Contest Of Challengers

It’s a Secret Empire post mortem, and then a look-ahead to Marvel Legacy. Dal wants to start hosting gaming nights. First up, Marvel Munchkin! Kirby Centennial and John Siuntres event recaps, and a brief look at all of September's events. There are a lot. Patrick (and Jon Drawdoer, Tim Seeley and Ryan Browne) talked to the mentors of Chicago HOPES for Kids to help them understand how to use comics in their mentoring of underprivileged kids. SPINNING is out now! Perfect for those just growing out of Raina’s books. August 2017 sales are up the tiniest bit over August 2016. Over 10 minutes of *bonus* Moviepass conversation.

This episode is so much fun! Patrick is joined by Toonhound Stuidos’ Cory Casoni and Scott “PvP” Kurtz to talk about TABLE TITANS, their wonderful podcast SURVIVING CREATIVITY (Patrick’s favorite podcast), the KickStarter for BINWHIN’S MINIONS, and so much more! This episode is the reason Challengers is now branching out into gaming.

Quick recap of our Return Policy (we do not accept returns). Dal’s not having a good week with super-hero comics, even though our Metal Midnight Release was fun. Patrick is tired of doing things that benefit other people/business but not Challengers. So many events are happening! Non-spoilery talk about The Defenders on Netflix. Speaking of Nextflix, they bought Millarworld and we talk about it. We want to be an Amazon portal. You know, if you can’t beat ‘em… We’re dipping our toes into gaming (more on that next week). Wizard Magazine is back?? The new Runaways comic is really fun!

Patrick, Kent and Cristina continue their Crisis on Infinite Earths discussion in the final of our Crisis episodes. Tim Drake means a lot to Cristina, as does Dick Grayson. What drew Cristina to Challengers in the first place? The hidden humor of Crisis. We wonder what Batman history is still canon? No Man’s Land? Cataclysm? Azbats? The DC Archives vs. the Disney Archives.

What starts as a discussion about the long-term repercussions of DC’s seminal work of universe-condensing, Crisis on Infinite Earths, quickly digresses into myriad other classic comic tomes, and even some theories about the brand new, and excellent, Mister Miracle! Dedicated (and immensely knowledgeable) DC reader Cristina McCrystal joins Patrick and Kent in a special 2-part episode! There’s a reason Cristina has an encyclopedic knowledge of DC characters. Was Supergirl the best among us?

Welcome to another episode of “Patrick’s Ax to Grind.” Dal filmed for Pointy (don’t worry; we explain what Pointy is). Patrick had another rough Friday thanks to Google inventory-checkers. Our new New Release TV is up (thanks, Jack!) Weird phone calls, comic shop Google reviews and a cute kid story. The huge signing that wasn’t to be. We’re doing a Midnight Release for DC’s Dark Nights Metal #1. You should maybe take a look at Elsewhere (Image) and Mech Cadet Yu (BOOM!). Yes, we talk about both of those again. Dal is digging Arkham Knight.

Challengers’ lease is up next year and we don’t know if we’ll be able to stay where we are. Donovan took a really annoying phone call today. Will 25% of shopping malls close in the next 5 years? Patrick wants Challengers to be an experience of wonder and excitement, and he doesn’t think it is. Kent gave us a 42” monitor that you’ll all be viewing soon. Dal tells a riveting story about Headmaster Arcee figures. We’ve just opened an Etsy store, which feels weird because we have a store store and we sell things online via our website, but, you know, if it works… We (still) LOVE The Damned. And Kaijumax! We really hope people come out and buy art at our Jack Kirby’s 100th Birthday Charity Celebration. You should take a look at Mech Cadet Yu #1 this week, and Hi-Fi Fight Club #1 in a few weeks. And Angelic #1 after that.

It's an interview with former comics retailer and current Direct Market Representative at BOOM! Studios, MORGAN PERRY! Comic book retailers are industry professionals. Getting into comics via Star Wars and sci-fi fandom. Eating, sleeping, and breathing comics. Morgan’s path in comics is really similar to Patrick’s own path. There's plenty more, but why read about it when you can listen!

Our state-of-the-fictional-arts recording studio is back online! An interview with (Dal pretending to be) RYAN BROWNE about the Curse Words Van Tour! REDLANDS from Image is a reeeeaaaallllyyy good book, and you should think about checking it out. Also, MOONSTRUCK. And a few others. Take a Detour withDetour.com/Challengers! There are storm clouds forming over the comics industry and they’re called Marvel Legacy. Boy, oh boy, this is a topic, for sure. And we dig in. Across the industry, June 2017 comic sales are down 21% from June 2016. Have faith.

This one is pretty unique! It’s a panel discussion on narrative and process with 4 very talented Chicago-based creators. Coco Picard (“The Chronicles of Fortune”) Jessica Campbell ("Hot or Not") Anya Davidson ("Band for Life") Marnie Galloway ("In the Sounds and Seas") Moderated by Neil Brideau (Radiator Comics) We wanted to do something to celebrate the release of “The Chronicles of Fortune” and this is what Coco decided upon. This took place in Challengers (Sidekicks, actually) and Patrick was there for it, he’s just not part of this recording. Nor is Dal. See? Unique.

Bonjour! Parlez-vous français? Why didn’t we call this CONTENT of Challengers?? This week we go international without leaving Chicago. We spent last weekend running the French Comics Association booth at the American Library Association 2017 Annual Conference at McCormick Place. This is the who, why and how of that conference. We got to interact with several wonderful international comics creators; Guy Delisle, Marguerite Abouet, Pénélope Bagieu, Jérémie Royer, and David Etien, as well as the FCA staff themselves. Yes, there were croissants (pronounced “kuhWAH-sawnts”).

"To Hell and Back: A Spotlight on THE DAMNED and THE SIXTH GUN" panel at C2E2 2017. The audio has been found! Learn the history of one of comic’s most creative partnerships! Cullen kills his favorite characters. Brian hates drawing Drake and Becky. CM Punk refuses to read the last Sixth Gun trade. Thanks to C2E2 for getting us this audio and to Oni Press for setting it all up in the first place.

Wonder Woman Day! Darth Vader Day! We’ve sure had a lot of “Days” recently. But how’d they turn out? We start with a story about a smug Star Wars figure collector. This was recorded during the Puerto Rican Pride Parade, and you may be able to tell from the background noise. But probably not. Dal and Patrick will be out of the store for a few days this week for the American Library Association Annual Conference at McCormick Place. Challengers is running the French Comics Association booth. Gregg Schigiel will be here this Thursday! Coco Picard, Anya Davidson, Marnie Galloway, Jessica Campbell and Neil Brideau will all be in-store for a discussion on the narrative of comics, Friday, July 30th. Accommodating 5 creators and a live audience is a logistical challenge for us. We could not tell you that Darth Vader would be at our event live, in person, and here’s the reasons why. Thanks a lot, Lucas! What is Marvel Legacy? Bonus! Donovan Challenger has something to say about people complaining about the Chicago Bag

Patrick welcomes “PIX” creator Gregg Schigiel to the show. Gregg loves Power Pack, so Dal will certainly like this episode! Gregg was an assistant editor at Marvel Comics in the late 1990’s and drew several issues of WHAT IF…? Gregg will be at Challengers on Thursday, June 22 from 3pm to 7pm. Librarians are the real front line for getting kids into comics.

May’s sales numbers are not encouraging. We don’t look to back issues to recoup costs. We survived the Rick and Morty “Don’t Trip Road Trip” tour event. Here’s a long recap filled with plenty of anecdotes. 90% of the people in attendance were awesome. Wubba-lubba-dub-dub!

When DC’s Injustice video game came out 4+ years ago we spent an entire episode playing it. What will we do now that Injustice 2 is out? We can’t talk about the things we really want to talk about. There was an article in The Atlantic about Marvel not know how to run their business. Didja read it? We did. Speaking of Marvel, they just fired their only gay minority editor. The drop-off of readers on new titles from issue #1 to issue #4 is staggering. May’s sales are either excellent or terrible; no in-between. Dal bought Patrick a Becky Lynch WWE Elite figure. Dal compares his wrestling-viewing to people who don’t read monthly super-hero comics, and it makes a lot of sense. We now carry Marty and Sarah Love Wrestling enamel pins! There will also be more Challengers-designed enamel pins. Shout out to Lapel Yeah! This Rick and Morty event gets bigger as it gets closer. We’re expecting 2,000 to show up. Two thousand.

This week it’s an episode of Contest of Challenger. Singular. No, Patrick will not help you find where the letter “T” is in the back issue boxes. You should be able to do that on your own. We’ve got some sweet new swag: Comics Fists pins and Coexist bumper stickers. Both designed by Patrick and made just for you! Tom Hardy was Bane; now he’s Venom. Marvel announces MORE Star Wars comics, and a sweet Chip Zdarsky variant for Peter Parker #1 that we won’t be able to get. Jason Wood from 11 O’Clock Comics interviewed Patrick! Good questions and mediocre answers. Dal had great answers for his ComicBook.com interview. You can totally tell exactly where Patrick had to start being quiet during this recording.

This episode is told in reverse. We start with Patreon subscribers and an event listing, and then go into comic reviews (kinda) and then industry news and end on store news. It wasn’t planned that way that that is literally the reverse of our usual structure. We are NOT prepared for the amount of people that say they’re coming to our Rick and Morty event. The Tom King/Mitch Gerads just-announced Mister Miracle looks SO! GOOD! Network Upfronts = Lots of comic book-based TV news. And movie news. Dal has an interesting theory about the new Black Lightning TV series. Image is releasing a series of Pride covers in June. Kids graphic novel sales are up! Non-kids graphic novels are down. Is the New York Times Best Seller list to blame? We totally rearranged our shelves! Is it working?

Wubba lubba dub dub! The Rick and Morty #Rickmobile will be stopping at Challengers on June 1st! It’s the Free Comic Book Day 2017 after-show! The day sure started slow… We had Matt Kindt! And Alex Rosado and Dan Dougherty. And 5 wonderful cosplayers. Dal had a sketch request for himself and Patrick did his best to derail it. Hilarity ensued. We’re read Secret Empire up thru #3. We really like it. Trust us. We’re not Hydra. Which is totally not something Hydra would say.

Dal was planning to carry the new comic by recording artist Lights. Patrick chose Gwar. That leads into other band comics, like Slayer, My Chemical Romance, and more. We received a new Secret Shopper Report and we go over it in detail! Subscribers! Please don’t put books you no longer want back on the shelf without asking us to remove that title from your list! We had lunch with author Scott Westerfeld and we both like his new YA graphic Novel “Spill Zone.” How do we capture the excitement of C2E2 in store? You are not a bad person for wanting to read Secret Empire. You are not anti-Semitic for wanting to read Secret Empire. Bonus! Highlights from the NFL Draft (kind of).