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Brian Hibbs Looks Back: "2017 Was Sadly a Pretty Bad Year for Comix Experience"

Published Thu, 04 Jan 2018 18:00:46 -0600

Last updated Fri, 05 Jan 2018 07:15:24 -0600

Written by Brian Hibbs, owner of Comix Experience in San Francisco and an old friend of Bleeding Cool, and reprinted here with his permission. A look back on 2017 from his retailer perspective.

Just in case this is your first time reading a sales report from us, let me give you a little background and a longer look at my CV. My name is Brian Hibbs and I own two comic book stores in San Francisco: Comix Experience at 305 Divisadero St, and Comix Experience Outpost at 2381 Ocean Ave. I opened the original store 28 years ago on April 1st, 1989, when I was just twenty-one years old, and I purchased Outpost almost exactly three years ago, in order to stop it from closing overnight.

San Francisco is currently home to ten comic book stores now that Jeffrey's Toys has reopened downtown; this, however, is down from twenty-four when I opened in 1989. I'm really super glad that we lost no stores in 2017. There are also something around a dozen general independent book stores (note that San Francisco has no national chain bookstores!) that also carry a solid selection of "graphic novels" (which is usually really just a highfaluting name for "bound collection of comics", and isn't really any different in any substantial way from "comic book", except that it makes people feel better about themselves) – but it is the comics specialty stores that are selling the most comics material, and it is my belief that my two Comix Experience stores sell roughly a quarter of all comics material in The City.

As I noted, I have been selling comics since 1989, and we're the oldest comic store with the same ownership in the same location in San Francisco. For a quarter of a century I've written "Tilting At Windmills", a regular column about comics retailing, also published in two volumes from IDW Publishing; I've been a judge of the Eisner Awards (Comics' equivalent of the Oscars); I've sat on the Board of Directors of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (an organization that protects the First Amendment rights of comics creators), I was one of the original founders of ComicsPRO (the comics retailer trade organization); and I even led a successful Class Action lawsuit against Marvel Comics that won more than a million dollars for comic book retailers internationally.

Most recently, in response to rising costs in San Francisco, we launched an international Graphic-Novel-Of-The-Month Club where we hold streaming meetings with the authors for literally hundreds of folks around the country (and globe!), and we also have a sibling club for kids age 8-13.

(*whew*)

2017 was sadly a pretty bad year for Comix Experience – sales were down by 8.5% in the main store, and by a lesser 4.5% at Outpost. Every month of the year was down at the main store compared to the year before, while it was the last two quarters that dropped at Outpost. None of this is the fault of my superlative staff (Douglas, Emma, and Liz at the main store, and Julie, Nathan and Joe at Outpost) – I feel it is mostly about the political climate making people nervous about spending at retail as well as about a lot of the mid-list content that the major publishers are producing.

The two stores are VERY different from one another with different tones and tenors. The main store is very much a book store that specializes in comics material: 61% of our sales there came from book-format comics this year, while 37% came from new periodical comics (usually stapled, usually 32 pages). Comix Experience is less about the characters (Batman and Spider-Man, et al.) and much more focused on the creators that bring those characters to life. As a creator-driven store, our sales reflect that passion, as you will see below.

Comix Experience Outpost runs pretty differently – it was an existing store that we took over, and because of its location and the nature of its traffic, it is FAR more focused on the periodical comic (as well as the back issue). Outpost is 61% new periodical-format comics (and 8% back issues), and just 21% in book format comics. 3% each are Toys and Supplies, which leaves 3% for "other". It's a very different sales mix than the Mothership! It's also about 2/3 of the overall volume.

Let's take a look, store-by-store, at sales this year, and see what the best-sellers are in each category, and get a sense of maybe where the market is heading. Let's look at BOOKS, first, since that's the biggest category at the bigger store!

One important consideration here is that these numbers DO NOT include the Graphic-Novel-Of-The-Month Club numbers, every one of which would top the #1 in-store book! In fact, we've been told that, for at least some of the titles we selected the book club order is a meaningful percentage of sales (which were, in reverse order:

December 2017: Charles Forsman's "I Am Not Okay With This"

November 2017: Tyler Boss & Matthew Rosenberg's "4 Kids Walk Into A Bank"

October 2017: Tillie Walden's "Spinning"

September 2017: Hamish Steele's "Pantheon: The True Stories of the Egyptian Deities"

August 2017: Katie Skelly's "My Pretty Vampire"

July 2017: Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart & Babs Tarr's "Motor Crush"

June 2017: Gerard Way & Nick Derington's "Doom Patrol: Brick by Brick"

May 2017: Jillian Tamaki's "Boundless"

April 2017: Gabrielle Bell's "Everything is Flammable"

March 2017: Michael DeForge's "Sticks Angelica: Folk Hero"

February 2017: Lorena Alvarez's "Nightlights"

January 2017: Peter Tomasi & Ian Bertram's "House of Penance"

And our KIDS club winners:

December 2018: Nidhi Chanani's "Pashmina" (above)

November 2018: Molly Ostertag's "The Witch Boy"

October 2017: Victoria Jamieson's "All's Faire in Middle School"

September 2017: Valerie Vernay & Mathieu Reynes' "Water Memory"

August 2017: Andi Watson's "Glister"

July 2017: Ben Costa & James Parks' "Rickety Stitch & The Gelatinous Goo"

June 2017: Mark & Alexis Siegel, Matt Rockefeller, Boya Sun, & Xanthe Bouma's "5 Worlds: The Sand Warrior"

May 2017: Shannon Hale & LeUyen Pham's "Real Friends"

April 2017: Mike Lawrence's "Star Scouts"

March 2017: Nathan Hale's "One Trick Pony"

February 2017: Lorena Alvarez's "Nightlights" (Yes, it was BOTH clubs that month!)

January 2017: Ru Xu's "Newsprints"

If I am allowed to say, I think it is a SUPERB program, and I really invite you to JOIN TODAY!)

As always, our single best seller is the generic "Sale Book", where we're marking down unsold books by roughly 50% of cover price to get them out – that catchall, combined, sold WAY more copies than our #1 book. This is true at BOTH stores. But, I'm not including that in this presentation because I think it muddies the waters too much. Plus it mostly represents our mistakes! :)

So, starting with The Mothership, Comix Experience on Divisadero, we sold approximately 4700 different books selling at least one copy for full price. We have approximately 6000 books in stock, however, so the balance isn't quite where we want it to be ideally.

Books dropped 1.8% in dollar sales at the mothership (comics dropped by 15.5%) in 2017.

Our Top 100 (actually 101 here, thanks to ties) is right below, and represents twenty three different publishers. The publisher placing the most number of books is Image, with a dominating forty-one out of one hundred and one titles – though this is only eighteen series. Scholastic comes in next (!) with 10 books in top 101, followed a three way tie between DC, Marvel and Penguin Random House (!!) with 6 each. There's kids books galore – some 21 of the 101 – and I think this is the first time we've ever had two PROSE books show up in the Top 100. I think this is a pretty damn diverse list, and I want reiterate that this does NOT include book club sales, yet see how many club winners are here in the best sellers list anyway (esp NIGHTLIGHTS at #8… what a fantastic book by a fantastic talent in Lorena Alvarez!)

This is by PIECES sold – we sold MORE COPIES of (say) SAGA v1 at #7, than NIGHTLIGHTS at #8.

SAGA TP VOL 07

MONSTRESS TP VOL 01

PAPER GIRLS TP VOL 01

MONSTRESS TP VOL 02

PAPER GIRLS TP VOL 02

PAPER GIRLS TP VOL 03

SAGA TP VOL 01

NIGHTLIGHTS HC GN

SAGA TP VOL 06

RICK & MORTY TP VOL 01

DOOM PATROL TP VOL 01 BRICK BY BRICK

SAGA TP VOL 03

SNOTGIRL TP VOL 01 GREEN HAIR DONT CARE

BLACK PANTHER TP BOOK 01 NATION UNDER OUR FEET

BONE COLOR ED SC VOL 01 OUT FROM BONEVILLE

BOUNDLESS GN

SAGA TP VOL 05

STICKS ANGELICA FOLK HERO HC

WICKED & DIVINE TP VOL 01 THE FAUST ACT

SAGA TP VOL 04

SAGA TP VOL 02

WATCHMEN TP

4 KIDS WALK INTO A BANK TP

BLACK MONDAY MURDERS TP VOL 01 ALL HAIL GOD MAMMON

WICKED & DIVINE TP VOL 05 IMPERIAL PHASE I

WITCH BOY GN VOL 01

ALLS FAIRE IN MIDDLE SCHOOL GN

BITCH PLANET TP VOL 01 EXTRAORDINARY MACHINE

BITCH PLANET TP VOL 02 PRESIDENT BITCH

GHOSTS GN

KILL OR BE KILLED TP VOL 01

NIMONA GN

SPINNING GN

Y THE LAST MAN TP BOOK 01

MY FAVORITE THING IS MONSTERS GN

SEVEN TO ETERNITY TP VOL 01

DRAMA GN

HOUSE OF PENANCE TP

SPACE DUMPLINS GN VOL 01

THE INCAL HC NEW PTG

HEAD LOPPER TP VOL 01 ISLAND OR A PLAGUE OF BEASTS

SAGA DLX ED HC VOL 02

APOCALYPTIGIRL AN ARIA FOR THE END TIMES TP

MOEBIUS LIBRARY WORLD OF EDENA HC

PANTHEON: TRUE STORIES OF THE EGYPTIAN DEITIES GN

5 WORLDS GN VOL 01 SAND WARRIOR

DEATH NOTE BLACK ED TP VOL 01 (OF 6)

LIFE CHANGING MANGA OF TIDYING UP

SAGA TP VOL 08

SANDMAN TP VOL 01 PRELUDES & NOCTURNES

SISTERS GN

BLACK PANTHER TP BOOK 02 NATION UNDER OUR FEET

EAST OF WEST TP VOL 01 THE PROMISE

SMILE GN

UNQUOTABLE TRUMP GN

AMULET SC VOL 01 STONEKEEPER

EVERYTHING IS FLAMMABLE GN

LUMBERJANES TP VOL 01

MS MARVEL TP VOL 01 NO NORMAL

DEADLY CLASS TP VOL 05 CAROUSEL

DESCENDER TP VOL 01 TIN STARS

LEGEND OF KORRA TP VOL 01 TURF WARS PT 1

BABY SITTERS CLUB COLOR ED GN VOL 01 KRISTYS GREAT IDEA

REAL FRIENDS GN

WALKING DEAD TP VOL 27 WHISPERER WAR

COMPLETE PERSEPOLIS TP

DEADLY CLASS TP VOL 01 REAGAN YOUTH

EAST OF WEST TP VOL 06

EAST OF WEST TP VOL 07

PREACHER TP BOOK 01

THIS ONE SUMMER GN

WICKED & DIVINE TP VOL 02 FANDEMONIUM

AWKWARD GN

NEIL GAIMAN AMERICAN GODS MMPB

PROPHET TP VOL 05 EARTH WAR

UMBRELLA ACADEMY TP VOL 01 APOCALYPSE SUITE

AMULET SC VOL 02 STONEKEEPERS CURSE

BABY SITTERS CLUB COLOR ED GN VOL 02 TRUTH ABOUT STACEY

DESCENDER TP VOL 03 SINGULARITIES

EAST OF WEST TP VOL 02 WE ARE ALL ONE

LUCY & ANDY NEANDERTHAL HC GN VOL 01

MOONCOP HC

MOTOR CRUSH TP VOL 01

NEIL GAIMAN NORSE MYTHOLOGY HC

NOW #1 ($9.95 cover price is why Diamond considers it a "book")

SANDMAN TP VOL 02 THE DOLLS HOUSE

SEX CRIMINALS TP VOL 01

STAR WARS TP VOL 01 SKYWALKER STRIKES

WOLVERINE OLD MAN LOGAN TP

BEST WE COULD DO

DESCENDER TP VOL 04 ORBITAL MECHANICS

FUN HOME TP

GIANT DAYS TP VOL 01

GOLDIE VANCE TP VOL 01

KILL OR BE KILLED TP VOL 02

MARCH GN BOOK 01

MOON KNIGHT TP VOL 01 LUNATIC

ROLLER GIRL GN

TOKYO GHOST TP VOL 01 ATOMIC GARDEN

TOKYO GHOST TP VOL 02

WICKED & DIVINE TP VOL 04 RISING ACTION

Because when we retailers say things like "Sales declined…" we're usually actually talking about DOLLARS, here's the best-sellers (just 20 this time), sorted that way to show you the difference the price can make…. NIGHTLIGHTS completely trounces SAGA v1 at this point

SAGA TP VOL 07

MONSTRESS TP VOL 01

MONSTRESS TP VOL 02

MOEBIUS LIBRARY WORLD OF EDENA HC

SAGA DLX ED HC VOL 02

THE INCAL HC NEW PTG

PAPER GIRLS TP VOL 02

MY FAVORITE THING IS MONSTERS GN

NIGHTLIGHTS HC GN

RICK & MORTY TP VOL 01

PAPER GIRLS TP VOL 01

BOUNDLESS GN

DOOM PATROL TP VOL 01 BRICK BY BRICK

SAGA TP VOL 06

PAPER GIRLS TP VOL 03

STICKS ANGELICA FOLK HERO HC

WATCHMEN TP

BLACK PANTHER TP BOOK 01 NATION UNDER OUR FEET

SAGA TP VOL 03

SAGA TP VOL 01

Jean Giraud has sadly been dead for six years now, and he still manages to place two books in my Dollars top 20!

Patrick Brower over at Challengers Comics got a fair amount of ink from the top line headline of "Marvel sales dropped by $21k!", our results are not SO different: Marvel was our biggest drop at over $14k, spread reasonably equally between book and comics formats (because if your frontlist is pants, it's hard to have a real backlist), but DC was also down by nearly $13k, though they were concentrated a bit more in book format losses (all of the "New 52" backlist essentially turned into garbage in 2017, and "Rebirth" backlist is, so far, slow off the blocks, possibly because of the bi-weekly release strategy overgenerating SKUs while "Vertigo" continued its fairly massive decline as well, since, like with Marvel, there is little frontlist any longer); But also, Image, despite the book list dominance, was also down by almost $9k – they've found themselves completely unable to launch a new periodical in pretty much the entirety of 2017 which also hurts driving a backlist.

Pubs that were up? The biggest gain was with Nobrow ($2500 up, thanks to both NIGHTLIGHTS and PANTHEON), but we also significantly grew Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly, Black Mask, Boom!, Viz and Kodansha strong enough to mention.

Despite SAGA taking the top spot, I give slightly more points for consistency for MONSTRESS – the spread between volumes is nearly nil, which shows a still-rising book. SAGA isn't anywhere near done yet, though – volume 8 came out on December 20th, just 11 days before the end of the year, and it was still the #48 best-seller for the year.

WALKING DEAD has nearly disappeared from the sales report as a book, while Kids comics (properly supported) show all kinds of rising – while we're able to focus harder on kids comics now because of the Kid's Club, I remind you that these are new and unplanned sales, the quantities we buy for the book clubs are not counted in here. "I have an enthusiastic young GN reader, help me feed them books" is, like, a legitimate THING now. Hopefully this is an actual permanent trend, and not just an at-this-time blip, because Kids DO usually "age out" of comics for 5+ years starting in early teens.

(Give them a copy of NIGHTLIGHTS, I tell you – buy by clicking here!)

**********************

Let's move over to Outpost, which I think I said, is a WHOLE different world. It's the southern-most comic store in San Francisco, and the northernmost for a whole lot of places out to at least Pacifica? It is also much more focused on periodicals – I've been TRYING to beef up the book selection, but sales are NOWHERE where I want them to be. Books are only 21% of the sales over at Outpost. To the point where I'm cutting THIS list around #50 because the numbers below that are kind of less than meaningful. The #1 book at Outpost, if you mapped it to the Mothership, would have been about #28 at the main store.

SAGA TP VOL 07

MONSTRESS TP VOL 01

PAPER GIRLS TP VOL 01

SAGA TP VOL 01

BATMAN TP VOL 01 I AM GOTHAM

MS MARVEL TP VOL 01 NO NORMAL

BLACK SCIENCE TP VOL 01 HOW TO FALL FOREVER

DOOM PATROL TP VOL 01 BRICK BY BRICK

HEAD LOPPER TP VOL 01 ISLAND OR A PLAGUE OF BEASTS

VISION TP VOL 01 LITTLE WORSE THAN MAN

FLASHPOINT TP

PAPER GIRLS TP VOL 02

BLACK PANTHER TP BOOK 01 NATION UNDER OUR FEET

LOVE IS LOVE

NIGHTLIGHTS HC GN

SAGA TP VOL 04

SEVEN TO ETERNITY TP VOL 01

BIRTHRIGHT TP VOL 01 HOMECOMING

FLASH TP VOL 01 LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE

MONSTRESS TP VOL 02

MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR TP VOL 01 BFF

SAGA TP VOL 06

SPACE DUMPLINS GN VOL 01

BONE COLOR ED SC VOL 01 OUT FROM BONEVILLE

SAGA TP VOL 02

SNOTGIRL TP VOL 01 GREEN HAIR DONT CARE

SUPERMAN TP VOL 01 SON OF SUPERMAN

WATCHMEN TP NEW ED

WONDER WOMAN TP VOL 01 THE LIES

BATMAN YEAR ONE DELUXE SC

INFINITY GAUNTLET TP

LEGEND OF KORRA TP VOL 01 TURF WARS PT 1

LOCKE & KEY TP VOL 01 WELCOME TO LOVECRAFT

SAGA TP VOL 05

STAR WARS JEDI ACADEMY YR HC VOL 01

AMERICAN BORN CHINESE SC NEW PTG

BATMAN DETECTIVE COMICS TP VOL 01 RISE OF THE BATMEN

EAST OF WEST TP VOL 01 THE PROMISE

HARROW COUNTY TP VOL 01 COUNTLESS HAINTS

INJECTION TP VOL 01

KILL OR BE KILLED TP VOL 01

LASER MOOSE AND RABBIT BOY GN

PAPER GIRLS TP VOL 03

SAGA TP VOL 03

VISION TP VOL 02 LITTLE BETTER THAN BEAST

WICKED & DIVINE TP VOL 01 THE FAUST ACT

WOODS TP VOL 01

BEST WE COULD DO

BITCH PLANET TP VOL 01 EXTRAORDINARY MACHINE

BLACK HISTORY IN ITS OWN WORDS HC

DEADPOOL BY DANIEL WAY COMPLETE COLL TP VOL 01

DEADPOOL KILLS MARVEL UNIVERSE TP

EPILEPTIC VOL 01 TP PANTHEON ED

HUMAN BODY THEATER GN

JUSTICE LEAGUE TP VOL 01 THE EXTINCTION MACHINE

LUMBERJANES TP VOL 01

MARCH GN BOOK 01

MOTOR CRUSH TP VOL 01

RICK & MORTY TP VOL 01

SOUTHERN BASTARDS TP VOL 01 HERE WAS A MAN

UNCANNY X-FORCE BY REMENDER COMP COLL TP VOL 01

WOLVERINE OLD MAN LOGAN TP

Very much a mainstream, superhero-centric list, though, with JUST enough wide ranging material that I don't feel totally embarrassed.

Outpost is super periodical oriented, so this might be a good place to change over to the "comics" conversation – Outpost is more than 60% new comics, which is enormous, and here you can see the real impact of Marvel Shitting the Bed in 2017 – Marvel is down by about $22k, while DC is up by 1%. DC's had a real actual hits in METAL and DOOMSDAY CLOCK at Outpost (they did WELL at Divisadero, but they KICKED ASS at Outpost) which offset a lot of the bottoming out of "Rebirth". Image is also down by about 9%, IDW by 7%, Dark Horse by 4%, but we got big growths from Valiant (132%), Aftershock and Titan (both up by about 65%), Black Mask (by 41%) and Boom! (by 13%). Also, though not at all comics, Funko is up by more than 200%, though I am also starting to really worry about having too much stock there….

Here's what COMICS (by pieces) look like at Outpost!

DOOMSDAY CLOCK #1 (combined)

DARK NIGHTS METAL #1 (OF 6)

DARK NIGHTS METAL #2 (OF 6)

DARK NIGHTS METAL #3 (OF 6)

DARK DAYS THE CASTING #1

DARK DAYS THE FORGE #1

BATMAN #21

BATMAN #17

BATMAN #24

BATMAN #25

BATMAN #16

BATMAN #19

BATMAN #28

BATMAN #32

BATMAN #14

BATMAN #23

MISTER MIRACLE #1 (OF 12)

BATMAN #26

BATMAN #27

BATMAN #18

BATMAN #20

BATMAN #22

BATMAN #30

SECRET EMPIRE #1 (OF 9)

BATMAN #29

BATMAN WHO LAUGHS #1 METAL

PETER PARKER SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #1

BATMAN #15

BATMAN #33

BATMAN #31

BATMAN LOST #1 METAL

MARVEL LEGACY #1

ALL STAR BATMAN #7

BATMAN #35

FLASH #22

BATMAN THE RED DEATH #1 METAL

FLASH #21

BATMAN ANNUAL #2

X-MEN PRIME #1

ALL STAR BATMAN #6

BATMAN #34

BATMAN THE MERCILESS #1 METAL

ALL STAR BATMAN #12

BATMAN #36

DARK KNIGHT III MASTER RACE #8 (OF 9)

DARK NIGHTS METAL #4 (OF 6)

SECRET EMPIRE #4 (OF 10)

ALL STAR BATMAN #10

JUSTICE LEAGUE #32 METAL

MISTER MIRACLE #2 (OF 12)

MONSTRESS #11

SECRET EMPIRE #2 (OF 9)

ALL STAR BATMAN #8

DARK KNIGHT III MASTER RACE #9 (OF 9)

FLASH #33 METAL

SUPER SONS #1

ALL STAR BATMAN #9

BATMAN THE MURDER MACHINE #1 METAL

BATMAN WHITE KNIGHT #3 (OF 8)

CLONE CONSPIRACY #4 (OF 5)

SECRET EMPIRE #0 (OF 9)

SECRET EMPIRE #3 (OF 9)

SECRET EMPIRE #7 (OF 10)

SECRET EMPIRE #8 (OF 10)

WALKING DEAD #163

SECRET EMPIRE #9 (OF 10)

BATMAN WHITE KNIGHT #1 (OF 8)

BATMAN WHITE KNIGHT #2 (OF 8)

DETECTIVE COMICS #965

MONSTRESS #10

SECRET EMPIRE #10 (OF 10)

SECRET EMPIRE #5 (OF 10)

STAR WARS DARTH MAUL #1 (OF 5)

BLACK PANTHER #10

CLONE CONSPIRACY #5 (OF 5)

MISTER MIRACLE #3 (OF 12)

ALL STAR BATMAN #11

JUSTICE LEAGUE #33 METAL

SECRET EMPIRE #6 (OF 10)

STAR WARS DARTH VADER #1

UNWORTHY THOR #3 (OF 5)

WONDER WOMAN #14

ALL NEW GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #1

ALL STAR BATMAN #13

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #23 CC

BATMAN THE DAWNBREAKER #1 METAL

BLACK PANTHER #11

DARK KNIGHT III MASTER RACE #7 (OF 8)

DETECTIVE COMICS #966

MONSTRESS #12

PAPER GIRLS #11

SAGA #43

BATMAN THE DROWNED #1 METAL

CLONE CONSPIRACY OMEGA

FLASH #14

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS #32 METAL

PAPER GIRLS #12

PETER PARKER SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #2

X-MEN GOLD #1

100

ALL STAR BATMAN #14

BLACK PANTHER #15

DETECTIVE COMICS #948

DETECTIVE COMICS #956

FLASH #23

FLASH #25

MISTER MIRACLE #4 (OF 12)

OLD GUARD #1

SAGA #41

WONDER WOMAN #16

X-MEN GOLD #2

There's really a staggering number of comics on this list, starting in the Top 10 with issues of METAL(and its crossovers), also things like MISTER MIRACLE, that I could have sold MORE copies than this, but that stock ran out at the PUBLISHER level and left my rack empty for multiple weeks. I think my DC sales could potentially be another 3-5%+ higher on some big books if only there was stock to be had when I needed it.

Otherwise I generally look at this list and say "Where the hell are all of the Marvel comics?" and "Sure looks like a Direct Market comics shop, don't it?"

Just to try and give you some sense of scale of sales here, the #1 book at Outpost would have sold about what the #83 comic sold. Meanwhile the #1 comic at Divisadero would have been the #3 best-selling book.

Here's Divisadero, looking more like the Mothership one might expect.

SAGA #43

SAGA #44

SAGA #42

SAGA #41

SAGA #46

SAGA #45

PAPER GIRLS #11

SAGA #47

PAPER GIRLS #12

PAPER GIRLS #13

SAGA #48

DOOMSDAY CLOCK #1 (combined)

PAPER GIRLS #15

PAPER GIRLS #14

PAPER GIRLS #16

DARK NIGHTS METAL #1 (OF 6)

DARK KNIGHT III MASTER RACE #8 (OF 9)

MARVEL LEGACY #1

PAPER GIRLS #17

NEIL GAIMAN AMERICAN GODS SHADOWS #1

BLACK PANTHER #10

SECRET EMPIRE #1 (OF 9)

DARK KNIGHT III MASTER RACE #9 (OF 9)

DARK NIGHTS METAL #2 (OF 6)

UNQUOTABLE TRUMP

BLACK PANTHER #9

WALKING DEAD #163

BLACK PANTHER #11

DARK DAYS THE FORGE #1

MONSTRESS #10

DARK NIGHTS METAL #3 (OF 6)

BATMAN #24

SECRET EMPIRE #0 (OF 9)

LOVE & ROCKETS MAGAZINE #2

PAPER GIRLS #18

WALKING DEAD #164

MISTER MIRACLE #1 (OF 12)

SECRET EMPIRE #2 (OF 9)

WALKING DEAD #165

MISTER MIRACLE #2 (OF 12)

MONSTRESS #11

NEIL GAIMAN AMERICAN GODS SHADOWS #2

WALKING DEAD #166

WALKING DEAD #168

WALKING DEAD #170

ALL STAR BATMAN #6

MONSTRESS #12

SEX CRIMINALS #16

WALKING DEAD #162

ALL STAR BATMAN #7

BATMAN WHITE KNIGHT #1 (OF 8)

BLACK PANTHER #12

BLACK PANTHER #13

DARK KNIGHT III MASTER RACE #7 (OF 8)

WALKING DEAD #167

WALKING DEAD #169

ALL STAR BATMAN #8

CALEXIT #1 CVR A

BATMAN #21

EAST OF WEST #31

SECRET EMPIRE #3 (OF 9)

SEX CRIMINALS #18

DOOM PATROL #4

SEX CRIMINALS #17

WALKING DEAD #171

EAST OF WEST #32

SEX CRIMINALS #19

ALL STAR BATMAN #10

BLACK PANTHER #166 LEG

DOOM PATROL #6

EAST OF WEST #34

SECRET EMPIRE #4 (OF 10)

SNOTGIRL #6

STAR WARS DARTH VADER #1

BATMAN #16

BATMAN #25

BATMAN WHITE KNIGHT #2 (OF 8)

BLACK PANTHER #15

EAST OF WEST #33

SEVEN TO ETERNITY #5

ALL STAR BATMAN #9

BATMAN #17

BATMAN #22

BLACK PANTHER #14

HEAD LOPPER #5 CVR A MACLEAN

PETER PARKER SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #1

SEX CRIMINALS #20

X-MEN GOLD #1

ALL STAR BATMAN #5

BITCH PLANET #10

DEFENDERS #1

MISTER MIRACLE #3 (OF 12)

MONSTRESS #9

SAGA #40

SECRET EMPIRE #5 (OF 10)

ALL STAR BATMAN #11

BLACK MONDAY MURDERS #5

BLACK PANTHER #16

BLACK PANTHER #17

DOCTOR STRANGE #16

DOCTOR STRANGE #17

LOVE & ROCKETS MAGAZINE #3

WALKING DEAD #172

WALKING DEAD #173

X-MEN BLUE #1

Of particular note to me is "Unquotable Trump" at #24 – this is the handmade mini-comic version of what ended up becoming #52 on the book list as a color tabloid…

Same sold out books here (the stores regularly trade stock), and several of them end up substantially lower on the chart than you might think, as a result – even most issues of SAGA aren't available after the first week or two… when I need restock at week #11, it usually can't happen, and caps our maximum sales as a result.

Also: the difference in sales between the #1 comic of SAGA #43 (25 cents) and the #2 comic of SAGA #44 ($2.99)? Eight copies. That only cost me about $400 to gain those 8 new readers…. And, of course, they didn't stay whatsoever. Gr.

The #100 best selling comic at the Mothership sells meaningfully more copies than the #100 best-selling book. Comics provide cash flow, regular visits, and help build community. I really really hope that the three largest publishers can start reversing their recent misfortunes in providing dependable cash-flow from serializing stories. Again: Despite selling *significantly* more dollars of books than comics, we sell "comics" to MORE PEOPLE. The market functions much better when both halves are healthy.

The comics market is slightly broken right now – far too many periodicals are being published. And far too few of those are being supported in any reasonable fashion that might lead to new readers discovering them. Virtually all marketing is solely left to the Local Comics Shop, and we're not suited to that particular task. It seems to me that there is probably a need to have some fundamental discussions about just how comics material is sold to retailers, in terms of poor, capped discounts on smaller publishers and regressive things like the 3% "reorder penalty" (!), and I think that since publishers can't seem to control the number of titles they release, that maybe we start talking meaningfully about increasing things like returnability for initial issues of new series.

There need to be meaningful conversations with our publishing and distribution partners – so I'm absolutely making trips to both ComicsPRO's annual meeting in February in Portland, as well as Diamond's Retailer Summit in Chicago in April. Something HAS to change, and we need more voices agitating for necessary changes. I hope to see many of my fellow retailers at one of these events!

Praying for a stronger 2018!

Please add your thoughts in the "comments" below!

-B

Brian Hibbs, Head Cheese, Comix Experience

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