Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, dc, diamond, entertainment, image, las vegas, marvel, rodman comics, valiant, zenescope

Rodman Comics Went To Las Vegas – A Diamond Retailer Summit Report

Rod of Rodman Comics of Ankeny, Iowa, is one of the contributors to the Bleeding Cool Bestseller List. This weekend, he attended Diamond Comic Distributor Retailer Summit for the first time, this year in Las Vegas. And took a few notes for Bleeding Cool…

For my first summit it went well over all. I did some newbie mistakes such as asking if I could take pictures. Yeah that was me. [Other retailers reporting for Bleeding Cool didn't ask… – Rich] I also discovered having business cards would have been helpful to give out to the various publishers and reps that were there.

Saturdays opening night reception went well. Free open bar how could that not go well? Was surprised not to hear anything from Diamond like a brief speech or something.

The exhibit room was where we got grouped with others and got ten minutes to listen to each publisher or rep that was there.

The first rep we got was with Viz Media.  Mark did a good job knowing his material. Manga titles are not a strong seller at my store but I learned Pokémon reading material were now actually stocked.  Kids and parents have requested it before and I had to turn them away after looking on the Diamond site and finding what they wanted was not available.  After looking so many times I stopped and just said it was not available. Now it looks like I can stock up on Pokémon material which is good to learn. Hello Kitty also looks like it is something that would be a hit with kids so I plan on stocking up on it. Poor guy had to deal with the loudness from the next booth who had things booming from their speakers. Looking forward to stocking up on Pokémon and Hello Kitty for the store now.

Next up was Diamond Select Toys. Most products were already announced and shown previously. I did learn that the next Comic Con should have an exclusive Marvel Minimates Days Of Future Past variant cover in the manner of the Minimates Electro vs Spider-Man Amazing Spider-Man 1 variant that was done. Sounds neat.  Minimates was brought up by other comic store owners with various sets moving slow. Some ideas were maybe having more vehicles or playsets to go with the various sets.

Image had Ron Richards who has emailed the store before. He let me know I did not order enough Southern Bastards. And he was right. Ron was a good rep. Got feedback on better communication. He admitted that Image was not as well staffed as the big two. Ron was very helpful and promoted the various titles Image has. Talked about the upcoming Black Science trade paperback…

Zenescope. I really liked the sales rep. I didn't get her name but she admitted that Zenescope is a smaller company but can provide better customer service. One of the comic store owners I met, Peter of Rogue Collectibles & Comics from Canford N.J. learned that he was close enough to Zenescopes offices that they would come out and help him set up a display for Zenescope products. That really surprised me. I think he was thrilled with the idea. For a smaller publisher her booth was well attended during when the exhibit room was open for walk arounds and questions.

Marvel. I was so excited. I expected to blown away. And then I could hardly hear anything. Marvel got a bad spot in the middle, so all the other publishers talking drowned out any conversation. What I pieced together surprised me. A store owner brought up the Watcher eyes promo being all smelly. That surprised me. Really we have ten minutes and we are talking about the Watcher eye promo that has already came out? I did figure out that any Marvel announcements would be made later and found out I was right.

Red Giant. These people have some truly different ideas. Comics for free? Comics at different outlets than just comic stores? This company did the sealed packs of comics that came out for this years Free Comic Day. To prove it truly is a small world I realized I used to deal with Red Giant's David Campiti through email a long time ago. He was Mike Deodato's art rep. Back when I could afford his work. And I mean that in a good way. David used to tell me about the behind the scenes activities. It was a real eye opener. He did not remember me which is completely understandable. They will have comics coming to us for totally free. Shipping is free also.

I did hear something stated that stuck with me. They didn't want to charge the comic store owners anything for the free comic books they were supplying for this years free comic book day but Diamond wanted them to. Granted they were really cheap but why did Diamond argue against them sending them totally free? I would have noticed their material more and researched it better if it truly was free. How would my customers feel if there was a new title coming out that Marvel wanted them to read for free but I argued against it and they decided to charge my customers for it? I don't think they would be thanking me.

I wish these guys the best of luck. I know I own a comic store but I also I also know my comic reading was thanks to being able to find comics at the local drugstores and grocery stores. Their website has a lot of info that explains what they are about if you are interested.

Boom! Their two  reps were great. I learned later on that long time artist Keith Giffen had a hand (or talk) in the formation of Boom! Hex The Supernatural Thief looks good. George Perez has the first issue of Sirens completed and hopes to have the first three issues done before release. The art does look typical Perez. Meaning lots of detail and lots of Perez goodness. The Big Trouble in Little China comic takes place right after the events of the movie. As a fan of the movie I know I will checking it out. Gumball the comic will also be released by Boom! Also they landed a first crack deal for Cartoon Network properties that can get their own comic.

Dark Horse Comics. Dark Horse Comics was placed in the middle. Another bad spot. Half of the group went to the DC stand thinking that was where we were suppose to go. Not that big of a deal if the confusion didn't eat up any of the whooping ten minutes we got. Which it did.  Lots of questions about what are they going to do once they no longer have the Star Wars license. Which is a concern of mine since Star Wars comics sells well at my store. Dark Horse plans on focusing more on their Aliens and Predator  licenses. Currently there is no deal with Marvel to be able to publish any of the work they did with Star Wars. That could mean no new trades of the various Dark Horse Star Wars stories. Which could make the already trades in high demand as long as there is no agreement made in the future to allow Marvel to reprint Star Wars material.

DC Publishing & Collectibles. Wow, they had a big booth. Kevin had so  much energy and excitement showing off the various collectibles, it was contagious. He had tons of people coming up to talk to him about the various products. Just listing to him made me want to buy myself a Superman pool stick. Which I most likely will. The Batman animated series line looks great. They did talk about the DC Super villains poker set and about the fact that now there is enough DC bombshell artwork thanks to the variant covers coming up that there is talk of having poker set based on the DC bombshells.

DC's had artwork on display. Grant Morrison's Multiversity had more pages than I had seen before. And it looks like someone from DC's past plays a roll in the limited series. Looks like it has the chance to cause a lot of excitement. More Future End September 3D cover samples. Batwing's looks good. The booth was always very popular. The people working it did a great job.

Archie Comic Productions. Afterlife With Archie is a great hit for them. The upcoming Sabrina The Teenage Witch will be in the same style as Afterlife with Archie. Meaning it will be scary stuff. They had artwork of the cover which will be a die cut cover. Come November the Red Circle characters are coming back. And they will not be aimed for all ages. More mature. Again more like Afterlife with Archie was stated. The death of Archie was also talked about.

Diamond. Very light hearted energetic group of presenters. Showed a video about a widget comic stores could use to better link up their comic stores websites new releases with Diamond's website. I was going to ask a question and was cut off by the ten minute limit. Yes, it is as annoying as it you can imagine a ten minute limit being. Then add in the one minute warning being shouted repeatedly as a person walked by to let every group know was annoying also. Timer anyone?

Titan Comics. They had a great video about their new upcoming Doctor Who comics. I liked their Titans Comics T shirts so much I asked if they were for sale. Thought they would be good to wear at my store.  They had a lunch presentation also. Star Wars Insider they also pushed. Which, with the upcoming movie, I totally understood.

Valiant. Their goal is to have 9 titles by the end of the year. They will also have a Delinquents limited series featuring Archer & Armstrong and Quantum and Woody. It will be about an "ass map". I kid you not. The first issue will also have a board game variant cover. They also were having a get together for drinks after the days Summit but sadly I was to tired to go. The were going to have Valiant shot glasses available.

Action Lab Entertainment. Another publisher that got the short end of the stick with their  location. They had the most wide variety of material. Zombie Tramp. Skyward trade collections. Football gaming cards. Molly Danger.  Toys called Soft Spots. They are to have Toys R Us carry them with a comic book to help get the next generation into comics. Jamal Igle is with Action Lab. He was very friendly and energetic. I encourage everyone to check out their website. With the noise and wide variety of material I could easily do them a disservice by stating something incorrectly.

Pathfinder. The role playing game and not the comic. The game is popular.  They will be having a MMO coming out in the future.

IDW. The writer of V Wars was available to sign the series. I had some signed for my customers to help get them into V Wars hopefully. They brought up Bleeding Cool actually and asked that I hold off saying anything before they announce it. They also had a future presentation to do with more info to be announced. Good group.

Dynamite. Really hyped their upcoming Bob's Burgers comic. Chaos was talked about a lot. I stumped Keith the Dynamite rep with Warlord of Mars variant questions. There was no mention of Warlord of Mars or any promo material for tit or any spin offs.  It actually sells at my store but from what I gathered from the other store owners it doesn't for them. That made me worry about the Warlord of Mars future in comics. One comic store owner brought up the fact that he was younger, and older material such as the Shadow made little to him, since he didn't know anything about the Shadow. I had a Homer Simpson moment. I said what I was thinking. "That is what Google is for" I stated. I was very tired. Dynamite would have a later presentation and talk more about their plans.

Digital Arts Tutorials. Great artwork was showcased. Anomaly was talked about and shown off. Demos were shown showing computer generated monsters and how they create them. Digital Arts even gave a way DVDs.

What did I over hear at the summit? One Diamond employee told a comic store "you and 2,000 others that use the Diamond website." So does that mean there is less than 3,000 comic stores in the good old USA? [And Canada and the US, much less – Rich]

During our lunch presentation…

Marvel. Finally some Marvel material.  No photography was allowed. [Oops – Rich]. More Guardians of the Galaxy movie material was shown off. And a clip from the Ant Man movie was shown. It may be a hit. Marvel's Young Guns will be returning. There will be new Watcher Eyes to give away with issue 7 of Original Sin. Come July Marvel will announce their Star Wars publishing plans. Guardians 3000 comic  will be coming out the Fall of 2014. More Dark Tower. The Drawing of the Three. Marvel poked fun at DC's 3D covers for September with their own Deadpool 3D cover. 3D standing for three dancing Deadpools. Deadpool will fight Hawkeye in September 2014 A teaser for AXIS was shown. Avengers 25 and New Avengers 24 jumps 8 months forward. May 2015 "Time Runs Out" Marvel claims to never done "this" before.  From what was said by Marvel's rep they will be trying something they have never done. We were talking about it at the table wondering if Marvel will be trying their hand at a "reboot".

Dynamite came up after Marvel's presentation. Yeah, good luck following up a Guardians of Galaxy movie teaser. Bill Willingham will be coming to Dynamite to write Legenderry, Steampunk Adventure. Dynamite will be adding new titles to their line and keeping them at $2.99 and having the 1st issues be fully returnable. Splinter Cell Echoes will be a comic. Come Tuesday expect more Dynamite news….

Dark Horse announced Usagi Yojimbo will be getting the Omnibus treatment. The creator of Usagi has hit hard times. The proceeds of the Omnibus will go towards the creator and his family so I encourage you to check it out. FX will premier Strain on TV. A new Sin City clip from the upcoming movie was played. I think if you liked the first one you will like this one. Grendel vs Shadow by Matt Wagner will be coming out. And yes the Whedon Threeway. IDW is now 15 years old. A Chew board game was announced and that Bleeding Cool would have more announcements [We did – Rich]. IDW plans on having more returnable comics.

On Sunday, Diamond Comics took questions from us.  We get a $4 charge every week for the shipment coming in on Tuesday. Which helps me out a lot. The UPS driving didn't care when on Wednesday I would get the shipment. The question was why is the $4 charge still there? The reply was it pays for Diamonds Mystery shopper program and "other costs"  The "other costs" were never explained even though they were asked directly what they were. Some back and forth went on over the question. The comic store owner claimed that the charge was suppose to be temporary.  The Diamond rep made the joke "My job is to forget". And then stated "It is what it is". Some other comic store owners started grunting about it only being $4.

That $4 does add up to being over $200 in added expense a year. A smart business tries to trim cost where they can. If a small business can trim just $4 in other areas up to five more times  a week that would save the small business over $1,000 a year. I like math.

I do not remember if the $4 was suppose to be temporary.

I was going ask the question why does Diamond charge for the Comic Store locator service? I find it odd that the makers of Magic the Gathering wanted my store listed on their website for free and NECA who makes heroclixs has my store on their website for free but Diamond wants to charge me for the same service even though the average comic readers does not go to their website. Wizards of the Coast who makes Magic the Gathering called me to get my info when I started carrying their products and wanted me on their website so I can sell more of their product.

Again it is a small amount of money. And after the $4 question soured the room I felt my question would look like a follow up question that was just to pick a fight so I did not ask.

Over all a good Summit. Nothing ever goes perfectly.  Would like to see a timer used instead of someone walking around shouting one minute while trying to listen to the various publishers.  I understand limiting  the groups to ten minutes since later on we can talk with walk around and talk with them.

I did meet some good follow comic store owners. Peter and his wife of Rogue Collectibles and Comics in Canford N.J. Peter seemed like one of the nicest people you could ever meet. I was very shocked while talking with Brad of Rock Shop Music and Comics in Georgia that we opened the exact same time. What are the odds of that? I should have run downstairs and bet my whole store's worth on one roulette spin.

Brad and I also talked about how the New 52 was a great boon for both of us.  Even sitting in Planet Hollywood's bar on their ripped up couches (yeah it was odd paying over $3 for a soda and sitting on them) talking with other comic store owners was quite fun for me.

I personally hope Diamond has another summit in Vegas soon. Though from what I was being told last years Chicago summit was more attended along with other locations they have had. I know it is not all about me but if the Summit returns to Vegas, I am there!

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