Contest Of Challengers

There’s a new publisher in comics, full of familiar faces, and they have a whole new take on today's publishing market. References to AWA (Artists Writers Artisans) and TKO. Who’s up for a 5-issue Juggernaut series? We predict our sales numbers for the series. Y’all are flocking off of Batman (and Amazing Spider-Man). Is Dark Horse’s BANG! The next big speculator book? What about DC’s new character, Punchline? Thanks, ladies!

Recording star Poppy did NOT come to Bucktown today. The making of our 1979 man-on-the-street Sale video. January 2020 sales vs 2019. Ryan Browne signed at both stores this week! Please stop asking us for donations. The reality of River North. Consignment update. What are we going to do for Free Comic Book Day with 2 stores? Thanks, Patrons!

The first wave of McFarlane DC Multiverse figures are in, and we have thoughts! Ordering Marvel Legends for the rest of the year, with no real information. More frustration with our Point of Sale system. April 2020 DC and Marvel solicits. More $10 80th Anniversary specials! So many Empire crossovers! More X-Men titles! What would you rather buy, 6 X-Titles that ship twice-a-month? Or 12 X-Titles that ship once-a-month?

A 1-star Yelp review + Reddit + the UK website The Poke = quite the internet week for Challengers. One more round of identity theft, because having the last one back in October is just too long ago. Patrick is going to be on David Harper’s OFF PANEL podcast next week. Voice-over cameo by Jeanna Challenger!

When business is slow in Blue vs Red The second change to Blue’s layout in a month. How we work our Back Issues. The Local Artist section really needs to be re-sorted. Marvel’s Outlaw series announcements. And Empyre. Remember the Kree/Skrull War? A look back.

Thanks, Matthew Rosenberg!! NO subscriber complaints! We mean BY us, not ABOUT us. But we still complain about 1 customer interaction… Top 100 Comics sales notes. Top 100 Graphic Novels sales notes. Overall 2019 sales notes. Thanks, Patrons! Some events are coming up, including our one store-wide sale… and speaking of that particular sale’s T-Shirt… the artist is…

Retail sure is weird this time of year! Spending New Year’s Eve at Challengers (Red). Christmas makes us feel like we carry all the wrong things. Club members are responding positively to our tighter subscription enforcement. Diamond is not making it easy to give subscribers the information they need to keep their lists current. The really great 2 days of Christmas sales. Matthew Rosenberg wants to help us sell Hawkeye Freefall #1. 2 different color stores means 2 different color sale t-shirts. Dal has a strict rule about getting the different colors. Patrick liked Marvel’s “Incoming” special. What did Dal like this year in Comics?

Dal is very hungry. You can hear the tension between Dal and Patrick at the start of this episode.  Profanity warning for around the 21 minute mark. Theft! Things were stolen today. A chase ensued. There is no happy ending to this story. Sales just really don’t go up that much because of Christmas anymore. The process of buying presents, and the obligation therein. How easy this first month of the new location should have been, and the external reasons it isn’t. R.I.P. Steve Johansson and thank you for all the joy. Merry Christmas to you.

Commuting between the 2 stores is all new to us. We’re still learning our new routines. Potential changes to Blue’s layout, already. Changes to the way we enforce our subscription rules for 2020. No changes to the way the subscriptions work, but we’re no longer giving any slack. Plenty of computer issues with Diamond. Still. Almost insurmountable changes… we’ll see… How warped the market is for Marvel Comics, with a hat-tip to Brian Hibbs for doing all the research. This upcoming week of comics is H-U-G-E. It is impossible to give every comic coming out the attention it deserves.

Patrick was on the news talking about Chicago’s new bus lanes. “If you think like Patrick Brower, you’d be wrong!” Johnny Cadillac Marvel is NOT releasing too many comics…? What would it take for Image to be a tastemaker again? DC’s new iteration of the Suicide Squad is really good!! The new store has put Dal in performative mode. The distance of River North. I don’t remember what that means, but it was written down in the show notes, so I added it. And I also changed from third person narration to first. This is all over the place!!

The counters arrived!! We made it. We are now a chain! 2 stores! Hear about the final week of prep and the first day of sales. No Black Friday Sales this year. Batman is your friend, but only when no one else is listening. Challengers-exclusive Diamond problems for the week. 2 of ‘em! Industry-wide Diamond issue for the week. Protect that data!! Dark Knight The Golden Child vs China. Arrgh! Here there be (internet) pirates! Thanks, Patrons! We’ve added another 2-Store/1-Day creator signing! With… **** ******!

Recorded with a Q-Mic! Can you hear the difference? We say we’re not going to talk about Blue this week, but we totally talk about Blue this week. This was recorded on Dal’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Dal! We’re very excited for our Glow signing to happen because we’re fans of the creators. We’re MORE excited for our Glow signing to happen so all of the phone calls will stop. Denying yourself something until you feel you’re earned it, instead of living your life. Daniel Warren Johnson is the first creator signing at BOTH locations in the same day! Whereas Brian Crowley will be the first signing we host at Blue. Are the comics coming out the week of Christmas enough to make people want to make the trip in on a holiday week? Dal digs Image’s Olympia. It feels like less “Conversation” happens in Challengers pertaining to actual comic series. The theme of Tom King’s Batman, as succinctly summed up by Dal. Diamond has a lot of programs to help new stores/new locations, and Dal got to figure them all out! R.I.P. Tom

Recorded in Challengers River North! We’re actually pleased with our progress thus far. Less than 2 weeks until opening day! R.I.P. Tom Spurgeon. Orbital Comics in London has stopped carrying single issue new comics. There was a time when we considered that, too.

An update on the first week of prep for Blue. Boy, no Chicago news source cares about a new comic book shop. Subscriber emails vs. subscribers actually reading emails. The reactions for Dawn of X #1’s. Superman is coming out! Where should we advertise the opening of Blue? Are we having a Black Friday Sale (at Red) and if so, what’s on sale?

This is the 2nd biggest announcement we could possibly have. This is huge. This is Blue.

Does Dal always believe in Patrick? A few in-store customer anecdotes. Do people use the New Release monitor we have mounted over the New Releases? Patrick went to DoomCo Designs “Survive” art show opening reception. TV on in the store vs music. And that transitions into a discussion about the disappearance of previous media formats. When looking for an exact specific thing that a stores doesn’t have, do you buy a different thing instead? Interesting customer requests today. Marvel’s Jan 2020 output vs DC’s (thanks to Ryan Higgins of Comics Conspiracy for crunching the numbers). New Year’s Day’s new comics, and maybe a Midnight release…? You know Patrick and Dal, but do you know Pat and Will? Do not miss next week’s episode…

Do you have Faith? Are you watching Stumptown? We like it. The X-Men #1 Midnight Release was a fun success. That leads us to remember the fandom that once saw us go to midnight events outside of the comics industry. More people are adding all 6 Dawn of X titles, but will they STAY on them? DC Comics January 2020 new announcements. Kevin Feige is the new Chief Creative Officer (or Ossifer) of all Marvel. Movies AND Publishing. Is it a paradigm shift?? We, and the comics industry as a whole, owe Jeff Smith a huge thank you. Netflix making a Bone show is a good start. Chicago Teachers Union—we support you!! We went to West Town Academy to help a TV Production class. Tickets for our AJ Mendez/Aimee Garcia signing are available here: http://tinyurl.com/glowsigning Kent Fremon has a vinyl toy art show at Galerie F on Friday, October 25! More info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/546222529466484/

The Batman’s Grave #1 is good. Doctor Doom #1 is also good! X-Men #1 is out next week (at midnight) but what are the other Dawn of X books going to be about? We don’t know. Luke Healy is coming to teach a fun cartooning workshop at Challengers! We have a date for our AJ Lee & Aimee Garcia GLOW vs The Babyface signing! And a time! What is DC Comics’ 5G? Fifth Generation? Marvel uses the ghost of Stan Lee to take shots at comic book continuity. Marvel took a ton of flack for Sam Wilson Captain America, Riri Williams Iron Man (Heart), etc., won’t DC encounter the same? Who replaces whom? We’re excited for Legion of Super-Hero flight rings! But not excited to explain who the Batman Who Laughs is. This week’s Amazing Spider-Man has checklists for both Absolute Carnage and 2099. How many Spider-Events can happen at the same time? Or just events, plural from one publisher?

How was business on this first Friday in October? Let’s say B+. Local Comic Shop Day returns this November, and while we took 2018 off, we’re back at it… for one amazing reason. Mack-eh-WITZ? Thanks, Patrons! A whole bunch of new comics for 2020, as announced at the New York Comic Con! That’s literally half the episode, but there are some pretty big announcements in here! And, some clunkers!! Bonus Saturday evening postscript!

Patrick is an old and more-broken-than-before man. But he breaks for you. Raina’s GUTS is the best-selling BOOK in the country. Graphic Novels are dead—all hail Graphic Books!! Graphic Books return to the New York Times best-seller lists! Huzzah! Diamond Comic Distributors restructures. How Patrick’s love for BBC Radio 1 got Challengers a new customer. Too many new comic publishers releasing too many new books. Why can’t Challengers find success with the new Chris Ware RUSTY BROWN book? Please vote for Challengers for Best Comics Shop in the Chicago Reader Best of 2019 Survey! http://chicagoreader.com/vote in the ‘Buy Local’ section. The new Batman creative team!