Not Exactly Roanoke Island

My initial reaction to The Lost Colony by Grady Klein was a bit of a mess. Not that the book is a bit of a mess, but I wasn't sure what I thought of it overall, or even about some of the parts. Which may be part of the intention here. It's the story of a secret island presumably in the United States sometime in the mid-1800's. The island is essentially a world (or at least a country) unto itself, cutoff from the mainland except for a single ferry. The world itself is incredibly well realized with a large cast of fairly rounded characters and a unique visual style. It was interesting to watch the trailer on First Second's site because I definitely got the sense while reading the book that it was initially conceived as a cartoon (Klein's history in animation making that an even stronger possibility), though not necessarily one primarily for children.

The biggest difficulty I had with the book itself was the lack of a compelling protagonist. Nearly all of the characters were interesting (particularly Birdy, Dr. Wong and Louis John) and I found myself curious about their backstories, but there was very little exploration of those histories. Yet, while several stood out as compelling characters, it wasn't until the second half of the book that I truly started to pull for any of the characters (always a danger with this large an ensemble). Knowing that there are future volumes planned, however, I'm willing to give this book the benefit of the doubt as the introduction to this world.

The story itself centers around the arrival of a slave trader and the resulting impact on an island that seems to have abolished slavery (though racial tensions still run high). While the themes of the book are serious ones, the tone and touch that Klein brings to it are incredibly light and I often found myself wondering just how I was supposed to react to a scene or situation. By the end I began to feel that Klein was simply trying to create that feeling of unease rather than convey a specific point of view.

The art was occasionally confusing, primarily when Klein would offer a quick flashback (usually a single panel or two) to take us into the character's head. There wasn't much to differentiate between the past and present in those panels, but I eventually came to expect them and they do inform the story as it progresses. Overall the art and characters were definitely interesting enough to get me back for the next book but hopefully we'll learn a bit more of the history of the "Lost Colony" and be greeted with a more compelling story.

Continuity Free Reading

Wednesdays tend to be difficult for blogging, mainly because I get busy doing other things and therefore spend less time letting my brain kick out whatever thoughts may actually congeal into a semi-coherent post. Last Wednesday was an exception since we did almost zero business and I was particularly annoyed by Diamond, so not much thought was necessary.

In general, however, the day is well past half over by the time I finish setting up the new comics section, updating the New Release books and Best Sellers, shifting inventory to make room for those books that fall out of those two categories, rearranging our display table, sending the weekly e-mail to Diamond detailing what we've been shorted that week, pulling our Reserve members titles, and oh yeah, helping/ringing up customers.

That said, yesterday Larry Young made Continuity, AIT/PlanetLar's first new release in months (outside of a Sky Ape one shot) available for free online. The title is solicited in the April Previews and is therefore not due to hit shelves until June. I expected to see quite a bit more reaction to this as a business decision, particularly regarding the question of whether scans of comics being illegally available online help or hurt sales (or make little to no difference) and whether this is the wave of the future. Personally it's an experiment I'm glad to see take place, and while it is an approach I would expect from AIT/PlanetLar, I'm a bit surprised that they're taking this risk after such a gap in their publishing schedule. But than, maybe there's not much of a risk since we're talking about relatively unknown creators rather than something like The Tourist.

As for the book itself, the scan is not exactly phenomenal, but it gets the job done without making the PDF too horribly unmanageable (though it still tops 11 MB). Didn't immediately hook me, but I do like the premise and will probably give it another shot when I get the chance. In the meantime, come on people, let's argue about whether this will backfire or not (and then about whether it's all much ado about nothing). Joanna Draper Carlson has already speculated a bit and offers her less than enthused view of the title, while Dorian at Postmodern Barney offers his much more impressed thoughts. But go judge for yourself.

Who's on Third?

I spent several posts running through some small publishers and discussion what they tend to right and or wrong from our perspective but today I want to look at a publisher that has yet to release a single book but has already done a solid job of positioning themselves in this market, namely First Second (or :01 as they have cleverly branded themselves).

First, I do want to point out that First Second has something of an advantage, since they are actually an imprint of Roaring Brook Press a childrens book publisher and ultimately owned by the same company that owns FSG, Henry Holt, etc. The formation of the imprint was announced over a year ago and they've clearly spent plenty of time and resources building a solid stable of talent and work. Just any of that actually shakes out in terms of real world advantages I have less than zero clue about.

What I do know is that they're publishing Eddie Campbell's Fate of the Artist, a book I'm very much looking forward to. I'm a fan of the Alec books and can't wait to read this. It will be one of our spotlight titles when it hits shelves and assuming it lives up to our expectations, it will also get a fairly hefty shove from MacGuffin. They're also releasing Vampire Loves by Joann Sfar (who created the wonderful Rabbi's Cat) and Lewis Trondheim's A.L.I.E.E.E.N. Plus sometime next year we can expect to see a title I'm anticipating only slightly less than Fate of the Artist, Paul Pope's Battling Boy. After looking through their Spring and Fall catalogs, I came away with the sense that this is an organization that knows what it's doing and where it wants to go.

Clearly I'm not the only one looking forward to what First Second will come up with. Chris Butcher met several members of their staff at NYCC and came away impressed (read the whole thing, its in there somewhere and the rest is interesting too). ICV2 has some of the details about the spring and fall releases. Plus Graeme got an early look at Fate of the Artist and it sounds like we won't be disappointed. Two other intriguing titles from the spring releases that I have thus far neglected are The Lost Colony and Sardine in Outer Space because these are the only two I've been able to get ahold of. I'm going to go ahead write a review of them later in the week, but in the meantime check out the trailer for The Lost Colony. Oh, and they've got an interesting blog too.

Now Featuring Searchable Inventory

If you take a look at the sidebar you'll notice that we've added the ability to search our inventory (no singles for now) as well as the opportunity to browse by category. As of now all that is listed is title and price, but we hope to provide more information on each title in the future (similar to how the arriving this week pages work).

There are a few problems with the system (i.e. many of the titles are truncated) but it at least offers a chance to see what sort of breadth and depth of titles we carry. The inventory listed is about 95% accurate for what we have in stock but we're constantly getting new titles in so if you don't see what you're looking for, drop us a line and we'll check on it for you. Feel free to give everything a test run and please let us know if you run into any problems (or have any ideas for improving the interface, etc).

As for the world of comics, the big new today is the partnership between Harper-Collins and Tokyopop to produce OEL manga based on Harper-Collins works and written by Harper-Collins authors (or at least conceived by their authors). Of slightly more interest to me, however, is that Harper-Collins will be taking over distribution of Tokyopop to the bookstore market. It will be interesting to see how this impacts the availability of certain titles, particularly since we stock a large part of our manga through book trade distributors and wholesalers. If nothing else, though, Tokyopop has assured themselves of even better penetration into bookstores (as though they needed it).

The Big Question

It's not "Do you have V for Vendetta" (while ignoring the nice display table. Nor is it "What's this whole Infinite Crisis thing?" Nor even, "why do comics cost so much?" No, by far the most asked question at MacGuffin is, "how's business?"

This is a difficult question for me to answer, not because I'm concerned about divulging "private" information, but because it's a question that immediately implies a comparison to a non-existent frame of reference. I generally say something along the lines of "there are good days and bad days." Or "getting better." But what am I really talking about? I mean, sure its getting better when compared with the first few weeks, but we had several days without a sale those first few weeks. Not exactly a high watermark. Again, of course there are good days and bad days, but are there ore good or bad? Basically I avoid answering the question.

The main reason that I avoid answering the question, is because I appreciate so much that it gets asked. People seem genuinely excited by the store. Even those people who aren't particularly comic fans or don't really know what the sign means when it says graphic novel, they seem to like the idea of the store. It's a nice, comfortable place to find something you haven't seen before. But what I think most people mean by "how's business" is "is this place going to make it?" I believe (or hope anyway) that they want to hear good news. I could lie and say that we're way ahead of schedule, but I don't much like lying to customers. So, I go with the non-answer.

What I don't want to do is tell the truth, because I don't think anyone really wants to hear me complain about business. Because let's be honest here, I'm doing something I really enjoy. I can count on one finger the number of mornings I've dreaded coming to this store. On the other hand, I can't count the number of days I've been excited just to get into the store and wait with anticipation until someone comes in. I love this place and I want other people to love it to. So when I see the enthusiasm of others and hear their interest in how the store is doing, the last thing I want to do is break out the ledger and point out all of the red ink.

So when you come in, please feel free to ask how we're doing. I love that you're interested in seeing the store stick around. Just be prepared for some vague answers and some crossed fingers.

Quick Hits 3/24

*Word on the street is that DC's excellent artist spotlight Solo has been cancelled as of issue #12. Rich Johnston pointed this out Monday, though he seemed to be under the impression that the series was ending immediately. We'll have to see, but hopefully the work will eventually be collected in some form of archive format whether its a trade a hardcover or whatever because there was some excellent work done over the course of the series. Personally I hope DC doesn't just let all the work that went into the series disappear into the ether since its was a fairly effective tool to introduce some readers to artists they may not have read before. For all sorts of more or less informed opinions on the titles demise, check out the Engine thread on the topic.

*In other not so fun DC news, they seem to be following in Marvel's footsteps and lowering their overprint on titles with high sales potential and going to second prints instead. Batman #651 was sold out at Diamond before it arrived in stores and, though no official word has been released, it seems likely that we'll see a variant cover reprint shortly. While not a trend I necessarily prefer (since it creates a greater potential for problems like the one we had with Superman #650) they are at least going back to print quickly (though with an alternate cover of course) so that too much momentum shouldn't be lost. Still, with eight part stories for both Superman and Batman anchoring their One Year Later relaunches, you would think that the early parts of each story would have seen a nice sized overprint to accommodate the likelihood that retailers would underestimate the popularity of the titles (as we have been known to do). As a side note, the first part of the Batman story, Detective Comics #817 is still available from DC through Diamond so its either much less popular or received a much larger overprint.

*I'm really enjoying Nextwave, probably much more than I should. For a comic that's almost entirely about making the reader laugh, Ellis manages to make me care more about these characters here than I think I have in any of their other incarnations.

*A quick sales survey shows that among our female customers, our best selling title is a tie between Y:The Last Man and Runaways. Y is selling primarily to women in their twenties/thirties while Runaways is popular with our teenage girl contingent. Not sure what it says about me that these are two of my favorite series (and both are in our 10% off recommended section). What it probably says, though, is that it is much easier to hand sell a title that you enjoy.

*In a final nail in the "how am I supposed to compete with that" coffin, Nat Gertler of About Comics was kind enough to point out that Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace 1951-1952 is available from Amazon at 60% off. I can't even get this thing wholesale at anything better than 50% off. Lovely.

Reason #127 to be Frustrated with Diamond

Last week we received zero of the copies we ordered of Superman #650. We were invoiced for them and have now paid for them, but didn't get them when we were supposed to. Not entirely uncommon, since we're shorted several comics on a weekly basis. Usually, however, that's for a title in fairly limited demand, say Silent Hill or Hatter M. Unfortunately this time we were talking about a title with some serious heat that is one of only two titles on every one of our Reserve members pull lists. But mistakes happen. I'm told this is what's called a picking error, when the title and copies are invoiced and charged but when the warehouse staff are sorting out which titles go into our boxes, a mistake is made and a title is missed. You know what, mistakes happen. Even so, to have already been forced to pay for something that we do not yet have, well, that's a bit irritating, but that's what you get when dealing with a near monopoly.

Today's invoice included replacement copies of Superman #650 which is usually how Diamond deal with such mistakes. Now, Superman #650 sold out at Diamond late last week, but I'm told that a certain number of copies are held for replacements of damaged or shorted items, so we should be fine and the invoice indicated as much. Unfortunately, today's shipment arrived and what was missing? You guessed it, Superman #650. So now we have a problem because Diamond is completely out of any copies, there's nothing they can send next week. So, the resolution is that we should get a credit for what we've paid towards next weeks invoice. Unfortunately, I now have several customers who specifically signed up for our reserve system so as not to miss high demand titles like this one, other local shops are sold out (amazing how the vultures in this area swoop in and buy us out of titles that are reported sold out at Diamond), and now my customers don't have any options but to wait for the reprint due out in 2 weeks (which went to print immediately for the sake of speed, because of which we can not be guaranteed copies). Problem with waiting for the reprint is that part two of this story comes out next week and part three the same week the reprint of part one comes out. Not the end of the world, but incredibly frustrating.

It seems that my troubles are fairly minor, however, since two other shops were nearly shorted an entire box of comics (which likely comes out to roughly 1/3 of this weeks new releases). One retailer's box is still missing "somewhere in transit," while Jason Richards (of RIOT fame) details the ridiculous manner in which UPS handles comic shops in PA. Just a bad week for new comics logistics in general (probably because this week we have, get this, 74 titles on our new release wall. 74).

Please Excuse the Dust

We're making a few upgrades to the site so there won't be a whole lot of commentary over the next couple of days, but I will still be checking in with some thoughts and updates on changes we've made.

The first improvement to be implemented is the additional of a list of titles we are scheduled to receive this week as well as information on those titles. Simply click on Arriving Wednesday 3/22/06 on the sidebar each week to get an update on exactly what new arrivals to expect. There are other improvements in the works and as soon as they are functioning correctly we'll finalize them and let you know.

Not So Much with the Negative

I've become a bit depressed watching some of the smartest people in the industry argue over why it's not good enough. There's this incredibly human need to understand why things are the way they are, and when things aren't how we want them to be, to decide who is to blame. There are creators, publishers, executives, distributors, retailers, readers and passersby who like comics the way they are. Not an overwhelming number, but more than would admit to it. They'll claim that there are things that they would like to see change, like better Batman comics or a nationwide chain of comic book stores, but in reality they are perfectly content to create comics that resemble the same old Batman the world is all too familiar with and distribute those through the same old channels and buy them from the same old stores. Like most of the titles at Marvel & DC, a nice sized chunk of people with any stake at all in the industry prefer the illusion of change to actual change.

On the other hand, there are a more vocal (if not larger) number of people who actually would like to see significant change whether its a abolition of the current distribution system, the development of significant advantages for small publishers, radical changes to superhero comics, a change in the number/location/operation of the majority of retail stores, etc. To apply a ridiculously inappropriate physics metaphor, however, the laws of inertia tell us that a body at rest tends to stay at rest until acted upon by sufficient force. By which I mean that until those who want to make changes have the leverage to actually force those changes, we will continue to see baby step after baby step in whatever random direction our feet happen to be pointed.

Obviously a significant portion of the leverage within the comics industry lies with large publishers (primarily Marvel, DC, TokyoPop & Viz) and large distributors (Diamond and . . .) primarily because the vast weight of those entities are ultimately controlled by a few (if you go high enough up the food chain). The rest of us have to band together to force change (as retailers did in the Hibbs v. Marvel class action suit). Problem being that we're talking about herding cats here, so unless there's an easily agreed upon change to be made (or in the lawsuit's case, grievance to be filed) its not likely to get hundreds of retailers or tens of thousands of fans to all agree on the changes that should be made.

Instead creators, readers and retailers argue over what's wrong and why and then do whatever small thing they can to change it. The very act of opening MacGuffin was our little flapping of the wings but I don't know that its likely to change the anything except the dynamics of the comic retail market in Newport News, VA (much less the weather in Tokyo). Do the bloggerati need something to write about (myself included)? Sure, but watching (and participating in) arguments about whether there's a need for more retail stores or how to create more diversity of material (much less whose to blame for the lack of diversity) or whether material should be kept in print versus becoming collectible has made me very tired and more than a little frustrated. Unless these conversations are a prelude to action, then they often feel like little more than the venting of frustrations (or the flapping of a butterfly's wings in Tokyo).

The Tails that Wag the Dogs: Part Four

The tour continues:

Oni Press does a nice job of balancing genre books with what I will call literary works. They've put out almost an entire line's worth of noir/crime fiction, though usually with a twist (The Long Haul is probably my personal favorite of these). They also publish the terrific (if erratically published) Queen & Country, Capote in Kansas, and they're currently putting out Brian Wood & Ryan Kelly's Local and we'll soon see Sam Kieth's My Inner Bimbo from them. Almost everything they publish will appeal to comic converts and we try to use those titles to introduce new readers to the medium. Plus, they seem to publish in whatever format best fits the material (singles for Local is absolutely necessary), the sort of flexibility that is always the hallmark of a good publisher.

As much as any other publisher (and more than most), Top Shelf publishes books that truly deserve to be called graphic novels. We're talking Blankets, Box Office Poison, Tricked, American Elf, and From Hell (assuming they get it back into print), books with some real weight to them (both literally and figuratively). On the opposite end of the spectrum, they publish one of the best kids books available, Owly. The only problem Top Shelf seems to have is that they publish such high quality, best selling authors that the competition seems intent on poaching their talent.

Which brings us to Pantheon. As a division of Random House, I don't know that it can really be called a small publisher, but despite the ire that occasionally gets directed its way (how dare they infringe on our turf and publish comics) publishers like Pantheon will play a huge role in the future development of the industry. They have the sort of resources to put behind a title that really only Marvel and DC do and they can develop a presence in bookstores much more easily. The drawback of course is that they're only going to publish a known commodity (although I wouldn't have expected them to publish Jessica Abel's La Perdida a couple of years ago). Still if you look at Pantheon's sales compared to any other company, their percentage of hit to miss is ridiculous because they don't take much of a risk with what they publish. Of course being able to pay out some serious money to get people like Spiegelman and Charles Burns under your umbrella certainly helps. At the same time, I understand the fear that they will hurt the industry in the long term by "stealing" creators like Craig Thompson and Alex Robinson from a company like Top Shelf, limiting Top Shelf's ability to take a chance on a title like Owly. Ultimately, though, they have quickly developed into a brand name that can get books like Persepolis into the hands of many people who would not consider themselves comic book readers.

Fighting for Scraps

As I'm sure you've noted (since every site I've been to today has mentioned it) Brian Hibbs has a new Tilting at Windmills up at Newsarama. Really good stuff that relates (if somewhat tangentially) to what I've been talking about recently, the back half of Previews. Too many small publishers see Marvel & DC as their competition when, in reality those two companies are only a small part of the obstacles companies face in developing into a successful publishing entity. I've mentioned companies that have found their niche, but even those companies have the potential to expand their own readership and the market in general by marketing in all three phases that Brian points to.

The other key element that I've pointed to in the past few days is quality work, which when translated into ordering from Diamond, means quality creators. Isn't it interesting that so often the conversation is framed as competition between companies, rather than competition between product? How often do you hear about Random House vs. Simon & Schuster? Or Miramax vs. Dreamworks (except during Oscar season of course)? Even when put in the context of competition, books and movies are usually compared by title or creator, not publisher. Somehow the industry has developed the mentality that everyone is fighting over the same scraps and each company had better get its share before everything disappears. It's clinging to an attitude like that in the face of ever increasing quality and content that frustrates me to no end. At least once a week I have an customer wander in while waiting for a table at the restaurant next door and they leave absolutely blown away by the quality of what they see. To assume that they have any interest in what company publishes what is beyond ridiculous.


Just one company profile today, NBM aka ComicsLit. I don't want to go so far as to say that everything they publish is outstanding, but so far I'm impressed with their track record. First, they import some really interesting work, like Isaac the Pirate. Probably more importantly, though, they publish books like North Country (a great read that should be getting much more attention) and Brownsville which is one of the best graphic novels I've read in quite awhile (okay I'm only 2/3 done but I'm giving the rest the benefit of the doubt). What's great about NBM's output is that so much of it has such broad appeal. Isaac is a great read that I could sell to an art student or a fan of Pirates of the Caribbean. And Brownsville is a comic I can get my grandfather to read.

The Tails that Wag the Dogs: Part Three

Yesterday was MacGuffin's best Wednesday to date and the first that felt close to what we were expecting from a Wednesday with a couple of regulars coming in early and a few new customers wandering in as well. A good sign and things are at least still trending in the right direction. Now back to the countdown.

We like Drawn & Quarterly at MacGuffin, based on their willingness to publish high quality (albeit often quirky) comics. I equate most of what they publish with independent films. The sales figures may not be huge but they can be used to broaden the market and challenge the status quo. Some would say that most of Drawn & Quarterly's releases appeal to an even smaller niche than Marvel & DC and if we're comparing just the best of each, that may be true (though I remain unconvinced). We believe, however, that variety of product is far and away the most vital element of expanding comics readership and that includes providing access to that variety. I'm personally looking forward to everything they have solicited for release in May and I'm particularly interested to see how their new Petit Livres line goes. Plus, it's just good comics.

Following this theme we come to Fantagraphics. I actually met with a sales rep from W.W. Norton (which distributes Fantagraphics to bookstores) who arrived ready to show me a few sample pages from upcoming titles (I'm a huge Lost Generation nut so The Left Bank Gang by Jason looks really promising). As I told him, though, we're going to order at least a few copies of just about everything from Fantagraphics because, as with Drawn & Quarterly, the majority of what they put out is high quality material. My favorite single of the year thus far is Ganges (though some may argue it's status as a single) and who isn't a huge fan of the Complete Peanuts? Then you've got things like bringing Castle Waiting back into print in one nice big, new user friendly package.

Near the other end of the spectrum are the kings of horror, IDW. Before I go into what's good about IDW I first have to point out the bad, namely the ridiculous number of variant covers. We're just not a fan of variants in any form but particularly to the degree that IDW uses them. One thing that IDW does right, though, is the increased cover price. I know the average buyer/reader doesn't want to hear that but when the material and the package are of a high enough quality then it really makes sense for a publisher like IDW to retail at $3.99. The Angel comics do well for us (we have a growing contingent of Whedon fans who will buy just about anything even tangentially connected with him). They do a particularly nice job of publishing reliable talent, though, including Steve Niles, Ashley Wood and Brian Wood. Add the Transformers books and they've got a nice solid line with sales potential.

The Tails that Wag the Dogs: Part Two

Ever notice how many comic publishers company name start with A or B? Trying to get as close to the front as possible I suspect (can't imagine why Amaze Ink/SLG isn't listed as SLG/Amaze Ink later in the catalog). But back to our regularly scheduled post:

BOOM! Studios seems to have set itself up with some quality titles without straining the limits of their line. Carrying titles from Giffen and DeMatteis helps (particularly Stardust Kid) and I'm curious to see how War of the Worlds sells (particularly since they seem to have overshipped issue #1 to ensure a presence on the shelf). We'll give just about anything they publish at least a few copies of several issues to see what kind of legs they have. Here's hoping they can avoid getting bitten by the lateness bug (and can add bar codes to help my inventory tracking).

Now we come to Avatar. Here's a company that could probably develop itself into the next Dark Horse if it would just give up on the ridiculous variant covers (the Lady Death annual in the Mach Previews has 8 different covers). They've got a nice little horror niche and they've added a few licensed properties like Friday the 13th and Stargate that fit their line fairly well. Toss in the occasional Warren Ellis or Garth Ennis title and they have a solid base to work from. When titles are constantly late and solicited with an insane number of covers, though, it makes it difficult to throw much support behind them. We definitely don't carry everything they publish and several titles are on a single issue order, but every once in awhile a title like Black Gas does fairly well. The bigger problem is that their singles don't seem to translate very well into trade sales outside of the that Apparat collection.

Slave Labor is a company that we order based more on potential than anything. Their funny-more-than-scary line of pseudo-horror books haven't really found much of an audience here (outside of the Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Squee trades), yet we still order more than a token issue of titles like Bear, Rex Libris & Pirate Club (even though I suspect we'll have much more success with the trades of those titles). Still, it's good to have at least a few copies of the singles for quality titles to use as samplers to sell the trades if nothing else.

Checker Book Publishing is another company that we support a bit more than sales may warrant, though exclusively in the form of trades (where the threshold is a bit lower). Their Supreme volumes have sold well (despite suffering from a less than high quality transfer), as has Max Allen Collins' Dick Tracy collection. Throw in the early work of Dr. Seuss and Winsor McKay and they've got a nice little base to work from and a developing niche republishing quality out of print comics (always something we can support).

Quick Aside, Swear to God

We interrupt our regularly scheduled "Best of the Rest" segment to bring you a story about one of those best creators/titles:

Tom Beland announced via press release today that his top notch comic True Story Swear to God is moving to Image. Congratulations to him, he makes it pretty clear in the press release that he's excited about the move and the decreased workload it should provide (which he hopes will translate into more TSSTG more often). What I'm immediately reminded of is Bone and Strangers in Paradise circa 1996. Both went to Image for the exact same reasons (really first utilizing the model that Image employs so often today: bring us a completed book and we'll print and ship it for you). Independents were getting squeezed hard after the bubble burst and, probably more importantly, the distribution wars began. Rather than be stuck without a viable distribution option, both chose to take refuge at publishers with a bit more clout.

I've seen it theorized (and both sides have been heatedly argued at the CBIA) that independents are feeling a similar squeeze in the current market. The popular reason that gets tossed around is that Marvel and DC are flooding that market, but that's far from even the primary reason. Single title publishers are instead feeling the pinch from being surrounded by companies like the now defunct Speakeasy and the fading Alias. Both consume a nice chunk of the back half of previews with several full pages ads that make it oh so much fun to dig through. It makes it very easy to miss a publisher with just one title available when they're buried among companies with ten identical comics covering six or seven pages which retailers know are not going to ship on time. So the solution is to either spend a large sum of money competing for the chance to stand out with a full page ad or sign on with Image or Dark Horse and "move on up" to the front of the catalog, instantly improving your visibility.

This seems to be an early indicator that the little guys are feeling the crunch again, regardless of the reasons why. The only question (outside of when we'll see the Erik Larson dream sequence) is, will TSSTG follow the pattern and go back to self publishing after a year or so when print runs are up and Mr. Beland feels comfortable that the retailers and readers will follow him back, or has Image perfected their formula to the point that such a move is an unnecessary headache?

The Tails that Wag the Dogs: Part One

For the purposes of the next several posts, we're going to consider any comic publisher besides Marvel, DC, Dark Horse & Image as small publishers. I've already talked about Marvel and DC enough and I'll probably go into some depth on Dark Horse and Image at the end of this, but for now we're moving beyond them.

Going roughly alphabetically we come to several publishers right up front that we carry with confidence, namely Aardvark-Vanaheim and Abstract Studios. Of course, these are both really self publishers with a single title and what we carry from them is primarily backlist. We stock the entire collection of both Cerebus and Strangers in Paradise. Cerebus has sold decently thus far, moving several different volumes in the past couple weeks. Strangers In Paradise has hardly sold at all, but based on my observations, it gets flipped through more than any other by those with only a peripheral interest in comics. Either way, until sales data suggest a change, both titles are firmly on our perpetual stock list. In reality, even if sales data does suggest a change, we will still carry at least a portion of each title's run because there's consistency across the length and breadth of the title. If someone reads a volume of Cerebus or Strangers in Paradise and enjoy it, odds are pretty good that they'll like any other volume, thereby leading to another sale (Bone and Usagi Yojimbo are other examples of this, as is just about every manga series).

AdHouse Books is another publisher that gets plenty of support at MacGuffin, where we currently stock My Own Little Empire, Monkey & Spoon, Mort Grim, and Pulpatoon Pilgrimage. Creates a nice little presence between M & P in our Fiction section. Add to that the fact that they are based out of Richmond and Mr. Pitzer has been kind enough to send us several freebies/cool promo items and they end up high on our list. Solid to spectacular talent (anyone else looking forward to The Art of Paul Pope?) helps, but we're talking about an all around professional publisher that has earned our faith and goodwill.

I've been a fan of Larry Young since his Savant/True Facts days and that goodwill extends to AIT/PlanetLar. As with every other publisher mentioned thus far, though, we again carry primarily backlist items from them. There are of course two main reasons for this: #1 a significant chunk of our total inventory is backlist and #2 a significant chunk of their backlist sells. See how that works? Now if a new title is comics out from AdHouse or AIT/PlanetLar, we're going to take a look at it and we're going to order a minimum of one copy but odds are, considering the talent that generally produces such titles, we're going to order more than just the one copy. We weren't open when these two first started publishing, so it's difficult to separate their current track record from my overall impression of both, but these are two companies that, at least from the stool behind the counter at MacGuffin, seem to be doing it right. Sure they may not have a significant presence in every issue of Previews, but I think that tends to be overrated. It's very easy to get lost amid the brightly colored pages of the scantily clad women. Thankfully, both these companies have found a niche that works for them and we've figured out where to find them.

Judging an Open Book by its Cover

Today we're going to swipe pretty heavily from Beaucoup at least for source material. Word is there's a publisher set to release a new line of graphic novels backed by both proven talent and newcomers, Open Press Books. Of course, when they say graphic novels, they really mean "either stand-alone one-shots or continuing series with installments that are released bi-monthly or quarterly ... With black and white books ranging from 32 to 48 pages and in price from $3.75 - $4.25, and color books ranging from 40 to 52 pages and in price from $8.49 - $9.95." Sounds familiar. Apparently, however, these titles will be set apart by the fact that they will be square bound, thereby allowing them to be carried by bookstores and have a longer shelf life. Unfortunately, what they are actually publishing are periodical singles released on a less regular basis than most singles that they are labeling as short graphic novels. A longer shelf life is not going to guarantee placement in bookstores, nor is perfect binding. Apparently Borders has agreed to allow their customers to special order these titles. Not exactly the level of visibility I'm guessing they were hoping for.

Then there's the talent they have backing the line, namely Mr. Scootles by H.C. Noel, an interesting and fairly original book with potential, but not exactly something I'd use to launch an entire line of comics. To be fair, Open Book would probably be better served by simply starting small rather than burning up ala Speakeasy. Their plan, however, seems to be to follow in Speakeasy's footstep, however, specifically by putting out a call for submission from Speakeasy's former creators. I'm all for variety and I wish Open Book well, but I can't help but see these press releases and the opening barrage of titles as reminiscent of the tactics that have so often failed in our industry. Apparently simply changing the binding and release schedule will open a whole new range of retail space in bookstores (because it worked for Crossgen).

Hopefully Open Book will succeed in putting out quality material on time and with solid marketing (to both retailers and consumers). But unless I see some advance copies that really wow me, I don't intend to order more than a few copies of any of these titles.

But enough with the negativity. I think I'm going to expand on my previous Fun with Numbers and small publishers posts over the next few days by digging into the back of Previews and pointing out the publishers, titles and creators that I do have some faith in.

Quick Hits

*Despite evidence that Naruto is taking over the world our Manga sales are spotty at best. I'm still feeling that section out as we go and trying to improve the variety there. What it really needs, though, is an influx of cash that will result in an influx of books.
(read more on Naruto's high watermark at The Comics Reporter)

*Did anyone ever read The Atlantis Chronicles by Peter David and Esteban Maroto? Those were my favorite Aquaman comics of all time (yeah, yeah, Aquaman was barely in them). Busiek & Guice's new Sword of Atlantis, One Year Later version of Aquaman reminds me of that.

*Reason #7 that we don't carry DVDs. Talk about an area where we can't begin to compete. Although, Robert Scott does give some good ideas on how to do it right if you're going to do it at all (have to love the outside the box thinking).

*Very interesting new project Phonogram: Rue Britannia from Kieron Gillen and Jamie "Long Hot Summer" McKelvie coming from Image. Nice promotional idea as well.

*Two of our customers asked me yesterday why they never see any other customers in the store. Now that'll bring your day down a notch or two. It was our second best Wednesday, though, so no complaints.

Pattern Recognition

I've been looking for patterns in our sales data recently (actually I've been doing so from the beginning, but patterns have only started to emerge recently).

Two weeks ago the store's identity shifted from "that new place with some stuff no one else has" to "the secondary option." Please allow me to explain. I was looking at how sales break down by day. Since day one Saturdays have by far been our busiest day. Over the last two weeks the gap has closed quite a bit, but to this day 3 of our 5 best days and 6 of our 10 best are Saturdays. Over the last few weeks, however, Fridays and Mondays have begun to catch up, with Wednesdays close behind. The obvious thing that jumps out at me is the fact that Wednesdays are not nearly as busy as I had anticipated. Which leads me to determine that we are primarily considered a secondary option by most of our clientele. I've had several customers come in looking for a title that their primary shop sold out of (we almost always have it, which makes us look good) and generally looking to pick a trade or graphic novel as well. We're filling a niche, which was the goal to begin with and I'm actually pretty happy that business is as evenly distributed as it has been the last few weeks. Sure Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays this place seems like a ghost town, but 4 out 7 works for now.

The other trend is the increase in the number of singles sold. Our trades and graphic novel sales have held fairly steady once we got through the first two or three weeks, but our singles sales the last two weeks is almost equal to our singles sales in the first month and a half. Things are trending in the right direction, now its just a matter of figuring out the right way to step on the gas and get us to the level where we can actually pay the bills.

Previewing: Fun With Number 3.6.6c

Before I move on in examining MacGuffin's February Diamond initial order, a quick word on the results of Saturday's analysis. I pointed out the increased risk to a retailer of carrying titles from a small publisher rather than Marvel/DC. As for how I believe a small publisher should adjust to such a situation, the solution lies (somewhat counterintuitively) in raising the price. An additional cost of $.50 adds $.22 of profit to each copy. If a publisher was to couple the increased price with increased discount to, say 50%, the publisher would see $2.35 per copy and the retailer would see an additional profit of $.46 ($.70 more than the DC title in the example) making the initial risk more worthwhile. Such a strategy may not be the most attractive in the short term, if a company is prepared to survive based on reorders, a higher price point is almost certainly the way to go. Which all of leads back to Larry Young's assertions that the future for small publishers lies in original graphic novels (True Facts currently in stock at MacGuffin), which I fully believe to be the case (assuming a certain level of quality).
End of tangent.


Over the last couple of posts, I've argued that, even in our monthly Previews order, MacGuffin stands out by offering a wider range of product than the average store. I shown breakdowns by money and unit, but what variety really comes down to is the number of unique titles a store carries. This is where we still needs to improve according to the following breakdown.

Percentage of Total order by Title:
Marvel: 25.5%
DC: 25.2%
Everyone Else: 49.3%

Half of our shelf space is taken up by Marvel and DC. Some would argue that Marvel and Dc are what sells, but a large part of what sells is function of what the consumer sees. One of the things that is most frustrating about comic retailing is the fact that shelf space is finite. We knew going into this that in order to make the store spacious and inviting we would be forced to sacrifice the ability to cram every single space with another product facing. Sometimes you just have to compromise and we've done so. Which means that the majority of new singles get a single week of full facing before going onto the recent release shelves to have half their cover obstructed by another comic. Not the ideal situation, but the focus of the store is on trades and graphic novels, therefore the majority of the facings go to these. The recommendations section is half singles, though, because it provides the opportunity to showcase those title we feel deserve more than that single week of full facing.

Shelf space is the one factor that we can not really change without a significant overhaul to the store's aesthetic, and thus it forces me to consider the likelihood of what a title can sell in the first week and what it can sell with a smaller facing for several week thereafter. When dealing with those smaller publishers, I will almost always order at least one copy of a graphic novel that seems interesting because its shelf life will be longer and the publisher has provided an entire story that will not disappear half way through (you all know what I'm talking about). We order singles with the idea that we will sell through 95% of the copies we order in four weeks time (I'm nowhere near that good at predicting demand for a title yet, but I'm improving). With an OGN, though, the sales window is much larger (several months) and our business model calls for that title to be reordered if it sells through within a reasonable amount of time. At MacGuffin, anyway, diversity of product starts with graphic novels. We're still working on the singles.

Previewing: Fun with Numbers 2.0

Previously on MacGuffin:

I broke down our February initial order by Percentage of Total Order by Dollar Value (followed by the average Direct Market store's order placed w/Diamond for January in parenthesis) :
Marvel: 28.3% (36.8%)
DC: 28.6% (35.3%)
Everyone else: 43.1% (27.9%)

One thing to keep in mind before I throw some more numbers out there is that this is strictly a single months worth of orders placed two months in advance of the product hitting shelves and purchased from a single distributor. As I've mentioned before, a significant portion of our inventory is backlist and thus does not show up on this order (and is often ordered from an entirely different supplier). That said, I feel as though the above breakdown fits our goal or providing a broad cross section of available comic material. To dig a little deeper, though I provide the following breakdowns.

Percentage of Total order by piece (followed by the average Direct Market Store's order placed w/Diamond for January in parenthesis):
Marvel: 31.0% (42.2%)
DC: 31.6% (37.4%)
Everyone Else: 37.4% (20.4%)
(Again for the curious, Image and Dark Horse constitute 14.3% of Everyone Else)

The first things that jumps out at me is the disparity between the dollars breakdown and the units breakdown, which leads to the following numbers (based on only the items we ordered):

Retail price per piece:
Marvel: $3.32
DC: $3.30
Everyone Else: $4.20

What is immediately obvious is that Marvel and DC can afford to sell their books cheaper than "everyone else." When coupled with a discount schedule that is generally anywhere from 5 to 15% better than Everyone Else (minus Dark Horse, Image, Tokyopop and a few others), it's easy to see why Marvel and DC often dominate the shelves. Even at MacGuffin, over half of our February order is devoted to Marvel and DC. Taking a chance on a title from one of those companies is economically easier than taking a chance on most self-published books. Quick academic exercise: A new series comes out from Self Publisher A who Diamond offers at a maximum of 45% off of cover. Meanwhile a new series comes out from DC which for the sake of this exercise, is available at 50% off (although it would likely several percentage points higher for a store that does significant volume). Using the average retail price per piece determined above, each copy of the new series from Self Publisher A costs $2.31 while each copy of the new series from DC costs $1.65. The profit per piece is a bit higher from Self Publisher A at $1.89 vs. $1.65 for DC but unless I'm very confident in Self Publisher A's new series, its a much bigger risk to stock in any depth.

Which led to my conclusion yesterday that we're either developing a very different customer base than average or throwing a nice chunk of change at books that aren't going to sell.

Next time: More numbers! And the mysteries and vagaries of shelf space.

Previewing: Fun with Numbers

I broke down MacGuffin's approach to FCBD ordering the other day and I thought I'd try something similar with our total February order (this may take several days worth of posts, so bear with me).

First, I begin with a rough budget for the month. Because we're still in the early stages this budget is based primarily on how much we will be able to afford assuming slow sales. This budget is far from ironclad, though, but it does help when it comes time to decide just where to chances.

Budget balanced precariously in the back edges of my mind, I throw myself into Previews. I always try to go through the catalog once to see what jumps out at me before I start writing numbers down. If something looks particularly intriguing, I'll make a mental note (or occasionally a real note) which will almost always translate into an extra couple of copies on the shelf no matter what the numbers tell me later.

After a quick pass through, it's time to start with the numbers. February was unusual because I began w/FCBD but I treated that as a completely separate order, so the net effect was really just that I had less time to put together February's order (often times a good thing since it cuts down on the opportunities to overanalyze). One of the things I'm particularly conscious of is the diversity of our inventory and with that in mind, I always start with the "back of the catalog." for the two of you out there who have never seen a Previews catalog, this means I skip the brokered publishers (Dark Horse, DC, Image and Marvel) and start with the rest of the catalog (usually Aardvark-Vanaheim, but since Cerebus ended, there's not much to order from them).

I go line by line through the retailer order form rather than the catalog itself because Previews is often a confusing jumble of color and black and white ads combined with almost alphabetically arranged publisher solicitation copy. It's a mess to be honest (though I'm sure it is not fun to put together). So I use the retailer order form to make sure that I don't miss a title and then search for the solicitation info on the title in the catalog (the retailer order form has a handy key indicating with page the solicitation text/images are on).

So, how do I decide how many of each title to order? Well, a small part of the equation that will become more and more important as data accumulates and the stores grows, are cycle sheets (for a much more indepth discussion of using cycle sheets in monthly ordering, check out Brian Hibb's column). Because we're such a young store, though, we don't have much in the way of sales history or even Reserve customers to base orders on. What this means, of course, is that its all a shot in the dark. To be honest, this generally leads to one of two scenarios: #1 I order too tight on a title and end up selling out within the week (Supergirl #5) or #2 I over order and have 10-15 copies sitting on the shelf collecting dust (see Identity Crisis).

I do try to take a chance, if not a deep inventory position, on just about any non-brokered title that looks interesting, particularly if there's a creator track record to back it up. A good example of this from January was Supermarket which I ordered more heavily than most new series because it's from IDW by Brian Wood, two known (and somewhat successful) commodities at MacGuffin thus far.

Only after a first pass through the back half of the catalog do I return to the brokered publishers at the front. Dark Horse and Image I treat much the same as the rest of the publishers, taking a shot in the dark at what I think will sell. Marvel and DC, on the other hand, I have rules for. Every regular series starts with a 4 copy order which gets adjusted based on how they've sold thus far and what sales potential I see for this particular issue (DC's One Year Later is going to play havoc with these numbers). This strategy will also change as we get bigger, but we're still at the stage where we're building our customer base from just a few people and I want to have as much material as possible available without spending rent money on something that won't sell a copy (i.e. Aquaman before Mr. Busiek took over).

As a quick overview, here's how our orders for February broke down:

Percentage of Total Order by Dollar Value (followed by the average Direct Market Store's order placed w/Diamond for January in parenthesis) :
Marvel: 28.3% (36.8%)
DC: 28.6% (35.3%)
Everyone else: 43.1% (27.9%)
(Image and Dark Horse combine for 15% of the everyone else for those curious)

This tell me that I'm either throwing money away, or developing a very different customer base than the "average" Direct Market Store. More fun with numbers yet to come (maybe some off the cuff analysis too).

Wholesale Problems

There's a complaint among many retailers who operate along the lines that I do (i.e. using just in time ordering for lower selling titles) that Marvel, Image and Dark Horse have trouble keeping trades in stock at Diamond. DC has been at it awhile longer with their backlist, particularly for titles like Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Ronin, etc and they tend to have only a small window wherein a title is unavailable (though I did have to wait a few weeks to get in a replacement copy of Superman: Red Son). The other three are improving but at this moment Diamond is out of stock on Ultimate X-Men vol 1, 7, & 9. To be out of volume 1 is particularly bad since its the obvious jump on point for new readers. Hopefully Marvel already has another print of those volumes being worked on and it will only be a few days or a couple of weeks at most that they are out of stock. The problem, though, are titles like Star Wars: Clone Wars Volume 7, Serenity and, a running problem, 300 (notice a theme there?). All three are currently out of stock at Diamond. I've been trying to get another copy of Clone Wars for a month and a half. I finally broke down and decided that I'd get it from a wholesaler and check Baker & Taylor. Out of stock with 60 copies on order from publisher. Apparently this book saw either a small print run or it sold like crazy (though none of the sales charts showed anything particularly high). Hoping that Ingram may have a copy or two left I checked their site. Spread between a few warehouses, they currently have 783 copies in stock. Miller's 300? None in stock at Diamond or B&T, over 300 at Ingram. Over 1000 Serenity with over a thousand more on order waiting for a reprint and Baker & Taylor has about half that. These are not huge numbers for the bookstore market (Ingram has over 7000 copies of The Da Vinci Code in stock) but by way of comparison, they have 50 copies of Ultimate X-Men Vol 1 in stock. For a Direct Market store to have just three options (wait, give up 10% discount or find another retailer with overstock) none of which involve our primary distributor, something isn't working right.