They're Not Made By Great Men

...a Gang of Four reference, and sort of appropriate to this post, though don't take the following as some kind of beatdown or call to arms against either Shawn Hoke or Alan David Doane. ADD sent me a link to Shawn's latest column at www.comicworldnews.com, an observation of the comic shops Shawn frequents which leads into a pretty even-keeled rant about the state of the Direct Market with pretty solid points. It led to some discussion via email between ADD and me, and doubtless other readers were similarly moved to weigh in, because like I said, it's a pretty solid piece.

ADD called the piece brilliant and accurate from beginning to end, and I'm not sure about that. It's good, though, hyperbole aside, but I do think there's a lot to consider beyond the truism that a well-stocked, full service shop = successful shop. Sir Paul may have been correct that "people are the same, wherever you go" in "Ebony & Ivory", but that doesn't mean if you dropped The Beguiling in downtown Topeka it's going to survive, you know? Listen, I live in San Diego--a fairly large city, and there are only a couple full service comic shops, the majority devoted to selling superhero books, action figures and Magic cards, and I guarantee you the product the employees know about are the cards, not the comics. The Beguilings and Jim Hanley's and Comixperiences and others are successful for a number of reasons, but it kind of breaks down to smart proprietors who know the business of comics and the business of selling them, in locations with good traffic, plenty of 20-and-30somethings with disposable income (near college campuses is good), and I would guess that while they're not all James Simes dispensing single malt scotch to prize customers, they do make the shop a destination, an experience, a fun place to hang out, shoot the shit. You can't even really teach this stuff--proprietors who succeed just naturally want to keep up on the comics, and want to talk about them with customers, and will do their damnedest to find employees of like mind and affability rather than finding the layabouts who couldn't hack Carl's, Jr. because the greasy air was giving them acne and the polyester uniforms gave them a scrotal rash. As much as I enjoy reading Brian Hibbs' first person thoughts on retailing, they aren't going to make a bad retailer a good one. And no column is going to change the Direct Market, so in that Shawn is right: fuck the Direct Market. I'm not saying it should go away, but that it will go away without adapting. Let's face it: the industry is still not doing great, and a dumbass retailer can't get buy on Jim Lee and IDENTITY CRISIS alone, you know? I just ordered a bunch of Drawn and Quarterly books off Amazone for over 30% off, and I'll have them within days--what do I need the comic shop for, really? A handful of floppies, mainly. I sure don't go there for the atmosphere and conversation. This isn't an anti-DM screed or anything; you love your drunk friend but only he can help himself, right? What I'm more interested in is improving the product and getting more people interested in it, and the DM has little or no impact on either.

An addendum: I've been trying to get my pull list updated for weeks now. My proprietor is a nice enough guy but I can tell he's not really into comics much anymore, and so he orders conservatively and reactively. He knows to order enough GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH but that's about it. Trade paperbacks and graphic novels are mainly just preorders so you'll never see them on the shelves unless it's an extra SUPERMAN/BATMAN HC he knows will eventually sell. Lots of times these collections come in and the pull lists are so outdated or in such disarray that he will just keep these books aside and ask each pull customer if it's something they ordered, or will just throw these books and myriad floppies in your bin just in case. And for some reason, I haven't received one copy of The Comics Journal in the almost a year I've been going to this shop (in case you're wondering--it's the most convenient location and biggest discount, so you might say I get what I pay for). I asked him why this was, and he said:

"I will start ordering that. I have had a couple of request(sic). I did not order it because in the past, it pretty much just sat around and created trash in the store. I don't think that I ever sold a copy of it. But Iwill start doing so as it seems that there is an interest for it."

Yeah, fucker--MY INTEREST! That's one guaranteed sale of $9.95 (minus discount) every time TCJ comes out, and he never even noticed it on my pull list!
I was talking to my mom, a junior high teacher, the other day, and she was wondering if there was a graphic novel about The Civil War suitable for young adults. As far as I know, there isn't, and there really is a pitifully small number of books--fiction or nonfiction, historical, romance, whatever--that I would honestly recommend to her for use in schools. And isn't that missing a potentially huge market? Her interest was because she realizes, though not at all a reader of comics, that they're easier to read than prose, and for her, novels like The Red Badge of Courage is terribly dated and dull. I don't know what the numbers are for the Scholastic edition of BONE, but I imagine it's doing pretty well and when you get books in Scholastic, in school curricula, and even libraries (yeah, it's free to the kids, but the schools are still buying it from you, publishers, and creators--those kids will seek out your other work if they like the age-appropriate stuff), it's a captive audience. Some of my favorite books were assigned in school, you know? So why aren't any creators tapping this market? A little older than BONE, younger than SCOTT PILGRIM? Where are the O'Malleys or Hernandezes (Xaime, Beto, even Lea) or Clugston-Majors or Morses or Kochalkas and on and on with 100 page OGNs that could be the Judy Blumes of a new generation? Phoebe Gloeckner could have the next ARE YOU THERE GOD, IT'S ME, MARGARET if she lightened up a little and cut out the drugs and fuckin'. PERSEPOLIS 1 is a great choice; PERSEPOLIS 2 not so much. I like that Hyperion has signed Jason Lutes et al to do biographical GNs, but how about some history, too? I mean, what school is going to assign HOUDINI? Instead, let's see LINCOLN and CIVIL RIGHTS and THE TSARS and Jim Ottaviani can chronicle THE SPACE RACE or EINSTEIN or something. One volume works, in clear styles and sturdy packages. That's your assignment. Go do it.