Retailing & Marketing

Telegraph Above: Beast of the Sea by Bob Motown

The somewhat uneven performance of Marvel's graphic novel program is a frequent topic of analysis when we talk about graphic novel programs here. Both the Diamond and Bookscan numbers for 2012 showed Marvel -- the #1 publisher overall in the Direct Sales market -- surprisingly far back in the pack where books are concerned.

Diamond will once again be holding its annual retailer summit at C2E2 this year, from Wednesday, April 24 to Friday, April 26. The event is only open to retailers and a few industry professionalss but the schedule includes breakfast, dinners and, of course, a hearty lunch. The full schedule can be viewed here.

Speaking of ComicsPRO here's a link I found in the coverage, a slideshow put together by Papercutz marketin diector Jesse post on the power and potential of kids comics. The slideshow is embedded above but he does a walk through on his blog and although Papercutz-centric material is there, it's really big on stats and charts and studies. For instance:

My annual write around on the yearly meeting of the retailing organization ComicsPRO was in PW yesterday, including new president Thomas Gaul'sfirst interview. As usual, reports from the show were all about positivity and productivity and good sales news.

On Sunday, our pals at Green Brain Comics in Dearborn were shocked upon awakening to find a mini-van had crashed into their store. Although it looked dramatic, and took out an 8-foot long shelf of kids comics —and a bathroom, setting off a flood— the shop was in good enough shape to reopen today.

There's been controvery over the past few days following DC's decision to hire Orson Scott Card, a pioneer in contemporary homophobia, as one of...

Mouse Guard artist David Petersen has a very thorough post on a topic that we haven't seen explored too much, despite its ubiquity: how to exhibit at comics shows if you are a creator. The whole post is full of very solid advice, from where to get an affordable retractable banner to how to get going. Just some common sense real world advice. Two excerpts on vital matters:

Retailing advocacy group ComicsPRO has announced their annual Industry Appreciation Award nominees which salute "those who have been simply the best at what they...

Ever since Diamond announced their Diamond Digital initiative, allowing comics shops to sell digital comics to customers, I've  been wondering about the future of...

'Tis the season for what the bestsellers of the previous year were.  And with it comes the annual opportunity to illustrate that tastes can...

The Comics Reporter's year-end interview series is full of notable quotables, as usual, and spans quite an array of newsmakers and creators. I was...