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” BISAC stands for Book Industry Study Group (I know, I know)…”

To nitpick, BISAC stands for either “Book Industry Systems Advisory Committee” or “Book Industry Standards and Communications” (not sure which name is more correct nowadays…) to denote the subset of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) that works to create industry standards, including categorization.

What might be nice would be to have a list of comics-specific BISACs?

Thanks for covering this important change, Heidi.

Brian – when you say a list of list of comics-specific BISACs, what exactly are you after? The BISG list the existing comics BISACs on their website – https://www.bisg.org/bisac/bisac-subject-headings-list-comics-and-graphic-novels. When the new codes become official in January 2017, I’m sure they’ll add them to the site as well.

I love Barnes and Noble. Amazon has opened a few stores, so there is hope! They just need to find the right model

I had a friend who was a manager at Hastings for a bout a year that got let go over a year ago. Even then, the environment for employees was not good and they really didn’t have a good feel for the comics market. Not surprising that they owe Funko more than Diamond. There seems to be a big excess of Funko Pops at all the local comic shops as well as Hot Topics.

The company went private in 2014.
Most stores are located in small cities (one is in Fremont, NE).
Unless Wal-Mart fills that void, some readers will have to either drive to a metropolitan area (not uncommon in the midwest, where day trips are popular), or make better use of the local library and interlibrary loan. Or go online.
But casual discovery? Browsing… that’s unlikely.

“A good time to stock up on bargains” at the expense of the artists and publishers who will never get paid.

““A good time to stock up on bargains” at the expense of the artists and publishers who will never get paid.”

It’ll help more than inventory sitting on the shelf unsold would.

i wonder if Diamond is able to absorb this kind of large financial hit? What will the domino effect be on the DM?

If they get pennies on the dollar, it won’t be for a very very long time.

>“A good time to stock up on bargains” at the expense of the artists and publishers who will never get paid.<

I suspect that the graphic novels were sourced via Diamond BOOK Distributors and various book store distributors. Those are returnable, although there are limits. Yup, the publisher/distributor takes a beating on returns… HarperCollins sunk Eclipse that way with The Hobbit.

Anything purchased via Diamond COMICS would be like a comics shop… it's one-way.
Diamond bought the stock from the companies, and re-sold it to Hastings, on credit. (They do this for many stores… I think it's a retail standard…. retail accounts get 60 or 90 days to pay each bill.)

So, Diamond is stuck, unless they signed some sort of distribution agreement with a publisher or company that says different.

Also, it should be noted:
When a book goes on sale in a bookstore, it does not affect a creator's royalties.
That is determined for every book sold, not on the sales price.
A publisher will sell a book for about 50% of the cover price to a store. The store can then discount the book if they feel they'll make more money doing so.
It doesn't matter if it's paid for full price at a comic con, or bought at 50% off on Amazon. The royalty paid to the creator is the same.

To the best of my knowledge, Diamond doesn’t offer more than 30 days to anyone.

This debt appears to be Diamond BOOK distributors which is a different company than the COMICS portion, but one which is probably in generally poor shape right now mostly because they’ve lost most of their client publishers — despite the lock on COMICS for the “Big Five”, Diamond BOOKS only appears to distribute IDW and Image — no Marvel, DC, or Dark Horse.

http://www.diamondbookdistributors.com/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=53&s=660&ai=70695&ssd= looks like a list of impacted pubs. I could be entirely wrong, but I think that everyone there other than IDW and Image DBD is “buy/sell”, where *DBD* will be the party out on the sale…. but what is Hastings going to have in stock? Probably a lot of Image and IDW (licensed) books. Those pubs may potentially be on the hook for at least some of the loss if the terms are similar to the “brokerage” deal that they have with DCD.

But that’s without actually having real knowledge of facts, and could be entirely wrong!!

-B

The bankruptcy court will decide which debts they have to pay and how much.

How much leverage the publisher has to get themselves paid probably depends on their size. Small publishers often walk away with nothing when a chain or distributor goes bankrupt. In cases like that, the creator will not get paid either. It’s happened to me multiple times.

Well, this is discouraging to say the least. I’ve lived in three distinct towns with a Hastings store– and it’s the only bookstore/comics presence in my rural hometown. They’ve got a solid selection of used GN’s that I’ve used to build my library over the years. And if you’ve never been in one, with all the pop culture ephemera they sell, they’re somewhat like a cross between Barnes and Noble and Hot Topic in feel.

I’ve been seeing some friends on Facebook mourning a bit over the news– for nerdy folks in smaller southern towns, they were a gateway into all kinds of material you wouldn’t find otherwise. There’s a big generation of pop culture enthusiasts that those stores nurtured. Hopefully they find a buyer!

Wonder what this will do to the comics industry as a whole.

Hastings commitment to comics was indifferent at best. Their book selection was increasingly limited.

I frequent 2 Hastings stores in the Spokane, WA area. The books section is dwindling, especially the Christian fiction section. All I want is a good book to read, I’m not into all the techy and comic stuff. I hope things get better or I’ll be off to Barns and Noble.

As I see it, this is DC attempting to institute brand loyalty off the back of their upcoming films and their fairly successful television shows.

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that the only really sustainable business model at the Big Two has to come through characters taking precedent over creators per se. I think this is some of the trouble that Marvel is running into right now with All New, All Different, where just prior to that, they had nobly highlighted creators first and the properties second. But what happens when those creators head over to Image? It’s hard to expect those readers to stick around if Matt Fraction, Rick Remender or Ales Kot were your big selling points.

I personally find that less enticing, but c’est la vie.

For DC’s part, they have to secure the LCS base again first, those very customers they lost during the New 52 era and pivot off the *hopeful success* of their film franchises for new and curious readers. There’s a reason those June launch books are all Batman v Superman characters and CW stars.

I think Kyle raises some good points. As a long time reader, I know you are interested in the creators, Todd, but I wonder how important that is to the majority of DC readers/potential readers/lapsed readers and to the retailers.

I’m a believer that they need to focus on their characters and not the people who are creating them. Put Big Name A on Superman and make a big deal out of it and maybe Big Name A’s fans start reading Superman. When Big Name A leaves, so does the fan. Market to Superman fans and you have a chance at keeping the fan (as long as the comic is good, of course).

Didn’t really see it that way. They said up front that they’re announcing who the creative teams are at WonderCon. Close to home for DC Corporate and in front of more fans than retailers. It’s a month from now and all they’re doing is building hype for their books. Cut them a little slack. Not much, but a little.

Putting Geoff Johns front and center will definitely bring relief to long time readers. He’s about as close as we’ve got to an advocate at DC. If he says trust him, I have no reason not to at this point.

I agree, informed decisions about the product cannot be made without knowing the creative teams. Regarding your issue with the double shipping, books such as Amazing Spider-Man and Extraordinary X-Men have been on an accelerated shipping schedule since they started at $3.99. Ultimate Spider-Man double shipped through most of Mark Bagley’s run. I am not a huge proponent of double shipping, but if I am on a budget the $2.99 price point sounds like the better option. Again, we need to know more about the content before making any real decisions. I also hope DC thinks about the structure of their stories arcs. Everything does not need to be a 6 issue arc. Batgirl does a really good job of done-in-ones with a continuing subplot.

Since I rarely follow creators DC not announcing teams yet does not bother me. I know which properties I like from the list they presented, and I’ll decide based on both the creative teams and title descriptions.

Kyle raises some important points. As I posted in the MMW boards almost a month ago, I’m wondering if upper management (as in *really* upper management, the ones up above Johns, Lee and Didio) have the view that as long as DC editorial carries out management’s edicts, they are in fact doing their job. In other words, maybe upper management places a substantially greater emphasis on having a particular publishing strategy rather than fostering creativity and good storytelling from those folks who are actually working on the books. You need *both* to be a successful comics company. Good creatives without a publishing plan will result in underselling your product just as having a publishing plan without proper attention to creatives will result in low-selling product.

That’s a purely speculative hypothesis on my part, of course, but it might explain why so much of DC feels like they don’t really know what to do with their characters. I started buying a lot more DC during the lead-up into Infinity Crisis and was enjoying the overall DC Universe up through around Final Crisis. But after that, more and more areas of the DCU felt rudderless to me — not just with New52 and DCyou but even before the New 52 launch.

In theory, the new exclusive contracts with creators might be a signal that the pendulum will begin to swing back to something more balanced. But we’ll have to see if DC is able to give their creatives the space to do the kinds of stories that will bring in readers.

Compare this to the launch of DCYou* which had the creators front and centre in the advertising – example:
http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2015/06/30/are-you-ready-for-action-comics-greg-pak-and-aaron-kuder

*(DC probably doesn’t want to hear the phrase “compare this to DCYou”)

My suggestion:
Roll out a new title every week (if you need to maintain “52”) or month.
DC PR does everything by clockwork… one week you announce the title, one week you schedule interviews, one week you send out previews, one week you push the sales…

Make the title a miniseries, but don’t tell anyone outside the office.
Let the creative team pitch any idea, in any universe/timeline/whatever.
If sales tank after six issues, end it, solicit the trade, and see how that works.
If it does, restart the series again, and see how it continues.

Everything is completed before publication. All six issues.
If the series is strong, then you renew immediately, getting the creators rescheduled.

If it doesn’t work, you place it in the vault, and maybe someone revisits the property five years from now.

If nothing else, DC gets to test new talent, and let existing talent create something outside the restrictions of editorial.
DC gains some cred for trying new things, battling Image for innovation.

Maybe you get a new Sandman. Maybe you get an All-Star Superman. Maybe you get ‘Mazing Man.
Maybe you find the next Gaiman.

One advantage of just having the titles is that we can imagine any variation on the concept that we like. So obviously the Super-Sons book is going to be based on a trove of Bob Haney scripts discovered during the cross-country move.

Kickstart comics have been in Walmart for years now.

I can see all ages titles working well in big box stores. Especially those that tie in with games or videos.

I see the more bestselling graphic novel titles at Target, generally from the mainstream book trade publishers, who know how to sell into those markets. (Target has a long history, stocking the MAD paperbacks back in the 1980s.)

you can buy CF comics on the Wal-Mart website? what a world.

Lots of truth bombs here.
Make mine image.

I have to disagree with him about all the new indie titles at Comixology. I love looking through the Submit section every week. There’s always 5 or 6 books in that category that I know I have to read.

Easy to poke other companies when your company is built on hundred’s of artists doing spec work to pay your salary with many of them not seeing a cent. Imagine your position if you were paying reasonable rates and you were hiring editors.

Comparing Image to Marvel and DC is comparing apples to oranges and criticizing them is childish. Just promote and pay your creators on time, take their calls when they need you, and get your head out of your ass. I know your shit doesn’t smell of roses.

Stevenson’s endless shit-talking about Marvel and DC would have more impact if it weren’t for the fact that almost every single successful creative who works for Image – or who has ever worked for them, going right back to the founders – is successful because they built up their reputation and fanbase at Marvel and/or DC first. Just about the only person Image has that they can point to and say ‘their success is all ours’ is Robert Kirkman… *maybe*. And if you want to talk about ‘bland’ and ‘same-as-it-ever-was’, my god, how long have Invincible and The Walking Dead been going? How long has it been since either book had a reason to exist beyond ‘people will still buy this’?

Does Stephenson believe everything that he says? Maybe, maybe not. Clearly he understands that by taking a big jab at the Big 2 he can get people talking and maybe even have someone at the Big 2 reassess on a small scale how they do things. the more vocal he is the more likely it is going to work. It’s sort of like how rappers dis other rappers. It’s mostly for attention and get people talking about them.

It’s also good marketing for Image who position themselves as being edgy and the major alternative to Marvel and DC, especially in an age where there’s reboot/relaunch/event/variant cover fatigue.

Yeah, come on, Image. Why would you want to publish books that have three digits in their issue numbers? Because they consistently sell? You gotta Rehash/Reboot/Relaunch/Rebirth that shit to bring in some big numbers and instant cash so when no one cares about it six months later, you can do it all over again. I mean, what are trying to do…tell a story?! Idiots.

I don’t agree with everything he’s said, but he really does have a point about certain things. I was reading some of the trade solicitations for Marvel and came across this little byline for the Howard the Duck, Vol. 1: Duck Hunt TPB.

“Collecting HOWARD THE DUCK (2015B) #1-6 and UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL (2015B) #6.”

Literally seeing that Marvel needs to add a ‘B’ to clarify WHICH Howard the Duck and Unbeatable Squirrel Girl ongoing series they launched last year makes me think maybe they need to take a step back and rethink how they roll new/relaunched series out. It appears that at least Silk, Spider-Gwen and Uncanny Avengers have also gotten the same treatment. Though it seems only UA is the only one of this group that at least has a different creative team and roster. Otherwise the credits, title and everything is superficially indistinguishable from one another.

At least when Ed Brubaker had two #1 for Captain America years ago, they were with different artists and about a half a decade apart. Jason Aaron’s Thor has had different titles along the way (God of Thunder -> Thor -> Thors -> Mighty), which at least gives all of those various Thor #1’s some type of distinction from one another.

For a few years I had been working on a blog focused on spotlighting comics on Marvel’s Unlimited service, though I haven’t updated it in a few years. Seeing this kind of stuff makes me feel like I should get back to working on it, since the relaunches are happening so frequently now, if for no other reason than to make a reading order for everyone else.

It would just be nice if they left these series alone long enough for them to even attempt to form an audience.

(Not sure what’s happening on the DC side of things, so I couldn’t even attempt to comment)

Agreed with Paul. There are a lot of Image titles I enjoy, but there are also a lot of Submit indie titles that give them a run for their money — Heathen, Meteora, Exlibrium, Hex11, Past the Last Mountain, Center for Otherworld Science, Blue Hand Mojo, the Rosy Press offerings, etc. — and they cover some genres that Image is pretty light on, like romance.

Suzenne! Yes, Heathen and Hex11 are two of my favorite comics of this past year! Heathen in particular is groundbreaking if you ask me. Meteora, Past the Last Mountain were also super amazing! The rest on your list, I will now have to make a bee line towards putting in my collection!

Pantheon is why this happened.
They had the money, the had the vision, they had Chip Kidd.

They were the first book publishers to reeeally try to make comics look good.
Beaunaventura, High-water, D+Q, Fanta, and a few others laid the ground work, but Pantheon were the first to convince the bigger world that comics could be worthy of a respectable bookshelf.

Welcome to the cynical circle, Todd! :)
Only two comments:
– comparing Dr strange and Thor numbers doesn’t seem fair at all, especially for the Doctor. The last ongoing serie for the doctor was so much time ago that there is no real point of comparaisons, except that Dr strange was never a huge seller, but did manage to keep its ongoing title during more than 20 years.
– the creator mix is quite different. Many names are new and some associatiosn are quite new, let’s be fair. We can’t say that Marvel hasn’t put a lot of innovative titles with this relaunch. Of course, if you only lokk at the big titles, nothing has changed much, but the rest of their catalog is quite daring and innovative (and expensive too :p ).

Looking at the diamond numbers for the past couple of years gives such a flawed idea as to how its doing. Its not like the way it was in the past where the direct market is the main sales number and even then the Diamond numbers were still flawed. It doesn’t take into account the rather sizable digital numbers, where books like Spider-Gwen have such a huge audience that’s not reflected in these numbers. All the numbers to is allow people to manipulate them and show a small example in order to push their agenda.

“It doesn’t take into account the rather sizable digital numbers, where books like Spider-Gwen have such a huge audience that’s not reflected in these numbers”

And where can we see this digital numbers? I can totally believe Spider-Gwen selling big online but I’d like to check out the sales figures myself.

Mike

Bob, who’s your source on Spider-Gwen’s digital sales? The only digital comic at Marvel I’ve gotten confirmation *from Marvel* on a consistently percentage of digital sales is Ms. Marvel. From what I could tell, and I couldn’t get a straight enough answer to suit me, Ms. Marvel seemed to be selling close to (but not quite) print numbers in digital. Which was an anomaly. If Spider-Gwen is doing the same, then that’s two books out of the entire line.

Depending on who you talk to, digital is still 10%-15% of total sales and since there’s no more newsstand for Marvel, that leaves 85%-90% of the sales to Diamond. It reflects the reality of the Direct Market, where many retailers rely on Marvel to get them into the profit column each month.

But really, accusing somebody who wrote a book on how the digital market works of ignoring digital to push a print agenda? Grow up. There’s better trolling to be done than that.

To be fair on Dr Strange, Marvel tied the incentive for variants on Dr Strange to Thor, so Marvel expected some sort of comparison. Sadly it was exceed 175% of Thor to get the variants, so they expected it to far outsell Thor

From an artist perspective that Iron Man Cover looks okay, but the computer lettering with all those style filters (embossing) added looks hideous. I don’t collect super hero books these days, but I would think all the movies and cartoons out there are creating a somewhat over saturation of the market. Perhaps people are looking elsewhere for something new. Rebranding of things don’t make for new.

Marvel need to do something to create buzz beyond the first issue. How they do this I don’t have the answer, but I would say this would need to be a long term thing and not reliant of the variant covers. Possibly they could do a big push on the tpb collections with an attempt get people to jump onto the floppies after.

Great analyses Todd! Good to see you here.

Once the delays and extra issue were announced I dropped Secret Wars. It was the first Marvel event I’ve indulged in since 2010 and I don’t see any reason to do these anymore.

I’m trying all of the #1s but reboot fatigue, lack of star talent and cost are looking like ANAD is a jumping off point for me. It’s looking like I’ll settle around the 6-7 title mark where pre-Secret Wars I was at the 15-16 title level.

Same thing happened with DC’s reboot too though. These reboots tend to shake the tree enough that I guess I’m one of the old base that falls off and haven’t really come back in any substantive way. I guess it’s up to some new fan to take my place at the superhero shops at this point.

I suppose Marvel should just switch over to an “every issue is a #1” relaunch! Maybe an Amazing Spider-Man #1, Amazing Spider-Man #1 (and in tiny print 1.1) and A,mazing Spider-Man #1 (1.2), and so on. ;) I jest, I jest, but I swear, this is how it’s going. At some point the companies (not the fans) decided the only thing that sells are #1’s and variant covers. It’s the usual short-term money making thinking, unfortunately. And the fanboys blindly fall into the trap, and become addicted to the idea, as well.

But also, wow, the new creative teams on these relaunches are just a big no for me. Even my best friend, and we’ve both read comics since we were in grade school, told me every single Avengers relaunch is horrible. We both bought them all before the relaunch, after, every single one dropped. And The Vision, Starbrand and NightMask, Scarlet Witch, Dr. Strange, etc. – it’s just a personal preference, but the whole “indie” art thing at Marvel has killed my desire to buy these books, books that, if they had a more “traditional Marvel art style” I’d probably snatch up! I think overall the relaunch is just a mess in terms of characters and creative teams.

I personally like more “realistic” artwork, which is why most of my money goes to Independents now. Butch Guice, Alex Maleev (one hold=over at Marvel), Mike Perkins (the other), Michael Lark, Bill Sienkiewicz, Steve Epting, Gabriel Hardman, etc. All, at one point, Marvel artists…

Okay… those digital comics… not my cuppa, what with the dialogue at the bottom. It’s an interesting solution for PDF comics (where each panel takes up a screen), but it gets tedious.

Also, “Honor” has some adult situations, definitely PG-13.

What’s the cover price?
—
Meanwhile, what’s up with Red Giant?

Hopefully The Beat will follow up on the returns by Barnes and Noble. Given the lack of quality in Double Take, I’m guessing 76,000.

Based on what I’ve seen of these comics so far, that’s a lotta crud they just wasted capital and cash flow on.

Man, I’m not sure who is in charge of marketing Double Take, but they’re doing an amazing job with some very bad ideas. The formatting, style of launch (cancelling the first batch of solicitations for a Kickstarter funded blast of TEN TITLES ALL AT ONCE), the ludicrous price point ($2.50? Oh honey who taught you how to business) and the chances of sustainability are all very precarious, carried on the shoulders of talent they surely haven’t paid well and are, despite their best efforts, not familiar with the intricacies of the printed or digital comic book format.

That said, this isn’t a slouch. I just worry about the folks who pick these up and think these are representative of the medium.

It’s not that hard to write a press release on their bad ideas. It’s just a matter of someone dumb enough to publish a story that compliments it.

Wizard World Chicago has also had the Bruce Campbell Horror Film Festival the last two years and it is great! The last one had an anniversary showing of the original “Fright Night” and a q+a with the director.

The comic programming at many of these shows seems pretty poor but the celebrity/pop culture stuff is fairly varied and interesting.

Trying to hold a major convention essentially every other weekend was probably too much and I can’t imagine doing Minneapolis and Des Moines back to back will work out.

The cost has gotten crazy but, on the other hand, since the VIP package thing has taken off, I’ve noticed the crowds in Chicago are a lot more manageable.

Mike

Wizard World currently lists Columbus July 29-31 on its official website.

Wizard World has turned into utter garbage unless your life revolves around spending well earned cash to spend three seconds with a celebrity and being treated like cattle. It’s highly overpriced just in admission alone and once you are inside, realize nothing there warrants the high price of admission. Here’s hoping more reasonably priced conventions that cater more towards fans and not to the people who collect creepy glamour shots of themselves with d-list celebrities for their living room pop up like the Atlantic city con put on right after wizard’s philly show.

Don’t be surprised if ReedPOP gets into the gaming market as well.
They already run the myriad PAX shows.
Twitch, the Amazon subsidiary which streams people playing videogames, sponsored the livestream at New York Comic Con this year.
Video game companies already exhibit at ReedPOP shows.

Given those two sponsorships, Reed could easily create a franchise of gaming events around the country, possibly culminating in a championship event. They could rotate the championships… Chicago hosts Fallout, Orlando hosts Star Wars Battlefront… and they could even add cosplay tournaments as well to bolster that championship.

They could even add a developer workshop during each show, for people who want to learn how-to.

As for niche shows…
You mean like a comics-only convention? }]

I’m already seeing this in smaller markets like Omaha, which is once again hosting Britishfest, for those who enjoy British pop culture. But that sort of thing has been going on ever since Star Trek went off the air…

Over in New Jersey, there’s Jeff Mach Events, hosting steampunk and renfaire shows.
And, of course, the granddaddy of niche shows: Creation Entertainment.

Of course, many smaller shows can grow bigger, if run well.

There are also thousands of shows which take place in hotels and fellowship halls. Usually, they are “big tent” shows like science fiction conventions, which invite in a multitude of fandoms and tribes to achieve profitability.

I attended the Atlantic City Boardwalk Con, an event which was swinging for the fences, and which might have beaned itself with the ball. And then there are shows like the New Jersey Comic Expo.

What wouldn’t surprise me? If county and state fairs start adding geeky events to their schedules.
Think about it… you’ve already got the big music headliners scheduled to get people to buy tickets.
You’ve got people competing in various skill events, like quilting, baking, hog calling, beard growing, cornholing…
http://www.iowastatefair.org/fair-attractions/contests/
…so why not cosplay, or crafting, or art?
Especially to draw in the urban population to what many consider a rural experience!
Add a few celebrity appearances sponsored by the local TV stations…
After that, the fairgrounds could even run a comic con in the off season, like I suggested here with Big Fun in Sacramento:
http://www.comicsbeat.com/wondering-about-wandering-wondercon/

I hope those slimy bastards at Wizard World and their conventions crash and burn. They still owe me $700 from their last Wizard Big Apple show six/seven years ago. Only because Mike Carbonaro is a man of honor did I get anything when he paid me out of his own pocket which was not his responsibility.

I wonder how many hundreds of hard working convention folks have been screwed over by them? How many at the magazine? How many customers of their website?

But tell us Allan “how do you really feel?’

At what point do people stop hating on Wizard. Being one of the people that lost their 20 bucks on the subscription it’s not worth it, and if you would stop being negative you might enjoy yourself at one of their events.

Sure there ticket price may be higher then some shows but ive been to a wide range of events and I still feel that I get my money’s worth. At least with them you get a decent guest list, lacking a little on comic guest side but has a good artist alley. Decent exhibit floor, sure they don’t have big publishers or companies but very few shows do. And you’re guaranteed a good programming schedule with variety unlike the a lot of shows.

Regarding d list guests, those days are gone. When you have Chris Evans and the majority of the cast of Civil War attending their New Orleans show its hard to use that argument. Sure they may be expensive but if your complaining about it you’re not the person they are targeting. Who are we to say that one fans dream of meeting their favorite person for even threes seconds is somehow a negative. Besides, EVERY convention does this including NYCC., and even SDCC to a degree. Why does Wizard get all the hostility about this?

On a personal note, It’s easy to trash a company like Wizard when you don’t know the people behind it. All the staff I’ve had the chance to get to know over the last couple of years has been friendly, hard working and love the industry they are in, and like anyone else would, they take the negative articles and comments very personal. I just wish more people that had positive things to say would post.

Not a shill for Wizard like most will think, just a fan that loves Comic Cons.

curious about the layoffs. They just dumped most of their ConTV stake so it would be expected there, but if it’s in another department that’s interesting.

Brian J: Sorry I didn’t make myself clearer. I was running Artist Allay for both Big Apple Wizard shows and after the second show (which was very well run by everyone involved) Wizard turned around and didn’t pay many of us. They ignored our invoices, emails and phone calls. The have a long history of unprofessionally conduct to their full and part time employees.

Please don’t apologize for an organization you clear know very little of it’s backroom goings on.

Allan, thanks for the clarification and it sounds like you have a legitimate complaint,. Since your time and dealings with them they had a whole new regime change. Honest question, do you hold the new people accountable for the companies past mistakes? And what would they need to do to fix things if you do?

Allan, thanks for the clarification and it sounds like you have a legitimate complaint. Not pretending to know about the back room dealing. Honest question, since your experience they have had a whole regime change due to the past mistakes. At what point will you stop holding the new accountable for the old?

Sorry for the double up, had an error.

[…] X-Men? Alpha and Omega Men: A Look at Trade Release Strategies in Today’s Comic Industry Cosplay Fabrics Announces New Line at Jo-Ann’s Alison Bechdel Profiled Gabriel Hardman convention sketches Roger Bollen, RIP Graphic novels […]

I hope they can fix many of Awesome Con’s growing pains. This year had significantly more vendors, but the same/less attendees than the year before. The setup was awkward and led to entire sections of the exhibitors floor with no foot traffic at all.

What?!? Someone is hosting a fan event in conjunction with ToyFair?!?! SQUEE

Yeah, you can’t only look at DM periodical sales charts — here is last year’s BookScan: http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/bookscan-numbers-show-big-book-market-growth-for-comics-in-2014 — that shows them up almost 19% in the book market in 2014 — they’re the #1 comics publisher in the book market.

Here’s what might be your nut graf from that to your specific point: “It might be worth noting that sixty-two of DC’s 131 placing books are “New 52” branded titles, and while one can certainly give a lot of weight to the success of the Snyder / Capullo “Batman” within that, it does appear to me that this branding and ease-of-entry that it implies from lower volume numbers, has had a certain level of success as a result — only forty-nine “New 52” books were in last year’s chart. We’ll see, in a decade or so, what goes on to be a true perennial title, but at year five of the branding, it’s very hard to argue that it doesn’t appear to be working in the bookstore environment. (I’m talking to you, Torsten!) — 8.3% of the Top 750 are “New 52″!”

-B

“She [Nelson] credited DC publishers Jim Lee and Dan Didio with reinventing the publishing business starting in 2011”

Authors words, not a direct quote from Nelson but still….

It might be de rigueur at things like these to be self-congratulatory and hyperbolic and I’m kind of just missing the point but this is the part where reality begins to melt for me. Did Lee and Didio really reinvent the publishing business in 2011?

The Vertigo: Feed the Beast Mode description seems like it’s a good spot for creators who are not interested in owning some of their work and want to focus on stand-alone fantasy stories that fuel an engine “for getting original IP into the company and feeding other businesses as well as our publishing business.”

““We’re so talent driven,” Nelson said during the Q&A with Variety co-editor-in-chief Andrew Wallenstein. The focus on a single universe of characters with connected storylines “could end up handcuffing our creators into trying to work with the same storyline or force them to hold back characters or introduce certain characters. Ultimately it hinders the ability for someone like (showrunner) Bruno Heller to come in and create ‘Gotham.’ “”

That’s the DNA of DC Comics: imaginary stories, Earth-Twos, Elseworlds…
While some fans do enjoy the shared universe, some do despise crossovers.
I would not be surprised to see self-contained character titles… Superman has his universe, Batman has his, and while versions may appear in each other’s titles, the headliners won’t meet. That way, you can just read the Superman titles, and not miss anything.
—
Mr. Hibbs does raise an interesting point.
I wonder if the trades follow the same model as the periodicals… Does v.2 sell fewer copies than v.1?
Does a series cancellation hurt the reprint volume which collects the last issues?
I’d only have the ICv2 numbers to look at, but ICv2 did notice that Walking Dead’s first-month dominance is shrinking.
Brian, when do you stop reordering the older volumes? For backlist of lengthy runs, do you just shelve the first volume?

Even if a volume does go out of print, does the ebook?
Does ebook availability help spur the continual sales of trades?

I do hope that the volumes remain in print, no matter what the title.

“I wonder if the trades follow the same model as the periodicals… Does v.2 sell fewer copies than v.1?”

Yes…. with an asterisk! Ongoing trade series *tend* to sell “in the hammock” — that is to say that sales on the first and latest volumes tend to sell the best, decreasing from both ends until they meet somewhere in the middle. Here’s THE WALKING DEAD pulled from the 2014 BookScan (Hopefully this will not post all jumbled):

31,525 WALKING DEAD V 01 DAYS GONE BYE
18,938 WALKING DEAD V 02 MILES BEHIND
14,174 WALKING DEAD V 03 SAFETY BEHIND
10,652 WALKING DEAD V 04 HEARTS DESIRE
8,880 WALKING DEAD V 05 BEST DEFENSE
7,549 WALKING DEAD V 06 THIS SORROWFUL
6,408 WALKING DEAD V 07 CALM BEFORE
6,155 WALKING DEAD V 08 MADE TO SUFFER
5,586 WALKING DEAD V 09 HERE WE REMAIN
5,607 WALKING DEAD V 10 WHAT WE BECOM
5,446 WALKING DEAD V 11 FEAR THE HUNT
5,123 WALKING DEAD V 12 LIFE AMONG TH
4,751 WALKING DEAD V 13 TOO FAR GONE
4,789 WALKING DEAD V 14 NO WAY OUT
4,709 WALKING DEAD V 15
4,996 WALKING DEAD V 16
13,464 WALKING DEAD V 17 TP
16,264 WALKING DEAD V 18
25,878 WALKING DEAD V 19
45,316 WALKING DEAD V 20 ALL OUT WAR
36,303 WALKING DEAD V 21 ALL OUT WAR
24,459 WALKING DEAD V 22 A NEW BEGINN

(For v 20, that represents nine months of sales, for v 21 it is five months of sales, and for v 22 it is a mere month; You can see that v15 is the low point of the hammock)

Once a book ENDS, however, it goes straight downwards from v1, here’s SANDMAN

16,435 SANDMAN VOL 01 PRELUDES & NOCTU
8,302 SANDMAN VOL 02 THE DOLLS HOUSE
6,077 SANDMAN VOL 03 DREAM COUNTRY NE
4,777 SANDMAN VOL 04 SEASON OF MISTS
3,788 SANDMAN VOL 05 A GAME OF YOU
3,568 SANDMAN VOL 06 FABLES & REFLECT
2,954 SANDMAN VOL 07 NEW E
2,865 SANDMAN VOL 08 WORLDS END
2,702 SANDMAN VOL 09 THE KINDLY ONES
2,599 SANDMAN VOL 10 THE WAKE NEW E
479 SANDMAN THE DREAM HUNTERS

(I threw that last one in there to show that OGNs are actually less viable long-term then numbered series — I could provide an identical example with FABLES two OGNs….)

But, yes, there’s pretty much always an “issue to issue” decline, regardless of staples or spines.

-B

>>>Brian, when do you stop reordering the older volumes? For backlist of lengthy runs, do you just shelve the first volume?<<>>Even if a volume does go out of print, does the ebook? Does ebook availability help spur the continual sales of trades?<<<

The only reason a book ever goes out of print is because the publisher doesn't project enough return-on-investment to make it worth. THAT usually (though…. probably not ALWAYS) indicates that there's not any real demand for a work. Most likely the "ebook" sales for *unpopular* (which is WHY they went out of print) comics will be truly trivial numbers of copies in a year (single or double digits) — so I would believe the answer to your second question is "No"

-B

Gr, and first question in that last one was supposed to say something like “we stock books as long as they turn, we allow for a once-every-18-months turn on some stock, and some series we’ll only stock v1 & v2.

-B

We’ve got two comics store here.

One, the much older one, was steadily decreased its trade ’til they’re down to roughly twenty percent of what they carried a decade ago. The newer one carries every in print trade paper (I asked), all of the hardcovers of a reasonable price (roughly up to fifty dollars and will special order anything else no money down). The second shop also orders heavily for the major publishers as well as an impressive number of the small publishers.

Guess which I do business with when I buy trades? Or upgrade to hardcover editions when they become available?

I know it’s not going to happen anytime soon, but… wouldn’t it be great if WB and Marvel would offset the costs of comics with the profits from using the characters in other forms? Instead of $4 and $5 comics, how about $3 or even $2 a pop. This is how you get new readers to go with the new fans of the movies. If I’m a parent who sees an Avengers movie with their kids and then the kids desperately want an Avenger comic but it takes X amount of time to find a shop/store with comics and then the comic is $4 or even $5, forget about it. Maybe one comic to shut the kids up but that’s it. No monthlies for me. Stop with the greed. You say you want new readers. So lower the ridiculous prices. There is enough money in Hollywood now for comic book characters in so many mediums. Make a kids possible lifelong obsessions start with a fair price.

I’m sorry, but I can’t take anyone seriously when they say that DC Comics has been “hugely successful” for the past four years–or that Didio & Lee reinvented the publishing business.

I’ll trust the person that actually sees the sales numbers and presides over a multi-billion dollar company instead of “TonyLA” who can’t see his dick under his enormous gut and resides in his parents’ basement.

I’m really curious as to why that is. What’s changed in the industry?

Wringing out the sponge that gets drier and drier every week. The $3.99 price point has put me off of almost every Marvel and DC book. Just this week’s release! Batman #44 is $4.99 for no reason presented in the solicit. I’m still a sucker for Star Wars but other than that, I skip the Marvel & DC solicits and head straight for Image. This is not going to last very long.

In 1968, I was a 14-year-old paperboy, and made about $7-$8 a week, depending on tips. Comics were 12 cents each, so I could (and often did) easily buy 50 comics a week, and still had money left over for candy and other stuff. In fact, when new titles popped up, I frequently bought multiple copies of the first and other early issues to trade or sell to fellow collectors later.

How much would it cost to buy 50 comics a week today? About $200 — or about $800 a month.

Inflation, one might argue? To some degree, yes. But if you pop that 12 cents from 1968 into the Department of Labor’s inflation calculator, it equates to about 82 cents in 2015 dollars.

Frankly, the switch to “better paper” and “better printing” was an excuse to jack up prices and eliminate the younger reader price points.

The way I see it, since many floppies are eventually converted to graphic novels with high-end printing and paper, there is no reason to print them on high-end paper with high-end printing for floppies. Bring back cheap comics, and maybe circulations will start to grow again.

And for those who may argue that increases in paper costs and other publishing realities forced comics to increase cover prices at a rate that is almost five times the rate of inflation, here’s a random sampling of slick magazines that were around in 1968 and are still being published today. Note that none of the cover prices are even double the inflation rate.

Time —
1968 cover price: 50 cents
1968 cover price in 2015, adjusted for inflation: $3.43
Actual 2015 cover price: $5.99

Playboy —
1968 cover price: 75 cents
1968 cover price in 2015, adjusted for inflation: $ 5.14
Actual 2015 cover price: $8.99

Popular Science —
1968 cover price: 50 cents
1968 cover price in 2015, adjusted for inflation: $3.43
Actual 2015 cover price: $4.99

Why are comic prices so high, simple. Because we suckers who will pay those prices.

It should be noted that comics went away from subscriptions and ad sales, the bread and butter of traditional magazines, and doubled down on single copy sales. That’s part of the pricing difference when you compare them.

Micah, they upped the page count for Batman this week to 40 pages, hence the price increase.

What @R.Maheras said.

Comics prices didn’t go up to make more money it was because sales went down so the increase was to keep the revenues the same. Look at $ size of the market then and now. Revenue is up but when you factor in how many titles from so many companies that are being published now you’re left wondering how any survives… Oh yeah, no one pays the artists anything or a full rate any more…

As the market shrank the editorial focus went to convoluted, multi-part/cross-overs to keep the readers hooked.

In 1984, Secret Wars was an oddity. Today every title is a ‘Secret Wars.’

I once suggested that DC follow the Shonen Jump model:
Each week, publish a big thick magazine, containing all of that week’s DC comicbooks, in black and white on pulpy newsprint, for, oh… $6 (Shonen Jump U.S.: 280 pages for $4.99 in 2011.)
Each week, a different run of stories. Big name talent and characters sell the magazine, and readers are exposed to lesser known titles.
13-15 comics, 330 pages, plus advertising and editorial. (Compare to the 500 pages of Shonen Jump Weekly in Japan.)
Print a monthly for kids, and a monthly or bi-weekly for Vertigo.
Fifth week gets a quarterly special issue, reprinting older stories.

Then, when the run is collected, it’s colored and printed on nice paper.

“Comics prices didn’t go up to make more money it was because sales went down so the increase was to keep the revenues the same. ”

But…
Have sales gone down?
http://www.comicsbeat.com/fools-gold-searching-for-longbox-treasure-sales-figures/
1973… Wonder Woman.
Printed: 319,000
Sold at newsstands, etc.: 121,585 (38%)
Subscriptions: 1,009
Free samples: 100
Newsstand, not sold: 195,255 (cover stripped off and returned for credit, rest of comic thrown away or sold under the table)

What was the break even point back then? Anyone got data on Ka-Zar, Micronauts, or Moon Knight before they went exclusive to the Direct Market?

Publishers had to account for the unsold copies. Sure, it’s a wholesale cost, and I think the rule was “print three, sell one”.

Also, what was the discount for newsstands?
For the Direct Market, the discount can range from 50-60%, since the product is non-returnable.
For newsstands, the discount would be smaller, since the product is returnable.

Of course, advertising revenues are much lower. DC and Marvel bundle ALL of the monthly comics together into one big circulation figure, so that for each month, all titles would sport the same ad on the back cover, for example. (More money earned, editorial production is simplified.) Generally, the ads are either house ads, or those of licensees, with maybe the three cover ad spots being actual sales.

HUH. If Marvel is only sold to comics shops, why run ads…

Before the split, the stock was trading at about $300.
The initial price back in September 2009, when IDT spun off CTM/IDW? $0.30. (100,000% return)

Wow… The company is almost privately held!

Soooo, is this good for the artform or bad for the artform?

I’d say that if more publishers are doing okay financially then its a good thing.

Better to look at at page rates publishers pay artists — which seem to be down 40%-95% from standard 20 years ago.

Not to be Mr. Semantics or anything, but if I were B&N I might be a tad worried that my buyer says “Graphic Novels and Manga are two genres” instead of “the medium of comic books/sequential art.” The recent times I’ve been to a B&N the GN section has been mostly Marvel/DC plus popular manga and Walking Dead, but not much else from Image or other publishers. I think the best way to sell comics at B&N might be to rack them with the actual genres the books inhabit, but that’s just me.

I wouldn’t assume to second guess the folks making the decisions at what they stock but my guess would be that they find DC and Marvel (plus more than a smattering of Dark Horse at the BN stores I’ve visited) along with Walking Dead and quite a bit Manga to be what they sell best. You will find such indie pubs as Saga as it sells well too. Would stocking a wide spread of Image be worth them doing? Maybe, maybe not.

Finally… comics shops promoting book clubs/reading groups!

My suggestion… encourage casual readers to participate as well, specifically in the SF region. They may not wish to subscribe for a year, but might be willing to attend one VIP event. Charge a different fee… “newsstand” vs “subscription”.

Why not schedule monthly reading groups every week? Each has a different readership, it’s a way to get people into the store, and adds to the store’s reputation. (Kids, Marvel, DC, Image, Media, non-fiction, literary, biography/memoir…)

The big hurdle: stocking copies for sale to the reading groups. Does Diamond offer a returnable program for store signings or reading groups? (Yes, that’s another cost… return shipping.) Perhaps the group selects titles which turn frequently, so that the risk is mitigated.

Wow, really surprised to hear Hibbs was paying so low in the first place in one of the most expensive cities in the country to live in. Maybe the market isn’t there for his shop. Heck when I started at Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find in 1996 during the height of stores closing all over the US, as just a lowly clerk, it was at more than minimum wage, and that was in Charlotte. I wish his business and employees well but I’m not a fan of underpaying employees and then wondering why you’re not making more money.

What Dustin said. People need a living wage; if they’re not getting one that’s on the employer.

Clarification: The SF minimum wage is not going up to $15 this year. The increase is being phased in over the next three years, and next month it’s only increasing from $11.05/hour to $12.25/hour.

The intent of this is that higher wages will enable more people to spend more money on non-essential items, which should help comics shops … in the long run. Granted this is speculative economics (and no one knows the dangers of that better than comics collectors), and the intended effect definitely won’t be immediate, so it is going to result in some hardship, but not quite as great as “San Francisco has raised their minimum wage to $15 an hour” makes it sound.

Just for clarity’s sake (I don’t want to get into a lot of back-and-forth on this) we in fact pay all of our employees over current minimum wage, but if we don’t keep parity with the MW increase (ie: $3.95/hour in extra costs over the next 3 years, then CPI raises after that), then we’re effectively giving staff a wage cut which I find entirely unacceptable.

Also, Dustin, I really have to observe that MW in North Carolina today is only $7.25 (I don’t know what it was in ’96 — if it was the same as Federal, then it was only $4.25), which is very very very different than $15/per for what is my single biggest budget expense every week.

-B

Yeah, I think when I started in February 96 minimum wage was around $4.50-ish, and I started just under $7/hour maybe? But I think I was up around $10/hour within a couple of years, and by 2003 I was doing very well pay-wise for a comics retail manager and budding convention organizer.

But also, even today when it’s a big banking hub, Charlotte is a pretty inexpensive place to live. I can’t imagine making $10 or even $15 per hour in the Bay area without working multiple jobs and/or taking the very first better-paying gig that opened up. I’m curious as to what your employee turnover is like. In my experience, both as an employee and later a manager, paying employees well has nearly always yielded employees who took their jobs seriously and acted in the business’s best interests, both in terms of sales and otherwise, because they felt like the business was looking after their interests, if only financially. I can’t pretend to have your level of acumen when it comes to numbers and charts, but I do know people, and people do better work when they’re paid adequately for the market they live in.

It is my belief that my staff feels adequately compensated for their labor, but I’d invite you to ask them directly. They are all firmly onboard with this plan, however, and they have an enormous amount of agency in and pride for their work. My turnover is essentially nil, and when people do leave, it is almost always for “I’m moving out of town”

-B

Maybe they’re moving out of town because SF is too expensive to live in at near minimum-wage pay. OR you may just be an amazing boss who they’d work for at any price. OR you’re a hypnotist cult leader. Hard to say. OR San Francisco is just too expensive for an independent comics shop. It’s a changing world, they say! It’s hard to imagine a paid-subscription-book-club will save a brick and mortar business as small as yours in an era of free next-day shipping, but I wish you and your staff the best. I’m glad there are shops like yours out there.

I think this is a great, creative solution and hope Brian succeeds with it. My suggestion: contact the big tech companies (Google, Apple, Pixar, etc.) and get them to sign up for a few dozen (or hundred) subscriptions each. The comics are perfect for their corporate offices, which are full of various toys and stimulating knick-knacks. Why not GNs too?

“The store will need 334 yearly memberships to meet the added costs.”

Actually, they will need significantly more than that. The cost of the graphic novel they give members each month will come out of the $25 membership, as will payroll hours spent on holding the events and the social media component.

I’ll also defend a store having paid less than $15 dollars an hour prior to the minimum wage going up. Not every business is a WalMart that deliberately stiffs its workers while making billions in profit, some places operate on such low margins that they just can’t pay as much as they’d like to. I doubt Brian Hibbs was paying his workers as little as possible and then going home to a million dollar mansion, sinking into a marble hot tub, and lighting a cigar with a hundred dollar bill. Hibbs is probably barely making ends meet himself.

As a SF resident for the last 20 years , and a former customer of Comix Experience, I would like to say that this situation isn’t of Hibbs’ making.
I think Harbin’s scenario 3 (“San Francisco is just too expensive for an independent comics shop”) is the culprit. The employees at ComEx do love their jobs and their stores. The stores are, in many ways, the best in SF choices for comic readers who want more than the latest X-Men fodder. Hibbs started his store as a youth in SF, his native city at a time when the city was slack enough to allow young people to make a living by pursuing their esoteric passions. The stores are his passion and he’s not the type to put scroogery before respecting the people who he’s sharing that with.
SF and BigTech’s hot-n-heavy romance in the intervening years has “revitalized” the city. It’s now a lean money machine with an endless supply of immigrants. Back in the 90s, Hibbs’ employees could rent a 1BR apt for $700/month. Now a room in a multiBR apt runs more than that. The stepped raising of our MW to $15/hr is an attempt to help people like Hibbs’ employees.
Unfortunately, this plan is poison to low-overhead small businesses. NO comic shop makes big overhead. Meanwhile, other fees related to property ownership are always rising here (not just rent but ancillary costs like water, garbage, liscences, etc). Over the last 10 years, the number of comic shops in SF that have closed is greater than the number now open. Independent bookstores and CD/DVD stores are in the same situation.
Hibbs, and people like him, are being economically displaced from SF. Until recently, Hibbs could have relocated to Oakland for great savings, but Oakland is filling up now (Oakland is playing the Brooklyn to SF’s Manhatten). I think that ComEx will either close before 2025 or relocate to a suburban strip mall. ComEx should be an inviolate SF institution! I hope Hibbs beats the odds!
In some ways sadly, the MW increase will help the low-wage employees of the big corporations that are making SF the place it now is. What could ruin Hibbs can be absorbed in BigCorp situations. The low income employees minioning at BofA HQ or Levi’s HQ will be better off. (Hibbs’ employees will have to live with knowing they could be living at a higher income level or with knowing they dropped their love for mo’ money!). Really, people who want to make a living following their bliss are advised to not put residency in SF in their plans. It’s go Google or go home here now!
None of this is Hibbs’ fault. 80s/90s SF was a great place for people like him. Now that place is decidedly unfriendly and he has a hard road to walk.
My two cents (or, in SF talk, “my twenty dollars”).

I don’t think it’s really fair to compare the wages of stores on two different coasts with drastically different costs of living when they are selling the same product at the same fixed price.

Oh no I think that’s pretty fair. Not because it points to some perfidy on Brian Hibbs’ part–and to be clear, I don’t for an instant think that he’s getting rich by underpaying his employees, or in any way acting in a dishonest or shady fashion–but because Brian’s shop is in direct competition with every other shop in the country, due to the increasingly easy access to cheaper markets, free shipping, etc. Not to mention juggernauts like Amazon, et al, who don’t give a whiff about the kind of attention and training and passion you’d need to run a shop like Brian’s.

The problem isn’t that Brian Hibbs is somehow being sneaky, it’s that San Francisco is too pricy a market for a shop that’s great at selling low-margin, often next to no-margin products. Not to mention two storefronts as opposed to one.

And all this is on top of the main question of employee pay. This subject really bothers me, not just in a retail setting, but across all of comics. Let’s face it: comics don’t pay shit. Companies pay next to nothing for all the little cogs that go into making one of these things, partly because the market groans dramatically whenever there’s a cover price increase, but also simply because they CAN. Boom pays peanuts for variant covers to titles like Adventure Time and Regular Show and My Little Pony that at their heights sold well above 90% of the superhero market. Why? It’s a variant, it’s a stunt, it’s designed to goose sales and drive interest. It’s a “premium” issue, so why not pay more? Because there’s no need to: there’s a whole generations of indie artists delighted to “break in” to comics by doing good work for a company that doesn’t feel it’s necessary to pay them adequately. When I first started lettering on Casanova, Matt Fraction asked me how much I wanted per page, and I had to ask around to find out what the going rate for lettering was. It was shockingly, shockingly low, especially for hand-lettering, something that’s incredibly time-consuming. Fortunately Matt is the kind of guy who asks what you want to make because he wants to pay you what you’re worth, so I ended up making nearly double the normal rate as a never-published letterer on a buddy’s book. Most people don’t have the luxury of having a friend who’s blowing up and can afford to pay you better than the going rate.

I’m rambling. But comics is a real widowmaker because work and value simply aren’t prioritized. If Marvel has a hit on their hands, they don’t double down on what they’re doing or even improve it: they figure out a way to throw more and more labor at it so they can sell more books. It’s a Walmart philosophy: get the cheapest thing into as many hands as possible while keeping costs as low as possible. Brian Hibbs store is just the unlucky last link in that chain: by the time Hibbs is receiving his weekly shipment, he’s making a few dimes actual net profit on most books. If you buy $20 worth of Marvel books in Comix Experience, I bet Brian is only getting about $6-7 actual dollars out of that after paying his costs, probably less in San Francisco. I definitely think paying near minimum wage is a bad business move, full stop. Hibbs is a famously smart retailer, and he should be able to figure out a business model that lets him operate in one of the most expensive cities in the world, or maybe move his shop. But it’s not all his fault: we take part in an industry that devalues and commodifies everything in order to simply exist, and then hope that some Image book is accidentally a hit and gets you through some lean months so you can afford to pay your employees next to nothing to sell it for you.

It makes me crazy. And, obviously, inarticulate.

Crunching the numbers in the PR might provoke some questions from the curious–but at the end of the day none of it really matters. All revenue is fungible. This is a creative way to increase sales that connected itself to a controversial topic. Nothing wrong with that; and it doesn’t make the benefit for Comix Experience employees any less genuine. Plus, it helps publishers and creators too–since in simple terms half of the money raised from those (hopefully) 334+ subscribers goes directly back into the industry. All good, I think.

If all else fails, It might be necessary to go back to just 1 store, and for Brian to to the bulk of the work. That’s the only sure path to survival that I can see.

You have brought up a really fantastic point, thank you for sharing your post.

Todd, once again you’re spot on with your investigative journalism.

It makes me wonder because comic retail stores order titles in a different time frame than book chain stores. In short… who is making the call on the press run for some of these so-called rare variant covers? I don’t think there would be a huge difference in the press run and publishers are known for printing a few extras for promotional comps, etc. However, the percentage of variants is rather small… thus, even printing a few hundred more might affect the value (for those who really care about this).

There are the two types of comic purchasers: those who purchase to read, and those who purchase NOT to read their comic; rather to collect or resell the book. I think that not reading the content is a disservice to the creators, but I get the economic strategy behind the ‘engineered rarity’ of variants.