Free Comic Book Day 2014

It was another great Free Comic Book Day at Rogues Gallery Comics & Games in 2014. We started the day with over 3,000 comics and ended with less than 300. Probably a lot less, actually. We also had our best sales day ever. But that's really secondary, because what the day was all about was a flood of happy families and kids, getting to try out comics, some of them for the first time ever, some for the first time in a while, some for the first time since the day before. 

A wide variety of readers, a wide variety of comics and a great time for everybody. The early folks in line, most since about 9 AM (we opened at 10 AM), got bonus Adventure Time or My Little Pony books and free Rogues Gallery T-Shirts.

We also had a new display up by our custom-building genius Nick Budd, who used a handful of action figures, some foam core and other materials to build Super-Villain Jeopardy!, the latest in a long line of beautiful, imaginative action figure dioramas in our display case. And we had a few folks come in costume, from the father & son Batman & Robin to a dead-on Dark Knight Returns Carrie Kelly.

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 10/28/09

1. Blackest Night #4
2. Green Lantern #47
3. Blackest Night Titans #3
4. Batman #692
5. Star Wars Legacy #41
6. New Avengers #58
7. Detective Comics #858 (tie)
7. Anita Blake LC Executioner #1 (tie)
8. X-Force #20
9. Ultimate Comics Avengers #3
10. Teen Titans #76 (tie)
10. Nova #21 (tie)
10. Guardians Of Galaxy #19 (tie)

Tied for 11th: Incredible Hercules #137 & Worlds Finest #1

Amazing Spider-Man benchmark = Tied for 11th

Not much commentary this time, and it's a week late to boot. I think I'm going to put this on hold for a while... it's not offering up a lot of new information at this point. I might try to figure out some other similar feature, or I might not. I have noticed that Twitter & Facebook has more or less taken over for blogging.

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 10/21/09

1. Blackest Night Superman #3
2. Stand Soul Survivors #1
3. Justice League Of America #38
4. GI Joe #10
5. Dark Avengers #10 (tie)
5. Dark Wolverine #79
5. X-Men Legacy #228
6. World Of Warcraft #24
7. Mighty Avengers #30 (tie)
7. Amazing Spider-Man #609 (tie)
7. Dark Reign The List Hulk (tie)
8. Thunderbolts #137 (tie)
8. Invincible #67 (tie)
9. Ex Machina #46 (tie)
9. Wolverine Origins #41 (tie)
10. Batman Streets Of Gotham #5 (tie)
10. Invincible Iron Man #19 (tie)
10. Deadpool Merc With A Mouth #4 (tie)
10. Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic #46 (tie)
10. Supergirl #46 (tie)
10. Power Girl #6 (tie)

Tied for 11th: Batman Confidential #35, Hellblazer #260, Resurrection Vol. 2 #4, Outsiders #23, Superman Batman #65 and Transformers Tales O/t Fallen #3.

This doesn't measure sales, just pre-sales, as we see how many subscribers had preordered on various titles, just to gauge relative interest levels.

Benchmarking once again against Amazing Spider-Man, which this week comes out tied with two other titles for #7. It generally sits at around the #7-8 mark, and it's placement a little higher on the chart helps tell me that this is another smaller week for comics, in terms of general interest.

It's also more of a Marvel week than DC this time out, which used to mean a bigger week, but right now, that's not really the case. Dark Reign The List, Dark Avengers, Dark Wolverine and Mighty Avengers are all shipping, and they do respectably well in terms of staying in the top 10, but I know from recent experience that shelf sales for these books is down. While the hardcore Marvel fans are still on-board, the casual DC & Marvel fans are starting to gravitate to buying more DC off the shelf. Or at least, anything DC with Blackest Night on it, as Blackest Night Superman is far and away the top preorder, and probably the top seller, for this week.

Justice League also gets a boost from anticipation for James Robinson's run, as many folks seem to be enjoying Cry For Justice. I'm not one of them, and it's pretty clear Robinson's Justice League isn't gonna be for me, but I'm glad to see the book sliding up on the charts again. I also find it interesting that Supergirl and Power Girl are tied, because it tells me that DC still doesn't know what to do with Supergirl. Because no matter what you think of Power Girl, it's hard to deny that Supergirl is the original, and should be selling better than the Earth-2 version. Maybe DC should have put Palmiotti and Connor on Supergirl regularly, instead of just for the short-run Wednesday Comics?

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 10/14/09

1. Green Lantern Corps #25
2. Blackest Night Batman #3
3. Uncanny X-Men #516
4. Batman #691
5. Detective Comics Annual #11
5. Red Robin #5
6. Fables #89
7. Deadpool #900
8. Batgirl #3
9. Action Comics #882
9. Enders Game Command School #2
9. Incredible Hercules #136
10. Secret Six #14

Tied for 11th: GI Joe Origins #8, Hellboy Wild Hunt #5 & PS238 #41.

This doesn't measure sales, just pre-sales, as we see how many subscribers had preordered on various titles, just to gauge relative interest levels.

Amazing Spider-Man didn't come out this week, but if it had, it would be tied for spot #10, an indicator that there a lot of better-selling books this week. There aren't as many ties, so it's not a huge week of best sellers, but when I look at the top 8 and see that six of the nine books in it are either Batman or Blackest Night related, it tells me two things: 1) The momentum in superhero comics is pretty squarely on DC's side right now and 2) It's going to be a pretty good week for sales.

Also? The big Batman revamp that DC has done has paid off huge, and I'm afraid that just like Marvel's decision to return Steve Rogers in 2009, the decision to bring back Bruce Wayne in 2010 without even seeing how the revamp sells is jumping the gun and undercutting themselves. Certainly I'm shocked to see a Batgirl series and Robin series selling this well.

Deadpool and Uncanny X-Men are Marvel's representatives in the top 5 this week, with Incredible Hercules and Ender's Game Command School their other representatives in the top 10. Hercules is a bit of an anomaly, in that we're all huge fans, because it's such a great book. Ender's Game is a licensed book that doesn't sell many shelf copies, and that's fine with me... I sell it to be a good retailer, not because I'm any particular fan of noted homophobic crazy person Orson Scott Card.

I have to admit, I expected a bit of a drop for Fables after the big issue #50 - I know that my own interest has dropped off a bit, and I haven't read it for several issues - but that hasn't happened. Instead, the book remains one of our best sellers, both in single issues and trades. We got behind this book early on and it remains our best-selling trade series, just a tiny bit ahead of The Walking Dead.

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 10/7/09

A much smaller week than last week, judging not only by the position of my benchmark book (see below) but the lack of any notable "big seller" books in the top 10.

This doesn't measure sales, just pre-sales, as we see how many subscribers had preordered on various titles, just to gauge relative interest levels.

1. Buffy The Vampire Slayer #29
2. Batman And Robin #5
3. Angel #26
4. Batman Annual #27
5. Astonishing X-Men #31
6. Deadpool #16
6. Justice League Cry For Justice #4
7. Amazing Spider-Man #608
7. Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #3
8. X-Men Vs. Agents Of Atlas #1
9. Witchfinder In The Service Of Angels #4
9. Boys #35
9. Cable #19
9. Dark Reign List Secret Warriors #1
9. Star Wars Invasion #4
9. Superman World Of New Krypton #13
10. Daredevil #501
10. Irredeemable #7
10. Batman Confidential #34

Tied for 11th: Incredibles #1, Jack Of Fables TP, Vengeance Of Moon Knight #2 and Warlord #7.

Once again benchmarking against Amazing Spider-Man, which sits at #7 just like last week, this is another really light week. There are no Blackest Night books, and the biggest books are licensed sellers like Angel and Buffy. Warren Ellis has two long-delayed books, Astonishing X-Men and the fabled final issue of Planetary, but those probably aren't destination books like the last issue of Old Man Logan was, and even Batman and Robin is slipping a little bit with the loss of Frank Quitely. My guess? A lighter-than-usual Wednesday.

I've always known Deadpool was popular, but I'm still surprised at how well that book is selling, both to subscribers and off the shelf, and Justice League Cry For Justice seems to have scratched the Justice League itch a lot of fans were feeling. I wonder how that will transition over with Robinson (and many of the Cry For Justice characters) moving over to the main Justice League book.

Buffy and Angel continue to sit comfortably near the top, but their shelf sales have dropped by at least 75%. These books, once blockbusters in their own right, are selling pretty much to the diehards now.

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 9/30/09

Two Blackest Night tie-ins, including Green Lantern, the second anchor for the series, bodes well for the week. There are also a surprising number of mid-list sellers from DC and Marvel, as evidenced by the fact that counting ties, my top 10 this week has nearly 30 items on it. After doing this for a little over the month, it seems to me that when there are fewer ties and fewer titles, it means there's a larger week, with more legitimate big sellers and less mid-list books.

This doesn't measure sales, just pre-sales, as we see how many subscribers had preordered on various titles, just to gauge relative interest levels.

1. Green Lantern #46
2. Blackest Night Titans #2 (tie)
2. Thor #603 (tie)
3. Dark Tower The Fall Of Gilead #5
4. Star Wars Legacy #40
5. X-Force #19 (tie)
5. Justice League Of America 80-Page Giant (tie)
5. Knights Of The Dinner Table #154 (tie)
6. Teen Titans #75
7. Amazing Spider-Man #607 (tie)
7. Thunderbolts #136 (tie)
7. Wolverine Weapon X #5 (tie)
7. Gotham City Sirens #4 (tie)
7. Superman #692 (tie)
7. X-Factor #49 (tie)
8. GI Joe Cobra Special #1 (tie)
8. Hulk #15 (tie)
8. Justice Society Of America #31 (tie)
8. Aliens #3 (tie)
9. Jack Of Fables #38 (tie)
9. Marvel Zombies Return #5 (tie)
9. Runaways Volume 3 #14 (tie)
9. Wonder Woman #36 (tie)
10. Astro City Astra Special #1 (tie)
10. Batman Widening Gyre #2 (tie)
10. Punisher Annual #1 (tie)
10. Usagi Yojimbo #123 (tie)
10. X-men Forever #8 (tie)

Tied For 11th: Boys Herogasm #5, New Mutants #5, Secret Warriors #8 & Terry Moores Echo #15.

Wednesday Comics is gone, so for now, I'll be benchmarking numbers against Amazing Spider-Man, which is another relatively consistent weekly book. However, Spider-Man doesn't sell as well as Wednesday Comics did, so it's probably not quite as effective a measurement.

At any rate, last week's Amazing Spider-Man sat at #8, this week it's at #7, which gives the impression of a slightly lighter week than last week. Green Lantern sits comfortably atop the charts, and comfortably ahead of Blackest Night Titans, which has pretty respectable preorders, and both have great shelf sales. Blackest Night is selling, for us, like Civil War did, making it the most successful event for DC or Marvel in the last three years.

Even with JMS leaving, the relaunched Thor continues to do well. Shelf sales have dropped pretty significantly, but it still sells better than Thor ever has for us. The "put them on the shelf" strategy is a great one, judging by the success of Thor and, prior to that, Kevin Smith's Green Arrow and it seems like one DC should have followed with Flash or Hawkman, for instance. If Marvel and DC would occasionally "rest" their characters by putting them away for a year or two and then giving them a high-profile relaunch, I suspect they'd see bigger sales from their big icons. You can't do it with Superman or Spider-Man, obviously, but the second-tier A-listers? Definitely could benefit from such treatment.

As always, licensed books have high preorders, lower shelf sales. Dark Tower, once a huge hit for us, now sells almost entirely to preorders. Star Wars Legacy, on the other hand, has pretty decent shelf sales and sells well enough to match up with higher tier Marvel and DC books, even more than three years in. The further you get down our preorder list, the likelier it is that the majority of those sales come from preorders. That's not always true, for example Batman Widening Gyre sells a lot more copies off the shelf than it does in preorders, and Aliens does quite well over time on the shelf, but in general, everything at the #7 spot and below on this chart doesn't sell a ton to casual customers.

Our anomaly this week is again, due to the GI Joe love in the store, the high ranking of GI Joe Cobra. Most stores also wouldn't find Knights of the Dinner Table in their top 5, but: A) we're a gaming store as well and B) That one only sells one copy over preorders from the shelf. Sometimes zero copies over. So it's high ranking is a bit illusory.

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 9/23/09

It's another relatively light week, although there are representatives from both Blackest Night and Dark Reign, as well as the long-awaited conclusion of another late Mark Millar book (Old Man Logan this time), so it's going to be a satisfying book for a lot of folks, I'd guess.

This doesn't measure sales, just pre-sales, as we see how many subscribers had preordered on various titles, just to gauge relative interest levels.

1. Blackest Night Superman #2 (tie)
1. Uncanny X-Men #515 (tie)
1. Dark Reign List X-Men (tie)
2. New Avengers #57
3. Detective Comics #857 (tie)
3. Anita Blake Laughing Corpse Necromancer #5 (tie)
4. GI Joe #9 (tie)
4. Justice League Of America #37 (tie)
4. Wolverine Old Man Logan Giant-Sized #1 (tie)
5. Wednesday Comics #12
6. Conan The Cimmerian #14 (tie)
6. Guardians Of Galaxy #18 (tie)
6. Nova #29 (tie)
7. Enders Shadow Command School #1 (tie)
7. Incredible Hercules #135 (tie)
8. Amazing Spider-Man #606 (tie)
8. Invincible #66 (tie)
8. Superman Secret Origin #1 (tie)
9. Immortal Weapons #3 (tie)
9. Wolverine Origins #40 (tie)
10. Supergirl #45 (tie)
10. Superman Batman #64 (tie)
10. Marvel Zombies Return #4 (tie)

Tied for 11th: Halo Helljumper #3, Hellblazer #259, Doctor Who Black Death White Life & Power Girl #5.

This is the last week for Wednesday Comics, which means: A) It's the first weekly book we haven't been left with tons of on the shelf - because of the limited run, it never had a chance to lose momentum as fast as 52, Countdown and Trinity did and B) I need to find a new benchmark against which to compare preorders.

But for this week, Wednesday Comics is again the benchmark. Last week it was ranked #8, this week it's #5, which gives the general impression of a lighter week. Blackest Night again tops the preorders, and the majority of the orders for Blackest Night Superman are for All Blackest Night. In fact, the Blackest Night Superman has more than twice as many preorders as Superman, the highest-selling Superman book. We're pulling Superman: Secret Origin #1 for all of those subscribers, and we'll see how many wind up wanting it. Given that it's Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, we're betting it'll be a significant percentage, and that it will do well on the shelf as well.

Dark Reign The List is not really moving the needle. It's doing OK, but it's clear that in terms of momentum, DC's event Blackest Night is doing much better than Marvel's scattered deliberate non-event Dark Reign. I can't help but think that if Dark Reign had been a six-issue miniseries with the premise of "Norman Osborn vs. the now illegal heroes in the Marvel Universe" it would be selling a lot better, and probably pushing the tie-ins better as well. The Dark Reign The List X-Men one-shot this week is being pulled for our Uncanny X-Men subscribers, and I wouldn't be surprised if several of them are put back on the shelf. Uncanny X-Men, however, is holding up nicely in sales... it didn't really gain any readership from the Dark Avengers crossover, but it's a solid seller anyway.

Our anomaly this week is probably that due to overwhelming GI Joe love, that book charts pretty high in our top 5 chart.

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 9/16/09

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 9/10/09

Despite the two big "summer" events (Blackest Night and Dark Reign) just now hitting their stride, it seems like we're out of the big summer week pattern. There aren't a ton of books this week, but there are a lot of books folks seem to be anticipating.

This doesn't measure sales, just pre-sales, as we see how many subscribers had preordered on various titles, just to gauge relative interest levels.

1. Blackest Night #3
2. Batman And Robin #4
3. Thor Annual #1
4. Angel #25
5. Captain America Reborn #3
6. Dark Avengers #9 (tie)
6. Dark Wolverine #78 (tie)
6. Fables #88 (tie)
7. X-Men Legacy Annual #1
8. Wednesday Comics #11 (tie)
8. World Of Warcraft #23 (tie)
9. Mighty Avengers #29 (tie)
9. Action Comics #881 (tie)
9. Batgirl #2 (tie)
10. Amazing Spider-Man #605 (tie)
10. X-Factor #48 (tie)

And Tied For 11th Place: Agents Of Atlas #11 & Ex Machina #45.

Wednesday Comics has become the benchmark to measure preorders, and by that measure, this week is definitely bigger than last, as Wednesday Comics is at #8 instead of #6. In addition, the numbers of preorders up at the top are significantly higher... Blackest Night is probably our highest preorders of the moment, and Batman and Robin might be #2, amongst everything we sell. Thor and Angel are both high up on the preorders, but their shelf sales have plummeted. Also this week, Thor and X-Men Legacy are annuals, which tend to sell less than the main book. I wouldn't be surprised if some of our regular subscribers to those titles decide to pass on the annuals.

Dark Reign The List Daredevil doesn't chart here, even with Daredevil orders figured in. Despite the long-standing quality of creative teams on Daredevil, it's still a niche book for us, and the Dark Reign List hasn't really gained event status. One could argue that the strong showing of Dark Avengers and Dark Wolverine is an argument for Dark Reign bringing in some interest, but honestly I'm not sure how much the Dark Reign story has to do with the popularity of Wolverine, and you probably could have gotten the same sales results by putting Bendis on a relaunched Thunderbolts based on Warren Ellis's revamp, which is essentially what Dark Avengers is.

No huge sales anomalies this week, I don't think. The World of Warcraft books may do slightly better for us because of our gaming crowd, and X-Factor is in the top 10, which I think is not where you'd guess based on its placement in the Diamond Top 100, but other than that I think the sales are in-line with general trends.

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 9/10/09

The date is for Thursday, not Wednesday, due to the Labor Day holiday. Btw, just for the record, the one-day delay that we occasionally get for comics usually winds up costing us a not-insignificant chunk of money. I don't know if this is universal, but it's been true of all three of the shops I've worked at.

This week is technically, in terms of volume and money, a smaller week than last week, but because it features several "big" books like Green Lantern Corps, Dark Reign The List, the finale of the Dark Avengers/Uncanny crossover, Red Robin, Ultimate Avengers and the long-awaited seventh issue of Kick Ass, I expect it will be a better new comics day than last week, even with the Labor Day delay. We shall see.

This doesn't measure sales, just pre-sales, as we see how many subscribers had preordered on various titles, just to gauge relative interest levels.

1. Green Lantern Corps #40
2. Blackest Night Batman #2
3. Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-men Exodus
4. Red Robin #4
5. Dark Reign List Avengers
6. Wednesday Comics #10
7. Ultimate Comics Avengers #2
8. Thunderbolts #135 (tie)
8. Enders Game Command School #1 (tie)
9. Incredible Hercules #134 (tie)
9. Kick Ass #7 (tie)
9. Marvel Zombies Return #2 (tie)
9. Amazing Spider-Man #604 (tie)
9. Secret Six #13 (tie)
10. Hellboy Wild Hunt #6

And Tied For 11th Place: Adventure Comics #2, BPRD 1947 #3, Superman World of New Krypton #7, Titans #17 & War Of Kings Who Will Rule.

To compare again to last week: The biggest number for last week is the #3 slot this week, and there are a lot more titles below 11th place this week than there were last week.

Also of note, four of the books in the top 10 are boosted by having event tie-ins, whether that event is Blackest Night, Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men crossover or the new Dark Reign The List. Our actual numbers for The List are our Dark Avengers numbers, as we're pulling the Avengers issue of The List for all of those subs. Same characters (Hawkeye/Bullseye), same writer (Bendis) and an important tie-in to the Dark Avengers continuity. Some may put it back, but I'd bet on 90% of the people we pull it for wanting it.

This week, the line between what sells on the shelf and what pre-sells is straighter than usual. The first discrepancy between the number of subscribers and the number of books on order is Wednesday Comics, which sells a large percentage to preorders and has a lot less shelf sales than the others. Everything else in the top 7, I'd guess those will be our top 7 sellers in single issues for the week. I would also guess that the highly anticipated Kick-Ass will be much higher on the sales chart than #9, maybe even in the top five, bumping one of my top 7 preorders down a slot.

If we have a sales anomaly this week, it's probably how well we do with Thunderbolts, which owes to our appreciation for the Warren Ellis relaunch and the work of Andy Diggle. And though it just barely didn't make the chart, we have a lot of preorders for Amulet Volume 2, by Kazu Kibuishi. I know I'm excited to finally get my hands on that one as well.

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 9/2/09

A much, much smaller week this time out... not much from Marvel or DC's big crossovers (Dark Reign and Blackest Night, respectively) and not many "heavy hitter" books. My favorite new book of the year (Chew) is shipping this week, though.

This doesn't measure sales, just pre-sales, as we see how many subscribers had preordered on various titles, just to gauge relative interest levels.

1. Buffy The Vampire Slayer
2. Batman
3. All Blackest Night
4. Deadpool
5. Justice League Cry For Justice (tie)
5. Ultimate Comics Spider-Man (tie)
5. Wednesday Comics (tie)
6. Marvel Zombies Return
7. Agents Of Atlas (tie)
7. Exiles (tie)
7. Immortal Weapons (tie)
7. Northlanders (tie)
8. All BPRD & Hellboy (tie)
8. Boys (tie)
8. Cable (tie)
8. Incognito (tie)
8. Invincible Iron Man (tie)
8. Star Wars Invasion (tie)
8. Supergirl (tie)
9. Batman Confidential (tie)
9. Doctor Who Ongoing (tie)
9. Irredeemable (tie)
9. Resurrection (tie)
10. Chew (tie)
10. DMZ trades (tie)
10. Ghost Riders Heavens On Fire (tie)

And Tied For 11th Place: Army Of Darkness #24, Authority #14, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep #3, Jonah Hex #47 & The Good The Bad & The Ugly #3.

Last week was a much bigger week... in fact, the tie for 11th place numbers last week were the same as the numbers for the number 5 slot this week. And two of the 11th place-holders this week actually have *zero* shelf sales, as they've sold so poorly over the last couple years that we've had to cut them back to subscriber-only and special-order books.

As with last week, the licensed books have higher preorders and lower shelf sales. This wasn't always true of Buffy, but it has become so in the last few months. We sell 50% less of that book now than we did at its outset. However, even after more than two years of sales, the book continues to sell better than any other licensed book we've ever had.

I generally just include the "all" numbers in with the totals, but I thought it'd be interesting to see that this week, the third place number is "anything with Blackest Night in it" (even the final issue of a miniseries not a ton of folks have been following, although in fairness, I expect a fair amount of those to go back to the shelf) rather than any specific comic. Judging by the sales, "Event fatigue" is not as prevalent as many might claim. My theory is that "event fatigue" should more accurately be called "buyer's remorse" as it doesn't really stop folks from buying (and being excited by) the next big event. And in many cases, those who gripe about event comics will also reminisce fondly about Civil War, Final Crisis and other events later on.

No real anomalies for us this week. We sell fairly well on Incognito, Northlanders, Agents of Atlas, which I think of more as "buzz" books, but I believe those are holding up relatively well on the sales charts as well nationwide.

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 8/26/09

Not sure if I'll maintain this as a weekly thing or not, but I thought it was interesting to look and see how many subscribers had preordered on various titles, just to gauge relative interest levels.

1. Green Lantern #45
2. Batman And Robin #3
3. Dark Avengers #8
4. Dark Tower The Fall Of Gilead #4
5. Blackest Night Titans #1
6. Star Wars Legacy #23 (tie)
6. New Avengers #56 (tie)
7. Detective Comics #856
8. Dark Wolverine #77 (tie)
8. Anita Blake LC Necromancer #4 (tie)
9. X-Force #18
10. Deadpool #14 (tie)
10. Flash Rebirth #4 (tie)

And Tied For 11th Place: Guardians Of The Galaxy #17, Nova #28, Teen Titans #74 & Wednesday Comics #8.

In general, higher preorders means higher sales, but not always. Licensed books like Anita Blake, Star Wars Legacy and Dark Tower won't sell that much higher than their preorders, at least at this point in their run, although Dark Tower in particular was a sales-off-the-rack monster early on. Green Lantern, Dark Avengers and Blackest Night Titans all benefit from huge interest in their crossovers.

The order numbers on Green Lantern and Batman and Robin are pretty much identical, and will more than likely generate strong shelf sales and eventually reorders.

Guardians and Nova are probably the anomalies for my shop, as I expect they're much lower on the charts than the others here at most stores across the country, judging by the sales charts posted on ICV2 and The Beat.

Adventures in Retailing: Free Comic Book Day 2007

Wow, was that a long (but rewarding) week.

This was my fifth Free Comic Book Day. I've worked every one since the beginning (aside from 2006, when I had a family reunion to attend instead) and they're always a lot of work, but very rewarding. It's even moreso (on both fronts) when you're the store owner.

We had a great Free Comic Book Day. We ordered just enough, for the most part. We even have a few Spider-Man, Bongo and Justice League left over for next year. My fears of running out of the Umbrella Academy sampler or Spider-Man didn't come true. My only regret is that we didn't order more Astounding Wolf-Man, as we ran out of that about mid-day, and I would have liked to have had it into the night. But in general, everybody got the comics they wanted. We started off giving out three to a person, but in the early afternoon moved to five per person, and by the end of the night it was "one of each of what's left" which equated to somewhere between 6-10 per person, depending on how close it was to the end of the night.

From noon until about 3:30, we had comic book creators in the store signing and sketching. Paul Benjamin was clearly in his element, working the crowd, cracking jokes and signing plenty of autographs. We sold quite a few copies of his Pantheon High manga from Tokyopop, and he signed a whole bunch of his copies of Marvel Adventures Two in One Free Comic Book Day offering. Scott Kolins sold several gorgeous prints of pin-ups and covers he had done, as well as doing many a sketch and signing copies of Omega Flight and other works. Billy Tan had two lithographs (one of Hepzibah, one of the X-Men, I bought both for the store) and two sketchbooks (one guys, one girls, I bought both of those as well) and some gorgeous character illustration pieces, and we sold a few of his Uncanny X-Men issues to sign as well. Billy did quite a few sketches as well (including a Corsair for me and a beautiful inked Batman for a customer). Everybody seemed to have a good time, and we were packed to the gills while the creators were there.

Next year, I definitely want to figure out how to get more press coverage. I sent out a press blurb to a ton of folks, including local TV, radio and news and all the comics news sites, and literally nobody picked it up. Many ran press releases for the big Zeus event CAPE (and that's a great event, if I wasn't running my own FCBD I'd be there every year) and a few also ran press for the last-minute mini small press Con being done by Austin Books (again, great store and a good idea for an event.) I was a little frustrated to be ignored when I thought we had a pretty good event put together and I had taken the time to send out press info in advance, but that's the way it goes. Next time, a full fledged press release, even earlier, and more follow-up. Certainly the lack of coverage didn't cost us anything in terms of attendance.

I worked about 14 hours that day, and well over 40 this week getting ready, but it definitely paid off. Tons of kids and adults came in and got free comics. Everybody seemed to have a good time. And I'd do Free Comic Book Day even if it cost us more money, but instead it was our biggest day for the store yet, even counting our five year history. We did about three to four times our usual Saturday business, and even with the expense of free comics, advertising and related costs, it was a very successful day for us.

Already looking forward to next year, and to figuring out what cool event we can run at the store next.

One of my customers, Dave Figueroa, took pictures, so there's a slideshow below.

The Secret Project

Back in late December, I posted about a secret project that was taking up a lot of my time. That secret project has also been the cause of my frustration and tension over the last couple weeks. Now it has been completed, and I can reveal it on the blog, for those who care.

I bought a comic book store.

More specifically, I bought the comic book store I've been co-managing for about six years now. Dave and I, the co-managers, had expressed to the owner a couple years back that if he was ever thinking about selling the store, we'd appreciate the right of first refusal. In November, he contacted me about buying it, I was interested and I've been putting together the deal ever since.

There has been much talk online lately about comic book stores in general, especially with Riot Comics closing down. But there are some pretty significant differences between me and Jason Richards, owner of RIOT, not to mention significant differences between Riot Comics and Dragon's Lair Comics & Fantasy, which I'm buying.

For one thing, Jason had this to say: "Don’t get me wrong. I still LOVE comic books (and will continue to buy them by mailorder so I can be a geek in the privacy of my own home), but I’m not sure I was ever in love with selling comic books. There’s a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that I was so blissfully ignorant about, from scheduling problems to freight charges, marketing gimmicks to creator meltdowns, that I’d much prefer to just be a reader again."

Oddly enough, I'm not as in love with comics as I was when I began working at the store, but my love for selling them has only grown. I love the business problems and marketing challenges presented in comics. Yes, I'd be happier with a healthier, bigger market and several distributors operating at the top of their game, but I've been dealing with Diamond for six years now (plus two years during college), and for all the shit that they get, they actually provide a pretty solid service 90% of the time. And I love selling comics to people who are getting back in or looking for something new. Even if I'm not into Civil War, I get a certain joy at seeing someone get just totally hooked on a comic series like that. And when I get to sell someone on, say, Queen & Country or Bone, or when a kid picks up Owly, that's a good feeling that's hard to beat.

Also, Dragon's Lair is a comics and games shop, about 50-50. I know some purists look down their noses at that kind of shop, but I'm pretty happy with the niche we've carved out. We've got the indie guys, the mainstream superhero readers, the kids (we've got a great level of family and kid readers) and we've got the role-playing gamers, the boardgamers, the CCG guys, etc. It's a diverse and pretty great customer base that Dave and I have cultivated over six years, and I'm really pleased to be able to continue with them.

We will be changing the name over the course of the year to distinguish ourselves. Because Yellow Pages advertising is done so far in advance, and because a new neon sign is gonna be pricey, and also because we want to avoid confusion, we're doing a slow transition. For the rest of the year, we'll still be answering to Dragon's Lair Comics & Fantasy as well as the new name.

The new name is Rogues Gallery Comics & Games. We open at 10 tomorrow (that's Monday) as we do almost every day, so if you're in the area, come on by and say hi. And maybe buy something... I've got to send my kids to college someday. ;)