Category: Uncategorized

Hey, Folks!

 

It looks like I have finally achieved a Thursday where I am both feeling well and I actually have something to say. Also, the spirit is moving me and I actually have the urge to get it out all out on “paper”. Honestly, too often I sit down to write something up for the EDitorial and realize that everything I have to say is stuff I will be saying when people come into the store and I don’t want to sound like a broken record. I’ll also admit to wondering if anyone is really reading the stuff I put out every week. Of course, then I don’t get anything put out and I will get comments from customers letting me know that they missed my little missive for the week or technology will have a breakdown and I can’t record the show (like Tuesday) and many folks definitely do miss my rambling videos. I guess I just want everyone to know that I do hear you and I will work harder to get something out that is actually entertaining AND informative…😊

 

So, I don’t know about anyone else, but I am currently enjoying the hell out of DC’s “Dawn of DC” promotion! If you’ve read comics long enough then you know that all of the Big Companies tend to go through periods of “good” and “bad” comics. The cyclical nature of comics will often see various marquee characters going through myriad changes and permutations with everything eventually getting reset, restarted, and rebooted and we are off the to races again. D.C. Comics has entered into another period with a new starting point with a bunch of their major characters and I have to admit that I am quite taken with a couple of the new directions.

 

I have, of course, been extolling the greatness of Chip Zdarsky’s run on Batman as well as the miniseries which is rapidly approaching it’s big finale, Batman & Joker The Deadly Duo by Marc Silverstri and company. Both books take a major swing away from what has been The Batman Playbook for the last several years with the endless amount of dramatic psychobabble. Zdarsky and Silverstri, with both of their current projects, instead give us good, solid Batman stories with Batman being portrayed as a sympathetic protagonist in a cracking good super hero story. I want to see Batman working with the police, solving mysteries, helping people, and stopping crime. What I don’t want to see is constant navel gazing, blaming himself for every damn thing that goes wrong with Gotham, the seemingly endless pontificating over his dead parents, and showing us over and over again how depressing Batman’s existence is and how he isn’t allowed even one moment of lightness or cheer. Remember when Batman used to have a sense of humor? And, by the way, I still can’t quite understand how many readers complained about Batman’s amazing fall from the Justice League satellite to the ground without killing himself. If it were in a movie it would have elicited cheers and in comics we get complaints that it “isn’t very realistic”…c’mon, Folks, it was COOL!

 

I’ve been a Superman fan ever since I jumped into John Byrne’s Man of Steel miniseries back in the 80’s, although he 80’s and 90’s era Superman books have always been my favorite. I will freely admit that once we hit the NEW 52 era that I very quickly lost interest in the Superman character. I’ve never completely stopped paying attention to the books, but I haven’t been a regular reader of all of the Superman Stuff until recently with the Dawn of DC stuff. Superman, written by Joshua Williamson and drawn by Jamal Campbell, has changed everything for me. This “new” direction on the character is not new at all…it’s a refreshing and much loved decision to go back to the 80’s style of Superman with the attendant cast and bad guys. I will admit that there’s nothing in the material that is going to make you fall in love with the character if you aren’t already, but I submit that the art and storyline is classic super hero material and would be of interest to anyone who loves a good old-fashioned comic book story.

 

Adventures of Superman, featuring Jon Kent, is just as good and for essentially the same reasons. Fresh and fun and featuring a well paced and action packed super hero story. The fact that it is centered around the multiverse and features a supporting cast of different D.C. mainstays from alternate universes is a big plus for me as well. I loved all of that pre-Crisis multiverse madness when I first started reading D.C. Comics and I am glad to see current editorial really leaning into it. Writer Tom Taylor and artist Clayton Henry are bringing their A game to this title and it shows!

 

A new title that just shipped in this week is the Unstoppable Doom Patrol #1 by writer Dennis Culver and artist Chris Burnham. I have loved the Doom Patrol since the classic Grant Morrison run of the late 80’s and the characters have rarely been as well served since then despite everyone from John Byrne to Keith Giffen giving the title a try. Culver and Burnham have done a wonderful job of combining all of the different flavors of Doom Patrol into a great start of the new title. There is a good balance between melodrama and super hero action and it feels like an X-Men title. Loved it and is well worth a try…so much so that I am taking a copy home for my husband to give a try…

 

I have decided to make some changes/updates to the subscription form this week and try to clarify how it works because of an influx of new customers using the service. Please understand that I try to put EVERYTHING available from my three distributors every week. That includes titles that I have ordered “for the rack” as well as a lot of material that we don’t carry on the rack at all. Whenever you make your choices and hit the SEND button either myself or Brian will process your order and make a pull list of the items that we have in stock or put an order for titles that we don’t carry. Because of shipping costs and the vagaries of comic distribution we generally put one order in a week on Sunday for material that comes out the following week. So basically if you order something we don’t normally carry or if we are technically “sold out” of then we have order the item(s) and then wait for the reorder to get here. Generally that means that we have it before the end of the week, but rarely before Wednesday when people start coming in for their books. If you order something that we need to order after 3:30-4pm on Sunday then chances are the order will not be placed until the following Sunday and will take an extra week to get here.

 

I’ve been trying to figure out a way to get more information out there in front of you when you are using the subscription form. The problem is that the best thing about Google forms is how simple they are to construct and to use. Simple for us…simple for you…it really is a great system. But I was still running into problems when it comes to either items I haven’t ordered enough copies of or items which we simply don’t carry. Sometimes it takes longer for the special order items to get here or else the distributor/publisher will sell out of the item immediately or there is a variant cover that suddenly everyone in the world wants and there is a question as to whether I can get more copies or not. Brian and I do try to catch these things as they occur and make adjustments, but the system is not a perfect one. So, in order to experiment with a new way to deal with the issue, I am starting a new system to signal some additional information to you. From now on if you see an single “*” next to an item it denotes items that are not carried on the rack. If you order this item then it may take anywhere from a couple of days to longer to get into the store, depending on the distributor. If you see a double “**” next to an item this denotes something that is normally carried on the rack but we have sold out of all of the copies from our initial order and you may have a wait while we order in more copies. I’m going to try this new system for the next week or two and see how it works with adjustments and possibly more classifications to come!

 

Well, I’ll admit that I had more this week, including a rundown of the upcoming Free Comic Book Day event, but I see that it is already 3pm and I am WAAAAAAAY behind on everything that needs to get done before I leave the store today so I will instead bid you all a fond adieu. Please have a great weekend and I hope to see you in the store this week!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

It looks like more interesting weather in our near future. Yes, it looks like there is another Snowmageddon possibly on the horizon! I am, of course, monitoring the situation, but it certainly doesn’t sound like anything that is going to require a store shutdown for Friday. Now that I am essentially living in the country and on the farm, I’m a little more easy going when it comes to less than three feet of snow…lol. I mean, the couple of days this season when I have had to deal with snow I’ve had more anxiety with giant country trucks riding by booty on icy roads than I actually had with the icy roads. So unless there is a HUGE amount of snow then expect us to be open the whole day tomorrow.

 

I have been trying to keep my mouth shut about behind the scenes problems I’ve been dealing with as a comic retailer lately. I mean there are some customers I talk to about this stuff, but mostly because they are small business owners themselves and therefore I figure they can understand some of my frustrations. I thought for a while I was bitching and moaning about business related problems a little too much in the store and that is not the comic buying experience anyone was clamoring for when they shop at Monarch Comics. I certainly didn’t want to completely turn into one of the grouchy old men who do nothing but complain about their business and inadvertently suck all of the joy out of what they are selling. There have been some major changes behind the scenes in the last several months and I wanted to explain to all of you what they are and how they have been affecting the running of the store.

 

Now that I have a couple of years of experience dealing with three different distributors for our comic books as well as switching all of our comic supply business to one rather than multiple distributors I think that I can say that I’ve got the hang of it. I’ve had to update my record keeping and spread sheet game to keep track of it all and things are working out better than they were several months. Part of the challenge for me has been dealing with switching a lot of our small press orders from Diamond to either Lunar or Penguin. There is a very good reason involved with this decision and it mostly centers around the extremely expensive shipping charges that we get from Diamond. Our shipping charges for our Diamond invoices are between 11%-33% of our weekly invoices. In comparison, Lunar is usually 2-3% of our total invoice and Penguin is, well, 0% of our invoices because they don’t charge shipping. This huge amount of shipping charges are not broken down by the box and there is no transparency in what we are actually being charged for from week to week. I have had to stop ordering comic supplies or merchandise material from Diamond because there are weeks that I can’t make enough money from them to even cover my costs. So, as more and more small press companies either defect from Diamond or become available from other distributors, I have been switching all of my orders from Diamond. The discounts for the material itself tend to be the better at the other companies as well, sometimes by as much as 10%.

 

The actual reality of ordering and tracking orders and sales from three distributors is where things get a little tricky. I think I have gotten it down oat, but I still tend to accidentally miss a title or two every week or else put something on the subscription form that is actually not available yet. There is also a weird schism going on where a titles might be available from one distributor one week, but not available from another distributor until a week later. I’m getting better at spotting these issues, but please forgive me if you order something and turns out it won’t be out for another week or two…lol.

 

Also, I want to reiterate that if you order something on the subscription form that is not something that we carry or if we have already sold out of all the copies we initially ordered and have to order more then tour order may take a couple of days more to get here. Every week I am here on Sunday and my main job is to do our weekly reorder and any sub form orders that are received after I put in that weekly reorder (usually around 4pm on Sunday) won’t be processed in time. These special orders will take at least a week to fill so it really behooves you to get those sub form orders in before the Sunday afternoon cut off. Now don’t get me wrong…there’s no problem with putting in an order on Mondays or Tuesdays, but we can’t guarantee we’ll see any special orders until the following week. Also, since we are now dealing with three different distributors there is no was to predict anymore when we will see any of our reorders. In the days before The Apocalypse, when we had only Diamond to deal with, I could be reasonably sure that when I ordered something it would be here with 2-3 business days. Such is not the case anymore in these interesting times. I’m getting better with Lunar reorders since they instituted a fairly affordable direct ship reorder system, but Diamond has gotten a bit iffy on shipping times and Penguin is the roll of the dice on how quickly you are going to receive your reorders from them. Thankfully, for initial orders all three distributors have upped their game as you can tell by the very early times I have been filming Monarch Comics Afternoon Delight since early December.

 

I have also cut back on the amount of Diamond Previews that I have in the store. This is partially because of the shipping charge issues I mentioned above, but also has to do with the cover price being raised from $3.99 to $4.99. I am basically trying to make sure that I have enough catalogs for folks that interested in seeing what is being published by small press companies as opposed to the D.C. and Marvel catalogs. It’s also worth noting that I get the D.C. and Marvel catalog FOR FREE and the Diamond catalogs I have to pay $3 each. Strangely enough, I do believe that I have covered pretty much everyone pretty well, but if you would like a copy and missed it them please let Brian or I know and we will do our best to set you up with a copy.

 

Okily dokily…back to work for me. I always handle Lunar and Penguin FOC orders on Thursday afternoon and it usually takes at least 5 hours to get through them. After that I typically process as many sub form orders as possible so Brian doesn’t have as many to deal with over the weekend. I should probably mention that Brian is still working diligently at processing all of the collections that we have picked up over the last two months. There will be more stuff going into the Dollar Boxes as well as the showcase and the back issue boxes, so make sure you bring in your checklists when you are shopping in the store!

 

Have a great week and please drive carefully when the weather turns crappy!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

Oh, look…another Thursday, another slate grey drizzly bummer of an afternoon! Those comforting warmer temperatures have now begun their steady drop towards freezing again and I have lovely ice-covered streets to look forward to as I head back to our apartment in Sylvania TWP after work! Meanwhile, it’s the beginning of the day and I have an amazingly blank screen with the damn blinking cursor to look forward to as well.

 

I suppose I should start with March’s catalog situation. We will be getting in Diamond and Marvel Previews in next week, but this time around the DC Connects will not be here until the week of March 1^st. As per usual, I will be holding these catalogs behind until we have all three of them to put out at once. No, I still don’t have any idea why these publishers and distributors can’t coordinate it so that all of their damn catalogs come out at the same time, but I do agree that it is extremely annoying. I should also mention that after Diamond’s complete mishandling of my missing January Previews that Monarch will no longer be deeply stocking them anymore. I’ve had it. Between raising the over price to $4.99 and raising my cost to $3 each as well as their increasingly punishing shipping rates (one week recently I calculated my shipping costs from Diamond and it was 23% of my invoice.) it just isn’t paying to stock them. Those of you that use Previews every month to manage your comic collecting will, of course, have access to the catalog and if you’d just like a copy to check out the latest offerings and you miss it then Brian and I will do our best to supply one to you, but the halcyon days of seeing a big stack of Diamond Previews at the front counter are well and truly over. We will still be supplying free copies of the DC Connect and Marvel Previews because the companies who distribute them to us supply them at no cost and little to no shipping charges. It’s the end of an era that began back in the days of my youth, but it is truly coming to an end. It will be interesting to see how long Diamond can last with its lack of customer service and its continue price gouging.

 

At this point we’ve got almost two weeks left in Monarch Comics Post-Holiday Sale! You have until February 28^th to enjoy the discounts on back issues and trade paperbacks! It has been a really successful sale this year and a tradition hat we will continue to carry on with next year. Please enjoy the savings while they last!

 

Okily dokily…back to work for me. I mean, yes, this IS work, but I have other things that need to be done to keep everything running smoothly…lol. I hope everyone enjoys their weekends and I hope to see you in the store!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

Well, that’s interesting. Just as I was about to start this little missive with a gripe about how grey and life less it looks outside this morning, I looked outside the window and a glorious blanket of sunlight exploded across the parking lot. Miraculously enough, no one burst into flames nor was anyone reduced to smoking ashes. It was a nice moment but I’m not fooled. Save for some dispiriting rain showers, it is supposed to be pretty spring-like for the next week or so, but I know that there is still a last gasp of crappy weather just beyond the horizon. Freezing temperatures, maybe some snow, maybe some ice…oh, mark my words, it is coming.

 

I have been castigated repeatedly recently for apparently not doing a better job about holding my tongue in regards to movies and television shows. I never considered myself a “Spoiler” and I am mildly embarrassed as I have taken time out of my busy schedule to rake Spoilers over the coals in the past. I really don’t mean to, but I sometimes DO get excited about something I’ve seen and I just sort of open my mouth and things come out. So if I have acted as a Spoiler here in the store at some point over the years, I would like to most sincerely apologize. I will try to do better in the future.

 

All of that was a sort of preamble leading up to my little review of HBOMax’s latest TV triumph, The Last of Us. This TV show, adapted from the hit video game that I had never heard of before, has earned great reviews and I had several customers recommend it to me. Hill and I were sitting around the other night trying to decide what we wanted to watch for the evening and I suggested giving it a whirl. There were three episodes out at that point and we decided to watch the first of them. The first episode, as well as the second episode, was more or less what I expected…post-apocalyptic zombie action/horror with a smidgen of drama to keep us involved with he characters. The cast, led by The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal, was competent and the writing was entertaining. The fungi plot twist was novel and the action and special effects top notch.

 

Then we watched episode 3. Now here is where the whole Spoiler Warning MUST go into effect. I mean, I don’t WANT to spoil anything and I am going to try to stay as vague as possible, but I think that I need to give some sort of caution because I really don’t want to ruin anyone’s viewing experience if they haven’t gotten around to tuning in yet.

 

So. We watched Episode 3. And this frikking television series broke my heart. Not once, not twice, but several times during this frakakta episode that veered wildly away from it’s post-apocalyptic action horror hijinks and instead gave us a love story. It is certainly the first post-apocalyptic romance I have ever seen and know that is post-apocalyptic and knowing that it is set in a time when all of the happy endings are well and truly over, we also have a pretty good sense that it is heading towards tragedy. I won’t go into specifics, but I will say that I burst into anguished sobs about three times during this episode and after it had ended I could not sleep for most of the night. Yes, it is true that I am a big marshmallow and cry at the drop of a hat at the movies, but this was nearly cruel in its effort to wring every single tear out of the viewer. It is well written and beautifully performed and I truly wish I had never watched it.

 

Despite its well crafted merits I have reached a point in my life where I decidedly do NOT watch TV or movies in order to be made sad. Laugh, made horrified, thrilled, yes, these are fine, but (to paraphrase Wanda) NO MORE TEARS. Isn’t there enough going in real life to make me cry? Do I really need fiction to show me a sad and depressing world? My answer is no. I don’t believe I will be continuing with this show. It seems a bit of an over reaction, I suppose, even to a drama queen like me, but I don’t think I can face more sadness as a result of viewing. Of course, I may get overruled by my adoring husband, but Hill can watch it without my help and there are literally dozens and dozens of other things we can watch together. I think that the end of episode 3 works for me as an ending to the whole show. I’ve been saying for years to my survivalist friends that I have no desire to live through the apocalypse, zombie or otherwise. This episode is the perfect reason why I have no desire to go in the face extinction.

 

WOW. That was quite a bummer, huh? Sorry…I just had to get that off of my chest…lol. Is there anything else to talk about this week? Oooo…I know! Okay, so last week while pulling the sub orders I noticed that I didn’t get any copies of the latest Captain America or Star Trek comics. I wasn’t sure if they had come out or not. I mean, if I make a mistake like that I usually catch it during the construction of the sub form, but mistakes do slip through all the time. Well, after an e-mail or two and further investigation it seems I apparently missed ordering both titles back in December. Eek! It turned out to be no problem and PRH was able to get me the copies I needed so no harm, no foul. Unfortunately, while pulling books this week I found another one. This time it was Black Panther! D’oh! December PRH FOC orders were a little weird and I had done a lot of FOC that month…so much so that I had books ordered through the second week of February by the end of December. I know what I did as well. I put the issues information into my FOC spreadsheet and then forgot to add the total to my online shopping cart. I was so distracted and working so hard to get that crap updated that I simply missed a step. So, for the rest of the month, I have to keep an eye out for any more missing titles. Please bear with me during this time of confusion, I pinky swear that I will do better in the coming FOC’s…lol.

 

Okily dokily…that’s it for me this week. I mean, I keep thinking there was something else I wanted to talk about, but I didn’t have any coffee this morning and I honestly can’t remember what it might have been. If I remember I’ll just put it on a sticky note and get back to it next week! Thanks for tuning in and I hope everyone enjoys their weekend! Remember, only three weeks left for Monarch Comics’ post-holiday sale!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

Boy, oh, boy, was yesterday exciting! There is nothing like a little Snowmageddon to make things interesting. Honestly, I had a feeling that it was going to be a somewhat heavy snow and I’ll admit to feeling a bit hoodwinked when I woke up and it hadn’t started yet, but it certainly had a lot of energy once it began! I got to work at my normal time yesterday (around 8am) and then handled the Wednesday Morning Rush as per usual and then the snow started coming down and everyone disappeared…lol. We had a couple of people in between 11am-12pm, but it was starting to look pretty messy out the front window. I did a quick clean up in front of the store and decided to head home an hour or so early because as much as I HATE driving, I REALLY hate driving in the snow. And then it was just a matter of driving down deserted streets for the 5 mile trek home at 25 miles an hour..lol. It was SO bad that when I got home I gave Brian the option of closing up and heading home. So my apologies to anyone who made the journey through the treacherous snow just to find us closed, but it was pretty dire out there.

 

I did manage to get plenty of paperwork completed yesterday at home, however, including the Shipping List and Subscription Form. It is an incredibly tiny shipping list next week, mostly because DC and Marvel seem to be treating it as a sort of fifth week event though it technically isn’t. I’m actually glad for the break in new stuff as we have most of our “old stuff” on sale right now! Yes, we will be continuing the Annual Post-Holiday Sale through the month of February even if you won’t be seeing the ad for very much longer on Facebook as I only set it for the end of January. Rest assured, everything from back issues to trade paperback/hard covers to POP figures to small comic art boxes will all continue to be on discount until Tuesday, February 28^th!

 

A quick note to those who base their visits on the arrival of the new catalogs…We FINALLY received the bulk of our orders for Diamond’s January Previews and I am putting those out this week because we still haven’t received the Marvel or DC catalogs for February. We should have all of the component catalogs in and ready to go by next week, however, so plan on visiting us next weekend. One of these days maybe these publishers will arrange it so that their catalogs all come out the same week…

 

That’s is for me! Not only do I have to do my weekly FOC numbers for DC and Marvel, but I also have to post my initial orders for Diamond hopefully before I leave the store. I’m heading back out to our apartment in the country tonight and I would prefer not to have to take any work home…lol. Have a great weekend!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

Well, Brian and I have successfully completed two weeks with our new opening hours on Monday. There hasn’t been much traffic at this point, but I’m going to give it through the end of February before deciding whether or not to continue the practice. It was getting to be a concern for me when I was closed on Monday because so many people showed up whilst I was in the store doing paperwork and stuff between errands I had to do because of my guardianship for my dad, but now that those responsibilities have ended it just seemed to make sense to open the doors since I was here anyway. In any case, either Brian or I will be here on Mondays between 12-5.

 

I’ve just about had it with Diamond Distributors. I’ve resisted writing anything in my little blog negative about the behind the scenes stuff one deals with when running a comic book store because I thought it was entirely too much negativity and I figured you folks didn’t want to read a whole lot of complaining about stupid industry stuff. This recent problem with securing Previews magazines for January, however, has me steamed up. The January Previews that was originally supposed to be here on 12/28/22 and I did pay for along with crazy shipping charges never appeared. The box apparently went missing and now, three weeks later, the Previews are supposed to be here this afternoon. This isn’t very helpful, however, since the February Previews will be here next week and my initial Diamond orders will be due in a week. This will, of course, occur before I even have a chance to get this issue of Previews in front of most of you. I will also be charged full price for the damn things AND get charged shipping on the box again as well. This means that I have to make a hard decision in the near future regarding whether I carry the catalog at all. I am seriously considering merely ordering a handful of copies for the folks who use it to special order stuff every month because the information is mostly available online at this point and it feels like most of you are more interested in the D.C. and Marvel catalogs which won’t be affected by this decision at all. I think I may be a bit too angry by this and other problems that I have been having with Diamond lately so please, by all means, let me know your views on this subject. Do you, oh, Loyal Customers, want me to continue carrying the Previews?

 

Brian is starting to get a bit backed up with evaluating comic collections again, so please keep on mind that if you have stuff you want to sell or trade to us then you may have a week or two wait to get an offer. He will, of course, get to your books eventually, but there may be a slight delay as there will likely be one or more people ahead of you in the sorting line. Thanks in advance for your patience!

 

That’s it for me this week. I really have a lot of stuff to get through this week, including preparing initial Diamond orders in a month where I couldn’t get catalogs in front of anybody. I hope everyone has a great weekend and that we don’ t get the prophesied crappy weather on Sunday and Monday…lol.

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

If anybody ever tells you that business stuff is easy then please punch them in the mouth for me. It’s the beginning of the year and it is that delicate time when I have to get all of my fourth quarter business information together for my accountant. Unfortunately, there were, like 20 days, where the information put into the sales records spread sheet was incorrect. I had to go back and track down all of the sales data from these days and then figure out how to get the information to my accountant. I started off by simply e-mailing her from my register terminal, but it only worked for about half the data. So then I had to go back and download the data, scan it into my system, and then e-mail it to her. I think it is finally done, but I haven’t heard back yet. This little side trip has not improved my mood any today.

 

I also want to assure everyone that we should FINALLY have all of our January catalogs in the store next week. The problem this month is that the 42lb box that contained our Diamond Previews was apparently lost in UPS’s system. I say “apparently” because it was on my UPS driver’s board the day it was set to arrive, but wasn’t in his truck. The next day when I checked the box’s status it changed to one of those dreaded “We Will Get Back To You as Soon As We Have A Delivery Date” messages. I immediately e-mailed Diamond about it and got a phone call asking us to wait two days to report them shortage as they didn’t want to send replacements and then have the original box show up. I ended up compromising and giving it one more day and then the message changed to “Huh. We Have NO Idea Where Your Frakakta Package Is…Talk TO Your Supplier, Chump” and so I reported them missing. Of course, Diamond didn’t process the shortage until 1/3 and so we are still waiting for them to appear. Of course, it looks like we won’t see them until NEXT Tuesday, but I am living in a world of hope.

 

The Case of the Missing Marvel Previews is a little more, well, mysterious. My original FOC information places the release date for two weeks ago, but when they didn’t show up on an invoice I double checked PRH’s website and the release date had been changed at some point to 1/11/23. No explanation as to why was offered. They are currently listed on the packing list for next week’s Marvel books so I’m fairly certain they will be here for your consumption next week as well. Unfortunately this will mean I will need orders in ASAP this month so keep that in mind if you normally fill out an order booklet or if you just see something you are partial to and you are worried that we won’t be carrying it.

 

Well, time for me tog et back to work. I’m having to do DC and Marvel FOC for the first time int wo weeks and I am already waaaay behind on that because of all of this other crap I’m dealing with so I hope everyone has a great weekend and remember that the big Post Holiday Sale is currently in full effect AND Monarch Comics will be open again from 12pm-5pm on Mondays starting the 9^th!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

Another holiday season (mostly) gone and done and working towards the end of the year! 2022 was a loooong year and simply making it across the finish line intact will be a truly marvelous achievement as far as I am concerned. Of course, one of the best decisions of my life came about when I decided to ask Mr Crawford for his hand in marriage and despite having to rush the process a bit, I couldn’t be happier with the way things turned out. I can’t believe how happy my marriage has made me and how much I am looking forward to the years ahead with Hillman by my side.

 

Everything related to the business has been great as well and I find it remarkable that even after running the business beside Mr Shufritz for 30 odd years there is still so much to learn. It’s also amazing to me that the industry itself could go through so many changes after being more or less rock solid steady for a couple of decades. I mean, who would have guessed that we would end up getting a period that was even more tumultuous as the late 90’s!?!! I guess that’s what a pandemic will bring to the table, among other things! Still, with Brian’s aid I have weathered the storm and I am looking forward to another successful year in 2023.

 

One of the big changes I am making is that I will once again be opening on Mondays! I originally closed the store on Mondays when I took over back in 2021 because I was running things solo and I needed a day off where I wasn’t tied to the store. I was still Guardian for my father and there were lots of things that needed to be done every week and Mondays was the best day to set aside for getting them done. Now I am here all day Monday and I am constantly surprised by the amount of people who come up to the door. Of course, part of that was the dear #$%^&*#$ who kept changing our open times on our Google page to show we were “open” on Mondays. I can’t thank whoever that was enough for the confusion that created, but I must say I was surprised by the amount of traffic that continue to show up. So, starting January 9^th, Monarch Comics WILL be open on Mondays from 12pm-5pm. I was going to stay open until 5:30pm, but realized I really needed to get out of here by 5pm, so here we are. I’ll stay open on Mondays for at least 6 months and if the business justifies it I will make it permanent this summer!

 

The Annual Post-Holiday Monarch Comics Sale will begin on Tuesday, January 3^rd, and I look forward to seeing everyone swing by with their holiday cash in order to take advantage of the deals. Brian has been working very hard to get a bunch of new back issue stuff in the bins for the sale and I am looking forward to everyone bringing in their gift certificates! Please remember that we will only be open 11am-5pm on Saturday this week and we will be closed on Sunday and Monday! I’d like to take this moment to thank everyone one of you that contributed to the store’s success this year and I hope everyone has a safe and happy new year’s!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

Well, here we are waiting for the results of Snowmageddon 2023! It does seem a little bit of the same old song…what with all of the local weathermen and news organizations acting as prophets of doom. I do, however, appreciate how all of the local guys I’ve been watching (YAY, WTVG!) have been very careful on underlining how it might not be the apocalypse, but still cautioning us. I’m a little nervous about what’s gonna happen tonight /tomorrow morning mostly because it is, you know, two days before Christmas and I really don’t want to have to close the store on Friday or Saturday. At this point, I am kicking myself a little because I didn’t schedule Brian to come in today for coverage as it has been a LOT more busy than a usual Thursday…lol. In any case, Monarch Comics will continue our usual snowy weather policy of staying closed if it is a Level 2 OR 3 Winter Weather Emergency. Brian lives out in the country and I don’t want any of our customers out on the roads if they don’t “have” to be. If there is a Level 2 or 3 announced tomorrow morning then we will stay closed and if it ever lifts completely or goes down to a Level 1 then we will be opened as soon as either Brian or I can get to the store. Of course, I will keep everyone posted via Facebook for any changes.

 

I was thinking that the next two weeks were going to be something as a nightmare, shipment-wise, but it looks like all of the distributors actually put some thought into this year’s shipping situation and it seems like everything should go pretty smoothly. UPS, you see, will not be running on December 26^th or January 2^nd and we get much of our weekly shipments on Mondays. Lunar (D.C. Comics) has already delivered the next wo weeks worth of D.C. Comics releases and I am expecting next week’s Penguin Random House (Marvel Comics) shipment later this afternoon. Even Diamond Distributors should be here tomorrow assuming that UPS is running. All in all, I’m feeling pretty good about it and even if Diamond’s boxes don’t get here tomorrow they will be in town and I should have them on Tuesday with plenty of time to get them unpacked and ready for Wednesday. Of course, I haven’t started unpacking anything yet so maybe I shouldn’t be so optimistic…lol.

 

Just a quick reminder to let everyone know Monarch Comics holiday hours:

 

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24^TH, CHRISTMAS EVE- 11AM-5PM

 

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25^TH, CHRISTMAS DAY- CLOSED

 

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31^ST, NEW YEAR’S EVE- 11AM-5PM

 

SUNDAY, JANUARY 1^ST, NEW YEAR’S DAY-CLOSED

 

As many of you know I have been closed on Mondays since I took over the business back in 2021. Well, after recently giving up my Guardianship duties with my father as well as seeing how many people show up on Monday afternoons I have decided to begin opening on Mondays again. As of Monday, January 9^th, Monarch Comics will be open from 12pm-5pm on Mondays. Sometimes it will be me here and sometimes it will be Brian, but the store will be open. Now I just have to go back and change the hours AGAIN…lol.

 

That’s it for me this week, Folks! Time to get my Diamond December initial orders loaded onto the website as well as unpack some boxes that came in via UPS while I have been working on this missive. Brian and I would like to wish each and everyone of you a safe and happy holiday!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

Here we are ten days short of the big holiday and, well, it just doesn’t feel very holiday-like for me. You would suppose that working in a retail concern that I would end up being immersed in the holiday spirit, but no, I actually feel pretty far removed from it. I’m lucky that the comic industry has a built in weekly audience and that most of this material is made for serial enjoyment. As a result of this I have a pretty locked in audience and so the vagaries of traditional retail wisdom don’t always affect me the same way. I think that there is a lot less gift procuring traffic this season,  but normal traffic seems unaffected. I don’t know if people have simply started ordering their comic related holiday gifts online or if I need to start doing different kind of promotions. We will, of course, have our annual post-holiday deep discount sale in January and February which never ceases to be popular so maybe I just need to wait until then for my holiday traffic. I will say that gift certificate purchases are up a bit this year and that I really need to get off of my duff and get some gift cards printed up by Square. Oh, well, something to look forward to next year.

 

I sold a few hundred books from the dollar boxes this week and now I have to get moving and do a cull of the overstock boxes in the back room as well as a cull of the back issue boxes on the floor. I have rather been enjoying Monarch’s foray into the back issue market after not really carrying much for years, but these collections tend to build up pretty quickly and I have to remember that we need to live within our space. I suppose I could squeeze a couple of more tables of back issue boxes into the area allocated for them, but that would a little monetary investment and a lot of shifting things around to really make it happen quickly. Plus, Brian has been at me to replace the tables that we’ve used for the back issues for over 30 years before they collapse on themselves and he’s not wrong. UGH…another issue for next year although it must be said that next year isn’t far off…lol.

 

I’ve finally gotten around to listening in to Part Three of the Sandman audio book series. I loved the Netflix miniseries adapting the first three trade paperbacks of the series, but I have to admit that I REALLY loved the audiobook presentation. I think at this point I actually love it more than the TV show. I’m currently listening to the end of Brief Lives and it just amazes how Neil Gaiman is a brilliant enough writer that he can once again rewrite and adapt his own material from 30 years ago and make it as interesting and involving as it was the first time around. Also, adapting a comic book into an audio book!?! What kind of sense does that even make? Well, I can tell you that it is a real pleasure and Gaiman has done a fantastic job with it. I’ve been listening to it via the Audible app, but if you have any friends or family who are Gaiman fans or, indeed, of good audiobooks then this would be an amazing present for them.

 

Okily Dokily…that’s it for me this week. I’ve really got to get this stuff ready to go live and get it posted. Thursdays are generally my “Quiet Day” and I use it to get caught up with all of my Lunar and PRH FOC orders and I really should be working a bit more on the Diamond December initial orders which are due next Thursday. One of these days I’m going to have to really dig in and show Brian how to manage these things, but at this point I am so used to be the person in charge of all of the ordering that I’m not sure I could handle someone else doing it…lol. I hope that everyone has a great week and if I don’t have a chance to see you before next weekend let me offer all of you a hearty HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

 

Eddie