It’s a pretty uneventful week and so I’ll make it short. The most important news is that Friday marks the last day for the first stage of our annual post-holiday sale. That means that our extensive collection of hard covers and trade paperbacks will be on sale for 25% off the price marked through tomorrow, so if there was a little something-something you’ve had your eye on you have but one more day to pull the trigger to take advantage of big savings!
Not to fear…our 50% off the back issue boxes sale will be continuing throughout the month of February. This includes 25% off our wall and showcase display titles and the dollar boxes will continue to be 3 for a dollar as well. With savings like this it doesn’t matter if we keep having these smaller ship weeks!
I also wanted to mention that I know the new release rack has looked a little barren this month. I mean, aesthetically speaking I would certainly prefer to have every single customer walk in and be greeted by a new release rack fairly bursting with comic book goodness, but I’m in the middle of a very delicate experiment involving inventory control. As I’m sure you can imagine, inventory control is the heart and soul of this business and I have been working hard with the tools I have at hand to perfect my life’s work of getting perfect new comics numbers. If a comic book retailer does not have an iron grip on his inventory they may become victim to “The Death of a Thousand Paper Cuts”. Put simply, having one unsold copy of a comic is no big deal, but if you multiply that one copy by a thousand you start to have problems. I will admit that I have been a little too zealous in some of my cuts witnessed by some of my quick sell-outs lately, but thanks to the subscription form and a better engagement with my customers I’m getting a handle on these little snafus. As much as it is great to sell out of a title, especially one that I ordered more or less blind, I also really hate that feeling of suddenly realizing Wednesday morning that I am going to be selling out of something way quicker than anticipated.
So please, ALWAYS remember…if you don’t see it on the rack ask for it at the counter. Oftentimes it is as simple as finding a copy behind the counter and usually I can reorder what you are looking for with no problem. If you don’t say anything then I will have no idea that I under ordered. If I am not in the store then please mention it to Steve as well. Steve has no ability to immediately find out availability of sold out items, but he is very good at passing messages on to me and I will sort through any requests as soon as I am back in the office! Additionally, never underestimate the power of Facebook Messenger. While It may take me a few hours to get back to you depending on the day and time of your question, I WILL get back to you as soon as I can. My job, nay, my whole purpose in life, is to make sure all of your comic book needs are sufficiently supplied!
One more thing to mention…a couple of weeks ago I took a chance and preordered some Mandalorian merchandise. Originally I wasn’t even going to try to carry anything Mandalorian related because I was (and still am) convinced that the Big Box and online retailers were going to see the stuff long before we would. I didn’t want to order hundreds of dollars of merchandise only to find out later that everyone bought it weeks or months ago from someone who got it from the manufacturer quicker. However, when I saw these particular items I decided to throw caution to the winds and order a couple of each. Plus, I wanted to see the look on Steve’s face when these items sold out within two hours after he groused about ordering them at all. So, as of Wednesday morning, we will have a small amount of…the Star Wars Mandalorian and Child Life Sized Standups! WOO HOO! They will be sold separately and retail for $39.95 each.
That’s it for me this week. I’ve got plenty of fussy paperwork to catch up on and so I think I’ll put on my headphones and enter Taylor Swift Nirvana while I do it. Have a great weekend!
It’s been an interesting time at Monarch Comics this week as I got the supreme pleasure of fixing a UPS delivery shortage. I’ll admit to a bit of smug self-satisfaction as I successfully contacted the correct people in the correct order and said the right things in order to fix the problem. 30+ years of comic book retailing will give you that kind of blazing insight.
It all started on Tuesday afternoon. Technically Tuesdays are one of my days off, but for the last year or so I’ve been coming in late in the day to help with the new shipment. It just seemed easier to give up a couple of hours of a day off versus dealing with my portion of the weekly unpacking early on Wednesday morning. I come in around 4:30-5pm, putz around with the sub orders, help Steve out with he special orders, record the Facebook Live show, and then pull all of my subscription peeps. Simple, right? I’ve actually got it down to a science and I can usually get out of the store before 8pm. It’s simple alright…as long as nothing goes wrong.
Well, something went wrong on Tuesday. Our UPS driver dropped off the bulk of our shipment a little later than usual and announce to Steve that he couldn’t find one of our boxes. He said he would be back with it once he found it so Steve didn’t kick up much of a fuss. When I arrived around 5 or so he still hadn’t returned. I went online and checked out the status of the missing box and there was some kind of note attached to the shipment tracking that didn’t make any sense outside of the fact that it looked like we wouldn’t be getting the missing box until the next day. I should mention now that it was a huge box with well over 2 dozen titles contained within and it would be a huge headache if I didn’t have those books on the rack before Wednesday morning. Not only would we be missing essential titles, but I would have had to do sub pulls twice in order to make sure everything was done properly. I blanched at the thought of it.
So I proceeded to start the process to get it straightened out. The first step was to call Diamond Comics Distributors to see what they could tell me about the missing box. Now we just recently lost our customer service rep so all I could do was call the general number and see who picked up. I was hoping for an experienced employee who could, you know, actually help me, but it was a crap shoot. Luck, r something similar, was with me and the gentleman who took my call quickly looked up the missing box and he was just as mystified as I was by the weird note on the shipment tracking page. “This doesn’t make any sense,’ he said, “let me call UPS and get back to you.” He was true to his word and got back to me immediately and assured me that UPS would be contacting me within the hour and they would help me straighten it out.
I was cautiously hopeful at this point and prayed to the comic retailing gods that the UPS person calling would be as efficient and helpful as the Diamond rep. Once again, my desperate prayers were answered by a very polite and competent UPS rep who found my package and offered me the choice between waiting until tomorrow to have the shipment delivered OR I could swing by the Maumee customer service station between 8pm and 9pm to pick up the box. I dreaded the thought of waiting for the box in the morning for all the reasons enumerated above, so I immediately told her I would pick up the box at 8pm. Luckily, Hillman was going to be stopping by after he got off work for his weekly X-title fix (Excalibur and Marauders this week…two of our favorites!) so he could give me a ride to UPS to pick up the box. My back is still a mess after throwing it a couple of weeks ago and I needed a big strong he man to haul it out to the car.
Bottom line? I got the missing box, finished the unpack, sorted through special orders, and got the subscriptions pulled by 11pm or so. It was a long night, especially for a “day off”, but it was so worth it when I hit the ground running on Wednesday morning and was ready for the ravening hordes hungry for new comics! I was pleasantly surprised when the solution came together relatively easily and I could get the job done with minimum muss and fuss!
Steve and I will be working on January initial orders this afternoon which will include our orders for Free Comic Book Day titles. Can you believe we have to work this far in advance for FCBD stuff!?! Anyway, for the last several years, Diamond and its attendant publishers have offered some FCBD merchandise exclusives that are only available on the big day, Funko in particular has had some fun FCBD exclusives for the last couple of years. I try to carry these items when possible, but this year there are items that I have absolutely NO idea whether there will be any interest in them or not. I figured I’d better mention them now and solicit any preorders for them before they hit their FOC dates. Never let it be said that I don’t enjoy giving my customers options!
FCBD 2020 MARVEL GALLERY EMMA FROST PVC FIGURE
The first exclusive FCBD merchandise item is the FCBD 2020 Marvel Gallery Emma Frost PVC figure. The X-Men’s sexy femme fatale is an approximately 12-inch diorama featuring detailed sculpting and paint applications, and comes packaged in a full-color window box. It is by Caesar and sculpted by Alejandro Pereira. The Emma Frost PVC figure retails for $49.99 and the FOC date is 1/31/20.
FCBD 2020 MONDO SPIDERVERSE MILES MORALES PX ENAMEL PIN
The second item is the FCBD 2020 Mondo Spider-Verse Miles Morales PX Enamel Pin! Designed by Matt Taylor and released through Mondo Tees, this 1.2″ hard enamel pin has a butterfly clutch pin arrives on an Into the Spider-Verse backing card. It retails for $10.00 and the FOC date is 1/31/20!
FCBD 2020 FUNKO PX MARVEL MYSTERY BOX
The final FCBD merchandise exclusive is the one from Funko and it is real head scratcher…at least for me. They are the FCBD 2020 Funko PX Marvel Mystery Boxes and even thought I’ve read the item description three times I still can’t quite figure out how to sell these things to you…lol. I figure the easiest thing to do is just pass Diamond’s solicitation info onto you and see what you think…
“Funko steps up their game for FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2020 with their first-ever PREVIEWS EXCLUSIVE Mystery Box! Inside you’ll find a brand-new Marvel Comics POP! PX bobble-head figure, an exclusive PX Marvel Funko Variant Comic Book (title TBA), and a PX Funko POP! Character Tee – all PX items and available in Comic Shops on Free Comic Book Day 2020! The POP! PX figure comes in standard Funko window box packaging for easy display, while the Marvel comic book features cover art in the Funko style, depicting the Mystery Box’s featured POP! character in three randomly distributed designs: Main Variant Cover (65%), No Logo Variant (25%), Gold Logo Cover (10%)! There are three Mystery boxes to choose from (A, B, C), each with its own exclusive T-Shirt design of the featured POP! character. The character and contents of the box are a MYSTERY for now, but you’ll only have to wait until Free Comic Book Day to discover what’s inside the box!”
That’s it! That’s all the info I have on these “mystery boxes” and, frankly, I don’t know enough about POP collectibles to know exactly who is going to be looking for these things on FCBD. On top of that, you have to order the mystery boxes by short size which really ups my anxiety level for ordering any at all. And don’t even get me started trying to explain this promotion to Steve…he can barely understand the appeal of regular Funko products. So, I’m leaving it up to you, gentle sentients. If you are interested in purchasing one of the mystery boxes then please let me know and I will order in your box. All three boxes retail for $34.99 and the FOC is 1/31/20. When ordering, please include the t-shirt size of your choice. Sizes range from Small to Double Extra Large.
Wonder Woman #750 shipped in this week and is selling at a good clip. In addition to being legacy numbered at #750 this issue of Wonder Woman starts a new chapter in DCU continuity with a back up story by Scott Snyder which shows us Princess Diana’s new place in the DC Universe. As you probably know by now it also comes with ten different covers and has a cover price of $9.99. We started off yesterday offering a complete set of 10 covers for the sale price of $80, but I’m afraid we no longer have all of the different covers still in stock. I just checked with Diamond and only about half of the covers are still available for reorder, so if there is a specific cover you are looking for and it isn’t on the rack then please check with me to see if I can order one in for you.
FLASH #750 by HOWARD PORTER
FLASH #750 1940S NICOLA SCOTT VAR ED
FLASH #750 1950S GARY FRANK VAR ED
FLASH #750 1960S NICK DERINGTON VAR ED
FLASH #750 1970S GARCIA LOPEZ VAR ED
FLASH #750 1980S DELL OTTO VAR ED
FLASH #750 1990S MATTINA VAR ED
FLASH #750 2000S JIM LEE VAR ED
FLASH #750 2010S FRANCIS MANAPUL VAR ED
All of that brings me neatly to DC’s next big milestone, Flash #750! Featuring 10 different covers (a “regular” cover, a blank cover, and decades variants from the 40’s-10’s), Flash #750 features the beginning of “The Flash Age”, the story DC has been building toward since issue #50! In addition this special anniversary issue will also feature tales from across the generations of super-speedsters by an all-star line up of creators! Flash #750 will retail for $7.99 and is due out March 4th.
Monarch Comics will be offering a special sale price of $63.99 for all ten covers. This offer will be while supplies last. I have to admit that I will have considerably fewer copies initially ordered for this title versus the previous special DC anniversary issues, so please let me know ASAP if you would like to purchase a complete set or even a specific cover. Subscription customers who don’t specify a particular cover will receive whatever we have in stock after complete sets are compiled. The FOC for the issue is 2/3/20!
That’s it for me this week, Folks! It’s already after noon and I still have to get all of this mess posted online as well as getting my January initial orders entered. Thankfully, my first draft of initial orders is complete and the only things of substance that needs to be sorted out is our orders for this year’s FCBD titles. If you have any questions about any of the items above then please message me on Messenger or give me a call. I’ll be here for the rest of the week!
I’m just sitting here at work putting the finishing touches on this week’s subscription form and watching the end of the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover from the CW! Yes, the excitement is mounting as our intrepid heroes have managed to, well, I just realized I probably shouldn’t say anything on the off chance that someone hasn’t seen the big finale or is waiting for the Netflix release. Ugh…I have things I want to say about it…questions to ask…fiddly fanboy things to bitch about! Oh, well…I guess I’ll have to just spend the next week having the same conversation 143 times with you, my adoring customer base. I suppose I should also warn everyone that Monarch Comics is NOT a spoiler-free zone. Where also can everyone freely discuss what’s new in fandom with like-minded individuals?
I also finally finished that Mandolin show over on Disney+ this week. I hate admitting it, but it was a terrific narrative. It was well written, acted, produced, and filmed…truly a tremendous feat. I have been a Star Wars naysayer for year…nay, decades…and I have to belly up to the bar and dig into some humble pie. This was truly an exceptional television show. I know a lot of you are now waiting with bated breath for the second season, which I am reliably informed will be out in the Fall, but I have to admit that like another recent comic book show triumph <cough>Watchmen<cough> I would perfectly happy if the Mandolorian was just the one season. It was such a satisfying experience from soup to nuts that I’m not sure how much more could be added with more of the story. That being said, I WILL be tuning in for season two…:P
Wonder Woman #750 is coming out next week and according to what I’ve read it is going to be the harbinger of yet another new era for DC comics. Well, in conjunction with Doomsday Clock, I suppose. I am curious to see how it all plays out. I know a lot of you are somewhat exasperated by yet another retcon of the DCU, but I think that it usually makes for an interesting revitalization of the monthly comics. Okay, okay…New 52 was kind of a dud, but it did give us some great Batman stories and inevitably led to Rebirth which was pretty good. I didn’t regularly read DC Comics until the debut of the original Crisis on Infinite Earths so I suppose I have a soft spot for these continuity do overs. Wonder Woman’s switch to “Legacy” numbering is apparently the way forward for DC as Flash is doing the same thing (with the same number) next month. I wonder who gets the interesting task of adding up all of those Legacy numbers anyway?
In any case, Wonder Woman #750 is following the lead of Action Comics #1000 and Detective Comics #1000 with a series of 10 covers, most of which celebrate a particular decade in Wonder Woman’s development. Monarch Comics will be offering complete sets of Wonder Woman #750’s 10 different covers for a special price of $80 while supplies last. You can take advantage of this special price by either ordering a set on the subscription form or by stopping by the store next week. I have no idea how much of these gems DC Comics has over printed for the event, but I do know that I only have enough preorders on the book to accommodate a handful of sets, so order yours today!
I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t mention that our annual post-holiday sale is still in full force. As tired as you must be of hearing me repeat it, all of our hard covers and trade paperbacks are 25% off price marked and includes already marked down sale items as well as any special orders. The back issue boxes are 50% of price marked and our wall display books are 25% off price marked. Additionally, the Dollar Boxes have all been magically transformed into 3 for a dollar boxes. The hard covers/trade paperback sale will continue through the end of January and the everything else will be on sale through the end of February!
I can see we are due for a little snow event starting tomorrow night which actually kind of sucks because Hillman’s birthday is on Friday and I will be out of the store on Saturday celebrating it with him. “Who’s Hillman?” you may be asking? Oh, he’s just this great guy I’ve been kinda sorta seeing for the last ten months who is going to get a good birthday party if it kills me. Or him. Or anyone or anything that gets in the way of making it happen. Unfortunately, I haven’t yet achieved the ability to throttle the life out of a potential winter storm so I guess we’ll just have to deal with it. In any case, as I said, I won’t be in the office this Saturday as Steve has graciously agreed to cover my shift. I will be back on Sunday, however, so if you have nay questions, concerns, or special orders then please feel free to send me a note on Messenger and I will get to it as soon as I get back to work. Wish me luck as I will begin the baking and construction of Hillman’s Black Forest Birthday Cake tonight!
Have a great weekend, Folks, and please be safe once the wintry antics start!
Well, the holidays are finally over and everything is going back to normal or as normal as things get in the comic business. After the tsunami of titles that surged up during the last couple of weeks of the year we have been given a slight respite from our favorite publishers as January is a five shipping week month and your usual favorites are spread out a bit. This, of course, gives you the opportunity to stock up on comic supplies of which we have just gotten a solid restock of after letting things sell down for the end of the year and to take advantage of the Post-Holiday Sale where all of your favorite hard covers and trade paperbacks are 25% off the price marked and our back issue boxes are all 50% off! Additionally, our Dollar Boxes are, for the month, now magically transformed into 3 FOR A DOLLAR boxes! Take advantage of these great savings now and help us reduce the amount of stuff we have to count for the end of the year inventory…lol.
You might recall that last week I was crying in my beer over throwing my back out again for the umpteenth million time. It’s even more embarrassing to know that it happened merely by getting up out of my chair although I was considering inventing some fiction involving lifting a truck off of an injured child to make it sound more dramatic. I’m still in pain although it has been downgraded from “complete agony” to “frustrating ache”. You’ll be pleased to know that I have stopped drugging myself insensate at night and progressed to merely using pillows to prop myself up. And while I wasn’t able to throw comic boxes around with my usual vigor I did have a go at lugging my laundry around last night. Here’s hoping it heals up by next week.
I finally pulled the trigger on opted into the new Disney Plus streaming channel. I swore that I would not make the move until I cancelled one of my previous streaming services and I’m afraid the DC Universe app bit the dust this month. Don’t get me wrong…I thoroughly enjoyed the DC app, particularly the wide selection of back issues that were available digitally, but their television content just wasn’t as tempting as the Disney Plus service.
And what a wide range of programming they offer! Many of you have heard me comment about it at the store and I will say it again…I could care less about Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, or Simpsons…what I was really excited about was tucking in and watching al of the 70’s live action Disney films that my parents used to take me to see at the Jesse James Drive-In when I was a kid. I started out with a personal favorite, “The Cat From Outer Space”, and despite having an issue trying to turn off the close captioning it remains one of my favorite and most fondly remembered kid’s films. I’m also convinced that Spielberg ripped off the plot from “Cat” for “E.T.”, but that is a discussion for another day.
I also sat through the original “Pete’s Dragon” and what an eye-opener that was! I had absolutely no memory of this children’s classic being so, well, creepy. I mean, we’ve got a family of deranged and filthy hillbillies who sing charming songs about buying children from orphanages, turning them into slaves, and then torturing them to death. No wonder this kid has a dragon as an “imaginary” friend! I’m just surprised that the dragon didn’t roast these awful people alive and eat them for dinner. Adding a crazed evil sorcerer who’s dangerously obsessed with dissecting the dragon for spare parts and his demented assistant who has no trouble kidnapping kids to use as dragon bait and you’ve got a Disney film that is ripe to have its trailer recut as a horror movie! Thank goodness Helen Reddy is there to lighten things up a bit as a hot spinster who does a song and dance number for the drunks at the local bar including her lovable sot of a father played by Mickey Rooney. And I haven’t even mentioned the OTHER local spinster who is a curiously strict school marm who I suspect wears a leather bodice under her plain school marm dress.
I also bit the bullet and started watching “The Mandolin Player”…sorry, “The Mandalorian”, that everyone has been raving about lately. I have a complicated relationship with the Star Wars franchise and as I will tell anyone who will listen I’m not that big of a fan. That being said, I have sat through the all of the Star Wars film released since “The Force Awakens” and I must admit that I have found some measure of enjoyment out all of them. “Solo” is still my favorite Star Wars film, but a funny thing happened while tuning into the first four episodes of “The Mandalorian”.
I’ve been watching them two episodes at a time which just about perfectly fills the average amount of time I spend watching the Boob Tube at night. The first two episodes rather surprised me as the television series is gorgeous looking and one of the best look TV productions I’ve ever seen. And, yes, “Baby Yoda” IS aggressively cute and clearly has the mutant ability to turn hard-bitten bounty hunters into pools of adoring goo. But a funny thing happened about halfway through the third episode, I realized that I was genuinely invested in the fates of The Mandalorian and his erstwhile child…invested and thrilled at the spectacle of their daring escape from an army of crazed killers. After decades of hatred for the franchise followed by a couple of years of indifference I suddenly realized that this industrious little show was quite possibly the best Star Wars narrative I’ve ever seen! I mean, if the movies were as sharply written and acted as this little screen gem I might have ended up loving the material as much as, oh, I don’t know…Jim Beard or somebody! By the time I got to the end of the fourth episode, I was hooked! This really is a terrific little show and I’m looking forward to finishing the first season. I want to know more about these “Mandalorians” and what exactly the significance is of the “Yoda Baby” and what the evil Nazis…I mean “former Empire agents” want with it. Hats off for everyone involved in this small triumph of a television show.
That being said, “Watchmen” is still the better show so if you haven’t started watching it yet I suggest you get on your hobby horse and get going!
Cover by Joelle Jones
1940S Variant Edition by Joshua Middleton
1950S Variant Edition by Jenny Frison
1960S Variant Edition by J. Scott Campbell
1970S Variant Edition by Olivier Coipel
1980S Variant Edition by George Perez
1990S Variant Edition by Brian Bolland
2000S Variant Edition by Adam Hughes
2010S Variant Edition by Jim Lee and Scott Williams
I haven’t really commented about it too much because I am really reaching the upper limit of my tolerance for variant covers, but Wonder Woman #750 is shipping in two weeks and all of the cover images are finally revealed to the public. (To be fair, I stopped checking for updates two weeks after I put in the initial orders, so they may have been available earlier. I just figured if DC couldn’t be bothered to make the images public sooner then I couldn’t be bothered in trying to sell their books blindly.) Once again, there will be ten different covers with one marking every decade of Diana’s existence as well as a “regular” cover and a blank cover. I went far lighter on these books as opposed to Action Comics and Detective Comics #1000, but I think I will have enough to go around for my beloved customer base. I’ve discussed it with Steve and we will also be offering a deal on anyone who is interested in a complete set of all ten covers. At cover price, the ten covers would be $99.90 and we are offering the set for $80, a 20% savings! This discount will apply if you preorder a set, order it on the subscription form, or simply pick one of each off the rack. Reserve your copies today!
That’s it for me this week, my friends! I hope everyone has a great weekend and that no one gets swept away by the three feet of rain predicted over the next couple of days. Remember…at least we don’t have to shovel it!
Welcome to a new year with Monarch Comics! I hope that everyone had a fantastic holiday. Mine was pretty good, but I am so glad that they are over and my life can return to its comfortable and easy to follow routine. Monarch Comics enjoyed its best holiday season ever so I suppose I should be more grateful for the holidays, but I just hate getting out of my rut.
Wednesday marked the start of our annual Post-Holiday Sale! All of our hard covers/trade paperbacks are on sale for the entire month of January for 25% off the price marked. This includes books already marked down on our sale table as well as any special orders you may place during the month of January. Additionally, all of our back issue boxes are 50% off price marked, our books displayed on the wall are 25% off price marked, and our dollar boxes will be 3 for a dollar through the months of January and February! So bring those holiday gift cards in to take advantage of our sale!
It’s the beginning of the year and I must mention that during the next two weeks I will be clearing out our subscription service boxes. By “cleaning out” I mean the folks that we are holding books for who haven’t been in lately will be flushed back out into our general stock. So if you have stuff on hold with us and you haven’t been in to pick it up lately then now is that time to contact us. If we don’t hear from you then your books will be placed back out for sale and you will not be allowed to use the subscription service anymore.
I also want to mention that for the first time in 30 years we are changing our regular store hours. Starting on Wednesday, January 8th, we will be changing our hours from 10am-8pm to 9am-7pm. This is mostly because we see way more business between 9am and 10am then we do from 7pm to 8pm.
Okily dokily…that’s it for me this week, Folks. I somehow managed to throw my back out yesterday here at work dragging my fat butt out of my chair and I am currently in agony. It is somewhat difficult sitting and even standing is excruciating and making it difficult for me to concentrate today, so I will leave you to the new shipping list and subscription form. Frankly I can’t wait to get home and take a muscle relaxer and lie flat on my back.
