Posted in: Comics | Tagged: comic shop, My Comic Shop Country

Comic Store In Your Future – My Comic Shop Country, Five Years Later

I was finally able to watch My Comic Shop Country. A feature-length documentary that came out in 2019, on Amazon Prime.

I was finally able to watch My Comic Shop Country. A feature-length documentary that came out in 2019; I watched it while visiting my cousin's family. That will teach them to invite me and tell me they have Amazon Prime. They all watched it with me. I liked it a lot, and I found myself curious about the various people in it… what are they doing now?

The documentary was about a closed comic store, and some customers were interviewed about it, along with interviews with other comic stores throughout the USA and comic book writer Mark Waid. I looked up one of the other store owners who was interviewed and discovered that he had sadly gone out of business.

Topics such as the quality of comics and problems with pull boxes—the same things that were plaguing comic stores then—still are now. Quality has not improved, and sales are sliding.

As a comic store owner, I always try to put on a brave face. One of the reasons I opened my comic book store was that I thought that, as a business owner, I would have greater control over my destiny. I was so wrong. I may like certain comic book characters and have my favorites, but if publishers aren't putting out titles people want, they aren't buying them. You can't force someone to eat a spit sandwich.

A business owner can do everything right and still go out of business through no fault of their own. When I first opened over a decade ago, the main reason people were getting comics was to read them; as time has passed, there have been fewer and fewer readings and more and more collecting. Variant covers are now overshadowing the story behind them. I click on a news article about a new upcoming comic, and often, the variant covers have more attention paid to them than the comic book's story, artists, or writers within. When I order new comics, only a few writers now move the sales needle at my store. It is far more likely that the variant covers move the sales needle instead.

I wouldn't say I like it and believe it hurts trade sales. The variant covers often come in various styles and feature some great talent, but the interiors usually have nothing to do with the covers. The people who come in frequently think we are sold out of something, though we aren't because they don't realize that multiple covers are involved. In Deadpool And Wolverine WWIII issue two, the Stormbreakers variant cover had two characters, and no one knows who they are—certainly not Deadpool or Wolverine. The covers do not even have a title, so those who want to read the comic book think it is another title they are not interested in. People often think we are sold out of Amazing Spider-Man when we still have the Stormbreakers variant cover and Disney variants of the issue. The lack of basic marketing for comics is unreal.

Action Comics #1000 was featured as being released in My Comic Shop Country. I remember that issue well. There were lots of variant covers, and Brian Bendis was writing a Superman story. It was big news then, but now, not so much.

I watched the documentary, which showed the closing of the comic store along with the empty storefront. I will be truthful. I wondered how it would end for me one day. Is that the Comic Store in my future? One of the reasons I have not written as many Comic Store In Your Future columns as much as I did years ago is that the subjects are still the same; they rotate. No new hot talent, where is the quality, why are superhero movies not helping sales?

Starting in July, DC Comics will no longer be sold on Tuesdays. All new comics will be sold on Wednesdays. No one asked me, of course. Why am I disappointed? I have customers that come in on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. As a retail business owner, I want that. The more times people come in, the more chances there are of them buying something. New comics weren't always sold on Wednesdays. When DC started selling comics on Tuesdays after the COVID shutdown, Tuesdays and Wednesdays became great sales days. I was told the other stores were not doing Tuesday sales at the time. After waiting through the COVID shutdown, people did not want to wait another day to get DC Comics. We posted a profit for the year despite being closed due to COVID. Why? Because we did what others weren't doing. If I forget to buy something from Target and return it in the same week, does anyone think the people at Target don't want me to return it in the same week? If I went every day, that meant more chances for me to spend money. As a store owner, why would I tell people not to come here more than once a week? That is like saying their money is no good here. The market is never going to grow if there is no change. Marvel and DC used to have people that hyped their products. Now, they seem quiet.

If the return of the secret shopper comes back to enforce the selling on Wednesdays again, I am going to be livid. I do not miss that in the least. Paying money to be spied on is something I hope I will not have back.

I would watch a sequel to My Comic Shop Country to see where the various people are now. Did the customers of the closed comic store get out of comic collecting? What is the former store owner doing now? What about the other store owners in the documentary? Where are they now? Has anything improved in the comic industry after five years?

My Comic Shop Country is available on Amazon Prime, with an earlier documentary on YouTube.

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