Contest Of Challengers

Comixology will be producing original, creator-owned comics on their digital platform. We talk about the Forbes article about it. We’re not opposed to in-store promotion of characters that have a current media presence. If you could only hear the sounds Patrick makes when reading the monthly Previews catalog for the first time each month. We got a sweet Eisner “For Your Consideration” package in the mail. It’s great when parents and kids engage with comics as a family. It’s not great when parents ignore their kids and let them run screaming around the store. Thanks, Patrons! Did you miss our Adventure Time Art Show? I mean, you probably did… FLAVOR from Image is real good! So is MAN OF STEEL. We ordered a bunch of different Action Comics #1000 covers (yay!) and Amazing Spider-Man #800 covers (not yay!). We’re probably not doing that again… We end with a random Divorce Gun song from the upcoming album “The Waning Days of the World.”

Obligatory Mach Kick (Transformers) reference! There may be one every week moving forward! An in-depth discussion about a new Yelp review, and the responses we chose not to send. When comic fans become comic creators, and the role comic shops play in them getting there (via Joe Field’s Twitter, @FlyCoJoe). We have a Kids Comics Workshop (with Gabi Mendez and Sheika Lugtu). Announcing the Challengers Correspondence Club, hosted by Letter Writers Alliance co-founder Donovan Challenger! Patrick really enjoys Image’s “Skyward” and Brian Michael Bendis’ “Man of Steel” #1 (out this week). Some of the current weekly titles aren’t doing as well as we were hoping. GDPR- the new European Union security rules! We’re sure you’ve gotten a ton of emails about this. Does it affect Challengers? Once again a store credit card got hacked. Is paying at the gas pump to blame?

Hyping up the Nerd Cred! This episode is an official Public Meeting. The new West Coast Avengers comic looks great! The Kessel Run vs the Kobiashi Maru (and I am not looking up the actual spelling of those). Some of the new Marvel #1’s look great. Some do not. Thundercats Roar is a thing. Thundercats + OK K.O.! + Adventure Time + Steven Universe. What Dal wants from the DC CW shows next season. The Dark Nights Metal soundtrack is still happening. Soundtracks to comics can be fun. You know, like Acid Washed. Mark Millar wants the first (and only) printing of The Magic Order #1 to be a collector’s item. At any rate that comic will look great. This is our last chance to pitch our SPECTACLE Release Party with Megan Rose Gedris. We close with Acid Washed performing “Acid Washed” from the ACID WASHED EP.

My Boyfriend is a Bear is out now and really fun!! Spectacle by Megan Rose Gedris is out in 2 weeks and we’re having a circus-themed release party for it! Free Comic Book Day 2018 is over, so of course we’re working on Free Comic Book Day 2019. Ideas come out organically in this very discussion. Contest of Challengers has a new logo… borrowed from a current DC comic. DC is starting to offer incentive variants and we’re not really on board with this plan. More and more people are wanting just the DC variant covers each week. We’ve had more people ask for this week’s Suicide Squad variant than we can sell of issues off the shelf. How does that even happen? Young Animal is ending in August. We’ve heard rumors of a few new DC titles and creative team changes. Bud Plant will no longer exhibit at San Diego, after 48 years. Random House is starting their own all-ages graphic novel imprint, and our friend Gina Gagliano is heading it! This is amazing news for the comics industry! John Barber is the new Editor-In-Chief

Free Comic Book Day 2018 is history! Hear our complete rundown of how the day went. Plus! The new BCW Comic Book Bin storage box. And, ONI’s My Boyfriend is a Bear!

Ever wonder just how the comics find their way onto our shelves and into your subscription box? This episode is an in-depth look at how Patrick and Dal spend their Tuesdays, from driving to the warehouse to putting books on the racks, and every step in-between. Plus, Kent Challenger introduces you to Tarbus the Tardigrade.

Probably the last time we’ll talk about Action Comics #1000. This time, how the Midnight Release went, and how it compares to previous midnight releases. It sure seems like Marvel wants a piece of DC’s Action cover success with all their upcoming Amazing Spider-Man #800 covers (with still more to -be-announced). Too bad they’re going about it in a way that doesn’t help build excitement. X-CLASSIFIED, written and drawn by CLASSIFIED starring CLASSIFIED sure isn’t the way to solicit a title. We really like Esad Ribic’s art, but not his cover to Fantastic Four #1. Lots of new customers in this week couldn’t find our New Releases. INFIDEL #2 is as good as #1, and THE DAMNED #9 is so good! As is BE PREPARED. Michael Kupperman has “All The Answers.” We think our Book Party book club revival is already coming to an end. Helping a colleague work thru his upcoming venture’s early issues as part of a brain trust. Genre-racking was as good of an idea as we hoped it would be.

Action Comics #1000 is out this Wednesday (at 12:01am). How many covers do you plan to buy? Are you ready for the Bendis era of Superman? Superman’s past 5 years have been kind of rocky… Nick Spencer and Ryan Ottley’s Amazing Spider-Man looks like it’s going to be great. Their Free Comic Book Day issue is a lot of fun, as is Jason Aaron’s Avengers. Don’t miss these new series. Also, Oni’s Shadow Roads and Transformers Unicron. Catching up on new comic announcements, such as the new creative team and cast for Astonishing X-Men and Joëlle Jones’ Catwoman ongoing. This week’s Domino #1 is wonderful, fun, and a solid book about female friendships. Planning a hypothetical signing on a holiday. Hypothetical. The most adorable bat-symbol we’ve ever seen.

It’s a busy week as we talk about the Diamond Retailer Summit, C2E2, a new BOOM! Studios retail initiative, two Richie Kotzen concerts, filming the “My Comic Shop Country” documentary and, of course, BaconFest Chicago. Strap in as this one is over 2 hours!

We proudly announce our creator line-up for this year’s Free Comic Book Day. What comic-themed gift can you get for someone that works in a comics shop? Protecting the privacy of our customers (from other customers). Challengers has been in business for 10 years! A brief history of how Challengers started and what it took to get the doors open for business. Our main takeaways from 10 years. Thank you for being part of our first decade!

It’s been a week. How have the new changes been received? As a consumer, do you want to be immediately help in a store or left alone? It’s time for new Challengers business cards! Coleen Doran gives a brief history of the direct market (via Twitter). Meltdown (a 25-year-old comics shop in L.A.) is closing their store. We don’t think it’s due to sales. May is going to be SO EXPENSIVE for shops AND fans. SO MANY COMICS!! Some new Marvel comics have match-to levels up to 350% of previous issues in order to get a sales break. Would we rather have free copies overshipped for a new title, or returnability of bought copies? Gene Luen Yang talks about teaching with comics.

But, what? What is changing? Fine, we’ll tell you. We’re making some pretty big layout changes, while not moving any of the furniture. We’re about to turn 10 (but please don’t congratulate us until it happens)! We get pretty detailed as to how these changes were made, all the math behind the scenes. We voted early! We hope you’re going to vote, too (if you live somewhere where voting will occur). There are a few more new title announcements this week (yup, again), including a new round of DC/Hanna Barbera crossovers that look SO fun! Why is the new Laura Kinney (All-New Wolverine) comic called X-23?!? Patrick thought we’d briefly mention Toys-R-Us and then move on, but that turns into, like, 20 minutes on them. 2 new really good horror books this week, INFIDEL from Image (really moody and creepy and modern) and VAMPIRONICA from Archie (just fun, and gorgeous). Horror comics are the new black.

No, not YOU; someone else. But we’d do it if we could. Fridays, amirite?? We start off the episode with a quick reminder of how subscriptions work, because some people still don’t get it. You’re not an @$$hole for asking questions. The 2018 Sale shirts are in! Why don’t we order ALL our graphic novels from Diamond? Also, HOW we order our graphic novels from Diamond. More observations about selling C2E2 tickets. We think DC’s Black Label imprint will live up to its name. If Toys-R-Us stores all close, will we order toys differently? So many great #1 issues came out this week!!

Suddenly it feels like last week’s episode was a 2-parter. More new Marvel ‘Fresh Start’ title announcements. Several DC announcements from Emerald City Comic Con, including 4 Neil Gaiman-adjacent books and 2 new non DCU Brian Michael Bendis books. Why we do not relish selling C2E2 tickets in-store. February sales numbers are in. March event round-up.

We’re not in Portland. Or ARE we? It’s the Comics PRO Annual Meeting this weekend. Any news? Diamond Comics’ new PreviewsWorld Pullbox has a lot of people talking. Is it just an updated version of ComiXology’s old subscription service? Speaking of Previews, DC Comics is leaving Diamond’s Previews catalog and starting their own. The Image Expo was also this week, so here’s a quick rundown. Marvel is promoting A Fresh Start for their publishing line, but is it really a fresh start?

After years of thinking Challengers didn’t need a women-specific comic-themed meet-up, Samantha Challenger proves us so very wrong. The ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of this type of event. The short-term and long-term goals of the night. Plans for the next meet-up. And, Samantha lists her current favorite Manga graphic novels, pro wrestlers and current comic series, and we completely missed the boat by not having her mention her favorite drag queens!

Patrick is worried about the snow affecting business during the yearly sale. Dal is not. DC Comics has to new younger reader graphic novel imprints. This episode has very little editing to show you what these conversations really sound like. We think there are too many Infinity Countdown-related books in Marvel’s immediate future. DC wisely doesn’t try to tie their current comics into their current movie properties. So many movie and TV show trailers were released this week. January sales were way down. Announcing a Writing Workshop with Michael Moreci! And an interview with Nakama Toys owner, Mary Warren!

Feeling ownership of the city you live and work in, and putting money back into that very community. Thanks, Patreon patrons! Dal wants us to do Patreon-exclusive episode. Big changes at Valiant this week. Some really big DC news out this week: DC Nation #0 and the new Action Comics and Superman plans. More weekly series are going to make ordering that much more challenging. The New Age of DC Heroes comics that are centered around the artists, all seem to be losing their artists. There is yet another Superman-less Superman TV show on the way. SO many February events!

Misconfigured microphone settings can’t keep us from talking to one of our favorite comics retailers, BRIAN HIBBS of Comix Experience in San Francisco! Brian’s been in the comics industry longer than we have, and his insight is invaluable. Looking at the state of the industry vs. the quality of today’s product. Comix Experience has an amazing graphic novel club. You will not believe what Brian’s favorite comic book is… let’s just say Dal was ecstatic.

You will not believe what came in Saturday’s mail. The 1990’s X-Men cartoon is responsible for getting so many people interested in comic books. Marvel putting out 4 new Wolverine-adjacent mini-series strikes us as a bad idea. DC’s Action Comics #1000 strikes us a s a good idea. Dan Slott is leaving Spider-Man for Iron Man, and Marvel signed Kelly Thompson to an exclusive contract. We like both of those ideas. Dal really wants a Jane Foster Thunderstrike book. Women’s Comics Night, Challengers Movie Night and Challengers Book Party are all on the schedule for February!