Posted in: Comics | Tagged: comic store in your future, rodman comics

So How's 2020 Going So Far? Comic Store In Your Future

Published Sun, 06 Sep 2020 21:30:11 -0500

Last updated Wed, 15 Jun 2022 16:21:21 -0500

Rod Lamberti of Rodman Comics of Ankeny, Iowa, writes weekly for Bleeding Cool. Find previous columns here . He writes of 2020; Currently, money-wise, things are going good here. The Three Jokers is the hottest comics to come out this year for us. We have not been having Friday Night Magic due to the coronavirus, and it has not hurt our Magic sales. We are currently more profitable without hosting Friday Night Magic than we were when we were having Friday Night Magic. Basically, no staff required to host gaming frees up time for more actual selling of products. We are also still closed on Thursday due to the coronavirus. Our last Rod Deals was a good sales day. October 10th, we are planning to have a celebration for the ten-year anniversary of the store.

2020, of course, has been a wild year. In April, the governor had all non-essential businesses shut down for a while. A derecho (a powerful storm) hit recently, taking out the power for a few days. Winter will bring who knows what. Iowa recently had its largest single-day COVID-19 case increase since the pandemic started. The Iowa governor declared bars in six of Iowa's counties shut down until September 20th. The Des Moines mayor declared a mask mandate. Something the Iowa governor is not for. Schools in Iowa have started back up. Here in Ankeny, twenty-seven students and twelve teachers were already put in quarantine. It is a mess.

So How's 2020 Going So Far? Comic Store In Your Future

We, of course, announced the celebration of our 10th anniversary after the last Rod Deals was done before all the new announcements about the virus. We will, of course, use Facebook to show off the sales. If people wish, we will do curbside. Our anniversary may very well be almost virtual.

I have been quarantined once. Something I never thought would happen to me. When we were shut down in April, I had a cough and thought I better get it checked out. The doctor was actually scared of me. The experience was quite the eye-opener. I was lucky enough when the test results finally came back; they were negative.

Here we are now trying to get ready for the 10th anniversary of the store. Make it a big event without having too many people. How are we celebrating? We are working on new Rodman Comics t-shirts. One version will simply state 10 Years of Rodman Comics! Others we are still working on.

One is a Top Ten list if we can get it to be funny and cool. Such as a through the years of Rodman Comics. 2010 Rodman Comics opens and Ankeny is never the same! 2017 Rod writes the first "A Comic Store In Your Future" for Bleeding Cool. Some will say Bleeding Cool is better for it; some will say Bleeding Cool is worse for it. Over 150 articles written. Rich drops the A from the A Comic Store In Your Future to show he is the boss. I originally started writing these in the hopes of helping inspiring new comic store owners. 2020 Rodman Comics celebrates 10 Years of Rodman Comics! Just a few more years to fill out.

Another is a David Letterman like Top Ten. You know you're at Rodman Comics when….

Store owner bickers endlessly and non-stop with the staff to the point people wonder if it is a comic routine.
The Wednesday help is so nice they bring her gifts; the owner not so much.
You walk in, and the owner is happy, so you know a new Geoff Johns written comic has arrived.
The store owner is mad on a Tuesday; the Diamond shipment must be in.
Rod Deals is going on
Rodman Comics Day is going on
Each year mostly on April Fool's Day seems the store goes out of business.
One can buy comics, magic, heroclixs, action figures, and more.
There is delicious cake.
Everyone in the store is wearing T-Shirts with Rodman Comics on them.

One other idea is a Top Ten Reasons to shop at Rodman Comics.