While The Beatrix is down South for a a comics convention, I’m back home in Omaha, Nebraska, spending Turkey Week with family and friends.  (Nine days of vacation, three vacation days used.)

Of course, most of us are anticipating turkey this Thursday (or whatever you prefer to consume in Thanksgiving), and many are also plotting strategies for that evening and Black Friday.

Myself, I plan to make another grand tour of the Greater Omaha comics shops (Dragon’s Lair!  Krypton Comics!  Ground Zero! (A little nuclear war humor, the shop is a few miles from the Strategic Air Command)  Legend Comics!  (mmm… Comics and coffee!))!

After all the Sturm und Drang this year (elections, wildfires, hurricanes, drought, the economy, Snooki’s baby…) we’ve got a lot to be Thankful for, and looking at the sales figures so far, comics shops (or at least the comics industry) seem to be doing well.

We here at The Beat strongly support our comics retailers, so we’ve got three questions for our readers:

  1. If you’re a retailer, what plans do you have this week to promote sales?
  2. If you’re a consumer, do you plan to do Christmas shopping this weekend (for yourselves or others)?
  3. What’s your favorite comics shop?

 

8 COMMENTS

  1. RT @Comixace: It’s Always Darkest Right Before Blackest Friday: What’s happening next Friday at comics shops? What do you have planned?

  2. there was a time when i would go to the now “gone the way of the dodo” KBtoys to look for a fresh stock of variant marvel legend figures and hard to find marvel junk on black friday. but that was years ago, these days if other folks want to brave the crowds and insanity, have at it, but i for one can’t deal with that craziness anymore. eventually one does find whatever one is looking for and the sales on black friday ain’t all that spectacular that one has to go out and engage in a battle with a couple of thousand folks looking for the same item that you are. on the other hand if my friendly neighborhood comic shop (alternate realities, scarsdale, ny …plug,plug) happens to be having a black friday sale that will cover the entire weekend, yeah, i’ll drop by and see what’s what.

  3. Hey, I live about 50 miles south of Omaha … Don’t forget to check out Trade-a-tape comics center on 9th st. in Lincoln…. Great guys there. Tell them Tom sent you!

  4. Torsten, it was great to see you again! It has been far too long since last we spoke. Thank you for stopping by the Krypton Comics Artist Jam and chatting with everyone. It was crazy there this weekend (47 artists and writers stopped by) but really fun. I need to send you the photos and video (?) that were shot last Saturday during the jam. BTW, roughly 40% of the Jam crowd are women, providing proof that the honest-to-goodness nerd girls live and thrive here in Omaha. Take care.

  5. I have not gone shopping on Black Friday or the weekend following Thanksgiving; when I worked retail, I hated those three days most of the holiday shopping season.

  6. That was an amazing Jam, Fredd! I loved that one cosplaying geekette actually out-geeked 90% of male comics fans by scarifying the Superman logo on her chest!

    Kat, I worked at the Lincoln Center B&N. Aside from the typical tourist crowd, Black Friday (and the weekend) were a normal weekend… the 1% left town that weekend. Now Green Saturday (the last Saturday before Christmas)… that was crazy fun! 16 registers, a quarter million in sales.

    Gianco, try Cyber Monday, when employees go back to work and use work computers to shop online.

    Tom, sorry, that’s a bit far to drive (I’ll probably avoid Council Bluffs as well). I did it once, when Cosmic Comics hosted Neil Gaiman and Jill Thompson on the Seasons of Mist/Brief Lives tour.

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