Contest of Challengers
From Challengers Comics + Conversation in Chicago, this is CONTEST OF CHALLENGERS, a comics industry business podcast about the business of running a comic book store. Hosted by Patrick Brower and W. Dal Bush. Challengers • 1845 N Western Ave, Chicago, IL 60647 • 773.278.0155 • ChallengersComics.com
Episodes
FOLD-ER
•Welcome to Contest of Challengers with Charles and Dale!
•Archiving comics on our website.
•UPS shipments.
•Card game ordering, and lack thereof.
•(More) New X-Titles!
•Comics talked about in this episode:
LAWFUL #1
GROMMETS #1
PROFANE #1
Contest of Challengers #685
GETTING A HANDLE ON FCBD
•What happened to our front door handle?
•Smoke N Snack’s front window nightmare.
•How was Free Comic Book Day?
Contest of Challengers #684
INTELLECTUALLY?
•Bad customer service.
•Gotta get them Back Issues!
•Setting up for FCBD.
•Thanks, Patrons!
•Our C2E2 experiences.
Contest of Challengers #683
THE FUTURE OF COMIC BOOK RETAIL
LIVE from Conference Room S403 at McCormick Place, it’s the C2E2 panel discussion, THE FUTURE OF COMICS RETAIL with Patrick, W. Dal, Katie Pryde (Books With Pictures, Portland), and Dimitrios Fragiskatos (Anyone Comics/Everyone Comics, NY).
The sound quality is a little iffy on this one due to recording in such a large room, but we’ve adjusted it some to make it a little more listener-friendly. But P...
I’M NOT EVERYBODY
•Dented packaging.
•Charging delinquent subscribers interest…?
•DC’s 5-book release week.
•FCBD output.
•California’s Earth-2 is closing, and their reasons make perfect sense.
•Results of the ComicsPRO Retailer Survey.
•Patrick read a ton of advance PDF’s (and most of the books already came out).
•Comics talked about in this episode:
CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON LIVES #1, #2
WHITE BOAT #1
AIN’T NO...
BLACK TIE
•The Future Of Comic Book Retail
•Apparently we are not a “Legacy” shop.
•”Marcus” and his comic book. And a black tie.
•People keep asking to have signings at Challengers.
•3 new X-Titles and X-Men ’92 vs X-Men ’97.
•Waaayyy too much television digression. Sorry.
•Lunar’s waxy new cardboard inserts.
•Diamond shipping changes.
Contest of Challengers #680
ENTHUSIASM OVER KNOWLEDGE
•A very full inbox.
•Leaving tasks for the other person.
•Upcoming Events with: Brian Azzarello, Stephanie Phillips, Sarah Becan, Sage Coffey, Bianca Xunise (and more!)!
•Publisher price changes are always a surprise.
•Misplaced retailer concerns.
•Prioritizing sales over tasks.
•Us, as customers at other shops.
•Our dentists.
•”Butcher, Baby” by The Divorce Gun.
Contest of Challengers #679
IN SEQUENCE
•We have now officially been open for 16 years! Yow!
•Keeping the “local” in local events.
•C2E2 is fast approaching.
•Wanting to refresh every aspect of the shop.
•Some of the many books being published in June.
•Thanks, Patrons!
•Taskmaster
Contest of Challengers #678
XVI
•Sixteen years in the same building but with many different building owners/managers.
•Hmmm, can Patrick get Kip Winger to come out for our 17th Anniversary next year…?
•Looking back at the comic shops of Chicago over the past 16 years.
•Dal likes to refresh our website captions regularly.
•The end of our reward program.
•Uncanny X-Men #130 cover posters!
•IG video responses.
Contest of Challengers #677
X-CHANGES
•Sorry, we don't price-match with Amazon, because we don't have a market cap of $1,820,000,000,000.
•Single issue sales attrition as evidenced on the sales floor.
•The future of the X-Men comic universe has been revealed!
•A massive Diamond shipping rebate.
•”Minor shelf wear”
•New Publisher returnability options.
•Comics talked about in this episode:
TRANSFORMERS #7
UNCANNY VALLEY #1
SILICON BANDITS #1
Co...
CALL AN AMBULANCE
•The many, many ways comic shops can sort comics for their subscribers.
•How we think distributors ship their books, geographically.
•”You called?”
•Patrick broke his 3rd exercise bike.
•”Can you call me an ambulance?”
•Comics talked about in this episode:
SPECTREGRAPH #1
DUDLEY DATSON AND THE FOREVER MACHINE #1
MONSTERS ARE MY BUSINESS #1
Contest of Challengers #675
INCENTIVE TO BUY
•The fresh scent of Challengers.
•February sales are a Challengers record (not a good record).
•Refreshing our Reward program.
•Thanks, Patrons!
•Cancelling wrestling action figures from Diamond.
•Pre-order amounts.
•DC’s Absolute Power event grows.
•Comic talked about in this episode:
FERAL #1
Contest of Challengers #674
FLAT-RATE
•Diamond announces new Flat-Rate shipping pricing.
•The ComicsPRO Annual Meeting is happening right now! And we are not there.
•DC announcements:
Wednesday is officially New Comic Day starting in July.
A new line of Themed trade paperback collections.
Absolute Power is the big summer crossover, by Mark Waid and Dan Mora.
•Marvel officially announces a new Ultimates team comic by Deniz Camp and Juan Frigeri.
...
MUCHA LUCHA
Read more
FIT TO PRINT
Read more
IN-SALE STORES
•Final Order Cutoff emails.
•A Man with a Hat.
•SALE!!!
•No Wednesday holds.
•January’s final sales numbers.
•Thanks, Patrons!
•Credit card processing fees.
•Comic talked about in this episode:
MAN’S BEST ASHCAN
Contest of Challengers #670
FEELING THE IMPACT
•Low January sales.
•The future of vaulting subscriber credit cards.
•Ghost Machine
-Publisher support
-Issue readability
•No retailer support for Returnability.
•Shopify/Google email compliance.
•Spotify/Patreon RSS feed confusion.
•Two new events
-Spawn #350 RE: Spawn Podcast Day
-Dick Tracy #1 Release Day Double Signing
•Comic talked about in this episode:
THE DISPLACED #1
LITTLE ...
DEAD POWER
Read more
YOU SHOULD HAVE CALLED
•Patrick’s experience as a retail customer.
•2023 number fun!! Now in percentages!
•Positive consumer financial positivity (via AP and Axios).
•Turning lemonade into lemons, featuring Ultimate Spider-Man #1!
•A new home for our Incentive/Ratio Variants!
•A very specific rule for earning the 2024 “I Love You But I’ve Chosen Comics” Sale t-shirt.
Contest of Challengers #667
ECONOMIC-CABAL
•Oooohhhhh! Episode 666! Sooo spooookyyyyy!!
•Stacked deliveries really suck!
•More complaining about how Diamond ships out product.
•Product Costs vs. Operational Costs
•Kamen Rider toys vs AEW action figures.
•60,000 copies of Heartstopper Vol.5.
•Marvel Hallmark ornaments.
•Help us help you (read the emails we send!).
Contest of Challengers #666
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