Morning, Folks!
I had a small tailwind this morning and got to work a bit early so I’m hoping to get this EDitorial banged out and have the Subscription List up and running quickly today. I know that I have spoken to many of you about the challenges facing me as the “new” owner of Monarch Comics and the biggest personal hurdle for me has been boning up on my time management skills. Most of this has involved rearranging the times when I monkey around with “paperwork” which includes the usual suspects like paying bills and keeping track of the money, but I also lump in things like the Shipping List and Subscription Form as well. Jake, Minion Supreme, is basically as trained up as I can make him and yesterday I finally stopped hovering around him at the register and just sat down at my desk and started getting things done. This has resulted in my first Thursday morning since the takeover where I don’t feel overwhelmed at everything that has to be done simply to keep the store moving forward.
Speaking of the store moving forward, I am now ready to begin the first phase of my ambitious plan to remodel the store. That first step will be the paint job that I have scheduled for March 22nd. It’s a Monday, so I will be closed for the process, but Jake, Hillman, and I will begin clearing everything off and away from the walls starting on Friday, March 19th. I’m going to do my best to stay open through this paint job, but I humbly ask in advance to please excuse my mess as I futz around with it. Hopefully, the paint job will get finished by Monday evening and I will be able to let the paint dry overnight with the expectation of getting everything back on the walls, like trade paperbacks, by end of day Tuesday. Since I have never undertaken a process like this before I have no idea how smoothly everything will run and depending on how much time (and energy) I have on Tuesday will decide if I even do a Facebook Live show with the new releases or not. How exciting!
Also I want to let everyone know that the back issue boxes are temporarily going into the back room for storage during this job. How long they stay back there is still in question although, frankly, I don’t look forward to moving them back and forth multiple times. Hill and I have been working hard to get the back room cleaned out for the last several weeks and we are close to completing the job as I see it. I was really surprised to see how much actual room there is back there after clearing out the detritus of nearly 30 years. Seriously, I have asked myself over and over how I could have let things get so snarled and congested! In any case, while I haven’t measured anything out as of yet, I do believe there is going to be enough room to set up the back issues for rudimentary display, so you may able to shop for back issues depending on how well we clear out some aisles. I’ll let you know how this plan goes once we get finished.
I know I’ve complained about this before and made stands and decisions which I’ve gone back on, but I think I’ve come to a final decision. As of the FOC date of 3/15, I will generally no longer be carrying open order variants on the rack. It’s been a tough decision, but the sheer amount of variant covers is a bit overwhelming and my ability to predict what people want available to them is seriously out of whack. There will be exceptions, such as D.C. Comics standard VS variants covers, but even in those instances I will be mainly focusing on the main covers. There are a lot of reasons feeding into this decision, but the biggest one is that I have yet to find a solution to the mystery question of “How do you order a book that you only sell 25 copies of but there are 12 different covers?” Now there may also end up being cases where I will deviate from the main cover and focus on a variant that I have already seen increased demand for…an example would be, say, a Patrick Gleason open order variant for a Carnage book, but in cases like that the variant I choose will be the one that I carry rather than the main cover. I normally pride myself at being able to give you as many choices as possible, but with the way comic companies (particularly D.C.) are now limiting the amount of reorders available it’s just impossible to juggle al of the covers while making sure that everyone gets the cover of their choice.
Now this does NOT mean I will no longer order or carry variants. I know that many of you enjoy the experience of hunting down and collecting your favorite cover images. I just won’t have them on the rack. Instead, I am going to attempt to create a special FOC post every week which will list as many of the open order variant covers as possible and open them up to special orders before I place my final orders. The way I’m going to be handling it, at least at first, is to make a list of titles on FOC and then post the pics of the variant covers if they are available at FOC. Hopefully, with the new rearrangement of my work schedule, this is a task that I will able to smoothly insert into my usual schedule. The way it will work is that if you see something on the list that you know you are going to want then you simply message Monarch on Facebook or send me an e-mail with your requests. I will make a note of it, order the book in question, and then hold it for you behind the counter after release. Let’s hope I can keep it that simple. In regards to ratio variants, know that you are always welcome to inquire about them and I can usually let you know “aye or nay” on whether I qualify for them and if they are available and at what price.
I had some other things I wanted to blather on about today, such as the cool new merchandise that came in the door this week (WandaVision foam bag clips! Grogu keychains and POP figures!) as well as how much I am currently enjoying D.C. Comics’ soft reboot of their universe (Batman, Wonder Woman, and Joker are AMAZING!), but seeing as how this is the first time in many moons where I have the Shipping List, Subscription Form, and EDitiorial ready to drop by 11am, I think I’m gonna let brevity be my watch word of the day and wrap this up!
If you have any questions about anything I talked about above then please feel free to contact me. Remember, giving you the best comic book customer service I can is the goal of my life…😊
Have a great weekend!
Eddie
P.S. By the way, I just remembered that St Patrick’s Day is on the calendar this year for next Wednesday. In the past, the parking lot has been fairly packed by Shawn’s Tavern customer making it sometimes difficult to park and get in and out of the plaza. I have no idea exactly how many people will be showing up for the celebration with the current Covid situation, but I hope it does well for Shawn’s without getting anyone sick. If you show up for your Wednesday pick up and the parking spaces in front of the store are packed tight, please feel free to park up at the curb in front of the store, but try to leave the mailbox clear for folks.