#comicsarebooks

[worldscollideca]

...on a Wednesday, these are the fine things you will find from #imagecomics . trade paperbacks of Mirka Andolfo’s UNNATURAL, Ray Fawkes UNDERWINTER, the charitable 24 PANELS anthology which is in aid of those stricten by the Grenfell Towers disaster. with too many great contributors to name here. and lastly the DELUXE Edition of INJECTION, the scifi occult shamanic futurist mystery from Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey and Jordie Bellaire. incredible stuff in large format with gangloads of extras. #injection #warrenellis #declanshalvey #jordiebellaire #rayfawkes #underwinter #mirkaandolfo #unnatural #tpb #lcs #newcomicsday #comicsareforeveryone #comicsarebooks https://www.instagram.com/p/Bqbb_gJgJAY/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=w2py5o2sxyz3

[frogkingart]

Heavy stuff. Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco #comicsarebooks #nonfiction

[thebookdragon217]

August was the start of branching out into some new and long lost genres. I was so happy to find this #ownvoices gem written by Puerto Rican afro-latinx Vita Ayala at my local @forbiddenplanet. It's a story about an estranged brother and sister and a dark underground world. I can't wait to check it out. QOTD: Do you read comics? Would you go into dark underground world to rescue your estranged sibling? ******SYNOPSIS: On the night of the biggest storm in New York City history, Elysia Puente gets a call from her estranged little brother Angel, terrified, begging for help. When the call cuts out suddenly, despite the bad feelings between them, Ellie rushes into the night. Finding his broken phone in front of a barricaded subway station, Ellie follows echoes of her brother into the sinister darkness of the underground, desperate to find him before it’s too late. #readlatinx #afrolatinxcomicwriter #pridebooks #queerwriter #boricua #weneeddiversebooks #ownvoices #readcarribbean #comicbooks #book #booksandsunsets #readmorelatinx #submerged #vitaayala #vaultcomics #bookstagram #bookdragon #nerd #bookworm #booklover #bibliophile #comicsarebooks #comicsisreading (at Middle Village) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEFu-w1J6YQ/?igshid=zy1bzotjdlvw

[worldscollideca]

a hige restock just arrived. BERSERK, Urasawa'a 20th Century Boys, DID YOU HEAR WHAT EDDIE GEIN DONE?, by Eric Powell. and lots more. #comicsarebooks https://www.instagram.com/p/CTPoN5YLMCv/?utm_medium=tumblr

[worldscollideca]

Defend your right to read! Banned Books Week is upon us again and this pamplet from The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund shows what to do, what to read and which books have faced the most controversy. #cbldf #bannedbooksweek2017 #comicsareforeveryone #comicsarebooks #resist

[worldscollideca]

today apparently biography day, and of the translated French variety. top of the list is Mathilde Ramadier's SARTRE. such a loving and insightful examination of the philosophical and literary titan. Not to be outdone NBM Graphic Novels has also brought us ELVIS by Le Hénanff-Chanoniat. IDW follows with another Eurobook, CALAMITY JANE by Perrissin and Blanchin. Brush up on some history this week. Sound smart for your friends! #comicsarebooks #comicsareforeveryone #mathilderamadier #anaisdepommier #nbmgraphicnovels #idw #elvis #calamityjane

[worldscollideca]

8 and 1/2 months and already a fan. never too soon to start reading to the little ones! #wonderwoman #comicbookmoms #comicsarebooks #ww #dc #galgadot #pattyjenkins #rebirth #williammoultonmarston

[worldscollideca]

Job well done. Two more comics freed from the tyranny of slabbing. check out the liberation video on our youtube channel here http://youtu.be/AxD_9lePxlg #comicsarebooks #cgc #cbcs #marvelcomics #daredevil #frankmiller #jackkirby #kingofcomics #justsaynotoslabbing

[worldscollideca]

storing mini comics is always a pain. this is never so obvious than after TCAF. Fortunately a very creative friend crafted this sweet Kamala Khan storage box to keep all those little books safe. Thx C. #minicomics #comicsruleeverythingaroundme #msmarvel #marvelcomics #comicsarebooks #TCAF #torontocomics #johnnysampson #totalfuckup

[worldscollideca]

it’s not quite local but it’s 100% indie! CATACUMBA is a monsterific horror comic from Brazilian artist/writer KIKO and his Kikomics imprint! it’s got a dose of Francavilla with a dash of Peter Bagge stirred up into some serious SouthAm horror stew! $15! #kikomics #catacumba #tictoctom #forlocalsonly #downtownoshawa #independentcomics #comicsarebooks #comicsareforeveryone #scumbagbookclub (at Worlds Collide) https://www.instagram.com/p/BsBiM6Ugre0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=znrzg7fq68yx

[worldscollideca]

Lights is coming to Oshawa. The multi talented singer/songwriter and now comic book creator will be performing Sept 14 at The Regent Theatre. ...and the next person who comes in and buys a copy of Lights’ graphic novel SKIN & EARTH gets a pair of tickets to the show! #lights #skinandearth #dynamiteentertainment #lcs #comicsareforeveryone #comicsarebooks (at Worlds Collide)

[worldscollideca]

DC’s Young Animal has reignited with hype new takes on their existing titles and introduced another fab iteration of a classic character with the new title ETERNITY GIRL. they all feature stunningly bright and energetic art and wondrously wacky and surprisingly deep storytelling from some of comics’ best talents. Check em out! #dc #younganimal #gerardway #doompatrol #cavecarsonhasacyberneticeye #cavecarsonhasaninterstellareye #shadethechanginggirl #shadethechangingman #cecilcastellucci #beckycloonan #marleyzarcone #michaelavonoeming #michaeloeming #jodyhouser #motherpanic #motherpanicAD #eternitygirl #kideternity #sonnyliew #charliechanhockchye #magdalenevisaggio #nationalperiodicalpublications #comicsarebooks

[worldscollideca]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SWINGIN’ STEVE DITKO! The man who brought us Spider-Man, Dr Strange, The Creeper,  The Question and half the characters who became the Watchmen, turns 90 years young today. Steve was a transcendant artist who broke ground in virtually evreything he did. His psychedelic designs and layouts, tense emotional charicatures, bind boggling covers, zany villians like The Green Goblin , Sandman and the Vulture, and all that wild hand jive! Steve is a living legend. I hope he knows how much we love and appreciate him and all his creations. Thanks, Steve.

[worldscollideca]

classic backboard stamp bingo! AK Comics and Cards from Agincourt. #venom #marvelcomics #comicsarebooks #comicsareforeveryone

[worldscollideca]

As a result of my Tumblr post the folks at Valiant sent us some sets of the super innacessable LEGENDS OF THE GEOMANCER. these sets are being given away to the loyal long term Valiant readers we have who missed out on this. Thanks to Atom at Valiant and many thanks to our readers. This is for you. #valiant #legendsofthegeomancer #xomanowar #comicsarebooks

[worldscollideca]

Valiant doesn’t hate you (despite my claims to the contrary)

The long and furious blog I posted last week and subsequently shared across many social media platforms, (up to and including Valiant’s Facebook page) was my frustrated reaction to what i saw/see as manipulation of the fan base, abuse of the direct market system and at the very least a skewing of sales that inaccurately forecasts readership going forward while simultaneously putting undue pressure on the stores that (right or wrong) cave and acquiesse to these marketing schemes, endangering their own longevity and directly harming the businesses of other brick and mortar stores in the immediate area. And then there is the online effect. We all know that as soon as one of these rare/special/unique/lackluster variants hit the shelves they miraculously appear on the resale market at prices even more exorbitant than what was the in store sticker price. A few short hours after I posted my concerns and frustrations I received a phone call from Atom at Valiant Entertainment, who wanted to discuss my concerns and to correct a few inaccuracies/vagueries that had been posted by both me and the proprietors at Collector’s Paradise. Firsty, he cleared up the misconception that there would be original/exclusive story pages contained within the additional 8pgs of exclusive content. The additional pages are to contain sketches, additional virgin art and some info about the process involved with the creation of the store’s variant cover and about the relaunch. This information calmed my indignant fires some, but I still find the whole process elitist and not in the best interest of the Direct Market. While most of our stores are independant we are part of a larger collective organism that operates not against our “competitors” but with and because of them.  I am not a fan of the “industry” labels applied to much of what we do we are a community and sure the publishers jockey for shelf space and hype while . I do not think “Dollar First”. My method as a store operator is not to undercut the other shops or to do something they are unable/unwilling to do but to offer things that they don’t. Fill a vaccuum. If they do good biz selling Funk-yO toys, I’m not afraid to let my customers know that “Foxy Marv’s” is the place to get em..

My concern is in having the things they want, listening to the customers, constantly building my knowledge so that i can find new interesting things to read. Without it being part of my decision process I am keenly aware that if you provide people with good service and get things they will enjoy into their hands, they will come back again and again to buy things. READ. READERS. THIS IS KEY. Speculative fads come and go and require a kind of his energy reactionary involvement that I’ve no interest in. I sell books. The gimmick of the month, trendy product of the year, or that superhyped licensed product, these are transient, unreliable, and even if they prove somewhat sustainable they neglect the essence of what we do. I was assured through my discussion with Valiant that story, art and quality books are their main goal, tho they feel behooved to try some of these marketing gambits to keep pace with Mickey Mouse and Bat Bunny. I will counter that Image comics is now the 3rd largest publisher of comics, the first to crack a 10% market share and they have done this laregly without any particular hustle. They went through that and now the books are the thing and the only thing, There is certain differences here, being that Image is not trying to cut in on the Superhero genre, content to produce every other kind of sci-fi/western/post-apocalyptic/fantasy/roamnce/BBQcrime drama. With nary a cape in sight. Their readership is different. But there’s that seemingly ephemeral concept of readership again. No matter how far we get from thinking of it,  reading and the stories will always be the core. Part of what was so frustrating to me is seeing devoted readers/customers who have followed Valiant from the Shooter days, thru the Acclaim era, up to the lovingly produced, well scripted, expertly illustrated epoch they are in now. If this was another company, who I had already rock bottom expectations of , who produce souless poorly assembled books that have more variants of a title and Deluxe Naugahyde boxed set ,than they have actual issues, I wouldnt be nearly as aggravated., Valiant makes good comics. they make quality stuff. they have gone to great efforts to resussitate their characters, deal with the divorce from the Gold Key characters, hire talented artists and produce what are generally excellent , quality books. I expect more from them. The ideas that you need these tricks to sell mags is nonsense and it only contributes to, encourages and caters to a increasingly volitile, fickle and fragile demographic. The collector, speculator, investor type might have deep pockets but they are the first to bail when there is any dip in interest in comic books, leaving all the retailers and publishers holding their...books, looking puzzled. But none of should really be surprised,and I know the people at Valiant are aware of this dynamic. Take other booksellers: Indigo/Chapters, Borders and others... they dont need this and dont resort to thist type of marketing to grab attention. Their employees aslo never field questions about 1st prints, variants, exclusive covers or exclusive content. Try this in a regular shop and you’d alientate not just the folks who missed out on said “special” but you’d piss off and probably lose the entire customer base. These people want books, literature, reading material. This is sustainable. This is reasonable. In stead of using fear and consumerist greed against the customer, appeal to what they actually want and whhat they may continue to follow month after month. Pumping out #1′s and Ultra Rare shiny think beyond this month. It’s curious that so many people seem to understand the long game when t comes to sitting on a stack of 1st appearences while waiting for the next Hollywood adaption to drop but they can’t have even a modicum of foresite when it comes to the core of their businesses. All this hype and scheming is not a strength of the direct market no matter how its positioned, it is a detractor that keeps peope away. " I cant get into comics", "i dont know where to start", " I’d be afraid to read them because they could get damaged. " We all have heard this. Or my favourite,”Is this good?” Which is meant as,”Is this gonna make me rich?" These are malignant peculiarities of the comics trade. We need to get past this. 

The so called graphic novel, which we all know is usually just reprints, is the foot in the door to legitiamcy, to have the form fully appreciated widely. And they are getting there. Comics are taught in schools,libraries everywhere have graphic novel sections, but there still is this lingering 1954 attitutde that does not see comics as valid literature or art, just as a collectible commodity to be sealed locked away and sold. Why bother printing the stories inside if this is the case.Just make them into 7″x10″ trading cards? End rarities. Give me ISBNs and barcodes that end in X! This in the end should be no threat to us the, DM retailers because such a wealth of this hybrid artform it cant be fully embraced or understood with a couple shelves of mostly Marvel, DC and Viz books. We provide a gateway, a love and understanding of the medium, a grasp of history and appreciation you wont get in a Chapters deals with Amazon too, and the creeping digital comics threat, but people love books, all kinds of books . There is a whole section of humanity who don’t love comics, and in this case I mean comics as the floppy, stapled, increasingly archaic, NorthAm curiousity, bastard child of Pulps, Newspapers and sleazy tabloid mags. Make the best books you can. make them accessible so that people other than the frenzied OCD colectors can get them. Reject elite one-upmanship. In stead of trying to extract max dollars from dwindling buyers thru schemes like getting them to consume multiple copies. And be realistic here, quite often the store is the end user, stats sales and highfives are based on how many we the retailers panicked and bought. The kind of statistical data released by Diamond or thru other chains of info generally does not describe or track or care about who is taking these things home, if they are a reader, or if the person who just bought 20 copies to put under this bed until they are worth more than silver.  They also don’t track how many are returned/destroyed I believe wholeheartedly in readership. I trust in this. This belief, this principle, this ideal has nothing to do with profit, tho it has borne out over the 30+ yrs of our store that this is still profitable. And durable. Publishers, your company will get space on merit. Sometimes i'll have to shrink that because no matter what we do they just wont buy but it wont be for a lack of effort.  Valiant comics also believes in it’s readership. They are doing what they think is best to get attention to their books. I still disagree with it, but I do believe in the end their goal is to produce quality books to interest new readers and to continue to impress and engage their life long fans. The battle continues in this “post-literate” society to keeps people reading and to make sure books are in their hands. Keep making good stuff and I’ll be on your side. The medium of comics, as a form of art and literature needs to flourish. And it can be bigger and better than ever if we maintain focus wthout succumbing to shortsighted grabs at a brass ring. This is a business, but it is also more than that. Stories are central to humanity. Storytelling and oral histories are of primary importance to how we got where we are and how we maintain it and move forward. It is how we communicate. The comics medium does this in a wholly unique way and we need to strengthen this and affirm it as intrinsic to our human culture. Keep reading. See you all Wednesday.