Contest Of Challengers

What is Marvel Comics #1000? I’m sorry, we mean WHY is (it called) Marvel Comics #1000? How do we keep track of customer wants when they ask for books that don’t yet exist? We’re looking at YOU, 3 Jokers… Baker & Taylor, our secondary distributor, no longer wants our business (or that of any independent bookstore). Oni Press and Lion Forge are merging. That’s causing layoffs and some employees are not taking it well. Should they? Well-known DC Comics artist Patrick Gleason has just signed an exclusive contract with Marvel. Is he the last of the 1-company artists? We survived our first (and last 12-hour Free Comic Book Day! Did YOU have fun? Contest of Challengers Bingo continues! https://bingobaker.com/play/2017273

It’s an interview episode with Nicholas Aflleje & Sarah DeLaine from the brand new Image Comics graphic novel LITTLE GIRLS. Who are they? What is Little Girls about? How did it come about? They’re going to be at Challengers on Monday, May 13th, for a full on release party! Featuring LIVE MUSIC from both Kachi The Band and Gentle Heat! More info on all the music!! Kachi The Band: https://kachitheband.bandcamp.com/ Gentle Heat: https://gentleheat.bandcamp.com/ And check out the Little Girls Soundtrack: https://littlegirlsognmusic.bandcamp.com

Listener questions! You (2 of you) had questions (7 questions) and we have answers (way more than 7 answers). The Doomsday Clock collection plans. How much effort is a 25¢ comic worth to us? The upcoming Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane comics look excellent! Another retailer tries to co-opt our FCBD Facebook event page. What is going on with the Jensen Plating Works building? I mean, we don’t know! Contest of Challengers Bingo continues! https://bingobaker.com/play/2017273

New POP Vinyl’s… always new POP Vinyl’s. Why don’t we do more Patreon Exclusive episodes? 101WKQX did some filming in Challengers this week. The Little Bird #1 Sales Battle is over. X-23 is also over, along with all non-Hickman X-Titles. Marvel Comics’ July 2019 solicitations are insane. Valkyrie is a comic that needed to not be announced so soon. It looks great but it also ruins current storylines. Get hyped for our LITTLE GIRLS Release Party! Contest of Challengers Bingo continues! https://bingobaker.com/play/2017273

Never before in 11 years—a $0 cash day! Jumping thru hoops to be a part of the Wizards Play Network (for the Transformers card game). Bag-switching is still shoplifting, you know. Trying to change our payment terms with Diamond. Contest of Challengers Bingo continues! https://bingobaker.com/play/2017273 There are new safety protocols in place for picking up the weekly comics shipment at Geodis. BOOM! Studios stealth-launches a new Angel comic book series! Star Wars Celebration is bringing a bunch of new people into the shop and that’s really cool. WWE independent contractors Rusev and Lana say they are preparing to write the best-selling comic book of all time.

First! A conversation with CAKE (Chicago Alternative Comic Expo) organizer Jon Mastantuono about CAKE’s upcoming art auction and what to look forward to for this year’s show. Not recorded in a moving car! Dal played host to a group (gaggle? swarm? murder?) of Scouts in-store this Monday. 2019 has seen a sharp increase in donation requests. Contest of Challengers Bingo continues! https://bingobaker.com/play/2017273 The Comics Omnivore project from Coliseum of Comics. Wrapping up the Little Bird Sales Battle. Last minute product changes: Typos vs outright misinformation. Anticipating which books will garner speculator attention is a fool’s game. You just can’t trust comics retailers

We turned 11 today! It’s the return of everybody’s favorite— a recorded-in-a-moving-car episode (showing you why Car Con Carne is recorded in a stationary car). Bluetooth hijinks make listening to the first 36 minutes of this episode more challenging than usual! Up to the 36 minute mark. Contest of Challengers Bingo is a real thing! https://bingobaker.com/play/2017273 War of the Realms #1 may overshadow every other Marvel book next week, so why release Marvel Team-Up #1 and Major X #1 on the same day? A few more notes about C2E2 2019. Visiting Comics Cubed in Kokomo, Indiana. Kokomo Toys is large and filled with toys from your childhood.

Detective Comics #1000 is the new C2E2 tickets, for this week, at least. A minor (Challengers) controversy of an upcoming Previews cover featuring Wicked + Divine. Our C2E2 2019 recap. An Epic Photo Opp experience. The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega are actually on this podcast! Our early-morning Diamond/Marvel breakfast. Marty & Sarah tell you all about Champion’s Day!

Alternate episode title: “High-Fives from Dal!” C2E2 is just about here, and we cannot wait!! …to not have to sell tickets anymore this year. The week’s tally of publishers’ emails. If he didn’t work in comics but still shopped for comics, how would Dal do it? The fun of selling Little Bird #1. Dal built us a new website!! You should give it a look at http://challengerscomics.com Free Comic Book Day details and the announcement of our Little Girls Release Party! Any news come out of Emerald City Comic Con yet this week?

Current publishing practices we just don’t understand (such as releasing 2 new #1’s one week but 0 the next; uneven numbering). Who is the new Transformers comic series for? More people than you may realize. So many good books are coming out this upcoming week!! An interview with local artist and comic format innovator Rachel Bard. Is it ever a good sign when publishers seek investors? What we look for in emails from publishers, and how what we don’t look for may benefit other stores.

This episode rundown will not be in the order these topics are discussed on the show. How we choose each week’s front counter Challengers Choice. Future Instagram strategy and we don’t mean Gwenpool posts. Challengers was (very briefly) mentioned on BBC Radio 1. The 2019 Sale Shirts are in! Mercenary sales grabs can be fun (DCeased) and can just be blatant (Return of Wolverine). Which should have more content, the single issue comics of a graphic novel or the collection itself? Yes, you can take photos and/or video in Challengers, but we’d appreciate it if you ask us first.

The perception of Challengers to the non-comics population. Apparently we are a business for neighbors to be warned about. The ComicsPRO Annual Meeting is happening right now, and we’re not there! But retailers and publishers alike are making plans to save the industry, so let’s talk about that! Specifically DC Comics and BOOM! Studios, and not Marvel. Marvel is NOT helping. Marvel has 115 single issues of comics coming out in May (that does not include variant covers or graphic novels). Yes, Queensrÿche does play a role in this week’s episode, but not with their music. Surprise Friday store visit from Patrick’s Dad! He hasn’t been to the store in 4 years! Ashly cleaned the hell out of the store today! We mean, someone has to now that Donovan is gone.

It is very difficult to sell comics when the device you use to sell said comics does not function. …and other computer problems for the day. The liberating feeling of having a problem you cannot solve, and just accepting that and moving on with your day. Marvel’s just-announced Savage Avengers comic seems like a dumb idea on the surface, but we were all 10 years old once, and it’ll probably do well for them. Challengers readers seem to be unimpressed with the current run of Justice League. No love for undersea kingdoms or spaced-out cosmic deities here, nor fantasy comics. Challengers is in a “Little Bird” sales battle with All Star Comics in Melbourne! Our “I Love You But I’ve Chosen Comics” sale turned out okay after all. How to surface the comic-buying experience via a new website layout. We’re doing a midnight release for Detective Comics #1000. Alita: Battle Angel was more enjoyable of a movie than either of us expected.

We’re 2 days into our annual sale and people either take full advantage of it or don’t even realize there IS a sale. It seems Marvel trade paperback collections CAN be made better and less expensive… but they’re not. Aside from a little warping, the Kaijumax Deluxe Hardcover is an amazing achievement in deluxe collectibles. Everything we ever wanted and more we didn’t even know we needed! Getting back to the sale, people sure will go to some lengths to get what they feel they deserve. Have you tried the new Daredevil #1? It’s REALLY good. No idea why the whole thing was “classified” by Marvel, but you should probably read it. Are secret identities even a thing in comics anymore? We’re sorry we don’t have what you want to buy, but also we’re not sorry.

We were guests on the Graphic Novel TK podcast! It was a fun time. Maybe check it out? Some days Twitter is harder to understand than others. Peter Cannon Thunderbolt #1 is a good read. If we thought LAST week was slow due to the cold weather… What to eat when working on a day when over 200 Chicago restaurants are closed? Our 25% Off Storewide Sale starts on Thursday! Are $9.99 graphic novels effective? Have we considered connecting to buyers through the shop owners they like? The Captain Marvel movie wave Marvel Legends figures are in, with some interesting figure choices.

So cold in Chicago nobody’s coming into the shop. We’ll soon have a new retail neighbor and we have a new security system in place. Little Bird and Assassin Nation are 2 new Image books Patrick really likes. Administrative shake-ups in the DC Comics offices. Initial orders vs. final orders-- what’s the best way to order new comics?

Dal and Patrick were both jurors for CAKE (Chicago Alternative Comics Expo) applicants again this year, and our scores were due today. Image Comics is offering full returnability on some of their upcoming #1 issues, and an earned higher discount on issue #2’s. Dal tricked Patrick into watching the Spider-Man Far From Home trailer, and he wasn’t even trying to do so. Dark Horse’s upcoming INVISIBLE KINGDOM from Berger Books is really, really good. More on it next week. We had yet another Challengers customer visit All Star Comics in Melbourne this week. Big Bang Comics from Dublin had a really interesting Twitter thread about today’s comics retail market and how retailers don’t seem to blame themselves. Kelly Thompson should not be the only one promoting her new digital release from Marvel. No, we won’t sell you 15 copies of Ironheart #2 on the day it comes out. Marty + Sarah (Love Wrestling) are coming to Challengers on Easter Sunday!

We appreciate the few new ratings and reviews we’ve gotten on iTunes. Please keep ‘em coming! Thank you for the past 10 years, Donovan! An in-depth look at the graphic novel sales of 2018. An even more in-depth look at 2018’s single issue comic sales. Dal has a very progressive (and perhaps polarizing) suggestion for the future of Marvel and DC single issue comics. Listener questions! How do we think the break between story arcs help Image comics sales? And why don’t we make comic sets of grab bags?

Do you think the Bears will make it to the Super Bowl? Against the Chargers? (EDIT: Um... no) It’s January, so that means it’s once again time for others to predict the death of the direct market! Graphic Novel sales seem down in stores across the country, but not at Challengers. DC’s Zoom and Ink are a good idea but we don’t know that they’ll land with our customer base. The white-washing of Damian Wayne. Yes, the industry is evolving, but it needs to evolve. All the problems retailers are identifying now feel like things we’ve already been thru. 2018 sales by category vs 2017 sales. Patrick’s niece was in Australia on her honeymoon, so we asked her to swing by All-Star Comics in Melbourne and give them a little Chicago care package. We’re pretty excited for WrestleKingdom 13, but it’ll have happened by the time you hear this, so never mind. Post-credit tribute to Mean Gene Okerlund (from CoC #314).

Diamond Comic Distributors catches Patrick’s ire one last time for the year. Some customers only see what they want to see. Some stores got next week’s book’s last Monday. We still don’t have them. Specifically nerdy Christmas gifts we received. With almost nothing new on the shelves the week of Christmas, people are finding some older comics, and that’s neat. Keep Reading Comics n 2019!! At the start of 2018, we tried to plan more experiences than signing. That did not work. Lucy Knisley returns to Challengers in March! As does Women’s Comics Month.