Category: Uncategorized

Hey, Folks!

 

Welcome to special pre-vacation edition of my EDitorial!

 

Yes, it’s true, I’m actually going to try and escape the confines of Toledo (and the store) for a whole weekend. As I mentioned to a few of you yesterday, the very concept of leaving the store and my Dad for three days fills me with anxiety and dread…lol. Understand that my anxiety has nothing to do with my confidence in Jake to run the store for a couple of days or the worry that Dad is going to have a major health event. It’s just I can’t completely expunge that little disclaimer in the back of my head saying, “But something COULD happen. Fires, floods, Godzilla…” My subconscious is always completely riddled with “the small print”. Also, being four hours away does not make for a quick response time to emergencies.

 

In any case, I will not be in the office this weekend. Since this is the first time I’ve taken off for any length of time since becoming the owner of the store things may be a little wonky until I get the hang of it. I’ve arranged things so that Jake will still be able to answer your basic questions about whether something is available for reorder or if you are looking for something specific, but any deep questions about my ordering practices or whether or not a ratio variant is available or not will have to wait until I return. Additionally, while I will be monitoring the Subscription Form, I won’t be monitoring it as closely as I normally do, so some items may disappear quicker than usual if I’m worried about an over-sell situation. If you have any questions or are interested in something you don’t see on the list then please don’t hesitate to message Monarch on Facebook. It may take me a minute to get back to you, but I will look into your issue and try to fix it on the fly.

 

I also want to reiterate that Free Comic Book Day is still most definitely on the schedule for August 14^th. I was having some doubts about how such an event was going to actually unfold, but I caught the whiff of good news this week when I heard on the news that Governor DeWine is considering undoing Covid restrictions in early June because the infection numbers  are going in the right direction. Obviously, this situation could turn on a dime, but I’m going against my usual dour outlook and attempting to be optimistic. Since I have already ordered all of the FCBD books and I have a meeting with my advertising firm this afternoon I suppose a dollop of optimism is a good thing. So, at this point, I’m planning on a full-blown Free Comic Book Day spectacular. Let’s see if I can make it happen…😊

 

Okay. Head down and back to work for me! Let’s get this stuff posted and move onto the next job…which today starts with getting another coat of paint on a rack before I leave town. Have a great weekend and I will see y’all next week!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

I hate Thursdays.

 

Maybe “hate” is too strong of a word. Perhaps “disapprove” is a better word.

 

If we were going to extend it to a phrase it would be “I disapprove of the Thursday Grind.”

 

Most people, as far as I can tell, “disapprove” of Mondays, but for me that awful day of drudge work is Thursday. I mean, Mondays the store is closed and my list of things that need to get done is pretty much set in stone and mostly concerns caring for my Dad. Tuesdays are pretty much dedicated to getting the new stock unpacked and ready to go. Wednesdays are usually a blur of activity and I glide through them pretty easily. Fridays I get off early, usually, and I get to see Hillman. Saturdays and Sundays are the weekend and those have barely changed in the last 20 years. But Thursdays…man…

 

There is SO much to get done on Thursdays, especially during this tumultuous period of renovation. There’s the subscription form that needs to get finished (although I have been getting it mostly completed on Wednesday nights), the Shipping List needs to get finished, I have to write this friendly little missive, any mistakes/snafus from Wednesday have to be dealt with (for instance, I sold a copy of Fortnite #2 to someone yesterday and they called yesterday afternoon claiming the video game code was not in the issue. Since I have sold out I couldn’t just replace it. At this point I’m waiting for Lunar to get back to me about the protocol and they are waiting for DC to get back to them), there’s usually a Diamond reorder to sort, the DC stock for the next week usually arrives and needs to be unpacked, I have to post all of the Sub Form/Ship List stuff, I have to monitor the Sub Form and process orders, and I also try to get at least one coat of paint on a rack so that it can be finished by Sunday. And if it ends up being  a busy day then everything gets pushed into the background while I fulfill my primary function of, you know, selling stuff.

 

I’m sure everyone has regular days like this, but it’s like I get into work an hour or an hour and a half early, sit down and turn on the computer, open a file, and then look at the clock and it is already 3pm. My enthusiasm for my job takes a hit every time.

 

I also tend to schedule “business meetings” on Thursday as business is usually a little slower and I have more time to stand at the counter and discuss things with business folks. For example, this morning I have a meeting scheduled to meet with a Better Business Bureau representative because Steve’s membership is a bout to expire and it is time for me to join up. Thank goodness the rep called this morning to let me know that they were running behind and would be a little late. They were worried about my reaction, but I was almost giddy with joy to know I had a little extra time to finish my EDitorial…lol

 

In any case, I’m going to do my level best to try and stay on the sunny side of Thursday today. If you come in to the shop today and ask me how my Thursday is going then I will attempt to give you the cheeriest answer I can dredge up from the pit of my soul!

 

Jake, my intrepid minion, has gotten on my case about not talking more about Free Comic Book Day. I assume that this is due to the amount of FCBD calls he had to field last Friday and Saturday as the first Saturday in May is usually the Big Day. Well, frankly, I’m not sure what to say about it at this point. I can say that the comic industry has tentatively scheduled the revised 2021 FCBD for Saturday, August 14^th. I have already ordered all of the FCBD books and I have a meeting scheduled with my advertising partners (yes, it is scheduled for a Thursday) to discuss my promotional strategy for the event. However, at this point, I have no idea what a FCBD will look like in a post-Apocalyptic era. I mean, on an average FCBD we usually expect 800-900 folks to come through the store over a 6 hour period. Considering we didn’t have a FCBD last year and that this is my first year as Ringleader of a FCBD then I’m thinking that total might be considerably more visitors. The last thing I want to see is my store turned into a friggin’ Super Spreader Event in the case of an outbreak. I’ve been considering a couple of strategies and I want to let everyone know that it is being worked on. There will be more information once I have a little more time to think about it. In the meantime, if I have a spare moment (HA!) I’ll try to get a Facebook post up with this year’s FCBD titles.

 

For the last two weeks I’ve been meaning to mention a small change to how I process orders with the Weekly Subscription List and I kept forgetting. I wrote a note to myself this week so I wouldn’t forget…lol. For most of the sub list’s existence I have made the order cut off for it Wednesday morning. This became a very stressful deadline for me, mostly because business starts immediately on Wednesday mornings and I oftentimes didn’t have the opportunity to futz around with processing orders while I have a line up at the counter. Also, I am still working on massaging out my numbers for many monthly titles as there has been a significant uptick in regular weekly customers over the last three months. As a result, I have been running out of stock before finishing the sub list and have been pulling my hair out trying to keep up. I could go on and on about the changes in the last year as to how reorders/restocks work in the industry, but that is another conversation entirely. Suffice it to say, I’ve had to turn off the sub form on Tuesday afternoons in order to make my job a little easier in regards to processing all of your orders.

 

I have decided that due to the increases in my customer base and the sometimes arduous process of filling up a weekly form, that I am opening the ability to place monthly orders using the Previews consumer order form (along with a copy of a monthly DC checklist). If you are interested in ordering your favorite periodicals by the month, rather than using the weekly sub from, then please ask me about the program. I’ll help to get you set up and you will no longer have to use the sub form unless you want to add something extra. For the most part I stopped using this method years ago because I was having trouble keeping up with orders and we had more cases of people ordering hundreds of dollars worth of comics and then ghosting and leaving us holding the bag. But these days my methods have changed and I am generally a little better at keeping track of everything. Understand…this isn’t a mandated change and you will always be able to adjust your orders before FOC. It’s just another way that I’m trying to make it as easy as possible for you to make sure you get copies of all of your favorite comics!

 

Okily dokily…first customer just came in the door and I would really like to get the first coat of paint on this rack before the BBB rep shows up for our meeting, so I’m gonna wrap it up. Before I forget, I will be out of the office NEXT weekend (May 14^th-16^th) in order take a mini-vacation before Herr Teelander wraps up his employment stint with me. I will be taking the store laptop with me in order to stay on top of things so Jake will not have access to the tools of the modern comic shop that he normally does. If you have any questions or problems, please feel free to send a message on Messenger and I will get back to you as soon as humanly possible. Well, as fast as humanly possible while I’m on vacation…lol.

 

Have a great weekend!

 

Ed

Hey, Folks!

This industry really cracks me up sometimes. I mean, I’ve been doing this long enough to know a thing or two about a thing or two, but there are still moments when I stupidly get blindsided by some trend or stupid speculator thing. While dealing with the fallout from the unexpected popularity of Batman Fortnite, BOOM Studios finally got around to releasing Brzrkr #2 and I’m going through the same thing all over again. I suppose I could be forgiven by my under order of Batman Fortnite #1 since as a 50 year old, non-video game player I had no idea what a “fortnite” was, much less how many people were going to come out of the woodwork looking to score a copy so that they (or their kids) could access the special code that unlocks a character skin (in this case, Harley Quinn). I’ll admit that I was worried that I would have to deal with a tsunami of increasingly desperate and vicious attacks when I sold out, but I must admit that the disappointed shoppers have all been very understanding which leads me to realize that they are already conditioned to accept it when the latest item their kids are panting for is hard to acquire. I’ve really made an effort this time around to be as helpful as possible by letting people know about the other stores in the area as well as the fact that they could simply buy a digital copy of the comic and still have access to the skin’s digital code. I feel like I might have missed an opportunity to get people into the store to see all of the other stuff we carry that they might be interested in, but for the most part I’ve decided to be content at selling out without having to worry about unsold stock or bothersome returns. Batman Fortnite #2 hits the rack next week and once again it will be limited to one copy per household for as long as supplies last. Also, I know there is a lot of interest in seeing the historic Batman VS Snake Eyes fight in #3 and I have ordered considerably more copies of that one with the expectation that many of you won’t be able to resist seeing that battle!

So Brzrkr #2 shipped in this week. This title is a real head scratcher for me. I mean, I sold quite a few copies of the first issue and probably could have moved plenty more had they been available for reorder. Of course, they weren’t available for reorder due to Boom! Studios fascinating foray into the Land of Collectors and Speculators. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but Boom! made the first issue returnable for retailers and then unleashed a wave of variant copies tied to the number of copies of the returnable issue. They had a plethora of incentive variants…multiple 1 in 25 and 1 in 50 and 1 in 100…even a 1 in 1000 variant signed by Keanu Reeves. As you can imagine, many retailers who could afford the initial book bill for a 1000+ copies went for the speculator gold to procure THAT comic. As a result, there are literally thousands of copies of this #1 issue out there on the market, but, curiously enough, none available for reorders by those of us who ordered basically what we thought we could responsibly sell. To add to the bumbling confusion, Boom!’s attempts at 2^nd and 3^rd printings to cover retailers who needed a handful more copies for when #2 came out backfired spectacularly and, due to low orders or printing issues, both of those later printings are selling for $100 or more on their release date. I ordered a handful of 3^rd printings of the first issue in order ot have some on the rack for when #2 came in only to have my orders allocated by 50%. I mean, sure, I could potentially contact another store to purchase some copies of the 1^st printing, but, frankly, it is way more trouble to go through for 5 or 10 copies of a single title.

And now we have issue #2 on the rack. I basically went for the same amount of orders on #2 as I did for #1 because I figured it didn’t make much sense to order more #2’s than #1’s. Of course, I’m nearly sold out of #2’s and there are none available for reorder again. Another reason for not going for more copies of #2 is that I had nearly zero customers mention the title in any meaningful way. Maybe I’m reading this completely wrong, but it seems that the appetite for this title has very little to do with any entertainment value and everything to do with its perceived collectability. I’ve seen THAT movie before back in the 90’s and I wasn’t a big fan of it then either. (Of course then I had Steve fuming at me when we sold out of a title too quickly for his tastes, but I certainly don’t have to worry about that now and I am way too exhausted every night to bother fuming at myself…lol) We will see how all of this plays out, but at this point, once again, I am trying to just be happy with covering as many of my beloved customers as possible and having a quick, neat sell out. I’m pretty sure no store ever lost money by selling out.

D.C. Comics continues their noble quest to be a minor pain in my rump. As I do believe I’ve mentioned here before, D.C. Comics will no longer be offering their little poster fliers with a checklist of their upcoming titles divided into weekly release schedules. This follows along with their “brilliant” idea of not printing out proper catalogs and instead only offering it as an online service. It is very frustrating when a company makes it more difficult and expensive to market their product while all the time they tell you they are doing it to help you. I really don’t need anymore of this brand of “help”. In any case, I wanted to let everyone know that if you need a copy of the D.C. checklist then just let me know as I have printed out a handful of copies to hand out. I would have had them ready Wednesday morning, but my stupid printer ran out of ink again and I obviously didn’t have time to run to the store and get more cartridges to get my printer up and running. Also, I had a few people ask me what happened to D.C. latest online catalog as it hadn’t been posted in the usual spot as of yesterday morning. For all I know it has finally been posted to the usual D.C. Connect website, but if you can’t find it there then bop on over to “lunardistribution.com” and you will find it right in the front page.

I know that lately Monarch Comics has been struggling to keep up with your comic supply needs and I wanted to explain that the problem is industry-wide at this point and I am doing everything I can to keep on top of the constantly evolving situation. According to Southern Hobby (the distributor I use as a back up supply supplier) the problem lies with pallets of comic book supplies being trapped on freight ships from overseas. If they are to be believed, it’s a bottle neck of epic proportions and as soon as these ships are unloaded and shipped everything should be available. This includes MyLites, resealable bags, hard plastic comic holders, regular bags, and whatever else we are currently either low or out of stock on. While I am currently out of current backing boards I do have a couple of thousand coming from Southern Hobby on Friday as well as another 1000 coming in from Diamond next week. I have also taken steps to put 1000’s of bags on backorder in order to stock up the next time they arrive at my distributors. Thanks in advance for your patience and understanding as we continue to navigate through these choppy post-Covid waters.

My renovation plans continue to chug along at a good speed. You may have noticed that I am gradually making my way through painting the various comic book racks in the store. It is tedious work and time consuming when you figure in the amount of time I have to take letting the paint dry and cure. Honestly, I didn’t really expect it to take this long. Hopefully I’ll be able to get all of the racks completed before the time comes to replace the flooring. I have no idea how long it will be before I can schedule the installation, but from the chatter in the store I’m to understand that, generally speaking, building contractors are scheduling things months out and the actually building supplies could be difficult to get together. In any case, I’ve got a meeting with my first contractor this afternoon to give me an estimate so hopefully I will have some more information soon!

Well, I suppose I should wrap this up and get back to work. I’ve got a HUGE reorder from Diamond to sort through as well as the D.C. Comics for next week and I would honestly love to get another coat of paint on the rack I am currently working on before I go home tonight. Have a great week and I hope to see you all soon!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

I’ve got a very, very busy day ahead of me. In no particular order, I have to complete April initial orders, monitor orders on the subscription list, Move a round a painted rack and prepare another rack for renewal, finish preparing a big order of comics for a customer, and also, if I get a chance, finally clear out the card showcase and replace the broken glass shelf. There’s a few other odds and ends as well, but I doubt I will get to them. Also, Jake needed the day off Saturday so I will be here all day rather than just the few paltry hours I’ve managed in the last couple of weeks. So with that I will leave you all to your own devices whilst I get down to the business of running a business!

 

Have a great weekend and I’ll see ya on the flip side!

 

Eddie

You know, computers suck.

 

I mean, I love them and everything they do, but they really are inconvenient at times.

 

Let me explain…

 

After an extremely exhausting Monday rushing around with Dad errands (including an interminable sojourn to the Toledo Clinic), I found myself unable to finish my usual duties at the store. I mean, technically I only reserve Mondays for paying bills, updating my records, and moving stock around to make room for the new shipment on Tuesday. But I am, after all, in the middle of a big renovation and there were some minor paint jobs I wanted to work on as well as trying to get some poster art up on the walls to liven the place up a bit. The small amount of mail order I due was also a couple of days behind (They are coming now, Ernie and Will…taken to the post office yesterday!) getting shipped out. I had a list of stuff and everything…

 

Unfortunately, the best laid plans and all of that crap.

 

I didn’t get much done on Monday. By the time I was finished with my Dad errands and got back to the store it was already after 6 and I had a date to meet some friends over at Doc Watson’s for dinner and a drink or two. When I took of to meet the gang I had kinda sorta promised myself that I would come back to the store and get SOMETHING done before heading home. Unfortunately, after two beers and way too much fried food I couldn’t work up the energy to go back to the store. Instead, I reasoned, I’ll just go home and work on the laptop and still get something accomplished before going to bed.

 

Well, I did get some stuff done, but not nearly enough before sinking into my bed. I made a solemn vow seconds before slipping off to Dream Land that Tuesday was gonna be my day and that I had plenty of time to get everything done if I just went in a little early and got started promptly. I was actually quite pleased at the amount of catch up work I completed in the first two hours I was here.

 

Then…disaster struck.

 

Have I mentioned how much computers suck?

 

I had a very old Apple brand router that I have used in the store since the beginning of time. It has served me ably, but I knew its service time was drawing to a close. Unfortunately, I was too lazy or too complacent or both to actually go out and buy a new router before the old one crapped out. Maybe I thought it would be disrespectable to abandon the poor thing after it has served so well for so many years. In any case, while I was waiting for UPS to bring me the weekly shipment from Diamond, I was fooling around with my poster idea. This involved steadfastly refusing to no longer put tack holes in the wall for securing posters and instead employing low cost poster frames to make the whole presentation look a little more professional and neat. I didn’t realize that, while I was scurrying up and down the New Release rack measuring and securing my first new poster frame, that the Apple router had quietly passed away. I didn’t notice until I took a break and was checking the store’s e-mail and realized with sadness what had happened.

 

Surprisingly, I didn’t panic. After all, I knew this was coming and I supposed that if it was going to happen his was as good a day as any and it was definitely better than it happening on a Wednesday afternoon. My roommate David was already planning on coming in to work on painted the big showcase, so I called him up and asked him to come in quickly so that he could watch the store and catch the UPS shipment while I went off to WalMart to grab a new router. I went and got the router (a small adventure in and of itself, but it’s still not terribly interesting) and returned to the store. At this point, the shipment had arrived, David was doing an excellent paint job on the old counter, and the router was touted as being easy to install by essentially containing no instructions whatsoever. So I unboxed it and set about connecting everything up. This was going to take 15-20 minutes and then I could get at lest one more poster up before I tackled unpacking the shipment. I’m sure you can infer at this point that nothing was going to go right at this point.

 

First off, it costs me nothing to admit that I am an idiot when it comes to electronics. I don’t know what my damage is, but I cannot help making hooking up things three times more complicated than it actually is. So I disconnected the rat nest of cords and wires in order to extract the Fallen Device from my set up. I kissed the dead Apple router gently and then tossed it in the trash. When I turned around, new router firmly in hands, I realized that I had no idea what connected to what. As I mentioned above, this is not a new sensation for me. I sighed and began picking my way through the cords and connections. Eventually, after a little trial and error, the likes of which could be compared to assembling a jigsaw puzzle, everything came together and I turned on the new device. As it roared to life I turned to the laptop to synch it up and restore internet capability. Then disaster struck…or at least mild inconvenience…

 

It didn’t work. The computer briefly synched up to the new router and then it just…stopped. What I mean to say is the computer lost all connection the new network AND it refused to detect ANY networks. Understand that there are generally as many as a dozen or more networks typically showing up around here during the day. So either the entire internet disappeared in a poof or there was something wrong. You can probably see where this is going.

 

Well, long story short (That was actually a joke for Hillman), something something Windows gazpacho just took out the computer’s ability to detect wifi networks. I eventually figured this out once I realized there other devices in the store to test the connection, including my phone and cash register, and they connected just fine. At least my ability to ring people up and get credit card payments was restored. But the computer stubbornly refused to acknowledge any networks. “LA LA LA LA!,” it exclaimed with hands clasped over its ears, “There ARE no networks.” I thought it might be lying to me, so I started doing the usua…rebooting the computer, rebooting the router, and clicking through diagnostic routines. “Okay, you got me,” the computer quietly admitted, cursor downcast, “It might be a driver problem. I don’t know.”

 

Success! I knew what a driver is and I vaguely knew how to check them and update them! How young and foolish I think I was back in those days…those heady hours and hours ago. Jumping ahead through the story of my initial optimism, then confusion, then profound irritation, and soul shattering despair, I couldn’t figure out what he problem actually entailed. Then I began consulting my “experts” in these matters and Cyn Mackley and Ryan Rigaux ably and unstintingly provided a great deal of support during this trying time, but, alas, none of us could figure out the solution to the problem. In despair I cast about for any person who could help during this Crisis of Infinite Proportions. (Apologies for not thinking of Aaron Melzak!) Mind racing I finally realized who I could message who is helpful AND close at hand. The inestimable Ben Sweetser! Ben helpfully swung by the shop, and, like, 10 minutes later has everything up and running! It was like, dare I say it? Magic!

 

So everything is up and running again. I mean, I still had to stay at the shop until around 11pm on Tuesday to finish the job of unpacking and sorting the comics, but that’s the life of a comic shop owner.

So thanks to everyone who helped out, especially Ben! Oh…and sometimes computers suck.

 

We got in the CRAZY sized POP Jumbo Marvel Galactus PX 10IN Metallic Fig this week! I’m not kidding at all. It’s “Give-It-A-Shelf-All-Its-Own” size. And it has the cutest itsy bitsy Silver Surfer figure to go with it. Frankly, I love it. If I had the space I’d take one home. While supplies last we’ve got them at SRP of $45.99. This one is already sold out from Diamond so once they’re gone, they’re gone…

 

I got my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine yesterday afternoon. The shot, of course, didn’t bother me at all. I did feel a little dizzy in the hours after I was administered it. When I got up this morning I felt more or less same as usual. I’m feeling a little tired now, but, hell, I don’t know if it has anything to do with he shot or if it is just usual tiredness…lol. I guess it’s good I’m not feeling sick.

 

Well, that’s it for me this week. Now that everything is back to normal for the time being I am going to spend the afternoon trying to get some paperwork caught up. I’ll post the links to this week’s FOC soon so take a look and see if anything catches your eye. Have a great weekend!

 

 

Eddie

Hey Folks!

 

Another successful Wednesday had come and gone and now I can start preparing for NEXT Wednesday. When I step back from my job I realize that I have been living a weird alternate version of life compared to everybody else where time is measured by weeks. Like sands through the hour glass and all of that crap, I forge on week after week, new release by new release, on down through the decades. Just when I can let go of another bout of anxiety as to whether I’ve ordered enough books or pulled everyone’s orders properly, I am immediately bound up by the anxiety of next week’s releases. If I let my attention drift for but one moment I can lose track of where and when I am operating or what little efforts have to be made to keep the store moving forward. I had a system in place while I was Steve’s Number One and it has been an interesting experience trying to forge ahead without Steve and set a new schedule in place in order to get everything done. Oh, well, everything has been running pretty smoothly all things considered, but I just wanted to let you know that I am always looking for ways to improve my performance in order to serve y’all better.

 

Nothing much new to report on the comic book front this week. I can assure everyone that the final kinks have been worked in regards to setting up an account with Penguin Random House. They have been a dream to work with so far and the only problems I’ve had can be attributed to my own foolish mistakes. For instance, I had to turn in a form stating that I am purchasing product at wholesale in order to sell it for retail and I left my vendor’s number off the form in a rush to get it turned in. Of course, I had to resubmit it in order to assure my tax exempt status with the distributor, but it was all ironed very quickly and with no muss or fuss. I was wrong about a previous assumption I had made about PRH. I was under the impression that they had already been distributing Marvel trades to the book store market for years and so I was confused when I couldn’t find any Marvel titles on their ordering website. It runs out that ANOTHER distributor peddled Marvel product to the bookstore trade which was kind of disappointing as I was hoping that they would be able to help me get the Marvel trades restocked in the store as so many items are currently on backorder with Diamond. The good news? PRH does handle various other publishers (including D.C. Comics) for the bookstores and so in the next couple of weeks I have to get to work making lists of trades and hard covers that I haven’t been able to get restocked from Diamond or Lunar. I’ll try to post lists of restocked items when they start showing up. Please take a look at my “Back in Stock” section of the weekly shipping list as that as where they will probably be listed.

 

When I took over the store back in January one of the things at the top of my “To-Do” list was the vacating of the thousands of old non-sport card singles that have been gathering dust in various out of the way spots in the store for years. I was basically gonna see if I could take them out to Hillman’s place and spend a fun couple of hours burning them all to ash in his aunt’s burn barrels…lol. I have been informed, however, that there is apparently a resurgent interest in these old cards, so, while I am busy fixing up the joint, I am going to give everyone a final opportunity to peruse and purchase these old relics. Jake and I were working on getting some card product ready to put out on the counters yesterday and I have currently put out a couple of monster boxes of non sport singles on the counter. To be honest, I left the job to Jake so I can’t sit here and list every set that is represented in these boxes, but I can assure you that there are far more cards ready tog out then what is currently part of the display. Anyway, I know there are a variety of Marvel, DC, Star Trek, Star Wars, art cards, and more in the boxes. I will be charging 15 cents a card, 10 for a dollar, or $7.50 for a hundred. So, if you are into this sort of thing, please check them out during your next visit!

 

I must once again also beg your forgiveness for the mess that I am going to be kicking up in the next couple of weeks in the store. I have decided that for the next phase of renovations I am going to start painting the old wooden racks as well as cleaning out the showcase (which just got a new glass top!) and painting it so that I can get the books that used to be up on the wall out on display again. Jake assures me that he is a wizard at painting so I do believe that I am going to try and set up a small work area for the two of us to begin giving those old racks new life with a fresh paint job. So if you see a working mess when you come in then please look politely away and pretend that I haven’t just clogged up all of my new and beautiful “free space” in the store with a big and messy project!

 

That’s it for me this week…I really need to get this stuff posted so that I have an hour or two to work on the showcase before next week’s new D.C. books show up from FedEx this afternoon. I will most likely be away from my desk this afternoon, so if you message me it may be a minute before I get back to you. I hope everyone enjoys this beautiful weather and has a great weekend!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

It is sporadically SNOWING outside today! Really, Mother Nature, REALLY!?! Yes, I know that Prince warned us decades ago that “Sometimes It Snows In April”, but I always think of it as more hyperbole than actual fact. Le sigh…well, at least we won’t have to shovel it!

 

So I’ve had a couple of boo-boo’s lately with the Subscription Form. Basically I have inadvertently oversold some of the items that I have listed on the form. It’s usually not that big of a deal because all I have to do is order a few more copies and, voila, the problem is fixed. This week, however, I made a mistake in counting the orders for the latest issue of Flash and I ended up short a couple of copies. Unfortunately, Lunar rarely has any copies of current D.C. Comics available for reorder and when they do have copies available it is generally two weeks before I can get them shipped to me. Anyway, sorry about that. I am currently working on an updated system for tracking orders more carefully and hopefully this will reduce the amount of snafus in the future.

 

Speaking of ordering snafus, many of the new D.C. Comics have been quick sell-outs here at the store above and beyond what I was selling before the Future State promotion began back in January. I pretty much got all of the regulars covered, but for anyone interested in starting the new line of D.C. Comics/creative teams the good news is that D.C. has announced a couple of titles going back to press for a second printing. So, this week I will be ordering a small number of copies of Nightwing #78 and Detective Comics #1034 for the rack. If you would like a copy then please let me know ASAP and I will add your request onto my order for them.

 

So some big distribution news dropped last week after I had already posted the EDitorial. This is probably a good thing as it gave me moment properly digest the news rather than simply having a public gut reaction to it. I mean, everyone, particularly comic book retailers, are suffering from a mild case of PTSD after all of the Covid driven industry problems/changes of the last year, so every time I get a suspicious e-mail in my box I break out into a cold sweat. Marvel Comics and Random Penguin House announced last week a new deal for distributing Marvel periodicals. Basically, Penguin will be the new suppliers of Marvel Comics periodicals starting in October. Penguin has, of course, been distributing Marvel’s hard cover/trade paperback line for decades to the book store market and these will be available to comic book retailers as well. If I understand the quite excellent presentation that Penguin sent to retailers correctly then accounts will still be able to order Marvel titles from Diamond, but they will essentially become “sub-distributors” and get their orders from Penguin.

 

Now, as I mentioned above, I had to fight a stab of panic when I first read the news. I mean, it was around this time last year when D.C. Comics dropped the bombshell that they were pulling out of Diamond in the middle of a global pandemic and general national shutdown and shifting their business to two different “new distributors” that were actually online comic book stores and we all saw how that turned out. This new Marvel situation, however, appears to be an animal of completely different stripes. In the first place, the Marvel and Penguin have clearly been planning this move for quite a while as witnessed by Penguin’s building a dedicated warehouse for Marvel periodicals and the amazing e-mail presentation they put together explaining the new terms. Additionally, unlike D.C.’s choice of “distributors”, Penguin Random House is one of, if not THE, largest book distributors in the world and they are well situated for comic book distribution on a scale that even Diamond would find difficult to emulate. I won’t go into all of the details, but the behind the scenes terms for comic retailers are also pretty good compared to Diamond and do include free shipping. Overall I’m feeling pretty good about the new distribution deal despite how adding yet another distributor may make things a little more challenging to keep up with at this point. I’m hoping that the briefly mentioned new promotional material will sooth any difficulties I might have at keeping up with another supplier. I did receive the confirmation of the my new Penguin Random House account this morning so they are very efficient so far!

 

Okily dokily…I had some more stuff I wanted to blather on about today, but it has been refreshingly busy this morning, far more than I am accustomed to on a Thursday and the day is already half over and I still don’t have the Shipping List up yet. I do want to mention that for the first time ever Monarch Comics WILL be open on Easter Sunday. Honestly, I’m not expecting much in the way of business, but I have to be here anyway to cover my usual Sunday duties so there doesn’t seem to be any reason not to stay open as long as I’m here.

 

I hope everyone has a great weekend and enjoys the holiday!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

Well, it took some doing, but it Phase One of the 2021 Monarch Comics Make Over has been completed! Yes, as many of you saw first hand yesterday, I finally got the old place a fresh new coat of paint! Maybe I am prejudiced, but I absolutely love it. I mean, I’ve known for years that I wanted a new color to look at on the walls, but I had no idea how truly refreshing it would be once it was completed. As a side effect, the things I needed to move around or get out off the floor have completely opened up the space here and the store feels more expansive and comfortable than it has in years. Now I can’t stop fantasizing over what it will look like once Phase Two is complete. That will involve putting in new flooring and I only hope that I can arrange an installation quickly and that I will be able to afford to do it immediately.

 

One the first things you may notice when you walk in the door is that the back issue boxes are currently missing from the display area. I can assure you that I didn’t fill the dumpster with them and instead they have been moved into the back room area. This was originally simply a practical matter. I mean, they take up so much space and I needed to get them out of the way so that the painters could get their work done easier. But a funny thing happened on the way to the back room. To wit, I couldn’t believe the amount of space that was freed up by getting them out of my way! You’ll see what I mean immediately upon entering. Frankly, I love it and since the back issue boxes would have to be moved again once it is time to lay down the new flooring I have simply decided to keep them off the floor for the time being. This is not to say that they won’t be for sale, merely that they will stay in their new home until I finish Phase Two. As a result, if you would like to shop the back issue boxes, please just ask Jake or I for the access and you can step into the back room and peruse to your heart’s content. I’ve decided that we can allow two people into he back room at a time with both people masked. You will have to “Excuse the Mess” a bit as I have completed cleaning the place out, but putting the boxes back there has eaten up a bunch of space that was previously used for storage.

 

Unfortunately, all of this renovation work has put me a bit behind schedule with some of the regular weekly functions of the store. I am currently working to get the Shipping List and Subscription Form ready to go out on the waves and I also have March Diamond initial orders posted before the end of the day. I will also have this week’s FOC list hopefully completed by tomorrow, so please take a look at it on the Facebook page just to make sure you don’t miss anything you’ll want to purchase later. Once again, I am dancing as fast as I can…lol.

 

I finally went and got me Covid Vaccination yesterday afternoon over at the Rec Center! I had been putting it off until after the paint job was done as I was worried about possibly succumbing to some of the after effects that I had read about and I didn’t want to be sick while trying to get the joint painted. It turns out that I nothing to worry about at least in regards to the administration of the first shot. Honestly, my arm isn’t even sore…lol. I can also heartily recommend going to the Rec Center for your shot. They are a terrific bunch and the system they have set up is incredibly efficient. Seriously, the longest part is waiting 15 minutes before leaving in case of a bad reaction. I know there are several locations for immunization shots running right now, but you could do a lot worse than securing your appointment at the Rec Center. To sign up for your immunization you can go here: https://lucascountyhealth.com/covidvaccine/

 

That’s it for me this week, Comic Fans! Next week is going to be a light shipping week due to it being the fifth shipping week, but I hope to see you all anyway. Have a great weekend and don’t let the torrential downpour coming put you off too much. At least it isn’t snow…:P

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

I’m afraid it’s gonna be a short EDitorial this week, mostly because “Painting Day” is coming up and all of that phat stimulus loot has been making things a bit more busy than usual this week. Not that I’m complaining! I am happy to see that everyone can catch up on their favorite funny books in a fiscally responsible way…:P

Monarch Comics will be closed, as per usual, on Monday, March 22^nd, as we begin our exciting 2021 renovation projects! Monday we will be giving the store a new coat of paint and I am extremely excited at the prospect. However, due to the prep work needed, the store is going to be looking a little rough this week. Jake and I have to essentially strip everything off the walls and get the all the racks pulled away from them enough for a coat of paint. Those of you who visited yesterday already got a taste of it, but I don’t want anyone shocked or thinking we are going out of business when they come in over the weekend and see things REALLY stripped down. So please excuse our mess for the next couple of days as I work hard to get this project completed.

One of the things that I have to do in order for the paint job to go off as scheduled is moving all of the back issue boxes and sales tables into the back room for “storage”. The original plan was to not have them available for browsing during the renovations. After filling FOUR dumpsters full of crap in the last couple of months, however, I realize I had forgotten exactly how much junk had accumulated in the back room over the last 25+ years and the amount of space that would be freed up as a result of the “tidying up”. As a result, I do believe that I will be able to set things up so that I can allow folks to go into the back room for a deep dive into the back issue boxes. It is kind of a relief because I wasn’t looking forward to moving the back issue boxes back and forth multiple times for the duration of my renovation projects.

It currently looks like Free Comic Book Day 2021 will be moving forward as planned! Diamond released the information of what companies and titles will be involved and you can be sure that I will post the information on the Facebook page as soon as I get a spare moment. Hopefully, that spare moment will magically appear sometime before FCBD actually takes place.

I have posted the FOC information for this week on the Facebook page. FOC (or Final Order Cut-Off) is basically the last moment a comic shop can change its order numbers before said orders are closed off and the numbers are sent to the publishers and then to the printer. I decided to start doing it in order to more explicitly let you know what open order variants are available in case you were interested in requesting a copy. While I was putting together this week’s FOC variant offerings, I realized that it was kind of silly (as well as lazy) not to just put everything that is on FOC on the list I prepare, so starting next week I will be including ALL items on FOC. If there’s anything special that catches your eye while looking over the list then please let me know and I can take steps to make sure that the title is ordered and available to you. Keep in mind that the primary function of this effort is to catch books that people are planning to pick up that they normally don’t buy. If you’ve been buying Amazing Spider-Man for the past 15-20 years then I already have inventory information logging that knowledge. If, however, you normally buy Amazing Spider-Man but there is an open order variant that you are interested in then that is the kind of information I need. I’m hoping that this will cut down on the amount of “instant sellouts” and make sure I note extra interest in a title that I might have missed on my own. Truly, information is power!

Well, I’ve already gone on for far longer than I had intended to, so I will bid you all adieu! Again, sorry for the mess that some of you will be walking into this weekend and please make sure that if you are looking for something and don’t see it then speak to me or Jake. We love to help!

 

Have a great weekend, Folks!

 

Eddie

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 22^nd. 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 19^th. 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.