Retailing & Marketing

Well, sort of. It's well known that some used book prices on Amazon are just kind of...loony. Take for instance, Monsters by Ken Dahl, an excellent book about a guy who thinks he has herpes by Ken Dahl, published by Secret Acres but now out of print. (A new edition is planned for next year.) In the meantime, you can get a used copy for a mere $394.94... or brand new for $11,964.08.

After several years travelling around the country—three years in Chicago and then earlier this year in Las Vegas—Diamond is holding its 2015 Retailer Summit...

With both Marvel and DC running big, somewhat vague multiverse spanning crossovers this year, I decided to take some time to go over what...

It’s the return of The Beat’s weekly look at comics on Final Order Cut-Off (FOC) and bits of retail process that doesn’t merit a...

Want to find more about how graphic novel publishers are approaching the massive changes in comics readership and marketing now underway? Then fire up your computer tomorrow at 1 pm EST for a webcast with these industry experts.

We've been talking about how the comics industry is doing well, and people seem to be making good on their business plans. But there are still cautionary tales. One such tale is Kaboom Test Labs, a two store cain located in Albuquerque, NM that abruptly closed shop this weekend. The main site has only a note that the owners were leaving New Mexico; a Facebook page where disappointed customers wondered what happened has been removed.

Out with the old, in with the new? As we've been reporting, October comics sales were pretty damn massive. It's the culmination of a year that started a little rocky but has blossomed as new trends blew into town behind a strong trade wind. Multiversity's David Harper has the much needed big think piece on what's happening complete with CHARTS. First he points out that The Big Two are still the big two:

2014 is swiftly drawing to a close. In the midst of making sure my shelves will weather the upcoming Christmas season, I’ll be placing...

Navigating monthly orders is a bone-numbing pain. I feel as though this is something I write a variation of in most of these columns....

There was a time not too long ago when you could fit all the "women in comics" at a big table in a coffee shop. Now there re more than 300 women who just work in comics shops. That's the membership of The Valkyries, a private organization for female comics retail employees. and it turns out the group has been instrumental in promoting a coupld of books that have had great success this year, namely Saga and Lumberjanes. Janelle Asselin interviews group founder Kate Leth for all the details:

While most comics fans started New York Comic Con on Thursday, the die-hard industry insiders and watchers began their "con crush" on Wednesday. ICV2.com...

It's been a while (5 years) since we looked at Diamond's monthly backlist chart, and now, as then, it reveals a VERY DIFFERENT ranking for publishers. In the backlist, DC is king by a wide margin, with about 30% of the market. Marvel is only a tich above Image in units, while Image books dominate the top ten with Saga, Walking Dead, and Sex Criminals. On the manga side, Attack on Titan rules, no surprise given the way it's single handedly revitalized the category.