Month: June 2020

Hey, Folks!

 

This has certainly been an interesting week for the store. As I’m sure many of you have already heard UPS somehow managed to “destroy” (Diamond’s description, not mine) a 60lb box that had more than a few comics in it. From what my customer rep told me the box had to be duct taped back together and returned to Diamond’s warehouse. I am not sure exactly how such a thing happens, but there you go. Luckily, everything was available for replacement (again, at least according to Diamond) and the only things that were not immediately available were a couple of single copy variant covers that were special ordered. I was told that the order would be processed first thing Wednesday morning and that the missing books would be here by Friday.

 

That was apparently wishful thinking. Wednesday morning came and I received an e-mail from Diamond explaining that shipments were being picked up from the warehouse at the appropriate time, but apparently “UPS has notified us that they are experiencing delays throughout their transportation network due to volume”. What does that mean to us? Well, I just checked our shipment tracking and, lo and behold, the box of missing books is NOT going to be here by Friday. Color me shocked. I’m going to have to get on the horn with Diamond today and find out exactly when we can expect to see all of the titles we were missing from our shipment this week. I can say that the reorder I put in every Sunday which is usually here by Wednesday is now going to show up today…so that’s something, I guess.

 

Here’s the list of titles that we are currently missing from this week’s shipment. I want to stress that if you ordered these books they will still be held for you once I get them in the door and apologize for the shoddy service. The only good news is that there is almost literally nothing shipping in next week so those of you who missed a title or two will have something to pick up next week…lol.

 

Here’s the list. Please note that this is primarily stuff that goes out on the New Release rack. There were also special order titles that didn’t make it in yet either and those will be pulled and held for you as well.

 

AQUAMAN #60 VAR ED

BATMAN #93

FLASH #756

IRON MAN 2020 #4

MARVEL PREVIEWS V.5 #1

STAR WARS ADVENTURES CLONE WARS #2

SUICIDE SQUAD #6 VAR ED

TEEN TITANS #42

TMNT JENNIKA #3

YEAR ZERO #2

 

Next week is quite possibly the smallest shipping week in living memory. Okay…not MY living memory, as that stretches back to the far reaches of time and space when there weren’t the sheer amount of titles being published, but it is the smallest in a good long while. As a result, I’ve decided to take the holiday weekend off and won’t be in the store on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Of course, we’ll be closed on Saturday because of Independence Day anyway.

 

Also, I was just informed on Monday that my Dad has to go into Toledo Hospital on Tuesday for a heart catherization with a possible side order of Heart stent. Of course, catherization and stents are like old friends to my Dad and I’m not to concerned with the actual procedures, but I am terrified of taking him to the hospital with all this Covid craziness going on. The last thing I need is Dad to get The Bug and then deal with that on top of everything else that is wrong with him. In any case, I’m not sure what my schedule is going to look like on Tuesday and there may not be a Monarch Comics Afternoon Delight/AT NIGHT episode. Of course, with the size of the shipping week there would only be, like, ten titles to show you anyway…lol…so it won’t be a huge loss, but I do enjoy our little get togethers and hope I am able to record it. In any case, there won’t be any interruption in regards to your sub orders being pulled. I am, as always, on the case.

 

I also want to assure everyone that I FINALLY heard back from our new distributors, USC, and they have let me know that our account has been approved and we should be getting our first shipment of DC products on 7/6. I have yet to receive anything from them, so I have no idea what the service is going to look like or how things like damages and shortages or reorders are going to be handled. I also don’t if we will see the shipment on Monday or Tuesday or even Wednesday. Let me tell you that it is going to be a wait filled with suspense and trepidation. Still, I guess none of us are owed a boring life. I’m going to try and be optimistic about it, however, and hope for the best. There’s always time for hand wringing and wailing to the heavens if it doesn’t turn out perfectly.

 

I need to address another situation that I have been loath to even mention here for reasons which shall become clear. Yes, it is true that D.C. Comics has officially made Tuesday the release date for their product. In the past all companies have more or less agreed to make Wednesday the “official” new comic book day and it still remains as such for all the other publishers. D.C. made this decision in a bid to get all their product released to their various sales platforms (online stores, Amazon, Comixology, book stores) and thereby make it easier for them, presumably on a publishing level. This is all well and good and it is certainly their prerogative, but, unfortunately, this decision didn’t take into account the realities of comic book stores. You see, we don’t even see D.C. product until Tuesday and it could show up from UPS anywhere between 11AM and 5PM…sometimes even later…and Steve and I still need time to unpack the shipment, sort through it, and pull subscription and special order customers. This doesn’t even address what happens if there are problems with the shipment as there was for this week. As you may imagine this takes a good deal of time. Because of this there is literally NO WAY we can easily put D.C. Comics on sale before Wednesday mornings. I really apologize about this, but even if we magically started getting the D.C. books on Monday (which we’ve been told that due to the logistics of packing and shipping is pretty much impossible to do) it would still be very difficult to just put the D.C. titles out on the rack to make them available for Tuesday sales. So unless the shipping situation changes drastically we will continue to make Wednesday the day for new comics.

 

Geez…in all of the excitement I nearly forgot to once again mention that Free Comic Book Day is back on the schedule…sort of. Since it is become increasingly obvious that there is no way to host an event with 900+ attendees safely this year, Diamond Comics (as well as the publishers) have decided to institute Free Comic Book Summer. Basically every week between July 15^th and September 9^th Diamond will be releasing a handful of previously announced FCBD titles for us to hand out to customers. I think that this is the best way to handle it this year and I’m actually curious to see how many “civilian” customers we will see wandering through the store for a freebie and a good look around. In this manner we can still invite the community into the store responsibly and without being mobbed all at once. And while the event is technically through 9/9 because of the titles we decided not to carry for the event  we will not have any new titles for the last week. I’m not sure how we are going to display them yet, but I will include them on the weekly subscription form the week’s they arrive in store. These titles will all be free while supplies last!

 

Here’s the complete list of titles we will be featuring:

IN STORES 7/15/20

FCBD 2020 MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC

FCBD 2020 POWER RANGERS RANGER SLAYER

FCBD 2020 X-MEN #1

 

IN STORES 7/22/20

FCBD 2020 DARK ARK INSTINCT

FCBD 2020 SPIDER-MAN VENOM

FCBD 2020 VALIANT 2020 YEAR OF HEROES SPECIAL

 

IN STORES 7/29/20

FCBD 2020 ARCHIE BLUE RIBBON PRESENTS

FCBD 2020 BATMAN OVEDRIVE ONCE UPON A CRIME FLIPBOOK

FCBD 2020 STRANGER THINGS & MINECRAFT

FCBD 2020 THE BOYS #1

 

IN STORES 8/5/20

FCBD 2020 INVINCIBLE #1

FCBD 2020 LUMBERJANES FAREWELL TO SUMMER

FCBD 2020 RESISTANCE

FCBD 2020 THE TICK

 

IN STORES 8/12/20

FCBD 2020 BLADE RUNNER

FCBD 2020 CRITICAL ROLE & NORSE MYTHOLOGY

FCBD 2020 HILLBILLY LIZARD OF RUSTY CREEK CAVE

 

IN STORES 8/19/20

FCBD 2020 DISNEY MASTERS DONALD DUCK SPECIAL

FCBD 2020 OVERSTREET GUIDE TO COLLECTING

 

IN STORES 8/26/20

FCBD 2020 BRANDON SANDERSON DARK ONE #1

FCBD 2020 USAGI YOJIMBO

 

IN STORES 9/2/20

FCBD 2020 LADY MECHANIKA

 

And that’s it for me this week. I’d like to spend another couple of paragraphs opining over the change of business flow and how Thursdays used to be a really dead day with very little for me to do in the store outside of selling comics, but I’ve frankly got too many things to get to and not nearly enough time to finish them. Also, I have to get out of the store as quickly as possible as it is my turn to make dinner (roasted salmon fillets with lemon and rosemary, roasted yellow potatoes, and steamed asparagus) and I have to get started on my Dad’s birthday cake (dark chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling and hot fudge chocolate buttercream frosting). A busy retailer’s job is never done!

 

Have a great weekend!

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

I’d really like to start off with my weekly ramblings by thanking everyone who has done their part to help Monarch Comics get back on our feet after the recent shutdown. Honestly, you folks have been great! Despite being closed for two months, having to forego our annual Free Comic Book Day Event, and not having a whole heck of a lot of new comics to sell, we are still on track for having one of our best summer seasons ever. It is truly humbling to see the outpouring of support, especially with the crazy whirlwind that has swept up the comic industry and the rest of the world. Take a bow, Monarch fans, you guys and gals are terrific!

 

Obviously the new comic input has been extremely limited as the industry slowly works itself back to full steam and I have been remiss in mentioning here that I have begun the process of bringing in portions of my personal collection into the store in order to repopulate our back issue boxes. The back issue boxes, as you may have noticed, have been winnowed down a few boxes after I spent a month sorting through them to get back them back in order. About a quarter of the way through the process I started to get irritated at the amount of back issue material we had in stock that has essentially been moldering away in the boxes for 20+ years and decided a serious Spring cleaning was way overdue. As a result, we now have a ton of dollar books on the sale table and half empty boxes sitting on the back issue tables. Well, I was deciding how to handle my somewhat overzealous job on the back issues when I had to go into my garage looking for some old lawn furniture that I knew I had stored somewhere. Well, I found the lawn furniture and it was too broken down to be of use, but I did get seriously irritated when I started tripping over a pile of long boxes that for some reason I had sitting right in the middle of the floor. It was at that moment that I decided I needed to move these damn boxes out of my way because I was sick of tripping over them.

 

So I decided to start bringing them in one or two boxes at a time. Of course, I’ve also had to start cursing out “Ed from 2000” for being a lazy S.O.B. who couldn’t be bothered to put his damn comics in order. As a result, I have comics brimming with “new” back issue material, but in very little order. The 4 boxes I’ve brought in so far to sort through have been mostly material from the late 90’s/early 00’s and mostly D.C. titles at that. I didn’t remember being such a fool for the Batman family titles! I don’t remember exactly when I stopped buying individual comics in lieu of trades and hard covers, but once I get into the boxes in deep storage there should be a huge selection of comics from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. It’s really kind of fascinating…like comic book archeology. Some of this stuff I don’t even remember buying, much less reading…lol. In any case, you might want to give the back issue boxes and the dollar boxes a second (or third) look the next time you are in the store. So far I’ve added significant back issues of Batman, Birds of Prey, Catwoman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Marvel’s Ultimate titles. Keep checking back, True Believers, as there will be new stuff added every week…at least until it is all out of my house!

 

I’m working on June initial orders this week, so if you have any special orders in mind Please let me know before the end of the weekend. This will by first initial order since D.C. Comics left Diamond Distributors, so it is somewhat bittersweet. The New Distributor (USC) has no mechanism in place to accept initial orders and instead they only offer books through their F.O.C. (Final Order Cut-Off) and I have to figure out how to fit this new system into my record keeping apparatus. After hearing laments from other, more technologically advanced retailers about how UCS does not have a system in place to accommodate their P.O.S. (Point of Sale) systems I suppose I should be happy that we haven’t installed more complicated devices in the store. This is the first time I’ve admitted to being happy we are essentially Primitive Screw Heads.

 

D.C. Comics has also announced this week that Diamond will no longer be filling orders for their line of D.C. Direct toys and statues. They gave us a list of items that were originally offered and ordered through Diamond whose numbers are now cancelled and they supplied us with new release dates for the items and instructions to place orders again through the new distributors. Unfortunately, they sent us an e-mail WITH THE WRONG RELEASE DATES. Also, after much hair pulling and poking around, I could only find a handful of the cancelled items available for reorder in the new system. Le sigh…I suppose it is too much to ask that if you are going to tear down the distribution system you’ve used for 40 years that you’d have a workable replacement ready to go. Please be patient, Gentle Readers, as I do believe we are heading for some stormy weather in a couple of weeks when all of this really gets started. Of course, I fully admit that I could be totally worrying over nothing and that everything will snap right into place, but I kind of doubt it…

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We are still taking orders for personalized face masks! We still have some masks in stock (Deadpool, Harley Quinn, Hydra logo, and Venom), but feel free to place an order for pretty much any image you want. Simply message me on Facebook or shoot me an e-mail with the .jpg or .png file you’d like along with whether you want the image over the whole mask or just in the bottom corner. I’ll put the order in and in a couple of days we’ll have your new mask! Remember, all masks are 100% cotton, very breathable, and are machine washable. I’ve washed my mask several times now and it has lost none of its shape or comfort!

 

Before I get moving for the day I’d like to share a funny little story from this morning. Before the Apocalypse came down on us like a ton of diseased bricks, I bought my Dad tickets to see The Lion King over at Stranahan Theatre. Naturally enough, the performance was “postponed” and I’ve been waiting ever since to find out what to do about the tickets. Well, a post came up from Stranahan on my Facebook scroll yesterday saying that the performance had been rescheduled June 16-July 3! WOO HOO! My Dad was gonna see a bunch of dancing puppets after all! Obviously I didn’t read the post clearly enough as I was pretty busy yesterday, but I resigned to call the box office this morning and find out when my Dad’s tickets would be good. I got through to the box office and a very nice lady told me that the new date for Dad’s tickets would be “June 17^th”. I thanked and let her go, but something was nagging at me about that date. I turned around to look at a calendar and realized, “OMG! June 17^th was YESTERDAY! GAAAAAH!” I called her right back and explained the problem and she clucked at me and said, “Oh, Dear, that is June 17^th…OF 2021! We couldn’t possibly hold a show this year!” I was stunned for a moment and then I burst out laughing! I apologized for being an idiot and thanked her for her help…lol. SO, if you got tickets for The Lion King make sure you give Stranahan Theatre a call for your new dates…lol…and remember…IT’S FOR NEXT YEAR!

 

Geez…one more thing. I almost forgot. You will notice that Batman #93 is on next week’s invoice. Well for those of you who preordered the 1 in 25 Designer design variant I’m sorry to say that due to an apparent Diamond snafu we will not be receiving our copies until the week of July 1^st. I noticed it almost immediately when I opened next week’s invoice and after ascertaining that I did indeed order the book I posted the question on the D.C. Retailer Facebook group. I was worried at first, but it quickly became apparent that pretty much no one serviced by Diamond had the missing cover on their invoices. That was when we ere informed of the slip up and that it would be rectified the following week. (Remember what I said above about “stormy weather”? I didn’t think it would start before the changeover…lol.)

 

Have a great weekend, Folks!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

Well, I hope everyone is out today enjoying this amazing weather! After the broiling we took for the last couple of days it was quite refreshing to not find myself doused in sweat 5 minutes after exiting the shower this morning. It will also be nice to have the door open at the store rather than having to rely on the AC to keep things relatively comfortable.

 

It’s been quite a week…again…for the comic book industry. I know all of you who follow such things must be curious as to what D.C. Comics latest bombshell announcement means to Monarch Comics in the micro and what it means to the larger industry. I’m never quite sure how much to talk about the back end of the business. How much is “need to know” VS “no one’s business”, but in this day and age with so much information being vomited up on the internet it’s really kind of pointless to sit her and pretend that potentially explosive things aren’t going on behind the scenes. As much as I would sometimes like to go back to the pre-internet days of sensitive business information being blared out to my customer base I know that those days are long gone. So if you aren’t interested in how the sausages get made around here then please feel free to skip down a couple of paragraphs to where I start crowing about the latest issue of Batman…lol.

D.C. Comics announced on Friday afternoon last week that they would be discontinuing their business relationship with Diamond Comic Distributors and moving all of their product to two new distributors, UCS Comic Distributors and Lunar Comic Distributors. Never heard of them before now? That’s because they didn’t exist until about 6 weeks ago. You might recognize them better under their retail store names, Midtown Comics and DCBS. D.C. Comics tapped both of these retail outlets in order to distribute a few titles that got printed before the Apocalypse kicked into gear and shut everything down, including Diamond Comic Distributors. It was, in some quarters, a good option for retail outlets that were still open despite the pandemic and who needed new product on the shelves in order to keep their businesses afloat and to feed the desire for new comics for their customers. This worked particularly well for Midtown and DCBS as the bulk of their business is mail order. All comic shops were invited to sign up to get these comics quicker than they would from Diamond who were still operating at a shutdown level.

 

As I do believe I explained in another EDitorial, Steve and I discussed the option and decided against participating, mostly because Diamond had assured us that the books in question would be available to us once things started to open up and because we were still closed because of the Ohio lockdown. We correctly reasoned that having new books wouldn’t really help us until we were able to, you know, actually sell them. I did start the process for signing up with UCS if for no other reason than to see what kind of website they had and what kind of service we could expect if we decided to go with them after all. I wasn’t terribly impressed with their website, but, at the time, I understood that it was something that was hastily thrown together in order to begin servicing retailers immediately. I never finished the application process, more fool I.

 

After this announcement there was a lot of discussion between comic book retailers over D.C.’s motivations and endgame regarding the introduction of a new distribution paradigm. Many were concerned over the fact that these distributors were actually online competitors and some thought it was a conflict of interest and a general bad idea to begin feeding these companies our business information. I didn’t really see the harm it at first, as D.C. Comics framed this as a temporary measure put in place to deal with this particular situation. It worked in D.C.’s favor in a couple of ways. It allowed them to get new product out after two months of nothing, it appeased two of their largest online customers (Midtown and DCBS), and it allowed them to release the new material digitally while dodging accusations from retailers of cutting them out of the profits. It all seemed very reasonable to me and while I thought they were jumping the gun a bit I also realized what a unique set of circumstances we found ourselves in and thought that this could possibly help the industry more than hurt it.

 

D.C. Comics, however, were playing things VERY close to the vest in this situation. Retailers had questions about these new circumstances and D.C. staffers whose job it is to liaison with us were not being particularly forthcoming. D.C. Comics started to settle into a pattern of obfuscation (“We don’t know.” “Those things are being discussed.”) followed by releasing announcements on Friday afternoons and then turning on the auto responses to their e-mail addresses. As more and more information started to leak in drips and drabs it started to become apparent that these two new distributors were not a temporary solution to a public health crisis, but instead were the shape of things to come. Right up until the official announcement, D.C. Comics were deflecting questions and comments from retailers regarding the changing of the status quo.

 

Now I can’t claim to have any inside information about D.C. Comics, their corporate masters at ATT, or even the new distribution outfits. I could discuss the rumors swirling around and the conspiracies being discussed behind the scenes between retailers, but that’s all they are….rumors. The most suspicious thing about all of this is the lack of open and frank information as to what D.C. Comics’ motives were in deciding to break off a business relationship that goes back over 30 years and how these kind of sweeping changes could possibly help out an industry that is already going through hard times because of a global health crisis. I can’t for the life of me figure out why there isn’t more transparency on D.C.’s part. I mean, if this big change is for the greater good of the comic book industry doesn’t behoove them to just come out and show us the big picture? Doesn’t all of this secrecy and obfuscation only increase the paranoia and anger of comic book retailers who are already in dire straits?

 

And I haven’t even begun to discuss the snarls and cracks in the wall that are already starting to appear behind the scenes. Just announcing that you are pulling out of a decades old distribution model and telling us it is for the good of the industry is not enough to make it so. Lunar and UCS have less than a month to be prepared to service over a thousand new retail accounts with D.C. Comics. That is national and international accounts. Can you imagine, just for a moment, the logistics required to make such a thing happen? Questions that still haven’t been answered also include whether Diamond will continue to carry backlist D.C. material (such as trade paperbacks) or what will happen to items ordered through Diamond that don’t make it out before the end of June. And those are just a few concerns that I have. I don’t even want to get into the various discount codes and the extra shipping costs that could potentially be down the line.

 

I’m really not interested in bashing D.C. Comics. I love D.C. Comics and their stable of characters and I have been following their books for a loooong time. They are also a significant part of my business. It gains me nothing to talk smack about them or loudly and publicly denounce them for any mistreatment, real or imagined. At the end of the day, no matter where I ultimately secure them, I will be carrying D.C. Comics product for a long time and I will continue to promote and enjoy their fictional output.

 

All of that being said, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit nervous about how all of this is going to eventually work out. Again, it more the lack of information that makes me nervous rather than any worrying over what we definitively know. I can only hope that our new distributors will be able to transition smoothly and that there will be no interruption of service. I can tell you that I have given them all of the information required to open an account and I have been diligent in making sure that I have ordered all of our D.C. titles through the month of July. We will all just have to take a deep breath and brace for the impact that his chance will make on this hobby that we all love and cherish. Maybe it will go off without a hitch and we will be able to enjoy a new era of D.C. Comics. At this point and after the year we have had so far a little optimism and good news can only be a welcome thing.

 

As a little side note to this “anti-rant” I’d like to mention that because of the distribution changeover there will be no new D.C. titles shipping the week of July 1^st. Additionally it will be a week when Marvel will only be shipping trade paperbacks and hard covers. The good news is that is should be the last week of comic book “austerity” and that the following week D.C. will have a full slate of releases and Marvel should be following suit on 7/15.

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Another bright spot on the horizon is Marvel Comics announcement this week that they will be releasing their Free Comic Book Day titles to retailers in late July! The titles include FCBD Spider-Man Venom #1 and FCBD 2020 X-Men #1! Of course, there is no news regarding having an actual FCBD this year and I can’t imagine how it could actually take place with he current health risks associated with large crowds, but it will be nice to get a hold of these two titles which were designed to preview and promote two of Marvel’s biggest events of the year. Naturally, we will have these titles available (X-Men on 7/15 and Spider-Man on 7/22) and free to all of our customers or, really, anyone who wanders into the shop. We might not be able to have a proper FCBD this year, but at least we’ll be able to pay it forward to those of you whose rock solid support has kept us afloat all of these years.

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The long anticipated Batman #92 came out this week written by James Tynion and penciled by Guillem March and it does NOT disappoint. This issue of Batman has the best Batman VS Riddler story that I’ve seen in a long time. Every moment of Batman working his way through Riddler’s latest ridiculous (and deadly) riddle trap is a pure pleasure especially since he also dealing with Deathstroke at the same time. I haven’t gotten suck a thrill out of reading a Batman story is quite some time and the whole sequence reminded of one of my “Golden” periods of Batman from the mid-late 80’s. It’s Batman doing his best to outsmart a super villain (or two) without all of the sadness, depression, and darkness that has been a staple of the character for decades. We also get to see the new villain Punchine, Joker’s latest femme fatale, and her first interactions with Harley Quinn and Catwoman. I’m not totally sold on the character yet, but between her appearance in this issue and her secret origin story in this week’s Joker 80^th Anniversary Special I’m starting to warm to her. Eagle eyed readers should note the interesting framed photo on the table in the issue’s final page as I do believe it may play into this story’s big finish.

 

I think I’ve bloviated enough about life, the universe, and comic book retailing for one sunny summer afternoon. I think it goes without saying that we have yet another small comic release next week and this will be the trend until mid-July. We can look forward to the first issue of D.C.’s big “summer tentpole” series, Death Metal, as well as a truly huge amount of new comic collections from Marvel and D.C. I also want to let everyone know that because of the small amount of new product shipping in the week of 7/1 that I will be out of the office for the holiday weekend. I figure since we are already closed on Independence Day it won’t be too much of a big deal if I take off Friday and Sunday as well.

 

I hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!

 

Eddie

 

Hey, Folks!

 

Well, we’ve managed to make it through another post-apocalyptic week and I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for the weekend! Of course, the weekend doesn’t mean quite the same thing anymore to everyone, but in my case it means that I’ve gotten all of the pesky clerical work for the store completed and I’m ready to just sit back and take care of all of my weekend customers. Plus, Hillman will be over at my place for the weekend which pretty much guarantees board games and beer and more episodes of Star Trek Discovery.

 

I don’t have much to pontificate on this week which is generally a good thing. I want to reiterate again that D.C. Comics does NOT have a presence in Diamond’s Previews catalog this month and that the only way to check out what they are offering in the summer months is to head over to their website and follow the link to their new online catalog. I actually had to print out a couple of copies of the online catalog, one for myself as a workbook and one for an older customer who doesn’t have much of an internet presence, and I was shocked at how much it costs to print the whole thing! I am actually going to explore other options to possibly make things more convenient for you to order their books, including trying to mock up a “art-less” version of their form with just the title listings. I’ll see what I can do when next month’s catalog is posted.

 

The new Monarch face masks are in the store right now for you to check out. We currently only have Venom, Deadpool, Harley Quinn, and Hydra masks for sale at the counter, but we are still taking on orders for specific images. Again, simply contact me VIA Facebook messenger or e-mail with a .jpg or .png file with he image you want and I will get it made for you. They are locally produced, but we are still working on a timetable for how quickly we can turn around special orders, but it shouldn’t be more than a couple of days. The face masks retail for $19.99, are 100% cotton, and totally machine washable. I know because I’ve already washed mine to test it and it came out fine.

 

As of last Friday we currently caught up on all of our missing D.C. titles with the exception of Terrifics #27. I have a big apology to the ten people who bought Terrifics regularly from us, most of you from the beginning of the books run. To reiterate for those of you coming to the story late, because of “reasons” D.C. Comics and Diamond erased our orders for a number of D.C. titles during the shutdown. Either due to my fumbling or Diamond’s error there were several titles whose orders were not received. I managed to fill the orders on all of the titles in question save for the Terrifics issue which was already sold out by the time I realized the mistake. The only slight saving grace here is that D.C. has announced that the final two issues of The Terrifics (#28 & 29) will be digital only, so those of you who wanted to finish the story would have had to go digital for them or wait for the trade paperback in any case. Still, sorry for the snafu. Believe me, after this headache I will be much more alert to these kinds of issues.

 

I know the last couple of weeks have been a bit light for new material, but trust me…the comic industry is quickly getting back up to speed and over the next month things will be getting closer to the pre-apocalypse shipping schedules. Information is coming in hard and fast concerning different titles that various publishers have cancelled/postponed/switched to “digital only” and I will share this information as well as I am able in the upcoming weeks and months. If you have any questions regarding the updated shipping schedule please don’t hesitate to inquire with me.

 

Have a great weekend!

 

Eddie