Month: May 2020

Hey, Folks!

 

I hope everyone’s summer is starting to improve a bit with the warmer weather! Things have been good in the shop, although I really wish that we had some more new comics to sell…lol. I mean, I knew it was going to take a minute to get things back up to speed in the industry, but nothing really prepared me for the reality. This week and last week’s shipments were so tiny that I felt somewhat embarrassed by how empty the new release rack has been. Unfortunately, next week will not be any better as it is a Marvel “skip week” with only new trades and hard covers being released. DC’s comic load is also rather flimsy. Hopefully, by mid-July everything will be a little bit more better…😊

 

I know that many of you are wondering where the missing DC titles from this week’s shipment. You might recall that I reported to you last week that there were a handful of DC titles in which my orders were erased from my FOC page. I managed to get orders in while they were still showing “in stock” for most of the titles and thought that would be that. Unfortunately, the books did not show up yesterday and I have not yet been invoiced for them. I wasn’t actually too concerned at first as Diamond has been tinkering with their reorder system since before the Apocalypse and I have seen stuff get shipped long before I see it on an actual invoice.

 

But I sent an e-mail anyway, just in case there was some sort of chicanery going on here. The e-mail went out around 6:30 yesterday morning. I sent it out while I was still enjoying my morning coffee and reading the news. (As a brief digression, I checked the status of the reorder in question first thing in the morning rather waiting until I got to work because I had strange dreams about missing books. I awoke from a dream wondering if I remembered to order the variant DC titles that were printed on thin slices of sweet potato. Sweet potato? Yeah, I don’t get my subconscious either…) Again, I wasn’t terribly concerned about it at the time as I had an order confirmation with the books I had ordered. That’s usually a pretty good indicator I’ll have them unless they get left out of a box or arrived damaged. But as the day wore on and there was no response I started to get a little worried. As more people came in asking for the missing titles I found myself obsessively checking my e-mail for a reply and an explanation of when I could expect the missing titles.

 

Well, I just got the response at 10:12am. Yes, you read that right. It took 28 hours to get a response to a simple inquiry. I’m not saying this to talk smack about my distributor…I just want to give you a small example of what comic retailers are dealing with in the aftermath of the Apocalypse. Anyway, a random customer service rep caught my question and got back to me about the missing comics. He assured me that the order was indeed processed and that the books were on their way. He went on to explain how Diamond’s reorder system is a bit backed up right now, but is quickly catching up. He then told me that I had a couple of reorder boxes showing up at the store today and that the books in question be in them.

 

You would think that would be a clear, concise, and comforting reply. Unfortunately, I am rather intimately familiar with how the Diamond system works as I have been using it for 30+ years. You see, there is a place on the Diamond website called “Shipment Tracking”. When you go to the page it will show you a list of boxes on their way to you with a UPS tracking number that you can click on to see exactly where your box is as well as a button called “Shipment Details”. When you click on the “Shipment Details” button the system will show you a copy of the packing list that should, theoretically, show you everything that is in the box. When I checked the shipping details it contained items from the reorder I put in on Sunday and nothing from the reorder in question.

 

Le sigh. This is information that should have been available to the customer service rep. He should have been easily able to access this information, see that the books in question were not listed as being part of the shipment, and been tipped off that perhaps a little more investigation into my situation was necessary. Instead I had to send out yet another e-mail to explain the problem still hasn’t been completely addressed and now I have to wait for possibly another 24 hours for a response to basically the same question. Of course, I suppose it is still possible that the missing books were somehow included in today’s boxes and just didn’t make the shipping list. I won’t know until UPS blows through in a couple of hours. In any case, here’s hoping the damn things show up before the next issues ship. I’ll make sure to keep you posted.

 

The new Previews came in this week for the material set to ship out in August. It is a different sort of Previews then we are all used to in that there is no DC Comics catalog and the Marvel catalog has been folded into the main magazine. Although I don’t know for sure, I do believe the separate Marvel catalog will make its comeback next month. Most of the Marvel material spotlighted in the new Previews are old solicitations and reschedules of existing solicitations. There are a handful of new titles offered, but clearly not enough to bother with a separate catalog. Fair enough…I can see the wisdom in this decision.

 

DC Comics, however, is a horse of a different color. DC Comics, as I do believe I posted about last week, has completely taken their catalog from Diamond. This is because they have adopted a “multi-distributor” model that includes online retailers MidTown Comics and DCBS. As a result, the could no longer have a “DC Previews” that would be exclusive to Diamond. DC has decided to rectify this problem by no longer having a printed physical copy of their order form. Now if you want to access DC Comic’s monthly solicitations you will have go to their website and download a .pdf file with the information. It’s basically the same as their old printed catalogs, just as a .pdf.

 

I posted the link for the new catalog last week when this was initially sprung on us. For those of you who missed it, however, you can access it HERE. I will also be posting a copy of the catalog on the Facebook page and the website assuming I can figure out how to do it…lol. Now I’m not a big fan of this move mostly because I need a physical copy in order to properly make notes and process my initial orders, but I also have a couple of customers who are not particular internet savvy and it’s going to be a little more difficult getting the material in front of them. In any case, DC Comics certainly didn’t ask for my opinion and we will just have to deal with the situation. On the bright side, DC Comics is still included in the “short form” Diamond consumer order form. Ask me if you’d like a copy.

 

Let me also take a moment to announce that starting next week Monarch Comics will start carrying a selection of super hero themed face masks! These cotton face masks are extremely comfortable to wear for long periods and our initial offerings will include Deadpool, Hydra, Venom, and Harley Quinn. They will retail for $19.99. My supplier can also print custom images, so please let me know if there is a specific character you’d like to see on your mask and I will order one for you. This is all new for me so I can’t say yet how quick the turnaround will be for special orders, but I can’t imagine it would take more than a week or so. I fully expect to have a bigger selection if these take off the way I expect them to. It’s the best way to be stylish and safe…😊

 

That’s it for me this week, Folks! Have a great weekend and hopefully I will have more comics to sell you on June 10^th!

 

Ed

Hey, Folks!

 

This certainly is an interesting time to be alive and it is made more interesting when you are a comic book retailer. Before I take a deep breath and get into the latest comic industry drama, I’d like to once again thank everyone who is doing their best to observe our Covid-19 safety policy. It’s heartening to see so many comic fans sucking it up and dealing with a few moments of inconvenience in order to get their comics and a bit of chin wag with me. You guys are THE BEST.

 

I knew there would likely be some bumps along the road to getting the comic industry restarted after its two-month shutdown. I mean, you don’t just shut down an entire industry from printers to distributors to retail shops while publishers are unable to go into the office and then get expect everything to just go back to “normal” overnight. I preface my comments with this statement in order to let you know that I realize that we are all essentially in the same boat and choppy waters were to be expected. Unfortunately, we have hit a small snag.

 

Wednesday is traditionally the busiest day of the week for me which I’m sure comes as no surprise to any of you. Besides dealing with the new comic shipment and all of the smiling faces (currently obscured by masks…lol), it also the day that the following week’s invoice is released as well as a complete list of everything shipping out from Diamond. A major portion of my day is whipping my shipping list into shape and carefully constructing the subscription form which is why so many of you see me manning my desk on Wednesday morning/afternoon. I want to get into it as soon as possible so that I can familiarize myself with the upcoming week’s books…mostly so I can answer any questions during folk’s weekly visits.

 

I was diligently working away at the 5/27 shipping list yesterday when I came to a sudden and shocking realization. There were several titles that are shipping next week from DC that were not on my invoice. At first I wasn’t too concerned as Diamond’s track record with properly updating their website’s files has not been particularly good since this Covid-19 thing started, but after double AND triple checking I realized that there were indeed titles shipping that we didn’t have coming in. I frantically started clicking all over Diamond’s website and my e-mails to find some evidence of my orders, but couldn’t find anything. I can’t tell you how badly my heart started racing. It was literally one of my worst nightmares suddenly roaring to life right in front of me. How could this be happening!?!

 

Let’s turn on the Way Back machine and go back a month and take a look at the situation. Back in late April, while most of the country was still shut down, online comic retailers Midtown Comics and DCBS were making some noise about the frustration of not having new titles to offer to their patrons. It became known that there were a handful of DC Comics that managed to be printed before the printers/distribution system shut down and those retailers wanted to get their hands on the books as soon as possible. DC Comics, however, has a exclusive distribution deal with Diamond (more on that in a minute) and they also knew if they just made these titles available to Midtown and DCBS that the hue and cry from frustrated brick and mortar shop retailers would be terrible indeed. As a result, they worked out a deal with Midtown and DCBS. They would get access to this slate of DC Comics, but in return they had to agree to act as “distributors” of the titles to other retailers in order to level the playing field. DC Comics, perhaps rightly, reasoned that if everyone had an opportunity to get the books at the same time through Midtown and DCBS then that would make everyone happy. This, of course, ignores the fact that most retailers with store fronts were closed and couldn’t sell anything, much less a handful of lesser DC titles, but I digress and it’s really not the point of this diatribe. Let’s just say that in their minds DC Comics had found an equitable way to address the problem of Diamond Distributors lingering shutdown.

 

Actually, let me take a moment for two small digressions. The first is to answer the question of “How could DC Comics do that considering they have an exclusive deal with Diamond?” I, too, wondered this and after a bit of poking around I found the answer. During the last contract renegotiation with Diamond, DC Comics added a provision that stated they could end their exclusive deal with Diamond with 30 days notice at any time they wished. The second digression is “Why didn’t Monarch Comics take advantage of the new distribution deal and get instant access to these DC titles?” The simple answer is that not only were we not open at the point they would have started shipping, but after doing the math I quickly realized that we would actually be losing money by switching to these alternative distributors for such a paucity of titles. Plus, Diamond assured me that they would be able to supply us with the books as soon as they reopened. Fair enough. End of digression…

 

So, as the situation stood, suddenly there were two new quasi-distributors operating and offering mainly lower tiered DC titles a couple of weeks before Diamond. It was then that the serious missteps began to go down. DC Comics decided that for whatever reasons comic retailers were not smart enough to manage multiple distributors and they became worried that retailers who ordered the books from Midtown/DCBS would screw up and order the same titles from Diamond by mistake. As a result, DC and Diamond cancelled all of our previous orders for the titles and then told us that if we still wanted them from Diamond then we would have to go into the system and put our numbers back in to the FOC page. This personally irritated me because by all accounts very few retailers actually took up the Midtown/DCBS offer and I thought they should be responsible for their own orders and whether or not they were duplicated by accident. It was also ridiculous because all of the titles in question are going to be 100% returnable so even someone had duplicated an order through both vendors they wouldn’t be stuck with any unsold titles.

 

I hadn’t really been monitoring Diamond’s website for a couple of weeks at this point, but I read all about the new FOC policy from other retailers and went to work plugging my numbers for these titles back in. Of course, I was grumbling the whole time as I couldn’t understand why I was being penalized for someone else’s business decision, but it wasn’t some horrible job so I just did it. Steve and I decided early on that we were not going to start slashing our orders because all of these titles were going to be returnable and we decided to remain optimistic that the lion’s share of you would be returning as soon as the doors opened. So I just went into the system to re-enter the information. I have never had a problem with Diamond’s FOC system in the past and although we receive an order confirmation e-mail from Diamond for any FOC orders I didn’t bother to look at it because it normally just reflects whatever I ordered. That was a mistake I will not soon forget.

 

That more or less brings us up to yesterday morning when, with dawning horror, I realized that there were no records of me ordering ten different DC titles set to be released next week. At first I began doubting myself…did I miss ordering them? I clicked all over Diamond’s website for some proof of my FOC order, but couldn’t find anything but the glaring red text of “No Orders Found”. I went to my e-mail box and sorted through order confirmation e-mails until I found the one that should have had my orders noted on it. There was a confirmation for about half of the books and the other orders were not showing at all. This was naturally distressing, but I put aside my astonishment and growing frustration and instead just concentrated on salvaging the situation and “advance reordering” copies of everything that was apparently missed.

 

The good news is that all but, one title was available for reorder still. The bad news is because of the way Diamond’s reorder system is structured it is generally impossible to “direct ship” a reorder for product that hasn’t been released yet, so chances are we will not have the ten titles in question until the following Wednesday. I mean, I got the advance reorder in fairly early yesterday once I figured out what we were missing, so there is a small chance that Diamond will have enough notice to throw the books in a box with our regular shipment, but I’m not betting mom’s prescription drug money on it. Now even though the following titles won’t be here until the June 3^rd shipment I am still including them on the weekly sub form for 5/27 just on the off chance that they might show up after all. If they do end up delayed then I will have everyone’s orders on file and I will pull them when they finally show up. I will mark the titles that are probably going to be shipping to us late with an * on the sub form.

 

The titles that will most likely be delayed a week are:

 

AQUAMAN #59

BASKETFUL OF HEADS #7

BATMAN BEYOND #43

BOOKS OF MAGIC #19

FLASH #754

HE MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE MULTIVERSE #6

LOW LOW WOODS #5

SUICIDE SQUAD #5

TEENT TITANS #41

TERRIFICS #27 (This is the only title that went to backorder. Hopefully copies will show up, but if they don’t then I apologize profusely. While it is NOT the final issue of the series it is the final print issue before going digital for the final two issues.)

 

So I want to make it clear at the offset that I’m not terribly interested in assigning blame here as it really doesn’t matter at this point. That being said, I KNOW that I put in those numbers. I have no idea how or why they were zeroed out. It’s also interesting to note that several other retailers that I have communicated with also reported that their orders for these exact same titles disappeared after completing their own FOC orders. I was beginning to feel a little gaslighted…lol.

 

ME: “I know I put in those numbers!”

 

DIAMOND: “No, you didn’t.”

 

ME: “Maybe I didn’t…”

 

I any case, this will be a relatively quick fix to a distressing problem and, save for the already doomed Terrifics title, I will eventually get these books into your hands. Thanks in advance for your patience while we deal with these little hiccups and I will endeavor to do my best to assure this doesn’t happen again.

 

 

Now I will move on to another small problem since the industry started up again and this time I will be assigning just a smidgen of blame. Now, I understand that everyone wants to know what the publishers, particularly DC and Marvel, are doing in order to get their titles back on schedule. You know What? I’d really like to know as well. The problem is that Diamond Distributors have either not bothered or found themselves incapable of updating the back end of their website. There are A LOT of titles that were previously solicited and ordered that have either been removed from the system or else have ridiculously wrong release dates. And, yes, I know that if I hunted around the internet long enough then I could find some sort of updated ship list, but the problem is that this is information that should be available directly from my distributor whose job, I must stress, is to deliver books I’ve ordered and give me the information I need to order them. Once again, I understand they we are all in the same boat in the mad scramble to get everything up and running, but there is no reason that some third-rate comic book news website should have some of this information posted while my distributor is woefully under informed. There is really nothing to do for it save suck it up and hope that someone, somewhere, further up the supply chain line will finally get their $#!% together. I’ve out together a list of DC titles that were in the Diamond system as being released next week, but are not shipping, and, in some cases, are going to be resolicted at a later date. I’ll try to hunt down the actually updated release dates and post them before the end of the week.

 

The titles include:

 

BATGIRL #47

BATMAN SUPERMAN #10

DETECTIVE COMICS #1023

DOLLAR COMICS WONDER WOMAN #14

DOLLAR COMICS WONDER WOMAN #206

GENERATION ONE

JOHN CONSTANTINE HELLBLAZER #7

LAST GOD #7

SHAZAM #13

SUPERGIRL #42

WONDER WOMAN 84 GIANT #1

 

There has also been a bunch of titles from smaller publishers that were previously solicited that have had their orders cancelled. I have compiled a partial list of titles for your perusal. It’s only a partial list because the only titles we are explicitly notified about are titles of which we have actual orders. Again, I’ll try to hunt up a more complete list in my spare time (HA!). If you have any questions about something you special ordered or just whether or not a favorite title is still shipping then do not hesitate to message me about it or mention it in when you are in the store (although I wouldn’t bother asking Steve…he has NO idea what’s coming or going…lol). Here’s the list of Monarch orders that have been cancelled:

 

 

ADLER #4

ALIEN ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY #1

ALIEN ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY #2

ALIEN VS PREDATOR THICKER THAN BLOOD TP

ALIENS VS PREDATOR THICKER THAN BLOOD #4

BANG #3

BLOODSHOT (2019) #8

CLOCK #3

COLONEL WEIRD COSMAGOG #1

CUTTING EDGE SIRENS SONG #1

DC SUPER HEROES CAN YOU HELP SAVE LIFT FLAP BOOK

DEAD EYES #5

DISASTER INC #2

DOOM PATROL WEIGHT OF THE WORLD TP

ELFQUEST STARGAZERS HUNT #4

FATHOM VOL 9 #1

FATHOM VOL 9 #2

FRANKENSTEIN UNDONE #3

FRANKENSTEIN UNDONE #4

FRANKENSTEIN UNDONE #5

GOON #12

GRENDEL DEVILS ODYSSEY #5

GRENDEL DEVILS ODYSSEY #6

HEAVY #1

HELLBOY & BPRD HER FATAL HOUR

HIDDEN SOCIETY #4

HUNDRED WOLVES #1

INFERIOR FIVE #6

KEVIN EASTMAN TOTALLY TWISTED TALES TP VOL 01

KICK-ASS #19

LAST KNIGHT OF ST HAGAN #2

LIFE IS STRANGE PARTNERS IN TIME #2

NEXUS NEWSPAPER STRIPS TP VOL 01 GOURMANDO

OMNI #7

OMNI #8

PEARL JAM ART OF DO THE EVOLUTION HC

PREDATOR HUNTERS III #4

PREDATOR TP ESSENTIAL COMICS VOL 02

QUANTUM & WOODY (2020) #4

RAI (2019) #6

RAT QUEENS #22

ROBOTECH REMIX #6

SKULLDIGGER & SKELETON BOY #5

SKULLDIGGER & SKELETON BOY #6

SOULFIRE EXILED #1

SPY ISLAND #1

SPY ISLAND #2

STARSHIP DOWN #2

STRANGER THINGS INTO THE FIRE #4

SYMPATHY FOR NO DEVILS #1

TEEN TITANS ANNUAL #2

TINSELTOWN LOSING THE LIGHT #1

TOMORROW #3

TOMORROW #4

X-O MANOWAR (2020) #2

X-O MANOWAR (2020) #3

X-O MANOWAR (2020) #3

X-RAY ROBOT #2

X-RAY ROBOT #3

 

Finally, let me mention that initial orders for the April Previews (originally for items shipping in June) are due by retailers today. I’ve gotten my first draft of the order form completed and I’m going to be working at plugging in special orders and the like this afternoon. From what I’ve read from other retailers, a lot of the material from DC Comics and Marvel Comics is already going to be resolicited in next month’s Previews (shipping in next week!) so I’m not sure how much of the orders I put in we are actually going to be held to, but I WILL be making sure that our orders register. If there’s something of interest in the April Previews that you know you want and are afraid we may not be carrying then please do not hesitate to contact me and I’ll make sure that we have you covered!

 

Okay…I’m done being a windy bastard this week…lol. I will be here in the store the rest of the week for normal business hours to answer any of your questions or concerns. I’d like to take a moment to remind everyone that we will be closed on Monday in observance of the Memorial Day holiday.

 

Have a great holiday weekend and I’ll talks at ya next week!

 

WAIT! Another quick, last minute note! There were a couple of titles (Aquaman #59 AND Flash #754 come to mind) in which there was only one cover or the other available for reorder. Apparently there was a printer problem in getting all of the copies to Diamond or some such nonsense, so we will only be capable of offering one cover choice on the sub form.

 

When are things going back to normal again?

Hey, Folks!

Well, we are back in business!

I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed my recent “vacation”…for the first two weeks. By Day 15 I was close to losing my damn mind. Thank goodness I had Hillman around to keep me company and playing board games with me or else I would certainly be banging my head against the wall in Arkham.

I’m not sure where to start with this initial return to Editorial. I suppose I should go over the store rules involving our reopening. In no particular order, please remember the following when you visit Monarch post-apocalypse:

• Please wear a face mask while you are in the store. Governor DeWine stopped short of making face masks mandatory for customers, but Steve and I will have our masks on while patrons are in the store. Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
• Please observe social distancing rules as much as possible within the confines of the store. Of course, I know that the store is the size of a postage stamp and this may get a bit difficult in regards to the New Release rack, but we would appreciate if you didn’t crowd the rack.
• We are only allowing up to 7 patrons into the store at a time. Hopefully this will help with the social distancing issue. If you happen to arrive at the store and the door is locked then please be patient and we will let you in as soon as someone exits. We haven’t actually had to lock the door yet, but I am anticipating it becoming more of a problem next week when the comic delivery day goes back to normal.
• Please limit your visit to 10-15 minutes so that we can continue to keep the line moving and we can cut down on casual exposure. I must admit that I have the biggest mouth at any given time within a five mile square area and I have been starved for comic conversation so if I get a serious case of diarrhea of the mouth while you are desperately trying to get away then feel free to spray me with a can of Lysol and go running while I am gasping for breath. It may be your only chance of escape.
• Monarch Comics has a curbside pick-up option if you don’t feel comfortable coming into the store. Simply use Messenger to contact us or give the store a call and we will work with you to set up a time for pick up. As of this writing, no one has actually taken me up on the curbside offer and I am on tenterhooks waiting to see how it would work…lol.

Many people have questioned me this week about what is being done to bring the comic industry back online and when we can expect new product to make its way into the store. Well, the easy answer is “next week”. The rest of the explanation is a little more complicated. Understand that the comic industry more or less completely shutdown shortly after Ohio did so there was absolutely nothing moving through the system. Now that states are slowly opening up and businesses are preparing the New Normal it is going to take a couple of weeks for the industry to get up to speed again and you can expect to have relatively small shipping weeks through the month of June until the publishers can get their new shipping schedules together.

There will be no May Previews this year. The April Previews (with material originally scheduled to ship in June) initial orders are now due May 22^nd. The June Previews will ship on 5/27 and will most likely contain solicitations for titles shipping in July/August, but at this point we can only wait and see.

As of today there are still a host of comics from DC and Marvel that have yet to be rescheduled. Know that I am (and have been) closely monitoring the situation and will pass any information on to you as soon as I receive it. Also understand that anything that you may have special ordered before our ordeal began should still be on order and coming in the store at some point.

Let me just say what a pleasure it was seeing everyone here in the store yesterday and today. I mean it, Folks, missed you terribly and even with the limited face time we have now the conversations I had yesterday was like a cool bucket of water after being trapped in the desert for two months. Here’s hoping we don’t get shut down again in a few weeks or months. At least now if we get shut down we have a little experience dealing with it. Frankly, I seriously doubt if the comic industry will shut down quite as completely the next time around and I want to let you know now that as long as Monarch Comics is receiving new product in the door we will continue to service you in the matter to which you’ve become accustomed.

 

Eddie