Well, that's one month when I'll be able to save some money.

Thanks for the assist Josh. I couldn't find the press release.

Speaking of mail order, me and a friend of mine have been ordering our trades from DCBS for about 6 months. And for the last 6 months we keep asking ourselves why do we even go back to the store. So I finally added my singles to the order this time.

Ive supported my local shop for the past 14 years, but they recently pissed me off hard. I subscribed to around 30 titles, and i didn't go in for about 2-3 weeks which is common for me. So they call me and leave a message, pissing and moaning, that they haven't seen me, don't know what the problem is, need to come in, etc.

So I go in the next day, and they lay fat stack on me, and as I'm looking through it, there are 6-7 titles in there, I don't even sub to! Padding my box, and calling me pissy about it, was the final push i needed to save 40% off singles instead of 15% with tax.

So the other day i dropped a shit load of books off my pull list, to start dropping off for February.

But ummm...havent read anything from Dec yet, but catching up on Action Comics #845 the other day, blew my mind. Great ending.

When you skip over comic shops you are supporting the "whole" industry. Let's break it down to publishing, distribution, retail. Regardless of where you buy your comics, brick & mortor or mail order web, you are supporting a segment of the comics retail industry. It's one or the other and either way a comics retailer is being supported. As an added bonus you contribute to the expanded business of UPS &/or DHL as well! Hooray for american commerce!!!

I've been loyal to my local comic dealer for about 6 years now. Well actually he's not "local". He has a comic/toy/record shop at a flea market that is about a 45 minute - hour drive away from me. Since gas prices have went up, I only go there probably once a month, but he always keeps my pull list in great shape and puts aside anything he thinks I might be interested in. 10% off new titles and 20% off back issues. I'm sure I could get some better deals online, and save some gas money, but until this guy closes up I will be supporting his store. I'm probably just lucky to have a good one.

I totally understand it when a LCS is not really local to you, and you need to use mail-order alternatives for your comic buying needs. But if you do have a nearby LCS, I also urge people to buy their comics from them (unless it's a scummy store with little ot offer in terms of customer service). I'm fortunate to have a LCD about 3 miles from my home, and the people that work there are friendly and care about their customers. I've been going there so long (over 7 years) that even without a pull list for me, but they make sure they get me a copy of Usagi Yojimbo (I pick it up for a friend) because they know I'll buy it from them. (I don't have a pull list because I don't want to be obligated to 2 more months if I want to quit a title because I feel strongly about owning up to my obligations if I ask a LCS to order books specifically for me, rather then just shelf copies). I also get the 20% discount for longetivity of being a customer without the pull-service account in place.

I love the little guy. I love saving money. That's why I still shop online and at my LCS. But let me ask you all this. What's going to happen when more and more "comics" are found at bookstores? What happens when graphic novels build in reputation and importance? What happens when just the superhero books come out monthly?

This is all speculation, but someday in the not too distant future, I can see the LCS dying out all together if things don't change. Sure, the whole industry would need to change to support GNs, I understand that. But when you can get your fix at local Barnes & Nobles or Borders or whatever, how will the LCS stay afloat?

Haven't they always been in bookstores? I mean as a kid back in the 80's, when I wasn't buying my weekly titles at the local drugstore, I was probably getting them at the Waldenbooks in the mall, or the grocery store. Of course now that I am more of a "collector", I doubt i would buy them at these types of places because they are usually curled up and jammed into the racks. Hell I could stop at the grocery store on the way home and pick up the new Hulk, but I would rather wait and get a bagged near mint copy from my comic shop instead of some copy that's been thumbed through by a dozen slack jawed yokels.

I don't mean floppies. Look at the comic shelves in your big bookstores now. They grow every month. At some point, there'll be no reason to go to a comic shop except for monthlies and toys. And what if GNs take off so much that LCSs don't sell floppies? Then suddenly they're an outdates model and toy store.

First let me say for those that don't know, I am a retailer. I co-own a comic book store & have help run one for over 10 years. That is why it breaks my heart to here so many people order on line. And even if I wasn't a retailer I love comic book shops they deserve to be supported. I love going there & talking comics, looking whats on the shelf, browsing. For me, that is a lot more fun then just posting on message boards & clicking buttons on on-line stores.

I do tend to think customers exagerate. Did they really call you "pissing & moaning", I doubt that. What people don't realize is, what a hard business it is to be in. If you get over 30 titles, that is a lot, & it stacks up quick & from a business end, chances are you aren't the only one with a backlog, that all adds up to a LOT of money for a store to potentially eat. We call our subscribers after a month.

This is what I don't get. Complaining about getting comics you don't subscribe to put in your pull box? Is it that big a deal to just put them back on the shelf? Did your store actually demand you buy them? I doubt that. I can understand bitching if you were missing books, but bid deal if they put some extras in their. Maybe they were just looking out for you in case you wanted them, we do that all the time.

However, a 15% discount on 30 titles is pretty shitty. Also, you said they are charging you tax? That is illegal you know, you can report them on that. There is no tax on new published pamplets? Comics are a part of that.

It's pretty much the same as getting a haircut. You can go to a place like Procuts or something where you get your cheap haircut and be done with it, or you can go to your regular barber who knows you, knows what you want done, and can chat with you while you wait. There's tons of these franchise hair places these days, but there's also still a lot of small barber shops. Same thing as online shopping/mega bookstore vs. local comic shop.

Like my comic guy knew I was looking for those old little M.U.S.C.L.E. men form the 80's, so he spotted some at another little shop in the flea market and told me I should go to check it out. You think the Border's clerk is going to give a damn that I want some M.U.S.C.L.E.S?


Also, trade paperbacks no matter how popular they get will never replace the single issue format. It's just not going to happen. No more than television networks will go the "direct to dvd" route for all the seasons of their tv shows.

Hmm, fair enough. I guess I look at online "shops" and B&M shops differently, when from the bigger picture they are practically the same thing (or at least provide the same service). And on a side note, my UPS guy is very cold, but the DHL guy is always a bundle of sunshine.

Where is the next All-Star Superman? It feels like it has been ages.

...and I cannot believe there are only four issues left for Strangers in Paradise.

My store puts a monetary limit on the box. So, if there are extra books in my box, I'm reaching my limit faster than I should be. I cant always make it there every Wednesday. If i sub to Angel, and a $8 Spike comic is thrown in, that adds up.

And I'm not saying, that I'm not supporting my LCS anymore, just ending my Sub there. Walking around a LCS will always make me impulse buy on something new. Plus my store will buy back TPB's for instore credit which is nice.

What is interesting though, is there are 2 shops here in town. The one I'm speaking of, gets most of its business from gaming, miniatures, etc. They have their own game room, and theres always a tournament every weekend. The other shop deals more in silver age and golden age (where I get some of mine from) but is less frequented.

As far as the singles/trade debate goes, I see singles as weekly shows, and trades as season sets. If I enjoyed a particular story in singles, I'm always going to get the trades, to add to my collection.

I think it's good if a LCS puts something in your box that you may be interested in (that Spike comic being a good example), but they shouldn't hold that against you. Out of curiosity, what's the limit you can have in the box?

Hate to derail this conversation, but shoot me an IM...I'm very interested in this series but never dove in. Would you recommend starting from the ground floor?

I've been in the business a long time & have dealt with over 30 different stores & I've never heard of this type of thing before. I don't understand it? Your saying if you subscribe to Angel & they pull a Spike comic for you, you HAVE to buy it? A store can't force you to buy anything, even if you accidentally completely ripped a front cover browsing it, or broke something, they can't force you to buy anything.

Getting back to comics, the new Justice Society of America was awesome.

And every true comic book fan should ask for the EC ARCHIVES SHOCK SUSPENSTORIES VOL 1 HC. It is such good stuff, these new HCs are must owns.

Graphic Novels (and single issue comics) have always been in bookstores, but it's the recent manga phenomenon that has really wowed the bookstore industry and caused them to expand their sections. Unfortunately for American comics, it seems like manga is what the kids are reading in the bookstores, and the American GNs still have only a small section.

Of course, manga is TPB only, and comparatively cheap largely because it is a translation of already published material. But it also reaches out to the non-traditional comic book fan, especially the young girls demographic.

We do need specialty stores to stay open (the direct market is really what saved the comic book industry back in the day) if only to foster smaller, non-mainstream titles. But as someone mentioned earlier, this is a phenomenon that happens in a lot of industries. We buy from deepdiscountdvd at the expense of the local video store (like Tower) and from amazon instead of the local, non discounted bookstore. In the videogame industry, hardcore game fans should want specialty shops like EB Games and Gamestop to stay afloat because they get even the niche games, but the lure of cheaper prices at Best Buy is hard to beat.

I get charged sales tax when I buy my comics at the LCS. I think they get classified as magazines.

Depends where you live.

Some states don't collect sales tax on magazines and newspapers. Others collect sales tax on everything.

I forget what the limit is, I believe its $40 or so. I'm not forced to buy anything. But as I said, if extra comics are put in there it does add to my 'limit' or 'total'. And then I'm receiving a phone call saying I need to clean out my box. I get there, and I see extra stuff. Go figure.

Anyway, I didn't mean to thread hijack, I just decided to order my singles online

Time to go read Squadron Supreme: The Pre-War Years

Personally, I love going to my local comic shop. It's a great store, and I love browsing for things I might not otherwise pick up. I also like the immediate satisfaction of not having to wait for my books to show up in the mail.

That said, it's never the customer's responsibility to support his LCS. If the customer is getting more out of the mail-order experience than the LCS experience, the LCS needs to improve the experience that customer is getting if it wants to keep his business. It sounds like stingermck's LCS had a crappy policy on pull boxes. Why should he feel any obligation to support that?

As cluttered as the one I go to is, I do too. However, I wish we had the luxury to browse through things I don't get. But since he only orders enough for Previews/file customers, that's not possible.

I was killing time in Barnes & Noble today and the manga space was more than three times the GN space. And this was a downtown store, not a suburban-mall-hub store. I think it was closer to 60/40 the last time I was there.

Can't really derail a comic thread by talking about comics

I really wish you said you were interested in this a couple of months ago. I've upgraded to the HC's for cheap and I would have gladly sent you the first trade. But yeah, I definitely say start from the beginning. If you like it, you'll love it.

It was a book I heard about a lot, but didn't really know the premise, so I bout the first trade kind of blind. I bought the following trades one after another from the various bookstores in my area over the next week and a half because I HAD to know what happened next.

The book houses one of my favorite romance stories ever, and the drama of the book is only compounded by the incredibly effective art by Terry Moore. What Marvel and DC consider "sexy women" will be laughable once you see how Moore draws the fairer sex. I believe that books done by (good) author/artists (Bone, Blankets, Box Office Poison) have an inherent strength that other books don't (unless it's by a very very strong creative team who know each other's style well), because the creator knows exactly what he wants on the page and what he wants his art to convey that his writing didn't/what he wants his writing to convey that the art won't. This is one of those books.

Even though there is a mystery to the book, along with some really intense and dynamic stories, it is mainly about the relationship of the two main characters, Francine and Katchoo. I would warn you, but then you suggested romance titles to me in the September thread, so I think you can handle it. I'm a little leery of saying much, because the read is much cooler the blinder you go into it.

The only bad thing about the story is that it does have a bit of a merry-go-round feel to it. Like more had this one idea and stretched it a little thin. You really feel this in some of the later trades, but since I like the story, it doesn't bother me much.

I read the whole run of comics every year and a half or so, so that should tell you something. Now I'm just waiting until it's all done, so I can start from the beginning and read to the conclusion, with the last 10 books or so being new to me. I plan on doing this all in one sitting, on a nice LOOOONG Sunday afternoon.

I say give the first two trades a shot. The first is only four issues long, and not the best gage of the book, even though it's still good. It serves more as an intro to the characters and how they work.

Also totally unrelated to SiP, but you almost might dig the OGN Mail Order Bride for more slice of life type books.

RE: SIP - I actually bought the very first issue published by Antarctic Press way back in 1993 at the LCS, like most indies, it had a miniscule print run. Later, I did end up selling it when the prices got really high for it. I regret it in some ways, but there have been so many TPBs/HCs covering the same material, the regret isn't as strong as it was a few years ago. I think I'm about 3 HCs behind, but I still get them, and will read them once the series comes to an end in 4 issues.