The funny thing about the above statement is that we publish Peanuts, the most popular comic strip in this history of western civilization. We publish Ghost World and Palestine, two of the best-selling graphic novels over the last ten years. In the last year we have published books by Dan DeCarlo, Peter Bagge, Edward Sorel, Walt Kelly, R. Crumb, Linda Medley, Los Bros Hernadez, etc. — all acknowledged greats of the field and strong sellers with broad appeal. In other words, we’re doing exactly as you suggest.

Meanwhile, the moment Denis Kitchen started listening to his critics and started chasing more mainstream properties like THE CROW and CADILLACS & DINOSAURS, he bankrupted his company.

Spurgeon hits the nail on the head when he says: “alternative comics companies are probably sick of having been told their stuff had no appeal, and that comics shops met the full demand of comics in America, only to watch their sales multiply by a factor of four and five times when they started working with bookstore distributors and bookstores.” What this means is, over the last five or six years, the direct market has hardly been an accurate barometer of demand for indie titles. This has been unequivocally proven over the last five or six years, at least in regard to Fantagraphics titles. Citing the Diamond charts as accurate benchmarks of consumer demand is like going into a Hot Topic and concluding that nobody in the world wants to wear white.

Mr. Bartlett, I want to thank you for your criticism regarding my retracted comment and subsequent apology, especially supported as it has been by such shining examples of courtesy. Way to lead by example.

It’s funny you should say that, because in 1986, a man named Mike Membe was on holiday in Kenya after going to comic con that year.
On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Membe approached it very carefully.
He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant’s foot and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it.
As carefully and as gently as he could, Membe worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot.
The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments.
Membe stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away.
Membe never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.
Twenty years later, Membe was walking through the San Diego Zoo with his teenaged son.
As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Membe and his son Tom were standing.
The large bull elephant stared at Membe, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.
Remembering the encounter in 1986, Membe couldn’t help wondering if this was the same elephant.
Membe summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Membe’ s legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.
Probably wasn’t the same elephant.
Now, the whole point to that is, is… oh crap, I did have a point. What was it. I’ll come back later when I think of it.

Sheesh.

Where people who have no idea what they’re talking about can argue endlessly with someone who does.

And then call him a tool.

Classy.

How do you interpret that?

Did he ask if he could order the material? No. Nor did he offer to start working there, or offer to come out and give a free seminar, or send samples or even leave a business card. That’s not the point. Eric wasn’t filing a brief in nerd court that this guy needs to defend himself against hammer and tongs where all of Fantagraphics’ public profile needs to come up on the table to discredit Eric for making some “charges”. He’s relating an experience!

Eric’s sole criticism on the lacky of indy/alt books was that it was sad that person didn’t have a certain type of book in stock, not that it couldn’t be ordered, not that he must order X percent, not that this store wouldn’t one day be different, nor all of these weird prescriptives that keep being put in his mouth.

I’ve been to my share of comic shops over the last 30 years and I have to use a Woody Allen movie quote to sum up my thoughts (he was speaking in regards to orgasms) “my worst one was right on the money.”

Some stores are geared towards being all inclusive, others take pride in their large selection of T-shirts or 32 sided dice, no matter how you boil it down, comic shops full of things that I love. Maybe not everything I love but what’s there is great and until comics are selling print runs in the millions, be happy we have ANY local comic shops.

Stores do need to carry a broad selection of comics but some stores are not able to as the demographic is not there. Did Eric ask if it was possible to order any of the titles he wanted? Its unlikely from the tone of his note but probably not. Is the owner of that store now more or less likely to carry Fantagraphic books if he see’s Eric’s blog? Maybe Eric should send some samples to the store so the owner could try them out and see if there is any demand.

Since the store in question has been there about a year or so and obviously no one has asked for Fantagraphic books in that period of time -
its just possible that there may not be any customers for them.

Did you read past the part you quoted? Y’know, the part that said, “Doesn’t feel good, does it?”

I *don’t* think most comics readers suck. Just like you shouldn’t think most comics stores, or their owners, suck. I haven’t met “most comics readers” just like no one (except perhaps Eric Hitchcock at Diamond) has seen “most comics stores”

Of the comics readers I’ve met personally, I find them to be, on average, more intelligent, better spoken, and friendlier (yes, friendlier!) than the customers of the many other entertainment products I’ve been a retailer of over the years.