Retailing & Marketing

We're entering a period of disruption, if we're not already well into it. Is it something in the air, an upcoming election, the increasing consolidation of big media/big tech, millennials taking over? Probably all of that. And how does that affect comics? Of late the "slow patch" hit by direct market periodicals due to faltering by the Big Two seems to have cast all of this into discussion. Kate Leth, a creator and also a former comics shop employee, has a much linked to post about the direct market process which talks about how pre-ordering is key in what she calls a "system [that] is so deeply twisted":

Attention good Samaritans: a small Portland based hybrid cafe and comic book store needs your help to re-open after a vandal raided and robbed...

Every Wednesday, I sit down with Brandon Montclare, writer of the hit Image series Rocket Girl and co-writer of Marvel's upcoming Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur series....

Comics sales have been growing and continue to grow, but we're definitely entering a period of retrenchment and contraction for many, as I...

Local Comics Shop Day is the latest holiday on the comics calendar, to be held November 28th, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The date has...

Today, I’m staring down the initial order deadline for titles releasing in November. The initial order deadline is something I neglect to realize is...

And as the month's charts and solicitations roll out, here's ICv2's analysis for August. It is an unsettled time in the universe with...

A few months ago, as I was running a deposit to the bank, I ran into the store’s landlord at the terminal next to...

  Force Friday is here! A brand new holiday established to make people line up and buy toys.  If you can find one, Hasbro's magnetic BB-8...

Greetings, sales charts fans! It's time once again to look at DC's sales figures. (Warning: This month's column contains a higher amount of ranting than usual...) July was not a good month, sales-wise, for DC Entertainment. Compared to June, the average sales per title dropped by over 8K, and they sold 300K fewer total units in the NA direct market, despite offering nine more titles. Sales were down across the board, in many cases significantly, except for one title: Batgirl. Why did things drop so significantly? Three main reasons:

We've already seen today that just jumping on a new, fresh direction isn't enough to make a sales success, but what about over at Marvel? As I've noted their whopping sales have been led by the astonishing success of their Star Wars comics, but variant covers are also strong in this one. Star Wars #1 had over 100 variants, for instance. The upcoming hip hop variant program wasn't just problematic from a creator standpoint, however, it's also set new levels of frustration for retailers who have to order high on other books just to be able to ORDER copies of the variants, as revealed on Reddit by retailer Calum Johnston and explained at the Outhouse. Apparently a frustrated retailers posted the above annotated order sheet for the variants, showing how high order would have to be.

Here's a story I never hoped to write: Bergen Street Comics, the lovely and much loved comics shop right up the street from Brooklyn's...