Begging for fresh air
Like all authors without exception, whenever I visit a new town I like to go to the local comic shop and see how prominently they have displayed my very important publications (this varies from “right by the door” to “one book with its cover half hanging off” so it’s a real rollercoaster for the ego, very centring and character building). Most comic shops I visit are great and run by equally great people.
But then there is a special sort of shop where one enters and turns upon the heel after a 15-second lap. Three “lads” behind the till, enjoying hurtful “banter”. I think Tackleford’s “Variant Zone” might have been that sort of shop.
My feelings about comic book shops are complicated.
They are nice and they enable the indie press
But the direct market also tanked the newsstand market and the pipeline of new fans has never recovered.
Maybe it wasn’t going to anyway once marvel started making its movies who knows
I grew up in New York City during the ’70s. I was regularly going to a comic book shop well before the direct market existed (for mainstream comics, at least). So I don’t automatically associate them with that idea.
In my experience there are lots of new readers, they just (mostly) don’t want superhero comics when there’s manga and more relevant stuff to them. Dav Pilkey and Raina Telgemeier sell a lot of comics to kids! Olden days numbers! I think that’s how it’s got to be. The direct market shop serves the same people it did when it was in its heyday (just older and richer), the best shops of that ilk have become different, better experiences that understand the new reality. The worst are Funko Pop dens.
We had a great comic shop called “The Strategic Castle” which was, as you might expect, also a tabletop games shop. It was a shop that really understood many sorts of people — but it shut down because the owner’s son didn’t want to carry on the (very successful!) business. I think they shut down before the era of funko pops.
There is a crossover community of people who were deeply emotionally affected by both “Smile” and Spider Man, Guy DeLisle and John Allison, but we are admittedly a small group.
Time for a road trip to Sheffield?
Now that was a good shop.
As long as they can beat the constant assault on inventory and profit caused by young comic fans in love.
I was gonna say I wonder how Hayden’s doing, but then I remembered Circus Windows is approximately ten years after the end of Giant Days, so who knows if the shop is even still around??
“Thanks”
I think this is (by a narrow margin) the least rude of the three possibilities:
“Thanks” to our loyal customers.
Thanks to our “loyal” customers.
Thanks to our loyal “customers”.
Well… it could have been “Thanks” to our “loyal” “customers”…
Thanks “to” our loyal customers.
Thanks to “our” loyal customers.
“Thanks” for pointing that out. I missed it the first time through. I those little details give me joy.
It’s amazing how the speech bubble hides the sarcastic quotes until we’ve established the… vibe of the place
I had no idea that Spider-Man and the Hulk were going to have cameos in this story!
John’s licensing agreements with Disney, Sony, and Universal stipulated no advance advertising.
Lottie and Mildred’s cameos are the common thread binding Avengers: Infinity War and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. That and a shared love of colons, obviously.
Esther and Daisy did once show up in a Marvel comic that Gurihiru drew… I can’t quite remember what it was though.
https://chazzmemes.tumblr.com/post/190661056591/hello-esther-and-daisy-wheres-susan
Is Esther pale enough though?
That is delightful. Thanks for finding it!
Thanks JumJum, thats a delightful cameo.
No matter how small the trivia item, someone knows it. Why I love the comments.
Funko Pops are a disgrace.
They’re like roaches.
Honestly DSM-V should have an entire chapter on Batman
Yeah, but just the one. 137 pages of Batman’s psychoses doesn’t seem enough…
So Geezer John is frozen to death by now? Concussed? Rapid terminal CTE? Internal bone breaks poking into major arteries and bled out?
Or just out of site and out of mind in the fresh air.
See the note under Friday’s comic, Geezer John is Schrodinger’s Circus Expert until April 8th.
Comic shops: Seen every kind of variation you can imagine, from cheerful family run business to dark dank dungeon of rampant misogyny to soulless corporate price-gouging empire to kindly fellow who just never wanted his bedroom full of books. The latter of that list – those were always the best kind of shops, in my opinion. Just a guy who loves comics & wants to share that with everyone else. And if you wanted cards, statues, pogs or funko pops, you’d have to special order that crap, because this was a COMIC BOOK STORE that was festooned with COMICS. No room for anything else.
‘ never wanted TO LEAVE his bedroom full of books ‘. Damn typo’s.
So, are comic books shops some kind of money laundering operation?
To allow for three “lads” to do nothing obviously productive? Or are those “delivery boys”, specialising in delivering both in and out?
It’s suspicious, isn’t it? This house of cards is going to come tumbling down one day.
Maybe that’s the next investigation to make!
Kind scary thinking that the thing that spells either life or death for John might be the state of management at the local comic shop.
She obviously hasn’t consulted the newest edition of Campbell’s Psychiatric Dictionary, the one with the chrome variant cover
Just you wait for Wednesday’s comic.
Ok, now I see John as Grandpa Simpson, walking into one of “those” comic shops, doing a quick 1 and a half turn circle and going straight back out.
I should like to have seen what sort of emotional scarring Lotte could deliver to the ‘3 lads’ type of comic shop denizen.
There’s a Joker comic RIGHT in the window. One quick smash and… problem solved!
No! Don’t do it, Lottie! That’s how the tragic “Dark Lottie” story line starts! (looks at how Lottie’s dressed.) Er, I mean, “Darker Lottie”.
It’s a closed-up shop, so if they just stake out the place until the circus peoples come to wallpaper the windows with fliers, they can both get a Joker comic AND solve their initial mystery at the same time!
Shots fired!
I’m wondering if the ladies think that Funko Pops specifically are problematic or merchandising being the focus being the issue. Also being rude to customers seems like it might be even a bigger issue but I can think of two shops around me right off the bat that uses that business model and have been around for over a decade so maybe it is the merch.
My absolute favorite shop closed last year and the majority of their space was dedicated to merch that included Pops. They closed because the owner was ready to retire/covid and the owner no longer wanted to deal with the business.
They were brightly lit with a good mix of male/female employees and always seemed happy to see you. I only know about the US model but it is tough to make the margins work without selling merch. At least according to the owners, I’ve spent time chatting with.
A1 beads and butter? Why would butter and beads be co-headliners?
*looks back at the sign*
Ah. Beads and buttons! That makes much more (mundane) sense.
Bad idea Variantz. Being rude to customers is the business model of coffee shops, not comic stores.
And Funko Pops are a plague.
comixology seems to think that you worked on Civil War 2, is this in fact the case? Night Thrasher does sound like the name of a character you’d come up with (I am aware he has been around for a while, yes)
I wrote a 7-page Power Pack story for Civil War 2: Choosing Sides, drawn by Rosi Kämpe. I’m proud to say i did the character designs for it too, which are in the back of the trade paperback.
OH MY GOD YOU DID POWER PACK
YOU DID MY FAVORITE MARVEL COMIC OF ALL TIME
Is this it???? Do you get anything if I buy this?
https://www.comixology.com/Civil-War-II-Choosing-Sides/digital-comic/443976?ref=c2VyaWVzL3ZpZXcvZGVza3RvcC9ncmlkTGlzdC9Db2xsZWN0ZWRFZGl0aW9ucw
This is the Marvel Unlimited link:
https://www.marvel.com/comics/issue/59609/civil_war_ii_choosing_sides_2016_4
Are those Death’s Head II’s legs in the final panel?
The Hulk has clown lips…
Unfortunately, Funko Pops are keeping the lights on for many shops. Certainly in the UK.
After GD+B, I’m fascinated by the possibility that Joker comics are actually a documentary in Lottie’s world.