Retailing & Marketing

A fire broke out on NYC's St. Marks St. this morning, in the same building as St. Marks Comics:

To the surprise of few, Comic Relief, the once groundbreaking but recently troubled Berkeley comics shop, has closed, according to word on the street and an actual sign on the door posted by Image's Branwyn Bigglestone.

Remember when Mark Millar cleverly used Photoshop to make it look like he was advertising a comic book on a Times Sqaure billboard? Well, something like that actually happened earlier this week when the PR Newswire Bulletin Board ran some press for Marijuanaman, a new comics from Image spotlighting a character created by Ziggy Marley.

[Yesterday Diamond announced their plan to team with iVerse to offer digital comics downloads for sale in comics shops. Gievn the hot button nature of this discussion, and the big picture nature of the announcement, Dave Bowen, Diamond's Director of Digital Distribution, was eager to talk to us to explain more about it. This is a long interview, but Bowen goes into welcome detail on the thinking behind and motivation for this plan. Short version: retailers deserve to be brought into the process.]

A pal snapped this recent photo at a local Borders. Perhaps there is a reason they are in trouble.

[Yesterday we chatted with one half of the Bonfire Agency, Ed Catto. Today we grill Steve Rotterdam on the nerd marketing equation, Bonfire's research and consulting activities, and whether Patton Oswalt was right about too much geek being a bad thing. Steve Rotterdam served as partner and Chief Creative Officer at the East West Agency before joining DC Comics as Sr. VP Sales and Marketing for three years. His background gives his take on the comics industry and where it is going an informed and unique perspective.]

Problem solved! ComiXology, the leading digital comics provider, is going to let brick and mortar comics shops set up affiliate storefronts on their sites, building on comiXology's existing programs for retailers, such as digital pull lists and so on. Prominent retailer Chris Powell explains, “Having seen comiXology’s Retailer Tools and Pull List services, we trust comiXology’s technology to help us thrive in a market where customers are interested in both print and digital comics.  ComiXology will help us provide the one-stop shopping that customers are looking for.  Digital comics can be a great tool for reaching out to new or lapsed customers, and retailers should not be afraid of this new format.  Instead, they should look for ways to make the digital format complement their existing print business."

It was only the golden age of last week that Marvel and ComicsPRO, the organization for comics retailers, announced a special promotion for FORMIC WARS #1: ComicsPRO member stores would be able to release the issue on TUESDAY, 2/15, instead of the customary Wednesday.

The Bonfire Agency is a new entity that is looking to do a lot with the nerd world. Co-founder Ed Catto talks about what he;s learned on the way and what Bonfire can do in this exclusive interview.

Marvel and the retailing community sometimes have a love/hate/love relationship, but here's news that they are strongly supporting members of ComicsPRO, the retailer advocacy organization, by releasing Orson Scott Card's FORMIC WARS: BURNING EARTH #1 a day early on Tuesday, February 15th to ComicsPRO member stores. Participating stores will also sell an exclusive poster. The regular sale date is Wednesday, 2/16.

Here's one of those announcements that looks super vague on paper but given the people involved, you know it will yield some results. ComiXology and Milton Griepp's ICv2 are teaming up to help develop tools for retailers. ICv2 is, of course, best known for its sales estimates and business news. Although the leader in the digital comics space, comiXology has also developed a number of services for retailers, including their "pull list" -- it's not hard to see how that might work with ICv2 to give us some kind of useful metrics. Griepp is on the board of comiXology.

Tokyopop has just signed a deal with Diamond Book Distributors for distribution to both comics shops and bookstores. This marks Tokyopop's return to Diamond...