GETTING A HANDLE ON FCBD  •What happened to our front door handle? •Smoke N Snack’s front window nightmare. •How was Free Comic Book Day? Contest of Challengers #684

INTELLECTUALLY?  •Bad customer service. •Gotta get them Back Issues! •Setting up for FCBD. •Thanks, Patrons! •Our C2E2 experiences. Contest of Challengers #683

THE FUTURE OF COMIC BOOK RETAIL LIVE from Conference Room S403 at McCormick Place, it’s the C2E2 panel discussion, THE FUTURE OF COMICS RETAIL with Patrick, W. Dal, Katie Pryde (Books With Pictures, Portland), and Dimitrios Fragiskatos (Anyone Comics/Everyone Comics, NY).

The sound quality is a little iffy on this one due to recording in such a large room, but we’ve adjusted it some to make it a little more listener-friendly. But Patrick and Katie were much closer to the recording device than Dal and Dimitrios were.

We talk about: •Building your shop on your specific passions. •Using the book industry as a retail guide. •What to immediately change in the next year to increase sales. •Lots more!

What you missed (before the recording started): Patrick pretending to be James Tynion IV for the first 5 minutes of the panel. It’s okay though, because afterwards, James actually signed off on the impersonation. •Comics talked about in this episode:      SPECTREGRAPH #1

I’M NOT EVERYBODY •Dented packaging. •Charging delinquent subscribers interest…? •DC’s 5-book release week. •FCBD output. •California’s Earth-2 is closing, and their reasons make perfect sense. •Results of the ComicsPRO Retailer Survey. •Patrick read a ton of advance PDF’s (and most of the books already came out). •Comics talked about in this episode:      CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON LIVES #1, #2      WHITE BOAT #1      AIN’T NO GRAVE #1      CROCODILE BLACK #1      HELLVERINE #1 Contest of Challengers #681

BLACK TIE •The Future Of Comic Book Retail •Apparently we are not a “Legacy” shop. •”Marcus” and his comic book. And a black tie. •People keep asking to have signings at Challengers. •3 new X-Titles and X-Men ’92 vs X-Men ’97. •Waaayyy too much television digression. Sorry. •Lunar’s waxy new cardboard inserts. •Diamond shipping changes. Contest of Challengers #680

ENTHUSIASM OVER KNOWLEDGE •A very full inbox. •Leaving tasks for the other person. •Upcoming Events with: Brian Azzarello, Stephanie Phillips, Sarah Becan, Sage Coffey, Bianca Xunise (and more!)! •Publisher price changes are always a surprise. •Misplaced retailer concerns. •Prioritizing sales over tasks. •Us, as customers at other shops. •Our dentists. •”Butcher, Baby” by The Divorce Gun. Contest of Challengers #679

IN SEQUENCE •We have now officially been open for 16 years! Yow! •Keeping the “local” in local events. •C2E2 is fast approaching. •Wanting to refresh every aspect of the shop. •Some of the many books being published in June. •Thanks, Patrons! •Taskmaster  Contest of Challengers #678

XVI •Sixteen years in the same building but with many different building owners/managers. •Hmmm, can Patrick get Kip Winger to come out for our 17th Anniversary next year…? •Looking back at the comic shops of Chicago over the past 16 years. •Dal likes to refresh our website captions regularly. •The end of our reward program. •Uncanny X-Men #130 cover posters! •IG video responses.  Contest of Challengers #677

X-CHANGES •Sorry, we don't price-match with Amazon, because we don't have a market cap of $1,820,000,000,000. •Single issue sales attrition as evidenced on the sales floor. •The future of the X-Men comic universe has been revealed! •A massive Diamond shipping rebate. •”Minor shelf wear” •New Publisher returnability options. •Comics talked about in this episode:      TRANSFORMERS #7      UNCANNY VALLEY #1      SILICON BANDITS #1  Contest of Challengers #676

CALL AN AMBULANCE •The many, many ways comic shops can sort comics for their subscribers. •How we think distributors ship their books, geographically. •”You called?” •Patrick broke his 3rd exercise bike. •”Can you call me an ambulance?” •Comics talked about in this episode:      SPECTREGRAPH #1      DUDLEY DATSON AND THE FOREVER MACHINE #1      MONSTERS ARE MY BUSINESS #1  Contest of Challengers #675

INCENTIVE TO BUY •The fresh scent of Challengers. •February sales are a Challengers record (not a good record). •Refreshing our Reward program. •Thanks, Patrons! •Cancelling wrestling action figures from Diamond. •Pre-order amounts. •DC’s Absolute Power event grows. •Comic talked about in this episode:      FERAL #1 Contest of Challengers #674