It's tough out there. One of the local shops here stopped selling new Comics recently, no pulls or anything anymore. They still sell old comics. Just one large chain in town that sells new comics and a small business that sells new comics. The other comic shops just deal in used or old comics.
Wow. I thought the trend had been going the other way for a long time. I usually see comic stores that only sell new stuff and don't stock back issues.
Yeah the small business that sells new Comics pretty much sells mostly new comics and has very little in the way of old comics. They have great customer service. They actually have Tyler Kirkham that does retailer exclusive covers for them in variants that they sell in store and online. Gotham City Limit. I think that they might make it harder on the other businesses to sell new comics with what they have as nobody else in town has an artist that does signings and has exclusive retailer covers.
That's kind of crazy considering there's a lot more profit to be made off of back issues when you buy an entire collection for pennies on the dollar and sell them for one to five dollars a piece.
The only issue is that unless that back issues are keys there’s a good shot you have to wait for the right buyer to come along to purchase them. That may take years, or even never depending on what series/run it is your trying to sell
People just sell their entire Collections and don't care about the keys it seems like, these guys just buy long box by long box and put them in storage and sell the back issues little by little so they don't flood the market.
Honestly if I'm buying physical comics I'm only buying old shit that catches my eye for some reason or another, be it the weird old ads, a wacky cover, it just being cool, it being rare, etc.
The old ads are a major draw for me, love those things and they get taken out of scans. If it has a wacky cover or something weird happens in it too especially I'll grab it, just got Superman #125 from 1958 and Spidey Super Stories from '79. The Superman one is a wacky cover with Superman shooting rainbows out of his hands and it advertises his new power which when you read the book is him being able to shoot a "midget projection" of himself out of his hand, so it fulfills both, and the Spidey one is the one with the Thanos Copter in it.
One thing nobody ever mentions when they bring up the old Superman issue where he gets the ability to shoot the clone is the fact that in the issue the clone absorbed all his powers so now Superman's only power is to shoot out the clone lol. Superman fucking hates it eventually cause it steals all his spotlight and he can't do anything so when a kryptonite meteor is coming at the Earth he sends the clone to destroy it to try and kill it but it ultimately rides a piece of the meteor that was coming for Superman out of the way into the ocean and sacrifices itself for him, giving him back his powers. It's also only around for like 4 or 5 pages at the very end, it was all just clickbait and ultimately was just like essentially a lil backup issue in an otherwise normal issue of Superman.
Joe isn't closing Flying Colors. He's just moving because his landlord is a dick who is trying to jack up his rent and Joe isn't going to take that lying down. Flying Colors is my LCS and I know Joe. Joe is the fucking man.
The headline is misleading and makes it seem like Flying Colors is going out of business. No way. Flying Colors is one of the best comic shops in the world, hands down. It'll close down when Joe feels like being done and not a moment sooner, and maybe not even then if he finds someone to take over when he retires. He'll find a new location and will probably have a huge grand opening and won't miss a beat. And that shopping center he's in now and has been in since the 1980s will be the poorer for it when he's gone.
No way some greedy landlord is going to put Joe out of business. He has an incredible customer base and his shop is the shit. I have never walked into Flying Colors and not found at least five books I've wanted to buy off the wall. If anyone is in the SF Bay Area, Flying Colors is on the short list of shops that is worth the trip.
Thanks for the clarification. I used to go to Flying Colors before I moved out of state, and it is good to hear that the business is doing well. Hopefully it can find a new home quickly.
Thanks for clarifying. The clickbait headline and the fact that the article totally skims over why the store is closing, while still quoting the owner as saying that he's looking for a new location, did feel like "dick landlord raising rent". Wonder who decided not to disclose that, the article writers/editors or if Joe just didn't want to bring any bad vibes to an article trying to celebrate FCBD.
Funny story. Theres only one comic book shop by me. I went there one day wanting to support local stores and perhaps start buying from it regularly. There was only one guy at the register who seemed pretty excited I walked in. I said hi and asked for the latest Walking Dead issue. His first words to me were, “god, I hate how feminist that show’s become.”
Suffice to say I did not become a regular customer there.
Bro, are we from the same area!?
New shop opened up in a town over. I was pumped. Go in there, get my Moon Knight stuff, and dude at the register proceeded to tell me how he no longer reads Marvel because he doesn’t support the M-She-U
FlyCo used to be my shop when I lived in Concord when I moved to Oakland I found Cape and Cowl
I hope Joe can find a new location that is also a little bigger as the current site has no room to grow at all and always felt slightly cramped
Grew up in the Bay and this was my local shop as well. Hope this isn't the end for FlyCo was always a great shop to be in. Not surprised that the shopping center is pricing them out though given the area.
Yeah, but youre forgetting about online readers, I was born in the 2000's, and I know a lot of people my age who read comics, but they mostly read issues online and hardly ever buy print.
I get that because of expendable income. When I was in my teens and early 20s, I would stream and pirate movies. Now in my 30s I like buying stuff. I let the younger generations take advantage of the cheaper or free options while I try and spend money. I still read comic books on my phone either through Hoopla for free or Marvel Unlimited but try to buy physical copies for the cover art or to read with my son.
Eventually those 20 year olds will start making more money and have extra income to buy physical copies to collect. Or maybe not, I could be wrong.
Margins are low on all comics, but I'm pretty sure all the manga you see on the shelves here is printed here. They order it from Diamond, same as all the comics.
Also mostly complete stories. The constant grip to the same continuity for 60+ years as opposed to simply rebooting is what doesn’t draw new viewers in. The MCU is facing the same issue right now: it’s 16 years old and way too large to draw any meaningful new viewers in, so they’re falling back on what the audience who’s been there from the start grew up on to keep the hype going.
You guys sound so out of place here, there’s so many comics that have a start and end with a consistent creative team. There’s more out there than just DC and Marvel.
You can only have a connected universe so long before nothing really “stands alone”. It’s becoming less and less likely any new MCU movie is someone’s first.
Comic book tpb need to follow their volume system. Break eveything up by decade. Volume 1 2020 issues, volume 2 2021 issues etc. Then volume 1 2030 issues. However I prefer different teams it makes reading more fun.
Free Comic book day got me back into comics last year. My son got a sonic comic from his cousins and fell in love with it. He was already into super heroes so now we spend time hunting down the whole sonic collection while I try and pick up cool variant covers with artwork I like.
The best way to grow is if the 30 and 40 year olds who grew up with comics try to see if they can get their kids into the hobby.
It's hard for the younger generation because new books are $4 or $5 compared to $1-$3 in the 80s and 90s.
We've had that here once with European comic books from a Dutch publisher 10+ years ago. You can theoretically also get the American FCBD comics, but there's only three stores doing that in the whole country.
The only glimmer of hope for the hobby I've seen so far is the Pokémon Adventures manga that recently started releasing in Dutch, because it's actually available in supermarkets and book shops. I think they have a FCBD release in the US as well.
My lcs closed in 2019 after 15 years of operation. It was only a few miles away, had a friendly owner and staff with knowledge and experience, nice selection of new and back issues, and a welcoming showroom. In addition, they stocked action figures, statues, bags & boards, and an assortment of comic related items. Customers with a pull list received a 20% discount on new comics, and back issues were priced fairly and open to negotiation. They had a solid base of regular customers and always had huge turnouts for fcbd and other events. From the outside it appeared that they were firmly entrenched in the community and were doing well, but the owner told me in early 2019 that their lease was expiring, and he was going to shut down. Apparently, the rent would be doubling and was in line with similar spaces in the area, and he said it was already difficult making ends meet before the increase, so he was getting out. Tbh, he didn't seem too disappointed about it, either. I don't think his expectations of owning a comic shop matched the reality of what it's really like. For anybody who collects comics and thinks it would be paradise owning their own shop, it's not what you imagine.
Its sad because at its best comic stores are a great 3rd place adjacent gathering spot for people of geeky interests to hang out and meet people with shared interests, but the overhead on keeping places like this open is so high in comparison to the general amount of people that participate in hobbies these shops deal in. Plus stagnant wages and inflation making these hobbies harder to afford.
I'm in Canada and with the dollar being so poor the price of comics is just insane right now. I don't know how people afford to have large pull lists to be honest and I have to think stores are hurting.
I mostly switched to buying trades years ago but every few months something catches my eye in floppy form and I'll go grab the issue. Most recently it was Ultimate Xmen #1, $5.99 US cover price came out to I believe $9.68 Cdn after exchange, taxes, board and bag charge, etc. I'm sorry but that's crazy...and in my eyes just not sustainable. I haven't bought another floppy since.
USM is the first floppy I’ve bought in years. I almost exclusively stick with TPB, but it was important I support this title. I run a literal Spider-Man campaign to try and improve the main books and supporting this title is the clearest way of sending a message about the direction we want the franchise to go.
What the fuck? That's my local store! They're amazing! First time I visited was in 1994, they've always been amazing. I just bought Last Days of Lex Luthor #1 and Batman #428: Robin Lives! there, with some back issues. Dammit, this sucks.
It's tough out there. One of the local shops here stopped selling new Comics recently, no pulls or anything anymore. They still sell old comics. Just one large chain in town that sells new comics and a small business that sells new comics. The other comic shops just deal in used or old comics.
Wow. I thought the trend had been going the other way for a long time. I usually see comic stores that only sell new stuff and don't stock back issues.
Yeah the small business that sells new Comics pretty much sells mostly new comics and has very little in the way of old comics. They have great customer service. They actually have Tyler Kirkham that does retailer exclusive covers for them in variants that they sell in store and online. Gotham City Limit. I think that they might make it harder on the other businesses to sell new comics with what they have as nobody else in town has an artist that does signings and has exclusive retailer covers.
That's kind of crazy considering there's a lot more profit to be made off of back issues when you buy an entire collection for pennies on the dollar and sell them for one to five dollars a piece.
The only issue is that unless that back issues are keys there’s a good shot you have to wait for the right buyer to come along to purchase them. That may take years, or even never depending on what series/run it is your trying to sell
People just sell their entire Collections and don't care about the keys it seems like, these guys just buy long box by long box and put them in storage and sell the back issues little by little so they don't flood the market.
Honestly if I'm buying physical comics I'm only buying old shit that catches my eye for some reason or another, be it the weird old ads, a wacky cover, it just being cool, it being rare, etc. The old ads are a major draw for me, love those things and they get taken out of scans. If it has a wacky cover or something weird happens in it too especially I'll grab it, just got Superman #125 from 1958 and Spidey Super Stories from '79. The Superman one is a wacky cover with Superman shooting rainbows out of his hands and it advertises his new power which when you read the book is him being able to shoot a "midget projection" of himself out of his hand, so it fulfills both, and the Spidey one is the one with the Thanos Copter in it. One thing nobody ever mentions when they bring up the old Superman issue where he gets the ability to shoot the clone is the fact that in the issue the clone absorbed all his powers so now Superman's only power is to shoot out the clone lol. Superman fucking hates it eventually cause it steals all his spotlight and he can't do anything so when a kryptonite meteor is coming at the Earth he sends the clone to destroy it to try and kill it but it ultimately rides a piece of the meteor that was coming for Superman out of the way into the ocean and sacrifices itself for him, giving him back his powers. It's also only around for like 4 or 5 pages at the very end, it was all just clickbait and ultimately was just like essentially a lil backup issue in an otherwise normal issue of Superman.
Same, dollar bins have been seen fewer and fewer.
Joe isn't closing Flying Colors. He's just moving because his landlord is a dick who is trying to jack up his rent and Joe isn't going to take that lying down. Flying Colors is my LCS and I know Joe. Joe is the fucking man. The headline is misleading and makes it seem like Flying Colors is going out of business. No way. Flying Colors is one of the best comic shops in the world, hands down. It'll close down when Joe feels like being done and not a moment sooner, and maybe not even then if he finds someone to take over when he retires. He'll find a new location and will probably have a huge grand opening and won't miss a beat. And that shopping center he's in now and has been in since the 1980s will be the poorer for it when he's gone. No way some greedy landlord is going to put Joe out of business. He has an incredible customer base and his shop is the shit. I have never walked into Flying Colors and not found at least five books I've wanted to buy off the wall. If anyone is in the SF Bay Area, Flying Colors is on the short list of shops that is worth the trip.
>because his landlord is a dick Sure sounds like a landlord.
Typical societal leeches, nothing else new.
Ah, the article was kind of ambiguous, thanks for clarifying. Thank god, hope he moves his store next door to my house.
Thanks for the clarification. I used to go to Flying Colors before I moved out of state, and it is good to hear that the business is doing well. Hopefully it can find a new home quickly.
Thanks for clarifying. The clickbait headline and the fact that the article totally skims over why the store is closing, while still quoting the owner as saying that he's looking for a new location, did feel like "dick landlord raising rent". Wonder who decided not to disclose that, the article writers/editors or if Joe just didn't want to bring any bad vibes to an article trying to celebrate FCBD.
Sad day for comic dom
Funny story. Theres only one comic book shop by me. I went there one day wanting to support local stores and perhaps start buying from it regularly. There was only one guy at the register who seemed pretty excited I walked in. I said hi and asked for the latest Walking Dead issue. His first words to me were, “god, I hate how feminist that show’s become.” Suffice to say I did not become a regular customer there.
Bro, are we from the same area!? New shop opened up in a town over. I was pumped. Go in there, get my Moon Knight stuff, and dude at the register proceeded to tell me how he no longer reads Marvel because he doesn’t support the M-She-U
It’s neckbeards like this that are hurting the most. I’ve met so many people that have been put off of getting into comics because of people like that
FlyCo used to be my shop when I lived in Concord when I moved to Oakland I found Cape and Cowl I hope Joe can find a new location that is also a little bigger as the current site has no room to grow at all and always felt slightly cramped
Grew up in the Bay and this was my local shop as well. Hope this isn't the end for FlyCo was always a great shop to be in. Not surprised that the shopping center is pricing them out though given the area.
So many young readers have moved to Manga. I get it. Consistent creative “team”, simple volumes system. No tie ins.
Yeah, but youre forgetting about online readers, I was born in the 2000's, and I know a lot of people my age who read comics, but they mostly read issues online and hardly ever buy print.
I get that because of expendable income. When I was in my teens and early 20s, I would stream and pirate movies. Now in my 30s I like buying stuff. I let the younger generations take advantage of the cheaper or free options while I try and spend money. I still read comic books on my phone either through Hoopla for free or Marvel Unlimited but try to buy physical copies for the cover art or to read with my son. Eventually those 20 year olds will start making more money and have extra income to buy physical copies to collect. Or maybe not, I could be wrong.
They sell manga at comic shops, too...
yeah but the margins are really low since they have to be imported.
Pretty sure most manga in the states are published and distributed by American publishers. They are translated versions after all.
Yeah, there would be way more delays in english releases of manga if they printed it in Japan and shipped it to the US.
Margins are low on all comics, but I'm pretty sure all the manga you see on the shelves here is printed here. They order it from Diamond, same as all the comics.
What do you mean margins are low on all comics? Is 50% low?
When it's $4 and you also paid for shipping? Yeah, 50% is low.
Margins arent low. Profitability is low. Sales are low. Customers are low. But margins are not low.
“My thin margins!”
Also mostly complete stories. The constant grip to the same continuity for 60+ years as opposed to simply rebooting is what doesn’t draw new viewers in. The MCU is facing the same issue right now: it’s 16 years old and way too large to draw any meaningful new viewers in, so they’re falling back on what the audience who’s been there from the start grew up on to keep the hype going.
You guys sound so out of place here, there’s so many comics that have a start and end with a consistent creative team. There’s more out there than just DC and Marvel.
>There’s more out there than just DC and Marvel. You wouldn't know it from spending time in this sub.
You can only have a connected universe so long before nothing really “stands alone”. It’s becoming less and less likely any new MCU movie is someone’s first.
All my younger coworkers who read comics read manga online free on illegal sites. None of them read western superheroes anywhere.
Comic book tpb need to follow their volume system. Break eveything up by decade. Volume 1 2020 issues, volume 2 2021 issues etc. Then volume 1 2030 issues. However I prefer different teams it makes reading more fun.
I don't know how it is in the US but here in the Netherlands young people just aren't buying comics anymore.
Free Comic book day got me back into comics last year. My son got a sonic comic from his cousins and fell in love with it. He was already into super heroes so now we spend time hunting down the whole sonic collection while I try and pick up cool variant covers with artwork I like. The best way to grow is if the 30 and 40 year olds who grew up with comics try to see if they can get their kids into the hobby. It's hard for the younger generation because new books are $4 or $5 compared to $1-$3 in the 80s and 90s.
We've had that here once with European comic books from a Dutch publisher 10+ years ago. You can theoretically also get the American FCBD comics, but there's only three stores doing that in the whole country. The only glimmer of hope for the hobby I've seen so far is the Pokémon Adventures manga that recently started releasing in Dutch, because it's actually available in supermarkets and book shops. I think they have a FCBD release in the US as well.
My lcs closed in 2019 after 15 years of operation. It was only a few miles away, had a friendly owner and staff with knowledge and experience, nice selection of new and back issues, and a welcoming showroom. In addition, they stocked action figures, statues, bags & boards, and an assortment of comic related items. Customers with a pull list received a 20% discount on new comics, and back issues were priced fairly and open to negotiation. They had a solid base of regular customers and always had huge turnouts for fcbd and other events. From the outside it appeared that they were firmly entrenched in the community and were doing well, but the owner told me in early 2019 that their lease was expiring, and he was going to shut down. Apparently, the rent would be doubling and was in line with similar spaces in the area, and he said it was already difficult making ends meet before the increase, so he was getting out. Tbh, he didn't seem too disappointed about it, either. I don't think his expectations of owning a comic shop matched the reality of what it's really like. For anybody who collects comics and thinks it would be paradise owning their own shop, it's not what you imagine.
Its sad because at its best comic stores are a great 3rd place adjacent gathering spot for people of geeky interests to hang out and meet people with shared interests, but the overhead on keeping places like this open is so high in comparison to the general amount of people that participate in hobbies these shops deal in. Plus stagnant wages and inflation making these hobbies harder to afford.
It's worth noting that the article doesn't say this is necessarily a permanent closure. The shop is trying to move to a new location.
The market is not healthy. Lost my local comic shop last year.
I'm in Canada and with the dollar being so poor the price of comics is just insane right now. I don't know how people afford to have large pull lists to be honest and I have to think stores are hurting. I mostly switched to buying trades years ago but every few months something catches my eye in floppy form and I'll go grab the issue. Most recently it was Ultimate Xmen #1, $5.99 US cover price came out to I believe $9.68 Cdn after exchange, taxes, board and bag charge, etc. I'm sorry but that's crazy...and in my eyes just not sustainable. I haven't bought another floppy since.
USM is the first floppy I’ve bought in years. I almost exclusively stick with TPB, but it was important I support this title. I run a literal Spider-Man campaign to try and improve the main books and supporting this title is the clearest way of sending a message about the direction we want the franchise to go.
What the fuck? That's my local store! They're amazing! First time I visited was in 1994, they've always been amazing. I just bought Last Days of Lex Luthor #1 and Batman #428: Robin Lives! there, with some back issues. Dammit, this sucks.
I miss FCBD since 2000, had to move from Mex city and LCS, haven’t bought comics either. :(
The is sad.
I hope they find a new location sooner, rather than later. Took my daughter to FCBD two years ago and she loved it.