Quick Hits 4/8

*I almost launched into a longwinded diatribe about how much I hate variant covers, including our reasoning for not carrying them at MacGuffin unless its unavoidable (Infinite Crisis and second printing variants being the obvious cases). Fortunately I wasn't able to get past the flinging bile at the keyboard phase and into the shaping into semi-coherent thoughts phase this week because a) I'd already done it with regards to back issues and b) I began working on a series of posts reviewing the books of First Second (oh yeah, and I had to attend to our wonderful customers). Thankfully Jason Richards spent a good deal of the week breaking down the economics of variants as retailers have to deal with them (with followups here, and here). He's trying to make a go of carrying the variants for those customers who want them and I wish him luck because it's more of a risk than I'm willing to take.

*We're temporarily sold out of Infinite Crisis #6. Definitely did not see that coming. We ordered the same number of copies as we had issue #4 & #5 and still have half of those left on the shelf, but it seems that we've built a larger base of customers since #5 came out. While I'm happy to see that, it's a bit annoying that I misjudged demand to the point that we sold out in 2 days. And while we should have plenty more available beginning Monday afternoon (assuming UPS comes through), I don't like having to send customers away without Infinite Crisis because it's not one that they're likely to want to wait a few more days to get. Still, silver lining and all.

*Mr. Sime has begun his series of interviews with "the brightest and best of the future of comic retailing." First stop was a great choice, Secret Headquarters in LA. Dave and Dave are really good guys and have created a phenomenal concept for their store as half comic book shop half art gallery. They really play up the artistic value of what they sell rather than the collectible value and they host some incredible events that, quite frankly, I'm incredibly jealous of. Anyone interested enough in comics retailing to follow this blog should keep an eye on this series of interviews because I believe we need more stores like Isotope and Secret Headquarters for the industry to grow in healthy and profitable ways.

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