Primate of the Moment

I like to believe the gorilla is pointing out a flaw in the dude's math. But that's just me.

Fwugga

Bleh, been a bit since I posted. Just too dang busy and tired lately =/

Have a new point of sale system we've been working with and the data entry is evil, plus just normal monthly Diamond orders and a few other things. Ideally I should have some more time to catch up and actually get crap posted all up in here.

A few things of interest:

-This whole Captain America #600 thing. Now, I will start with saying that I probably should have increased our orders on the issue much more than I did. However, between the economy sucking ass and the general fall of sales in Marvel books for our store I decided to be conservative in my orders. Also, because there is an entire series called Reborn written by Ed Brubaker, we pretty much figured that the actual return would not be in #600 and that issue #600 would essentially just be a double sized hooplah. A well written hooplah, but just a hooplah. Not a 'ZOMG-WE-SHOULD-ORDER-200-COPIES' kinda deal.

So, my order increases for #600 after the announcement of the media involvement are on back order, meaning we won't get any of them on the actual release date. Meaning that whatever I get on the Monday shipment (the day the larger media will break the news of whatever the hell is happening in the issue), will be just enough for the subscription customers and very few off the street people. That means there is virtually no real benefit for paying the extra shipping to have the books delivered on Monday, other than just to say we did it.

So, once again, I have to ask the obvious question: Why will the assholes at Marvel not just over ship copies and charge for whatever isn't returned? They do it. They did it for Dr. Doom & The Masters of Evil. WHY NOT DO IT WITH SOMETHING YOU KNOW WILL SELL OUT.

I know the actual answer, it just contains too many swear words for me to actually print.

-C'mon, really? Did you have to print X-Men 2099 in a collection? And charge $29.99? When Marvel decides it's time to publish Ravage 2099, that's it. I'm pretty much done with ever trying to understand comic book marketing departments.

-On the plus side, Marvel did release this over the past week:

And it is just as awesome as that cover leads you to believe.

That's pretty much all I got in me for the time being. I'll try to zip online again soon to write some more hopefully.

For now, watch this:

Primate of the Moment

Can't really go wrong with Gorilla Man from Agents of Atlas.

This is one of those me being lazy posts because today was kinda long. And yes, there is such a thing as seeing too many comics in one day.

Books I Think You Need

It was kind of a meh week this week, wasn't it? I mean there was some decent new stuff and titles I expect to be regularly great, but all in all a smaller week and that is definitely reflected in overall store traffic and the girth(or lack of) of the subscription boxes.

The one thing I think might get overlooked though is the fantastic Brinkley Girls hardcover put out by Fantagraphics.

Edited by Trina Robbins, you would be doing yourself a favor by checking it out

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fantagraphics/sets/72157616739963996/

http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=The-Brinkley-Girls-The-Best-of-Nell-Brinkley-s-Cartoons-from-1913-1940---Previews-Pre-Order.html&Itemid=113

Curse you Fantagraphics, I'm trying to save money you bastards.

Primate of the Moment

Recommend Comics (like a boss)

I think the one thing I love the most about working comic retail is when someone comes up to you and just straight up asks for recommendations. It's not always fun, because sometimes people just don't really know what they want and they just keep shooting you down and waste your time. That might sound arrogant of me, because maybe I'm just not recommending the right thing to them.

No.

This is kinda my shtick.

I will find you the book you want.

And you will like it, dammit.

*ahem*

Because often times, if you straight up do not like what I recommend to you, I will let you bring it back for store credit. Because not everything clicks, and that's all cool. I always try to talk with the person though to get a good handle of what they like, what kind of books and movies they like, so ideally I can peg them down with a couple options.

In this case it was a couple who were just getting into comics. I talked a bit with them first to see what kind of genres interest them before I just shot into it. Only a couple specific requests, so I pretty much had free reign. And it was fun because they were open to suggestions but also guided me as we went along and gave me a better idea of if I was heading in the wrong direction or not.

So they ended up taking:

Criminal

Mother Come Home

Walking Dead

Batman Long Halloween

Umbrella Academy

Green Lantern Rebirth

Also, after talking with one of the guys down at Fantagraphics, we now have an additional pile of Love & Rockets FCBD books so I gave them one of those as well.

So here's to hoping they like their books, but they seemed pretty happy and excited to try new stuff.

That is a good pile o' readin' though, I need to crack open my Mother Come Home again. Can't recommend it enough if you haven't tried it out yet.

http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/12-798/Mother-Come-Home-TPB

Primate(s) of the Moment