Contest Of Challengers

Expanding our hours slightly in July. What is Octopus and how will it help us run our Shopify online store? http://challengers-comics.myshopify.com Our “Keep Reading Comics” Kickstarter is over. Trying to use DC Connect as an ordering catalog. All our DC Direct orders (action figures and statues) have been cancelled. Shipping woes from the new comic book distributors. Image has a new Sales Manager. The forced excitement over Gold Lantern. What % of each New Girl character are you? Free Comic Book Summer? Negan Lives as the Walking Dead returns for 1 more issue. Ordering 3 Jokers.

What? We’re NOT starting with DC Comics this episode? No, we are. More new distribution channels. Fun with (new) windows! Patrick injury update (get used to these). Jeanna Challenger is back at the shop and Kent returns this Thursday! The plan to reorganize our back hallway (next month). Having to rent another storage unit. Remembering Denny O’Neil. September’s new Iron Man comic looks real good!! Batman comic sales since re-opening. Black Lives Matter banner. Keep Reading Comics T-Shirt Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/challengers/keep-reading-comics-t-shirt-designed-by-gene-ha Patrick’s ALZ5K in remembrance of his Mom (http://rememberingfrances.com)

What did DC do to us this week?      #1 Lowered our discount by 20%. Patrick’s ALZ5K in remembrance of his Mom (http://rememberingfrances.com) The further looting of Blue and the aftermath. Red is open for in-store shopping again! But there are rules. Black Lives Matter. What did DC do to us this week?      #2 Left Diamond Comic Distributors      What does this mean for our Graphic Novel buying?      What does this mean for our Single Issue Comic buying?      What does this mean for our Subscribers and Special Orders?

**An hour after we recorded this episode, our River North location was looted. So we start there and then go to the beginning of the episode** (It was actually looted 6 different times during the night, but that happened after our post script) How have DC Comics' recent actions impacted us THIS week? Customers ignoring our pandemic procedures. Reopening for in-store shopping (this Wednesday!) T-Shirt Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/challengers/keep-reading-comics-t-shirt-designed-by-gene-ha/ Comics Fists Face Mask: https://challengers.threadless.com/designs/comics-fists-mask Comics are back, so of course speculators are also back. Avengers #33 is SO GOOD! The passing of a subscriber. Patrick injury update and losing his Mom to Alzheimer's (http://rememberingfrances.com). Thank you, Patrons!

Guess what? Patrick’s leg still hurts. Welcome, all you Kamen Rider message board fans! Preparing to re-open for in-store business, but then, not. How DC Comics keeps making life so much harder for us. DC subscription management issues. Challengers Blue is done. Blue bookshelves for sale!! Making more by selling less? The first New Comic Wednesday in 2 months. IS the market stronger with subscribers, or without? Shopify fun!

Not quite a full episode, but to be honest we've had less coherent ones. More like 30 minutes of Patrick rambling about how much his leg hurts. Some comic things are discussed, but we’ll (hopefully) be back next week with a full rundown of current events, and Dal. Plus, new blinds! Thanks, Drew & Ashleigh!!

How filming a dumb IG video put Patrick in the hospital for a few days this week. New comics May 20th for sure! DC wants their books to be released on Tuesdays. Too bad, DC. Which day is the ideal day for new releases? Marvel’s temporary staggered release schedule. Marvel’s new digital first initiative. Sorry, Hawkeye, Ant-Man and Star fans. Patron comments. What DO we think of Chris Jericho? Curse Words has a massive new Kickstarter happening right now!

Mental health check-in! Do you want us to ask how you’re doing? Shipping delays are now the norm for all businesses. Our Challengers facemasks arrived! And they are… um, masks. When our in-store inventory doesn’t match our Shopify inventory. Local pick-up shifts from Chicago Board Game Café to Challengers Bucktown starting Monday, May 4th. Our self-imposed rules for our IG videos. Thanks, Patrons! Kenny Omega is a pumpkin-headed dip$#!t!

How do you display your action figures and their accessories? Updates to DC Comics’ new distribution plans and Diamond. Our new online Shopify store is LIVE! https://challengers-comics.myshopify.com/ New Bucktown Pick-Up hours for May. And how the extended Illinois shelter-in-place will change what we’re doing. Explaining to our landlord the impact this all has on our business. The ever-changing release schedule for super-hero movies.

Why we no longer swear on this podcast (for now). The Friday News Dump. DC Comics’ new distribution plan/ultimatum. Keeping you (and us) safe when we’re allowed to re-open. Challengers masks! How creators are helping retailers. Our new Shopify online store. Making stupid videos to connect with the people we can’t see in-store. Thanks to Chicago Board Game Café!

The Comics Industry is Broken Comics are great! The comics industry isn’t. Comics distribution 40 years ago vs Today. Ordering comics in October 1981. When Back Issues were king. #LibcomixRA Wednesdays: Boost Your Local Comic Shop The adjusted Diamond shipping schedule (for now). No events for the foreseeable future, even after we open back up. Football talk?? Weird.

Sticking to our weekly routines. Still NO new comics, When the Illinois stay-at-home is lifted, what will be better for us…      A. Opening back up BEFORE Diamond resumes shipping new comics?      B. Opening back up AFTER Diamond resumes shipping new comics?      C. Opening back up AT THE SAME TIME Diamond resumes shipping new comics? Marvel and DC delay their digital releases, for a bit… Diamond’s financial woes. What would a (hypothetical) future without Diamond/single-issue-comics look like for Challengers? Comic Hub as a point-of-sale program. Comic Hub as a digital comics platform.

Part of this was recorded as Patrick and Dal hand-delivered comics to people in Chicago! And by “hand-delivered” we mean left on porches at a respectable distance. Some comic book publishers are trying to work around the fact that printers are shut down and Diamond is no longer accepting comics. How Blackmask, TKO Studios and Vault are helping retailers. Thanks, Patrons! Some very supportive people have recently bought Challengers Gift Cards online. We have yet to see the money from those purchases. Here’s why.

No More New Comics A new episode immediately after the previous new episode! Things are changing THAT RAPIDLY. Diamond Comic Distributors dropped a HUGE announcement about the immediate future of the comic book industry. David Harper, SKTCHD.com, and Daniel Warren Johnson lend a hand. Yes, we’ll have New Comics this week, and we want to get them to you. Dal did not, no matter what we say in this episode, get a turtle. Are we changing over to Comic Hub? Um, maybe?

Speculator demographics. Artists Writers and Artisans released their first 4 comics on the same day. More super-upbeat and not-at-all-depressing Covid-19 talk. We’re shut down! ALL of Illinois is. What can we do about it? How are Publishers helping Retailers during this time?

This episode has basically 2 main topics. What we’re doing as a result of the Covid-19 Coronavirus and Bad Idea comics. Trust us, there is plenty of ground to cover with both topics.

A Challenger Loves Ya (Contest of Challengers) Who are we and what is this podcast? Challengers loves ya! Well, *A* Challenger loves ya. The spread of coronavirus Covid-19 is, understandably, wreaking havoc on comic convention schedules. Paying rent shouldn’t be this complicated. Implementing ideas that we got from Comikaza’s Jackob Sareli, including Final Order Instagram posts and a Challengers Subscribers Facebook group. Volunteer Help Wanted. Curating the Chicago Board Game Café’s graphic novel section. DECORUM #1 comes out this week. You’ll probably want to buy it.

Wednesday in-store anecdotes, recorded as they happened. The final week of selling C2E2 2020 tickets! Yay! All the way from Tel Aviv, fellow retailer Jackob Sareli joins us on the frozen, late-night streets of River North! River North also got a visit from the Fallen Angel, AEW wrestler Christopher Daniels! Our Friday at C2E2. Surprising information about the new AEW wrestling action figures. What did we buy at the show? Thanks, Patrons!

This is the week that C2E2 ticket sales reach a frenzied level. The ComicsPRO Annual Meeting s happening RIGHT NOW in Portland. And we’re not there. BOOM! Studios presentation at ComicsPRO says all the right things. Turning the $1.00 spinner rack into a Reprint spinner rack. What if we just stopped stocking variant covers…? The results of 2 Twitter polls conducted this week. Batman #89 and how DC Comics has found a new playbook for the future of comic sales, and why that is horrifying. Dan DiDio is no longer the Co-Publisher of DC Comics. Why does another medium have to validate comics? Why can’t they be lauded for what they are?

Transportation to Store #2. How’d our only storewide sale of the year turn out? New store banner woes. Using and abusing Instagram. The new Signing Wall in River North. Phantom titles in Diamond’s system. It’s a great week for new books this coming week! DC got all of Dal’s letters and is making a Legion of Super-Heroes 5 Years Later omnibus!