DC’s dominance of sales in comic stores melted a bit in October as Marvel retook the top sales spots, plus a certain pesky Image comic had another good mo0nth as well. We analyze the numbers including revealing the WORST selling comic of the month. Plus we continue our look at BATTLESTAR:GALACTICA – BLOOD & CHROME including a visit with the new William Adama.
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: BLOOD & CHROME is finally here, but you don’t know the whole story on how this all came to be. Executive Producer David Eick shares some surprising facts (and a few sneaky spoilers) with us, plus October was another good month in the comic stores, but for which company and THE KILLING rises from the dead.
Y’know what goes great with easy fundraising? Pie!
On September 1, Ralphs grocery stores wipes the slate clean on their “Community Contribution” program, and we need to build back from Square One!
The Ralphs Rewards card is your standard grocery store “club card” that gets you discounts and whatnot. But you can ALSO register it with a Ralphs-approved charity, and EVERY time you shop and use the card, Ralphs will kick in a small percentage to the charity of your choice. It costs you, the consumer, NOTHING. It’s just Ralphs kicking in a couple bucks to good causes.
And yes, The Hero Initiative is one of those Ralphs-approved charities, and yes, we need YOU to re-register your card for Hero, which is easy as pie (tho’ not quite as tasty):
1) Sign in to Ralphs.com with your email and password
1a) If you have not created an account, create one now! Takes about 60 seconds!
2) Click on “Ralphs Rewards” in the upper right corner
3) Click on “Community Contribution.” It’s in the left-side menu under “My Ralphs”
3a) Hit “enroll” at the bottom.
4) Now enroll! When signing up, our NPO # (non-profit organization #) is: 80680, and we’re under our corporate name, “A Commitment To Our Roots.” Don’t let it throw ya!
4a) Click “Save Changes” at bottom
5) Now go get a pie.
Seriously, folks, if you do this once, we get a few nickels every time you shop, and multiplied by a San Diego Comic-Con full of people, it’s the best, easiest way we’ve found to raise funds. Totally painless. And hot dammit, you need bologna and Q-Tips anyway!
This applies to Ralphs, Foods Co. and Food 4 Less stores in Southern California, Nevada, Illinois, and Indiana. So if you’re in those necks of those woods, hop to it. I thank you kindly.
AND if you’re in Los Angeles, check out Golden Apple Comics on Wednesday, Sep. 26 from 6-9 PM! We’ll be signing people up for Ralphs on the spot, and if you sign up your card, you’ll get a FREE limited edition Happy! print autographed by BOTH Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson as Darick is in attendance for the release of Image Comics’ Happy #1!
In the spirit of giving back to the comics community and helping retailers, ComicMix now has a Comic Store Locator!
We’ll be displaying store descriptions, hours, a website address, an email address, and tags for each store in our database, with easy searching so that you can find stores near you, wherever in the world you might be, and then provide you with easy directions via Google Maps. We’re even building in hooks so that people can find your store if you stock hard to find items like mini-comics.
Of course, for this to work well, we’ll need retailers to include stores in our database, and we invite them to so do. And if you’re a fan of your local store, please tell them to put their store info in, so we can send them even more customers. And if you’re a publisher, tell your retailers too, and make sure they include your company as a tag to make it easier for them to find your books!
This weekend, Will Farrell and Zach Galifianakis bring the funny to the movies with THE CAMPAIGN – a political sature that also has a message. Will and Zach talk about that message, who will “get it” and how they created these characters. Plus a BIG July in the comic stores and look who MIGHT be coming to THE ARROW TV series!
From Marvel’sUltimate Universe to LOST and now to the farthest corner of space, Damon Lindelof never turns away from a writing challenge. He shares what it’s like to help construct Ridley Scott‘s much anticipated PROMETHEUS and brings along Charlize Theron to preview her role that was literally created for her. Of course, there’s plenty of AVENGERS news and even more joy in the comic stores when it comes to April sales.
I really think day and date release is a disastrous idea and makes no economic sense at all to comics as a business. It’s potentially ruinous for comic stores, and in the long term it’s not going to do publishers any favors either.
No sane creator, or publisher, wants to see comic shops hurt. We all have emotional connections to them, to the idea of them, and we count owners and employees as personal friends. We aren’t looking for digital to steal customers away from shops, but rather to be an additive thing, to be an additional source of income. To simply switch a current print consumer to a digital consumer does not solve any problems! It benefits no one at all. It will not save us.
So what will save us? In the words of Bluto Blutarsky: “My advice to you is to start drinking heavily.”
If you’re in comics, you’ve spent time in bars. (Oh, don’t deny it, the photos are all up on Facebook.) But the question is: what kind of bars? Do you spend it in old man bars where the average age of the customers goes up by one each year? Are the places dimly lit and crowded, but it’s still happening– or have you not been in that dive since you graduated? Is it a friendly place where you and your friends can hang out? Is there a decent beer list, or do they only sell stuff from the big players, without a hint of imported beer or microbrews? Does the person behind the bar know how to make a decent Harbor Light?
And really, why are you spending time in bars anyway? You can get booze cheaper if you buy it and drink it at home. Much cheaper.
This is where we are now with comic book stores– compare them to your bar on the corner. Maybe it’s a place you’d rather not be at all. Maybe it’s okay for some people, but it’s not the kind of place you’d take your mom on her birthday. Maybe it’s a family place, maybe it’s sports only. And just as some bars die out for a variety of reasons, so too do comic stores.
There are great comic stores out there– Challengers in Chicago, The Secret Headquarters and Meltdown in LA, and New York City has a bunch like Midtown and Manhattan and St. Mark’s and Jim Hanley’s Universe. Each one has a different vibe and feel, but they all know how to reach their customers and they’re all places you want to spend some time in.
Is your store a place you really enjoy spending time in? Or is it a place that’s survived because it’s the only way to get your weekly fix?
There are comic stores that have taken these lessons to heart and made them places you want to go to and spend money, even though you can get stuff cheaper elesewhere.
Barbara George was regarded as a devoted wife with no known enemies. But in 1990, the 32-year-old mother of two met a grisly fate when she was fatally shot in the back room of the Clinton Township comic book shop she co-owned with her husband.
Macomb County prosecutors say Michael George dreamed of a “McDonald’s-like” comic store empire while he kept a secret apartment and engaged in affairs behind his wife’s back. They say he wanted to be rid of his “overweight” wife and ultimately killed her to do it. […] George, now 51, is charged with first- and second-degree murder, insurance fraud, false pretenses and firearm offenses.
This is the saddest line in the story:
Prosecutors allege the then-30-year-old George dropped his children off at his mother’s home on the night of July 13, 1990, returned to the store, and slipped through the back entrance to ambush his wife. Barbara George had been at the store alone planning a surprise 30th birthday party she was hosting for her husband that night.
After sixteen years, The Shadow will once again be haunting the comic book shops. The classic character who starred in both pulp magazines and his popular radio show will be returning in the hands of Dynamite Entertainment. Dynamite currently publishes pulp-related properties The Green Hornet, The Phantom and John Carter of Mars. Dynamite’s President and Publisher were quoted in a press release, saying “pursuing The Shadow has been a lifetime quest.”
Ovie Mughelli knows how to keep busy during the NFL Players Strike.
The Pro Bowl fullback for the Atlanta Falcons, will be announcing his own comics property in the coming weeks. The project is being developed in conjunction with writer Clifford Meth (Snaked from IDW) and artist Michael Netzer (Batman, Superboy, Web of Spider-Man). Mughelli, who had a breakout 2010 Pro Bowl season, signed a six-year, $18 million contract with a $5 million signing bonus in 2007 with the Falcons, the largest contract given to a fullback in NFL history at the time.
I suspect a lot of comics stores will be carrying his book– after all, do you want to tell this guy no?
