Retailer Q | #2: Free Comic Book Day

TagsFCBDFree Comic Book DayRetailer QTCAFRelated PostsBrightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing #1 (of 3)Retailer Q | #1: DC RebootCBD’s 52Q | #39: Beach ReadingKnowing Is Half The Battle | Thor and Free Comic Book DayShare This Posted by Scott VanderPloeg on Jun 28, 2011 in Retailer Q | 0 comments

Welcome to Retailer Q, spinning 52Q’s format at top Canadian comic retailers.  Comic Book Daily asks the question and our retail friends give their perspective.

Free Comic Book Day is now a huge event and one no retailer can afford to skip, but how well does it work for you?  Does its benefits outweigh the costs, since the event is in no way free for you?

Christopher Butcher is the manager of The Beguiling Books & Art in Toronto, Canada. In addition, is the Co-Founder of The Toronto Comic Arts Festival, and blogs about the comics industry.

It’s funny that you mention that no retailer can afford to skip it, because this was the first time since the first one that we actually did skip Free Comic Book Day. The long and the short of it is, The Toronto Comic Arts Festival, a great big comics show that The Beguiling sponsors and that I run, ended up being the same day as Free Comic Book Day and we just didn’t have the staff to run the event. We usually go all out on FCBD with creator signings, press, etc., and with TCAF soaking up all of our staff and time we had to give it a miss–I’ve got a few thousand FCBD comics in storage right now.

All in all, I like FCBD but we haven’t noticed any slow-down for not participating. Hell, we didn’t even really hear much from our regulars about not holding it. I think it’s because we do so much outreach throughout the rest of the year–on average we’re doing 30 events for the public in a calendar year, and that’s not counting TCAF. We’re always trying to bring new folks through our doors, and while FCBD and legions of cheap giveaway comics are certainly helpful in that regard, I don’t really think they’re the only weapon in our arsenal, so to speak. It’s worth participating, like any well-thought-out promotion, but I think it’s a bit foolish if it’s the only thing you’re doing every year. I might actually go so far as to question the wisdom of a store making its primary promotional event/public relations event one that is, necessarily, tied to every other store (including competitors) and tied to one distributor.

Scott VanderPloeg: Slightly off topic Christopher: TCAF and FCBD were on the same weekend this year and they’re scheduled for the same weekend next year. Coincidence?

Christopher: Largely coincidental, yes. This year’s TCAF was on our preferred dates–Mother’s Day weekend, which is a day that generally isn’t counter-programmed by any other comics conventions or festivals, and it also happened to overlap with FCBD. It actually worked out well for us, and for several of the stores in town, though I did regret not getting two ‘kicks at the can’, so to speak, for promotional outreach in May. For 2012, we were informed that availability at our venue was limited to counter-programming Free Comic Book Day or counter-programming the Anime North convention that draws 18,000+ people to the suburbs of Toronto. As far as we’re concerned, it makes considerably more sense to throw a comics festival on a day dedicated to promoting comics internationally than to go up against another Toronto convention that we quite like.

Jay Bardyla had one clever thought in his life, to open Happy Harbor Comics, in Edmonton Alberta. The rest of his thoughts he hopes to get an official pardon for.

Free Comic Book Day is an invaluable tool for store like mine who lack the resources to promote themselves, and the industry, to the masses. After 10 years it has established a history and reputation that allows us to entice the media to take notice of what we do and for that we are very grateful. Each year, every local media outlet has provided us with coverage of our festivities before, during and after the event and the ultimate goal of enticing new readers and bringing back lapsed ones is a success.

Further, we’ve been able to use the event to create additional awareness of local comic creator scene as we utilize dozens of them to raise collections for the food bank during the day and to inspire the youngsters they create sketches for. We have also created a system where libraries, especially in remote communities, can host their own FCBD and inspire new fans and creators.

I can’t think it would even be remotely possible to do anything on our own that would allow us to generate the same kind awareness and outreach on and I’m sure there are hundreds of other shops as challenged as ours that see FCBD as a fantastic tool to help grow the industry.

One of the things we have learned to do without is conventions. We prefer to take part in school and library book festivals where we can focus on growing the fan base and we visit more than 50 schools a year (for free) teaching how comics are made and the job opportunities in the world for aspiring writers and artists.

Marc Sims, owner and general manager of Big B Comics in Hamilton Ontario. Our life is comics and life is good.

FCBD is always a big success for us and continues to grow each year, but it is far from the best bang for the buck that we get in terms of advertising dollars. The event is getting more expensive each year as the cost of the ‘free’ comics has gone up dramatically recently. I wish we could get the kind of media coverage that Jay gets, but aside from small local papers, the media here in Hamilton are not interested in covering the event anymore. Without an angle to cover it, they see it for what it is: me trying to get free marketing. They won’t run that and I don’t blame them. When we did massive donations to the Hamilton School Board and had the director of education in the store trumpeting his literacy programs, we had a full-page story. When we did massive donations to the school board the next year and the director of education had no interest in coming down, we didn’t get a peep.

So we have to hustle and hustle hard to get awareness out there. The local libraries and schools have been our strongest supporters the past few years, sending carloads of kids into the store. This year we offered $250 worth of graphic novels at no charge to the school that sent us the most kids. That worked well, but again, it adds to our costs.

All in all, I really do love FCBD and will always participate and work really hard at making it a good promotion. In that regard we approach it like every other promotion we do. The payoff will only be as good as the amount of time and effort you put into it. FCBD being an industry wide event only makes me step up my game even more, since I know other stores will be participating I need to impress the general public that much more.

As far as conventions go, we used to travel all up and down the eastern seaboard going to shows but with a really strong Canadian dollar those days are done. We exhibit at Fan Expo Toronto and other local shows but no others. Fan Expo for us is typically a month’s worth of sales in 3 days so that’s a no brainer. Lately I have been setting up at smaller local toy shows as well. But we are one of the now becoming rare breed of comic stores that deals extensively in vintage material. It’s all about diversity!

Jay: Interesting. Edmonton has a bigger population than Hamilton and we can get media but we can’t get the school board to recognize comics as something worthy to put in their schools. The majority of places we supply/support are remote communities and private schools.

Marc: Of the 5 stores in Hamilton, I’m fairly certain only 3 participate. It’s pretty sad really.

Jay: Depending on how you define “participate”, in Edmonton we have 11 comic stores of which we are the only ones who advertise/promote the event. 4 others have a couple of the titles out on a table but usually without signage, according the people who make the rounds on the day. One gaming store took part this year with events.

John Tinkess, manager of Another Dimension in Calgary.

We hold multiple events throughout the year but Free Comic Book Day is definitely the biggest. Like Marc, we’ve had little success getting the local media to pay attention so instead we have to rely more on guerilla tactics such as cross-promotions with other local businesses, prominent signage on a very busy downtown street and good, old-fashioned word of mouth. FCBD has grown for us each year and I think the consistent date and industry-wide marketing has helped to in grain it in more people’s minds. It is also typically our highest sales day of the year so, while our investment in the “free” books and extra staff is significant, those costs are more than made up for by the additional sales. We have also had decent success handing out bounce back coupons on FCBD, bringing some of those new faces back into the store at a later date and in turn having some of those turn into regular customers. It’s ironic that you refer to it as the event “no retailer can afford to skip” because there are at least a couple of stores here in town that stopped participating several years ago but I’m always happy to have them send customers my way. Anything that can help bring new or lapsed customers into the store and give us the chance to convert them into regular readers is a good thing and FCBD is absolutely worth the effort.

Christopher: I’m wondering why other shops don’t participate in Free Comic Book Day. Do you think it’s apathy about the possibility of reaching new audiences? Are some stores not well-capitalized enough to do a $250 marketing investment? We’ve come close to opting out in the past because none of the offered books were ones that we were interested in promoting, in either the short or long-term, but I can’t imagine that’s a problem for most shops. Why do you think they don’t bother?

John: “Too much hassle” is the response I’ve heard and I think if they’re not going to do any promotion outside of their existing customer base, then it probably is. Having a stack of books at the counter that you’re grudgingly giving out to regulars really misses the whole point of the day.

Bruno Andreacchi, B.A.’s Comics in London Ontario.  Slight spine damage otherwise I’m fine to very fine.

FCBD. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

We see a lot of new faces and more kids than we can count and we always have a fantastic sales day. The publishers give us a better selection every year. It’s an amazing exhilarating experience! But we’re sooooo glad when it’s over. We always say, “Never again! We’re too old for this. Time to stop!” Maybe next year…

The books cost more and more each year and some people are still shocked to learn that we pay for the “free” books that we hand out. Some items don’t arrive in time or ship so close to FCBD that it means a lot of overtime for stamping and reading (or attempting to) for any possible inappropriate content that may cause problems. And then there are “the vultures”. We see them every year, once a year, with FCBD bags already stuffed to overflowing as they’ve circled every shop in town. “How many can we get?” (That’s usually all they say.) I swear, sometimes I think I’m a mere micron away from throwing a razor-sharp pog at them, like Oddjob, or banning them from the store forever. Maybe next year…

Perfunctory mentions notwithstanding, the local media barely seems to notice anymore. Something extraordinary, like fisticuffs in line between Batman and Joker, would have to happen to garner some real press. Maybe next year…

And then I come to my senses. As you say, Scott, it’s an event “…no retailer can afford to skip” and I sure don’t want to be “the comic shop that didn’t” because, that, I can’t afford. But, despite the headaches and all the hard work, I’m already looking forward to next year. And the next. And the next…

Jay: That reminds me; stamping comics. We found two problems with stamping comics. The first was the publishers. You know, those inconsiderate enough to not leave a space for a store to stamp the books and share the credit or those thoughtless enough to use a high gloss cover so the books can’t be stamped. And the second was space, spreading the books out so you could stamp them and let them dry.

So we switched to labels. Less physical space (and time) required to brand the books and if the publisher was thoughtless enough (and some still are after 10 YEARS) to not leave room for a stamp/label, we can put our sticker right over top of their logo!

Jennifer Haines, The Dragon in Guelph Ontario.  MA, B.Ed. Full-time teacher and comic store owner? Some say crazy… I say just crazy enough to work!

I love FCBD in concept. It’s a fantastic event to reach out to people and bring them into your store. More importantly, it puts books in the hands of people who might not otherwise be able to afford them. And I love seeing the store full of people. We stamp our books and we give away unlimited titles to our patrons. And we always run out of books by the end of the day. This year we had a face-painter and she was a HUGE hit with the kids!

The downside of FCBD is the price and the fact that it’s hard for us to gauge how many books we are going to need. I’m the first to admit I don’t do a great job of tracking how many people come through the door that day. Next year, we plan to ask for a small donation from each person who comes, which we’ll split with Plan Canada. This will defray our costs a bit, let us feel like we’re doing something bigger picture with the event, and determine just how many people come by for the event.

I want to do more with FCBD; the face-painter this year was a great example! People just loved it. I had a stormtrooper last year, who unfortunately cancelled this year due to illness. I had guests last year and I also would have liked to have had guests this year, but TCAF really made that impossible, and that’ll be the reality of next year as well. I totally understand why the Beguiling wouldn’t want to give up the phenomenal commerce that is Anime North, but it really puts a mass number of comic stores at a disadvantage, being unable to book a pro to be at their store for FCBD. I get where you’re coming from, Chris, that TCAF is a festival celebrating comics on a day when the industry celebrates comics, but the timing makes it detrimental to comic retailers, especially us Southern Ontario ones.

As for media, Guelph simply does not care about FCBD, and that doesn’t bother me all that much. I look at it as a service for my customers. Anyone else I get through the doors that day is icing on the cake!

Overall, I will keep doing and improving FCBD each and every year!

Christopher: You might want to watch out for that {small donation}, as I think asking for money in return for comics in any way tends to get you kicked out of the Free Comic Book Day event. Retailer to retailer, that is something I would definitely clear with Diamond first, they’re very strict about that. Hell, I don’t think I’d even say that in public if that was my plan.

You know, that’s a fair point, it can be hard to book the creators you want for Free Comic Book Day every year–even more so when TCAF is going on. We’d gotten flak in the past on the years where’d we have 20+ creators signing at the store for Free Comic Book Day because that supposedly dried up the well for available creators too… It rings a little false to me. I mean, if I was doing FCBD this year on top of TCAF, I would have asked comics superstars not exhibiting at TCAF like Francis Manapul (Flashpoint), Marcus To (Red Robin), or Dave Ross (Daredevil), or great kid friendly creators like Sam Agro (Looney Tunes), Ty Templeton (Batman), or Patricia Storms (Owlkids) to my event… but I kind of had my hands full as it was

I think that a creative retailer can find ways around certain creators they want being ‘booked’–J. Torres managed to do a Free Comic Book Day signing in Whitby and then hightailed it down to TCAF this year in the afternoon, and the Kill Shakespeare guys did the same thing but at The Silver Snail. There’s also bringing creators in from out-of-town which a bunch of Toronto stores (us included) have done in the past to some really excellent results.

I do think it’s a bit of a moot point though–there are dozens of ways to make the event a success. We’ve participated in FCBD every year since the first (except for this year, sadly) and we’ve done years with 2 creators and years with 20 and years with none. When people come through the store (or usually the patio out front), they’re just happy to get a comic. If there are artists then the kids are happy to get sketches of Spider-Man or Batman or Wolverine or Darth Vader. And I wanna be clear, we rarely-to-never have artists that draw those characters ‘professionally’, but the kids don’t care at all! They get to see real comic artists doing real art, that’s cool. They want free comics, they want to hang out, and they do a hell of a lot of shopping that offsets any and all the costs that we put into the event (best sales day of the year for us, usually!). We get hundreds of folks who aren’t store regulars through the shop on FCBD, and that (and the other 30+ events we do each year) are the kind of thing that keeps our business growing: bringing new readers into the fold.

I think for any small town that doesn’t have a big-name local creator, or can’t afford to bring a big-name creator in, or just can’t get the creator they want, they should consider working with local aspiring creators, bringing in non-comics artists like caricaturists, kids book authors, etc. to draw and hang out with kids all day. The only ones who’ll even notice are the die-hard comics fans and regulars–and let’s face it, they’re gonna be at the other events you hold throughout the rest of the year anyway.

Free Comic Book Day really is what you make of it… the vast array of responses to how and why the retailers on this list participate in the event is a pretty clear testament to that…!

Jennifer: Thanks for the tip on asking for money for FCBD, Chris! I’ll have to look into that and possibly come up with something else which serves the same purpose.

John: Jennifer, I think something like “limit X number of free books, but a donation to our charity entitles you to additional freebies” would work within the FCBD rules.

Jay: We too thought it would be a problem to not have “special guests” for FCBD due to TCAF as nearly everyone we asked was going (then we had 1 no-show). So we loaded up on local talent and had the single best day we’ve ever had (just under 1000 visitors). However, we still really enjoy having guests so we put out invitations for 2012 already, noting the conflict, and have received some confirmations already so it still should work out well.

Christopher:  Awesome! A big part of why we announced early and mentioned FCBD in the announcement was to give folks a chance to make their plans with all available info. Glad to see things worked out for you, Jay.

Our image selection this Retailer Q comes from FCBD 2011 Silver Sponsor comic books.

Scott VanderPloeg works in I.T. but lives to eat and read. His ramblings can be found blogged at eBabble.Share this:ShareRedditEmail Leave a Comment Click here to cancel reply.

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Retailer Q | #1: DC Reboot

Retailer QJun13 TagsDCRetailer QRelated Posts#42 CBD DC DraftA (Half) Week of Thoughts#41: Targeting ReadersDC Cover LiesShare This Posted by Comic Book Daily Staff on Jun 13, 2011 in Retailer Q | 3 comments

Welcome to Retailer Q, spinning 52Q’s format at top Canadian comic retailers.  Comic Book Daily asks the question and our retail friends give their perspective.

DC’s announcement of rebooting their line with 52 series debuting in September, releasing in print and digital on the same day, has taken the comic world by storm.  As a comics retailer what impact do you foresee?  How will this change affect you?

Calum Johnston, Strange Adventures (Trying to make the world a safer place for comix)

There’s several things in this. First off, the 52 new titles being launched in September. It’s an audacious move.  It has certainly garnered a lot of attention in both the comic press and the mainstream world. I hope it’s a success.  It’s difficult to form an opinion without knowing more about the new series. Who are the creative teams? Will these be single issue stories with some plot-lines continuing on to encourage reading the next issue? Will they be aimed at all ages? What happens to the other DC titles such as Jonah Hex that don’t need a relaunch? Once the full line has been announced with creative teams and solicitation info; then I could venture a guess as to how many of each I am going to need to order.

As far as the digital release being simultaneous with print, I don’t see it as a change so much as an evolution. It was coming, now we know when. I think DC is smart enough to know that marketing their digital offerings to the present comic customer is kind of a waste of time. Not to say that current comic readers aren’t into reading comics digitally, just that they don’t need to be told about it. They are already reading comics, the check the DC website and other sites with comic news. They know that comics can be found on-line and some may choose to go that route as it may be more convenient for them. The vast majority of people out there who don’t currently read comics are the ones I hope they try to sell on digital. Millions of iPads have been sold. Hundreds of thousands of apps. Spend the marketing money doing outreach to them about the great stories and artwork that is in the world of comics. Encourage them to take a dip into the medium of the pictorial word. This would actually increase the comic market, creating new fans, new readers. The more people reading comics, in whatever form they prefer, is great news.

Jay Bardyla, Happy Harbor Comics (Wonders why he has such cool ideas but can’t draw worth a lick. Seems like punishment…)

I AM STOKED about 52 new #1’s! My own pull list is going to get much bigger with the announcement of all the new titles and creative teams. I’m personally excited about it and I think it’s a bold move that will drive up sales for DC product which are already dominate our shop. As for the digital, I think it will be a great benefit to the industry, if marketed properly, as it will be reaching people who are unaware of “comic books” and “trade paperbacks” and eventually, when they realize that some truly amazing books don’t translate well to digital, they will seek out the physical copy to get the full, proper experience.

At the moment I’ve gained more customers than I have lost due to digital.

Marc Sims, Big B Comics (Our life is comics and life is good)

At first I had to do a bit of damage control. The announcement came as a big surprise to everyone and a few long time DC readers talked about dropping everything. These are guys who have been buying DC’s off the racks since the 1960s. To them, the continuity and history of DC Comics are a big draw. When Action #900 came out a few weeks ago, people were actually counting down to Action #1000. Now that’s obviously not going to happen. Even if DC re-numbers at some point down the line (which I honestly don’t think they will do), it wouldn’t be the same.

As the days have gone on though, the initial shock has warn off. And as more details have been released about the upcoming books, a lot of people are getting pretty excited. As a retailer, I put faith in Geoff Johns and Jim Lee to use this opportunity to tell the best stories possible. At the end of the day that is going to be what it comes down to; If this reboot results in good stories that get people excited about reading DC’s comics, then all the nuts and bolts of how they got there won’t be as important.

As far as digital on the same day goes, I’m still not overly concerned. The reality is digital day and date has existed for 5+ years with pirated scans being posted on Tuesday nights for comics shipping to stores on Wednesdays. The large majority of young people I know scoff at the idea of paying for anything online, whether that be music, movies, or comics. I think we had a discussion here on CBD a few months back that linked to a Swedish study that showed something like 75% of respondents thought that downloading something illegally was not unethical. It’s pretty sad really but that’s a topic for another discussion.

So I am highly skeptical that DC offering their comics through a paid service will somehow entice bunches of 25 year olds to start buying what they can steal now with extreme ease, especially when they don’t even consider it to actually be theft. The question then becomes twofold. Will older comic readers, those who grew up buying cassettes or records, those who still buy paperback books from Chapters, will they change their buying patterns and switch to digital? My instinct says no. People are creatures of habit and the technology is not so superior (and in fact extremely cost prohibitive) as to make print comics non-competitive. So I do not think digital will have much of an effect on the existing comic reading audience.

The second part of the question then is can DC attract a new segment of readers via the digital service? I hope so. One of the major issues in the comic book industry over the last 20-30 years has been that our market for readers of new periodical comics seems to be shrinking, despite the characters and properties being extremely successful in other media. Every publisher on the planet should be trying to find ways to convert moviegoers into comic readers so I applaud DC for making the necessary effort. I believe strongly, and have seen it in practice, that people who are exposed to comics via digital distribution will often then seek out a full line comic store to REALLY meet their needs.

Jay: Are periodicals actually shrinking? I mean there are dozens to hundreds more titles being published than there was a decade ago and with the exception of the insane early 90s, how does the total number of comics being produced in a month stack up against what was happened 10 years and 30 years ago? Are the same number of people buying more titles or are more people buying?

Marc: Compared to 2000, I think slightly fewer people are buying a much larger number of comics. My average sale price on transactions including comics is certainly much higher now than it was 10 years ago, and that’s with our dollar now at par instead of 65 cents like it was in 2002 so you can’t even blame the cover price increases. In 2002 we were charging $3.50 CDN on $2.50 US comics.

We also have far fewer stores in the DM now than we did 10 years ago. It seems like in the US especially, stores are closing up at an alarming rate with little new blood coming in to fill the gaps. Fewer stores logically equals fewer readers.

Bruno Andreacchi, B.A.’s Comics (Currently celebrating 50 years in the hobby and still seeing the “gee” in nostalgia)

I say, “Bring it!” I’m quite surprised at how many fans, and even some retailers, are acting like the sky is about to fall. I’ve only had one longtime exclusively DC customer expressing dismay and talking as if he may stop cold turkey. But I’m willing to bet that he won’t. Who wouldn’t want to buy a Batman #1? And Justice League by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee? Lemme at it!

As a glass half full kinda guy and combined with support from DC like variants, deep discounting and, best of all, returnability, I’m ready to sit down at this buffet and gorge myself. And I’ll have quite an appetite by September.

As a confirmed Luddite, (when I hear “digital codes” I think of fingers sneezing because of allergies) I probably don’t have sense enough to fear the technological onslaught that’s so prevalent. We’ve always cultivated readers and collectors here and if even 1% of 1% of digital comic book readers become curious enough to visit a comic shop to hold “the real deal”, then I think that’s a good thing and life’s too short to fret about it..

I’m not expecting business as usual in September. I’m expecting better than usual business in September! Let’s call it the Leather Age, even if “it’s not a reboot.” Like Charlie Chaplin in Gold Rush, I’ll be waiting with knife and fork, ready to chow down. Pass the salt and, no tongue, please.

Christopher Butcher, The Beguiling Books & Art

I feel like I’ve got a bit more leeway as I’ve answered last, and therefore gotten the roundest look at what’s being offered by DC, sorry to the folks who were more timely with their answers if this goes against the grain a little.

Short version, I just did a quick count and Marvel have about 100 ongoing series and mini-series set in the main Marvel U coming in August, give or take. Looking at the DC list, it seems the vast majority of books getting issue #1s are, in fact, being rebooted rather than exploring entirely new concepts or characters, which means that as retailers we have hard sales data on those books. We know what Action Comics #900 sold, and we know what Grant Morrison’s All Star Superman #1 sold, and we know what really big event books with real-world press coverage tend to do to sales, so we’ve got a usable metric to figure out orders on Morrison and Morales’ Action Comics #1. Again, I think we know the general ballpark of where to place our orders on almost all of these titles, and that they’re #1 issues will largely mean more copies are sold than the previous issue, not less. Compared to Marvel’s 100-title continuity, 52 books in the DCU seems almost quaint, and certainly easier to deal from an ordering perspective. That issue is really a non-starter for me.

The issue for me, and I mentioned this online earlier, is that our sales on day and date digital titles are measurably lower than on the non-day-and-date titles. As far as I can tell looking at the numbers, it’s a correlation situation rather than a causation one, but with the announcement that their whole line is going day and date? It’s certainly something that concerns me.

I understand the modern truism that “digital comics have been available day and date for years,” and to an extent I agree with that idea. Piracy has been a real threat for years, done untold damage, and particularly coupled with the recession is likely responsible for the last few quarters of disappointing sales in the overall industry. But there is a generation of consumer who does prefer legal digital alternatives, and that seems to be the 30-50 year old demo that DC is targeting with these moves. More importantly, by offering my customers an add-on purchase of a digital version of the book they’re buying (as they’re doing with the ‘Previews Exclusive’ Justice League of America #1) they’re directly marketing digital to my customers. We may make an extra buck off the sale, but we introduce our customers to a stream of purchasing that directly bypasses us. I can’t see how that isn’t at least a little unappealing.

Taking off my retailer cap though, it’s all a terribly logical move. The relaunch at #1, the day and date digital, the slow rollout of info, it all makes a ton of sense. Putting that retailer cap back on, I am not convinced that any of this is a benefit to my bottom-line, or even to my customers. It makes sense for me to support it, to get behind it, and to find the good books and recommend them to my customers. We’re going to do all of that–we’re going to have those books in quantity on launch day, and we’re going to read them and talk about them. There is a tremendous opportunity here if all goes well, but there’s also so much potential for this to go wrong too. I am going to be paying the closest-possible attention to this relaunch and how it’s promoted, how it’s received, and ultimately how it sells. I’ve got my fingers crossed!

John Tinkess, Another Dimension (Manager for longer than I’d like to admit)

During the first few days after DC’s announcement there were quite a few knee jerk reactions from customers but as more details have been released we’re seeing a lot of genuine excitement from the majority of them, along with exceptionally strong sales on all of the Flashpoint books which supposedly lead directly into the relaunch. We’ve seen this pattern occur more and more frequently over the last few years as people tend to have very strong reactions to change (or the threat of change) but then don’t want to miss the big event when it happens.

Outside of a few concerns for long running titles like Action and Detective Comics, issue numbers are pretty much a non-issue as so many series have been restarted so many times over the last decade that they have essentially lost all meaning, even to the most die-hard collectors. The bigger concerns I’m hearing surround the characters themselves and the potential changes to their costumes and core concepts. I began reading comics in the mid 1970′s and many of today’s incarnations are nearly unrecognizable as the same heroes that I enjoyed reading in my youth. It seems like every editorial or creative change at the Big Two has been seen as an excuse to revamp characters over and over, resulting in continuities so convoluted that many titles are nearly impenetrable to the casual reader. With their fresh start in September, DC has the opportunity to greatly expand their readership if they can manage to update their characters while remaining true to their original concepts as well as staying away from any continuity-heavy events for the foreseeable future. We can hope that DC’s newest attempt to revitalize their characters will attract a new generation of readers but they are also running the risk of alienating a portion of their current readership.

I’m looking forward to a very strong September as I think we’ll see increased sales across the line. We’ve already had many customers express interest in picking up all 52 #1′s and many more will be curious to see how everything fits together in the new DCU. The one wild card to consider is how much promotion DC will be doing outside of the direct market and whether they will have any success driving new customers to stores. If the media latches on to a “new Action Comics #1″ story, we might all find ourselves caught short but that would be a nice problem to have. The ordering incentives DC has announced so far will definitely help us take a strong position on everything up front. After the first month, it will all depend on the quality of the books themselves so the real trick will be ordering properly for the second and third issues.

As far as day-and-date digital goes, I’m not overly concerned by it. As others have already stated, illegal downloads have been available day-and-date for years so any of our existing customers that would prefer digital would have gone that way already. If anything, DC’s digital service might actually serve as a feeder system for us as people discover books online then decide they want to experience the “real thing”. With parity pricing between print and digital for the first month, there is no advantage to downloading unless the reader actually prefers that format. When you can look around the store on a busy day and see a customer smelling the pages of a new Drawn & Quarterly book and another admiring the gloss and matte finish on that lovely Alex Toth book you realize that object fetish is still a big factor in this business.

Jennifer Haines, The Dragon (Where kids get their comics)

When I first heard about digital day-and-date, I was really excited, until I realized that DC didn’t intend to go through retailers, but sell the digital copies themselves. I definitely understand their rationale – they already have a system in place that works. Fundamentally, I really like the idea of digital comics, as it means that we can get comics into the hands of people in under- or un-serviced areas – places where there are few to no comic stores. That can only be positive, as it means more people will get to read comics, which could raise their legitimacy in society further.

I believe strongly that we as a culture are still very much attached to print media. So, if readers in serviced areas choose to switch to digital, or start their comic reading with digital, then they may still come in for collections or for something different (ie. not DC). Certainly parents and friends, who want to buy them gifts, are not going to buy digital copies, they’re going to come into the store and shop. And besides, I can’t think of a single customer who only reads DC. This means they’ll still need to come into the store for their other books and thus likely won’t make the switch to digital.

I think having 52 #1s is going to be cumbersome and stressful to order, even with all the work we’ll be doing to get as many customers as possible to sign up in advance. There’s a lot of extra money that needs to go into bringing in enough speculative copies. The extra deep discount only apply to 6 books, and returnability comes with a fee; I would prefer that DC do overships, to allow us to probe the viability of the titles, without putting our dollars on the line.

On the plus side, I am really looking forward to seeing comic TV ads! I think the list of new creative teams looks fairly strong, and it looks like there’s some interesting new blood coming in, which is great! I personally am excited about Animal Man by Jeff Lemire, Cliff Chiang drawing Wonder Woman, and Teen Titans by Scott Lobdell. I know that creators like Jim Lee, Grant Morrison, and Judd Winick are big draws for my customers, we just have to make sure we inform them as much as possible about the new titles to help them make the transition.

Overall, I’m generally positive about the move. I’m curious to see how Marvel will respond and I’m curious to see what impact day-and-date digital on this scale will have. No matter what, I’m ready to roll with it!

Our image selection this Retailer Q are seven issue one covers from DC’s September solicitations.

Share this:ShareRedditEmail 3 Comments Jun13Kevin Boyd

Excellent idea for a column Scott — I hope to see this as regular feature on CBD. I’m not a retailer – I’m just a customer, thankfully, but I know a lot of retailers and it’s interesting to see how things are gelling for them after the initial shock of the (I’m still calling it a) reboot news came out. Plans are forming as more information comes to light, and DC seems willing to communicate and work with retailers as there are a few weeks left before the orders have to be placed. Even with a media push and television advertising, 12 new #1 issues per week in September will be tough to push – I don’t envy them.

Reply Jun14Ed Campbell

I like this column.  I find it very interesting to see what retailers think about things in “comic-dom”, especially when we get to see retails trends from different areas.

I hope the DCU relaunch will draw in new customers and readers to comic books.

Reply Jun14Marc Sims

Kev,
It is planned as a regular monthly feature. I’m glad you liked it!
I am at the stage where the nuts and bolts of comic retail are far more interesting to me than the medium itself so when Scott pitched me this idea I gladly accepted.

Thanks to my retailer homies for generously donating their time. This first one we are getting our feet wet. I hope that in the future we can get more of a back and forth discussion going as well.
 

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