shadroch

I'm curious about that. I can't decide which way I'd go on that bet.

My first two shops were on Long Island. Then I managed a shop in Puerto Rico for a year and a half. I bought a commercial building in Bisbee last year and planned on opening a multi- purpose mini mall that would have included a comic department, but not new books at the start. I had a few zoning issues but the next few months are uncharted.

Pretty sure Bob Kane not only read each one, but worked on them. Just ask him.

Are you suggesting they are paid by the piece? That the more books they grade in a particular week effects their pay check? If you are, I'm pretty sure you are mistaken.

The later issues are scarce because retailers cut way back on their orders because most still had far too man y unsold early issues. #1 sold very well, but by issue 4, it was a dog. If I recall correctly, one issue was so late that they allowed retailers to change their initial orders. I'd ordered pretty heavy and had lots of unsold stock so by the end, I was ordering to sell out. I didn't have a pull system in place back then. I'd tried but it was too complicated. Without looking up the numbers, I'd guess issue 6 had maybe 20% of the orders that number 1 had. For many years, there were two books I would find in every clollection I was offered. Ronin 1 and New Mutants 1, often in multiples.

Everybody was. I think it was Millers homage to the Emperor's New Clothes, but that scene where he the guy stabs himself just to kill the guy behind was epic. Between its lateness and its suckiness, few had much hope for Dark Knight.

The winner initially turned down the job because he had long standing plans to go to the premier of the new Star Wars trilogy.

Most shops marked up every back issue in the 80s. My minimum price in the bins was $1 when new books were 60-75 cents, except X-Men. They were $2 for anything after 143. Groo had a niche following. With $1.50 cover, I imagine I had them for $2. I had my issues segregated by Publisher, and every month I would feature one indie publisher and offer all the back issues for fifty cents. I didn't know anything about cycle sheets when I opened up so the first six months or so I greatly over ordered some books and under ordered others. After a few months, it became obvious that a small number of books represented most of my sales and I got to be decent about ordering properly. I had a small store, with no backroom so unsold stock was a real burden, aside from being constantly near broke. I did two monthly shows and tried to blow out excess back stock there, but even then some books just didn't sell. Hard to believe now, but Batman titles were really slow sellers. I had two boxes of Bat Books come in one day. I bought them for a quarter each in trade and priced them at fifty cents and they barely sold. Lots of 12 cent books and no one wanted them. Then Dark Knight came out and everyone totally under-ordered them. Batman sales sucked, Millers last project was a disaster for most shops and it was several times the price of a normal comic. Some shops ordered the minimum and some didn't even order it. MY 20 copies were sold out in a day or two.

Yes, the Groo Special was pretty hot for a spell.

Being Irish, we'd put a potato in. Who brings soap to a sock fight

Absolutely. This is a field I don't understand, but encounter quite a bit lately. I was a huge ECW fan and one of things I loved was how they used Surf music to highlight their video productions, and how each wrestler came to the ring to different rock music. Now that the WWE owns the rights to ECW, the new videos use generic sounds or the WWE owned music their wrestlers use. Tommy Dreamer discussed it at a fan fest saying the original ECW got away with it because they had no assets so no one would sue, but WWE is a billion dollar corporation that the people owning that music would sue in a heartbeat.

Does anyone have a store they frequent that has a large comic book footprint but doesn't sell new books? Someone posted a link I found quite interesting. According to the numbers, well over 40% of the Comic industries revenue comes from non-comic shops. Bookstores and the like, selling trade paperbacks and hard covers. Does Diamond service them or does Disney use a different method to distribute to these? Are these products returnable?

The first Wizard Las Vegas show was a complete and utter failure, but it gave me a chance to have three different extended conversations with him. He wasn't charging for signatures, but he'd only sign what you bought from him. He had some wild prints and I spent much more at his booth than I would have imagined. We actually had a prolonged conversation on which poses of toy soldiers were the best and why they included so many lame poses in the sets. I'm not a big fan of SS books, but if it is a common book, I'd go SS over 9.0. Stay Safe.

I recall the Pacific issues being fairly in demand, and Groo 1 but not the others. Perhaps it was a regional thing or the shop was owned by a former snake oil merchant. OR, and this was done in several NYC shops, Groo 29 was a wall book because it there was $20 worth of weed in it. Hidden in plain sight.

That very well may be, but after seeing a hospital have to paint over a Mickey Mouse mural in a kids ward after a letter from Disney, I've learned to try and look at things a bit more cautiously.

When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose. When you own a business, you have much to lose. Courts don't care if you were thinking positively.

Torture works in that it gets people talking. Where it fails is the person will say anything you want him to. If you want to get someone to talk, torture him. If you want the truth, don't.

Are those figures in Canadian money or has there been a run up on early FFs ?

That depends how seriously they take the crime and what the crime actually was. A strongarm robbery will get much attention than a car break in. Hope the books are recovered or they were insured if not.

That's cool, but does he have the legal right to do so? I'd imagine he sold the rights to these stories to his publisher, although I have no idea how that works

When I opened my shop around 82-83, I sold bags. Most of my back stock was bagged but none was boarded. By the time I sold my second shop, everything was bagged and boarded. Bagging and boarding made the stock look nicer but it was very labor intensive. I'd take a box or two home at night and B&B them while watching tv. I finally enlisted my then eight year old niece to do the bagging and boarding. When I opened the shop in San Juan, it was too expensive to ship boards from the states and I couldn't find a local manufacturer so it was bags only. In NY, I could sell bags for $3 per hundred and make a nice profit, while they cost me over $5 per hundred after shipping in PR so I charged $7.50. At the time, I was the only real comic shop on the Island so I didn't worry about competition. Most of my clients were readers, not collectors and balked at paying more than cover price for any book.

I keep a nice looking FF 48 in a previously cracked case on my coffee table. People who don't know.comics often ask, and those that do know flip out. It presents well, but has a lot of internal water damage and is missing the centerfold. It makes a great conversation piece/ coaster.

It seems to me that Disney inherited Diamond and its couple of thousand indentured servants. As this crisis is drawing down, I'd expect their number crunchers to go over every aspect of their empire with a fine toothed comb. One thing you can be sure of. Disney will do what is best for Disney and if that means cutting ties with Diamond, that's what they will do.

I agree, but who says death is final? Anyone who follows comics knows death is just a temporary state. Death is a horizon,and a horizon is nothing more than the limits of your sight.

I have a number of Whitmans that are only listed as Gold Keys.