicks off new television programs.

Doesn't Creed happen to have two programs that will fit right in?

Oh, the list just goes on...

Before long, Alexander's ruminating thoughts had already trailed off to a lot of busyness from businesses.

A showcase of workaholism at its worst. Or best, depending on how one views it.

Either way, a supposedly relaxing vacation to a sandy beach with a picturesque view was in no way a remedy to it.