Retailing & Marketing

We've all had some fun picking apart COMIC BOOK MEN, the kinda incredible show that purports to show life in a comic book store; along the way a few people have suggested checking out THE VARIANTS, a web series produced by Zeus Comics in Dallas. When we say "produced" we mean it's set in the store, and is written by and stars the people who run the store. We're not huge YouTube viewers, so we always put off checking it out . But finally having a few moments to check out a couple of episodes, we can now say that while fictional (we hope) it is definitely much more accurate than COMIC BOOK MEN. In fact it's pretty damned funny.

This is a fun video that shows all kinds of people lining up in the first 20 minutes of FCBD at St Louis's Star Clipper.

Alex Zalben has a fine write-up on MoCCA's ‘To Run A Comic Shop’ panel, which included Tucker Stone of Bergen Street Comics, Gabe Fowler of Desert Island, Robert Conte of Manhattan Comics and Brooklyn Comics, Thor Parker of Midtown Comics and moderator (and former retailer) Alex Cox, currently of the CBLDF. As usual that's a very smart, modern lineup of merchants, and sure enough there was some interesting talk. For instance, some stores actually frown on cell phones when they are used to order comics online—using the brick and mortar store as a showroom of sorts:

What's better than getting free candy on Halloween? Free comics! I offer some crazy ideas for retailers and lovers of comics, using Halloween as the inciting incident to tell a great story about marketing comics!

I have to admit, at this point in my life, I'm not much of a floppy comics reader. I've been fishing SAGA and PROPHET out of my Image comps, and every two months or so I go to Hanleys in search of a missing back issue but...I'm not part of the Wednesday Crowd. Which is why all the talk of pull lists and ordering and racing to get to the store go right over my head. So it wasn't until i read this piece by Todd Allen for PW that I finally understood.

Image publisher Eric Stephenson delivered yesterday's lunch presentation for Image Comics at the Diamond Retailer Summit. Instead of announcing any new projects, he used the time to deliver a speech about Image's history and its present, and to urge retailers not to let readers craving something new slip away to digital by not giving Image's ambitious new slate a chance.

DC is having a special focus group to show off a binder full of BEFORE WATCHMEN pages at the Diamond Retailer Summit.

We're on the scene here in Chicago for this year's Diamond Retailer Summit and survived our biggest challenge, breakfast. No big surprises at the breakfast, but Diamond discussed sales being up for the quarter, a 1% rise in customers (i.e. new shops) and their new Halloween-themed event for retailers to build programs around. Also, as previously discussed at the ComicsPRO meeting, Oni will join the FOC (final order cut off) program, as more and more publishers are hitting their ship dates. More later!

It is the time of the month when industry figures fret about the Future of Comics. No slight intended—we do it all the time, too, and a few remarkable clear and essential posts about The Way It Is have just been made. So let's review:

Are you looking forward to seeing the mancave that is Secret Stash evolve into a place full of well rounded human emotions? Well, that could happen.

A recent scan of graphic novel bestsellers on BarnesAndNoble.com from 15 March.

Over at iFanboy, Jim Mroczkowski points out that the battle between Good and Wednesday has been very clearly won by Wednesday, with both Marvel and DC sticking to schedules even if it means the artist rosters are in constant flux: