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I think dedicated Remender fans will enjoy it as I did. I think this feels like a throwback in the way that there is very little subtlety in the social commentary. Some of his other titles weave it into the narrative better, here it feels like it's dumped all over you. The art was excellent. Bengal does a great job telling a story which really supports the narrative. Definitely worth the 4.99 price of admission.

Im also guessing that Remender isn't betting on the floppy market so much anymore. I think he's made enough of a name for himself in the TPB world that he and his partners can afford to let the monthly sales slip because a large enough portion of their market buys trades. That probably takes some pressure off of him to keep his books regular. I loved this book but I probably won't be back for the monthly releases.

Black Hammer is in the middle of a planned and announced hiatus. I wish it had continued monthly as well, but at least fans were informed. Maybe it could have been made more clear if some people didn't catch the announcements. Seven to Eternity on the other hand, is simply in the middle of a gigantic delay. No creators discussed it ahead of time, and there have been several false starts about when it would be back.

Just read the first 3 trades. That is one of the most interesting and dynamic books I have read. I think I'm going to stick with trades due to the release schedule though. I would buy this book as often as they put it out though.

You may not like this model, and I'm not saying I do either, but the publishers need to pick a model and stick to it. When I was a retailer, the publishing model was the biggest hurdle with getting new readers. Fans would come in and have a hard time figuring out the different spider-man books. And they would always ask "are there any books that are just starting?". This wasn't an occasional situation, this was many times a week. Not many people want to come in 500 issues later and spend a few evenings doing continuity research before they can read their comic. I'm like many here, I'm good with the long term continuity. I love having a backlog I can read through as well as current publishing. But to teenagers/young adults today, they want something that can be theirs. I think a clear season/volume model would be good. Collectors do not keep comic shops open, period. There are some "buy everything" collectors that are FANTASTIC for their local LCS' bottom line, but the majority of the market comes from readers. The majority of patrons don't care about comic grading, vintage comics, or variants. They just want to read the stories they like and be able to understand what is going on. From a retail standpoint, collectors are generally the biggest pain in the , and are often more trouble than they are worth. Publishers should ABSOLUTELY focus on acquiring readership and easing entry into the market. One of the easiest ways to enter the medium is through trades/graphic novels. Many successful creators at Image are catching on to that and capitalizing on it. Marvel/DC have to find a way to catch that audience as well.

Staff picks are excellent for upselling. Typically a customer will identify with at least one "picker". This may increase the odds of them picking up a new title if "their" employee picks it.

You'd be surprised. I was in the metro area of a large city. Plenty of people had no shame coming in telling me they were DCBS customers. Some even wanted to flip through books before they got their shipment. You simply can not acquire that customer at a profit. This is why I mention I found personal gestures mattered more to the typical LCS supporter. Attentive and personal service keeps them coming in.

I meant that they can not compete on subscriber discounts. When talking LCS retail, subscribers are the largest part of comic income. That was far and away my experience, and the experience of most I spoke to. Of course there are outliers. Many on this board who have not done retail tend to comment about retail as it pertains to them (the back issue collector). In most stores, this is a fairly small part of the business.

This brings up a good topic, rewarding your best customers. The market is so open these days, that shaving a few % off doesn't do much to keep a customer. LCS can not keep up with online stores discounts, and I don't think they should even try to compete. Knocking 5-10% off a bill doesn't mean much to each customer. But when it adds up, it can really hurt your bottom line. I rewarded my best customers with things that felt unique. On special occasions, I would add variants to their pullbox at no extra cost. Granted if it was a smoking hot high ratio variant, I wasn't going to drop it in a box. But the 1:10s and similar I would regularly put in a customers box. We all know how often variants end up in a box to not sell well. This was a great way to make customers feel special, especially those who don't keep up with variants in general. I would also find small gestures to include around their birthday based on their likes. These personal touches never went unnoticed, and I feel like it kept a lot of "I buy everything" customers coming to my store when I didn't offer the discounts other guys in town did.

When I was in retail I did something similar as well. I didn't necessarily advertise the boxes as "unprocessed", but they were clearly not part of regular stock. I would allow customers to look through them and I would quote prices. I didn't advertise it because some customers are REALLY averse to this type of selling. It seemed like it would turn more off than it would attract. Also, I didn't want to get in the habit of letting stock sit in that state. This may be a no-brainer, but I would pull aside anything over a certain value so that it's not even handled prior to being processed. Whatever threshold you set is up to you.

He used to all the time. I believe as demands on his time have increased, his response rates have somewhat decreased. It also seems as a rule he does not discuss things involving his co-creators other than to show off their work or praise them. Admirable in a way. I will have to say I don't think there are too many guys who value and enjoy their fans as much as Remender. We've had a few exchanges over the years that were what I would call personal and human.

I can't say I HATED it, but I also wasn't a huge fan. I actually really like his other work, but for some reason it didn't fit well into this universe. There are plenty of artists out there, even some whom have worked with Remender in the past, that I think would be great to rotate arcs with. Esad Ribic, Tony Moore (also notoriously slow), and Phil Noto all come to mind. I'm really surprised Remender let this happen. He has spoken about delays in previous books causing sales declines, and seems to be in the midst of a big branding push with his Giant Generator label. It looks like he is deservedly becoming a pillar in the Image family. Maybe trades have become such a large part of sales that he thinks consistency is more important than shipping on time.

It is unfortunate. I actually used this book to get an adult friend of mine into comics on a recent vacation. He bought the first trade and was very interested. I explained to him how long it took to wait for trades and comic release schedules etc, and he understood that good ones sometimes had pauses. I talked to him recently and he kept up with the other books I introduced him to. Even though he began with Seven to Eternity being his favorite read, he has already forgotten about it and said he will not be in for the 3rd trade. As soon as news shut down about the book, and he had no reliable way of knowing when the releases would be, he said he was done. It's hard enough for established fans to follow this type of schedule. For newcomers, you will never get them to follow something like this. Regardless of how incredible the art is. I hope Remender gets another artist to share duties with. Would love to see Ribic work with him again.

I think most people are fine with being told there will be a break. The problem is, we're all speculating. This day and age, it's so easy for creators to disseminate information. It almost feels bad when they don't give you a heads up. "Hey, we're taking 6 months off so that we can get back to regular releases" sounds way better than "we're working on it". We all love the work, that's why we're here discussing it. But realistically, an episodic and serialized work can not fall into obscurity like this.

Saga has a seasonal release schedule. There are planned and announced breaks between each arc. Walking dead got so far ahead because it was double shipping a few years ago. I think it was around the time they got a new inker. I love this book, but this extended hiatus is a real downer. I don't mind breaks, but they should be communicated. I am about as big of a Remender fan as there is, but all of his books fell behind when he began working on the Deadly Class pilot. I don't know if that's a coincidence, but it is unfortunate. It definitely has me considering trade waiting his books from now on.