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davidmariottecomics · 1 year ago

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Let's Buy a Comic

Hello! Check it out, I'm back a second week in a row! Pretty good!

Alrighty! Lets get right to it! I'm hoping to keep this one quick! Because this comes up a lot, I want to talk about how to go about actually buying comics. It's both a lot easier to do than you may expect and a lot more nuanced!

The Local Comic Book Store

When we're talking about the release of comics in the U.S. (and certain other places, including the U.K., Canada, etc) in stores, we're often talking about the Comics Direct Market. A ways back, I talked about both what exactly that means (Creator Vocab, pt. 1) and a little bit about how I shop at a comic book store and how you might want to too (You, Me, and Your LCS). I recommend reading through both of those if you missed 'em, but the short version is comics are primarily sold--at least in brick-and-mortar or physical stores--through specialty shops that primarily sell comics.

Comic shops tend to be one-off independent businesses. Sometimes, you might find one that's a small chain, often regional or within a single city or state. But there's no comic equivalent to say Toys R Us (not that TRU is really around in the U.S. anymore) or Barnes & Noble (we'll get to them) or FYE or whatever your other media-focused specialty chain retailers are. One of the really cool things about that, often, is it means when you go to a shop, you really are engaging with the local community. Not only are the employees local, but they're paying attention to what their local audience likes, and many shops also try to be involved in local events. The reason I'm really stressing this local point is if your comic shop doesn't know your interests as part of their local community, it makes it so much harder for them to bring in what you are looking for! (As a brief aside, I know some comic shops fall down on that and can be unfriendly, but a lot of them are cool and a lot of them like doing business, so they do want to get to know you and your interests).

"But David," you cry, "what if I don't know if I have a local comic shop?!" Good news: There's a website for that. And it even looks up shops outside the U.S. just by toggling a button! Hopefully, there's a good option for you! Sometimes, unfortunately, things just aren't spread out nicely like that. I have lived in places where the closest comic shop was an hour or more away and for a lot of folks, I get if that's not doable. Good news too: There are websites for that! Just choosing a few off the top of my head, here are some comic shops: Mile High (in CO), Midtown (in NY), Golden Apple (in CA), Comickaze (my local store), Silver Sprocket (indie comics including stuff they publish), Big Bang (in Ireland), Quimby's (in IL, a indie comics/zines & bookstore). Seriously, there are a bunch of them and they all have different stuff--see the bit about catering to their local audiences first--but also they ship! It has never been easier to buy comics from a comics specialty shop.

All of this is step 1 in buying comics: find a place with comics. Hopefully, now you have that. Let's take a brief trip to step 1.5: other places to buy comics.

The Book Market

I'm going to keep this fairly brief, but there are lots of other places where you can buy comics--though often not in single issue format. I mentioned Barnes & Noble earlier (and FYE who has some selection here too). You may remember a whole rigmarole not too long ago about why manga was beating comics or whatever because there were a couple pictures from one B&N with a larger manga than non-manga comics section (Shelf Space). And if you read that, you might remember one of my big points is it's all comics. In many ways, comics has broken back into the book market and collected editions and manga are available in more plentiful supply at bookstore chains and independent stores. Good news: There's a website for finding your local independent bookstore too!

Some comics are available through other channels too--from digital comic retailers and apps, borrowing them physically or digitally from your local library, and even a selection in mass market retailers like Walmart and Target. I believe--though there's some trickiness with this--both Marvel and DC still offer print comic subscriptions for their series. Plus, of course, there are a host of free and paid for webcomics hosted all over the internet and like huge comics campaigns through Kickstarter and so many other *legal* ways of obtaining your comics! All of this is to say, there are lots of ways to get access to comics beyond just comic shops.

Finding the Right Selection

Step 2: See if this shop has what you want, and if not, figure out how to get it.

Alrighty, not to sound too redundant, but one of the things that makes a comic shop special is it being catered to the interests of the owners/employees/regular customers. Different stores often have different specialties. Some stores primarily focus on new releases. These shops tend to have comics from within about a year, and then heavier sections for collections (for older material), sometimes manga, or "related material" (e.g. board games, toys, cards, Pops, etc). Some stores rely heavily on their back issues--comics that didn't sell (or are being resold) when they first came out, but that people still want--sometimes because they're trying to complete a run, sometimes because the comic features the first appearance of a character or something, sometimes just because some back issues are cheap and accessible. Some stores are more manga heavy, or more comic art book heavy, or don't really carry comics by the larger publishers, or carry comics of specific genres, or promote comics created by queer folks and POC, or whatever! Each store's identity is going to be unique.

Let's say you're looking for Sonic the Hedgehog. A place like Silver Sprocket or Quimby's is probably not going to have any and isn't likely to bring it in outside of a special request. The other stores I called out earlier probably will have bring in at least a couple copies. Mile High might be your best bet, out of those specific shops, for older issues, both from IDW and other publishers (there're about to be 900 English language Sonic comics, don't you know!). But they might not have any Sonic the Comic issues from the U.K. and you might need to look elsewhere for those! Finding a shop is important, but it also informs what you're going to find in the store and how likely it is they'll be able to get you what you want--be it new issues or older back issues.

I think it makes sense to share this here. I shared a thread from @disdainfreely who was walking through what it's like ordering for the comic shop they work at. It's an interesting thread and clearly speaks to how personal orders are from shop-to-shop, retailer-to-retailer.

Pre-Orders Pre-Orders Pre-Orders If you've found a shop that you dig, and you're looking for new/upcoming issues, the best way to proceed it to ask them about pre-ordering the book and setting up a pull box. A pull box is essentially a subscription through the comic shop. You don't (well... depending on your LCS's system) get the comics sent to you directly, but the store has a standing pre-order for you in place and will hold on to your pre-orders for a time.

Pre-ordering comics should be easy and *usually* is. Like most things, the more specific you can get, the better. You want to have Sonic added to your pull-box. Cool. Most retailers can work with just that. You might have to specify if that includes specials (like the 900th Adventure, the Amy's 30th Anniversary, Scrapnik Island, etc) or if you're trying to get specific covers (their own whole thing), but that's a pretty clear conversation. When you're talking, say, Batman, maybe it's more complex because there are a LOT of Batman titles with a lot of covers. Then, it might be helpful to either grab a catalog in store or look up what you're interested in at a distributor level (Lunar = DC, Image, and a number of smaller publishers, PRH = Marvel, IDW, Dark Horse, and others, Diamond = Pretty much all other publishers w/some overlap) and if you can share a specific order code, awesome! Just makes their life easier.

The real key to pre-orders is not only does it guarantee you a copy of the comic you want on the day it comes out, but these numbers inform the comic's print run (how many copies of it are made in the first place) and the store's overall inventory going forward. If you're the one person buying Sonic at a store, hey, maybe they're only bringing in your pre-order. But maybe they take a chance and bring in a couple copies of the next issue and you bring your friends in (or total strangers come in--maybe other regular patrons) and pick it up and then hey, now the store's ordering more Sonic more regularly and that's cool. It is a system that is good for you, good for the store, and good for the publisher. If You Liked It, You Gotta Go Back

Finally, once you've got everything else figured out, if you had a good time, remember to go back! Especially if you started a pull box (in which case, go back at least monthly!). Part of being a store that's driven by the local community is needing repeat customers to keep things afloat, so stop in again sometime!

And, really, that's how you buy a comic. If you have any questions, ask your retailer!

Next week? Who knows! But it's nice to be back!

What I enjoyed these past few weeks: Blank Check (Podcast), Honkai Impact (Video game), Rise of the TMNT (Cartoon), Craig of the Creek (Cartoon), Transformers: Earthspark (Cartoon), Across the Spider-Verse (Movie), Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (Movie), Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 (Movie), Dungeons & Daddies (Podcast), My Year in MENSA (Podcast), Robocop (Movie), Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs by Jamie Loftus (Book), Chainsaw Man (Manga), I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy (Book), Hail to the Chin by Bruce Campbell (Book), Forest Hills Bootleg Society by Dave Baker and Nicole Goux (Comic), Pet Peeves by Nicole Goux (Comic), Girl Taking Over: A Lois Lane Story by Sarah Kuhn, Arielle Jovellanos, and Olivia Pecini (Comic), I Think You Should Leave (TV show), Smallville (TV show), Guy's Ultimate Game Night (TV show), the DC Pride special (Comic), the current runs of Superman, Superboy, and Shazam (Comics), Witch Watch (Manga), The Age of Pleasure by Janelle Monae (Album--I really like Lipstick Lover), Barry (TV Show), Robber/Robert (18+ ADULTS ONLY COMIC), Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Links (Video game), all the many Sonic birthday announcement-y things and other cool video game news, now being on Bluesky (I'm @davidmariotte there). Again, probably missing a lot of stuff because it has been a while since we last really talked, but that's what is at top of mind!

New Releases this week (6/21/2023): Sonic the Hedgehog, Vol. 14: Overpowered (Editor)

New Releases next week (6/28/2023): Brynmore #1 (Editor)

Final Order Cut-Off next week (6/26/2023 - AKA Preorder Deadline) Sonic the Hedgehog #63 (Editor)

Announcements:

Genuinely, not much to announce at the moment. I'll be at San Diego Comic-Con as usual this year (just got my badge in the mail). TBD whether this is my last con of the year. I hope not (and if you're a con and want me, reach out!), but we went so hard on spring and early summer shows this year, just expecting to be more light on travel the latter half of the year. I also wish I could be like "here's a big new thing I'm writing" but I don't have anything to talk about on that front right now either, sorry!

Tonight Becca should be streaming on Twitch (they're working a book festival today, so will likely be late and might not be long), but that should still be happening, I think! Or you can watch their art stream from Wednesday with Gigi Dutreix! You can also always visit their website, which is updated with new stuff since I last yelled about it here!

Lastly, I mentioned Silver Sprocket earlier! They're going to be opening up mini-comic submissions in August. Might be worth looking, folks who are interested! And if you need a writer... (wink)

OH! And of course, while it's still June, happy Pride!

Pic of the Week: Becca and I got a Sonic union suit! So here are funny pictures of us in it.