Free Comic Book Day is great… but does it more to harm the industry than help?
The Retailer’s View // Thank You, Next
The old ways of the comics industry are dying. And it is about time.
The Retailer’s View // A Disgrace To The Industry
Since last we spoke, the store received its first bit of hate mail, which was nice. As a shop, we had been fairly vocal about our take on Marvel’s big Secret Empire event and how we couldn’t, in good conscience, hand-sell the book to customers. Danica had appeared in a few articles in particular explaining […]
The Retailer’s View // Should Printed Single Issues Go Away?
Our story begins a few years ago, when I was still managing another comic shop in the city. A man walked into the store, smiling and humming to himself. “Interesting place you got here,” he said, slowly stepping his way through the store, eyes scanning the walls in wonderment. “Why thank you,” I replied, choosing […]
The Retailer’s View // Do Retailers Dream of Lenticular Sheep?
It’s the beginning of a new month, which means retailers have just sent another batch of initial orders off to Diamond to butcher, and another set of data has arrived. Diligent retailers will have already started digging through the information, building a game plan for the next few weeks. This tends to be a large […]
The Retailer’s View // After-Rebirth
One of these “strike while the iron is hot” deals. Or more accurately, strike when your brain feels like co-operating. Last night, DC took the stage at this year’s Comics Pro meeting to talk about their upcoming Rebirth initiative, and was met with resounding murmurs from the internet. The reasons for this are plentiful, starting […]
The Retailer’s View // Rebirthing Pains
It’s been quite a while since the last edition of The Retailer’s View, and there are several reasons for that. Almost all of them can be grouped under the heading “year one of a business is tricky as hell”, though a bit can be attributed to the emotional drop I encountered at the end of […]
The Retailer’s View // Quite A Lot Of Variants
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 coming until a few days before they’re due – and while there’s always a lot of prep that is done ahead of time, going through the order book will still take […]
The Retailer’s View // DC Youoops
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 mine. As we both waited on our tellers to process our various requests, we had a small chat. He asked how the business was going. I replied that the store had […]
The Retailer’s View // Opening Daze
As I’m writing this, it’s Sunday and things are slow. At my former place of employment, Sundays were one of our busier days – people tend to have the day off, and wander into the store looking to blow some of their hard earned cash on comics and other sundry bits of pop culture. Here, […]