Contest Of Challengers

WE’RE NOT GETTING IN YOUR WAY •A Mystery Project is coming together… •Working with Creators on store projects. •It’s SALE time!!!!!! •Manage Comics, ever improving. •Thanks, Patrons! •The WINGER Analogy. •Placing Final Orders during the Holidays causes problems in February. •Weekly comic book release schedules are horribly unbalanced. •Net Pricing is NOT Retail Pricing! •Lunar vs Diamond when it comes to Overages.  Contest of Challengers #623

HUMMUS YOUR TIME •When T-Shirts went mainstream. •Our self-made day-to-day accountant. •”All Ego” Ethan Page vs Karate Man. •The confusion behind the collected release of Wonder Woman Historia The Amazons. •Pre-Ordering thru our vendors. •We do not ship internationally. •Last-minute event changes. •PR companies wanting events at the shop that we don’t think will work for them. •Finding new artists (@jettilalewis) is always exciting! •TITANS by Tom Taylor and Nicola Scott is going to be huge for us!!  Contest of Challengers #622

ABDICATION OF VALUES •Would you want text messages from Challengers? How much contact is too much? •Finding a good Filtering/Sorting tool for our new website. •Building ‘Collections’ for the new site. •comiXology no more! It’s so weird to have been a store for the entirety of their digital comics platform. •Ordering DC Comics during the Dawn of DC. •The Great British Bump Off! •Prices for Bags and Boards are rising again. •There are still too many covers per issue per week. •Problems with this week’s Instagram video. •Buy EVERYTHING Kyle Starks creates!! •Stephanie Phillips will be signing on Wednesday, January 25th!! Contest of Challengers #621

PIG 8008 •Comics and Comics Retail is like a broken exercise bike. •Patrick was on Off Panel with David Harper! It was… dark…? •UPS deliveries, all day, every day! •Are you caught up with all your comics? •A ¢hange for $aga. •Why customers can’t pre-order ratio variants from Challengers. •Helping creators help retailers. Contest of Challengers #620

ISBN13+5 •New Challengers Website—Coming Soon! Like, after the Sale, soon.      •Commerce-focused      •Advanced filtering/searching! •How many Holiday cards did not get picked up in December? •Searching “Marvel TP” in inventory is like just searching for “a”. •Dal’s dream version of Manage Comics. •Aside from this one, Patrick recorded 2 other podcasts this week! That guy LOVES hearing himself talk!! Contest of Challengers #619

5/90/2/2/2 •Instagram videos vs Instagram reels. •2022, a full year without ComicSuite. •Entering 2023 WITH Manage Comics. •Thanks, Patrons! •Answering questions for a Sorbonne Nouvelle University student. •Mission Statement (which should have been at the start of this episode)! •What we’re looking forward to in the 1st quarter of 2023! •So many events already planned! Contest of Challengers #618

WEIRDO HEADWINDS •March solicitations from DC and Marvel. But mainly DC. •What the cold has done to the store and Patrick’s car. •Next week is HUGE, but not as huge as we originally thought… •Will Final Order Cutoffs ever get easier/quicker to do? •Fun with the shop printer. •Santa came to Challengers! •The aftershocks of Aftershock. •Rumiko Takahashi. •When promotions don’t land. Contest of Challengers #617

THE HAMMOCK GETS DEEPER •Holiday sales have yet to really be a thing. Thanks, crappy weather!! •IT TOOK LUKE is on a bunch of 2022 “Best Of” lists! •There’s no news at the end of the year. •Boxing up out Variant Covers. •Too much off-the-sales-floor overstock!! •Manga volume sales are hot or cold, rarely warm. •Taking the wheels off the Drama shelves. •”Christmas x3” by The Divorce Gun!! (You've been warned...) Contest of Challengers #616

IT’S NOT SLAPDASH •Address-ing the situation. •DC 1st Issue Special vs Marvel Premiere. •Dal has read Batman/Spawn for you! But not TO you. •Kyle Starks is on a roll! • AI art in place of human artist art. •Doctor Strange returns. •Starting over at #1. •Stella Challenger probably has more books on her Pull List than you do. Contest of Challengers #615

CARDED •A podcast by any other name… •The 2022 Challengers Holiday cards are in! •Clearing out lapsed subscription dividers. •The publishing imbalance of a 5-Wednesday month. •When Stocky reporting goes wrong. •Haphazard discounts with Shopify and the Manage Comics Order Helper Tile. •Dal’s 2 biggest retail holiday pet peeves. No, Patrick is not 1 of them. •Marvel’s Voices Family SNIKT! Contest of Challengers #614

OUT BY WEEK 1 •Recorded on Black Friday! •Decorating for Christmas. •Just what are Variant Covers (by Chip Zdarsky via his Substack). •Laying out the New Releases each week. •Eminem’s exclusive Spider-Man cover. •WHERE MONSTERS LIE by Kyle Starks and Piotr Kowalski is highly recommended! •Wait, did someone say KYLE STARKS?!? •Gift ideas from Challengers! Contest of Challengers #613

BEFORE THE DAWN •Too many Spawn variant covers. •The “DAWN of DC.” •Refunding website orders. •The Manage Comics Order Helper Tile is LIVE! •Initial order fun. •AMC (the channel) Comics. •Bad Egg Comics. •Ultimate Fallout #4 cover scam? Contest of Challengers #612

OH YES, COMICS •Our visit to the EXCELSIOR! Art Show opening! •Why it’s harder to recognize new subscribers. •James Acaster! What? This is a comic podcast and he’s a comic! •We just saw Black Panther Wakanda Forever and really liked it! •Why Shopify keeps pushing back the approval of the Manage Comics Order Helper Tile. •Dealing win non-subscriber special order requests. •Which graphic novels look to be this year’s best Holiday gifts? •Happy 10 ½ Anniversary to Aw Yeah Comics in beautiful downtown Skokie! Guest-starring store manager Joe Crohn!  *Art Baltazar is not on this podcast despite being in the episode photo* Contest of Challengers #611

WE HUNGER •Will Morris starts us off! Thanks, Will!! •Image has several upcoming books we are REALLY looking forward to. •Batman/Spawn is coming! It’s after Final Order Cutoff, but its Final Order Cutoff period was only 3 days. •Final Order Cutoff windows are getting longer AND shorter! •DC has just announced 10 DC/Spawn covers and half of them FOC this weekend! •Galactus hungers… Contest of Challengers #610

•Welcome to the brand new Challengers Podcastitorium! •Diamond Replenishment shipments. •Reminiscing over ChallengeJR’s (ChallengeJuniors). •ALL AGAINST ALL #1 is really good! •Diamond Best Practice Awards. •January solicitations. •”What a shithole!” Contest of Challengers #609

THE CONVERSATIONALIST •It's an all Pizza-and-Beer episode! So, of course that means no Dal. •Hailey is back! https://instagram.com/chicomic_girl/  •Fancy, wooden comic book storage boxes! •Tattoos! •The ideal comic book shop! •Actual social media experts working with comic shops. https://romanyhouseboxes.com/  10% Off Promo Code: CHICOMICGIRL Kaye Publicity Retailer Rx: https://kayepublicity.com/retailers/ Contest of Challengers #608

BOOBIE-ROCKETS, AWAY! It’s a 3-man announce team this week as Patrick and Dal visit one of their all-time favorite comic creators (and human beings)!  WHO is it? WHAT do they talk about? WHY are they there? 1. You’ll find out a few minutes in. 2. Lots of stuff! Mazinger Z (or, as it was called in the US, Tranzor Z), baseball, NYCC, and a whole lot about their current, mega-successful, one of the year’s best, comic series! 3. Football, actually. 4. There was no fourth question. Contest of Challengers #607

MAIN COVER B •Plugged ears make recording an audio project so fun! •Just announced Batman Spawn covers. •Shopify missteps: Active vs Draft •Being ghosted by new Subscribers. •Curating in reverse. •An update about GIANT DAYS on Kickstarter. •Dan and Jason were the best! •Marketing to the Sidekicks crowd. Contest of Challengers #606

VIRTUE & VICE •Surprise! Now we’re BOTH sick! •Sep 2022 sales are down from both Aug 2022 and Sep 2021. Sigh. •HEART EYES #2 is excellent! •Why do 2nd issue sales fall so far from #1’s? Like, 80% far. •Getting our Holiday plans underway (we started weeks ago). •GIANT DAYS on Kickstarter. •The legend that is Carlos Pacheco. •Marvel Legends news from Hasbro Pulse. •Thanks, Patrons!  Contest of Challengers #605

NOTHING SPECIAL •Dal returns! Sorry? •Challengers is/has “nothing special.” •Dal visited Fantom Comics in DC! •Dark Horse is leaving Diamond! •DUCKS by Kate Beaton! •Batman Day 2022 is history. •Library wreaths. •MJ loves Batman/Spawn?? •More covers now than ever before!  Contest of Challengers #604