By Christopher Hoerdemann
Welcome to the first of what I hope to be many installments of Shop Talk! This column is devoted to getting the opinions and perspectives from the guy who provides you with your funny books every week. That's right, I journeyed into my local comic shop (Acme Comics) to get the low down on what is what in comics from the owner and operator!
I should start off by introducing my local shop owner. His name is Jim Schifeling. He's 36 years old, owns multiple copies of nearly ever Image comic produced in the early and mid 1990s (just look in the 50 cent box), and only has three comic books at his house (all Space Ghost). This week, I decided to cover the more general beats of running a comic book shop as well as some other stuff, so let's get down to it.........
According to Jim (sounds like a good title for a TV show), 52 is where it is at right now. "The success is surprising, and I'm amazed. I ordered 250 copies for the first issue, and I still order in the 130 range."
He says that he usually orders about 100 copies of an issue if it's an A-list title. At this point in time, he has anywhere from 12 to 15 titles that he orders over a hundred copies of.
Now, one of the things I was looking forward to asking him was what titles that aren't high quality in his opinion, still sell like gangbusters. He only had one answer, and it isn't going to surprise people.
"All Star Batman.....I order over a hundred copies whenever it comes out and it always moves."
On the other extreme, there are a couple titles that he wishes would sell better because of the quality of the book.
"I wish Y the Last Man sold better. Fables too. Oh, and Hulk. People will be coming to me at the start of World War Hulk and will ask me if I have Planet Hulk issues in, and I'll ask em' where they were six months ago!"
Another hot button topic that I was interested to get his take on was chronic lateness in the comic book industry.
"Lateness is killing Ultimates 2, and it will kill Ultimates 3 as well."
Now, everyone has that one semi-obscure title that they wish would sell really well. Schifeling named three underdog titles that still surprise him with their sales numbers.
"I'd have to go with Mystery in Space, and Tales of the Unexpected. I was really surprised with the demand for those. I'd also have to say 52, because I never expected sales to stay at the level they're at now."
Another big myth in Schifeling's opinion is that super hero movies sell comics.
"Comic book movies, do, but not super hero movies. Hellboy, Sin City, and V for Vendetta really helped move the funny books. I've sold 30 300 hardcovers since the buzz around that movie started too. Did X-men movies do that? Nah. Super hero movies sell action figures, not comics."
Along with V For Vendetta, Sin City, Hellboy, and the 300, there is one other thing that sells comics: "Mark Millar. Even though he refuses to admit that his name isn't pronounced Miller."
Moving on, I also asked him about whether or not Dark Tower brought new people into his shop.
"It pulled in a few new faces, but what really brings new people in is Anita Blake."
Now, the guy owns a comic book shop stocked with comics that he can read all he wants. So what did he read this week?
"I read Superman/Batman vs. Aliens/Predators. It's like having a candy bar with nougat, and caramel, and chocolate all in one (Editor’s note: they have those, they’re called Snickers, or something like that). I thought it was fun. It was weird though because the word 'hell' was used a lot in that book.....there was a high concentration of the word 'hell'."
He also read Thunderbolts, which has quadrupled in sales since it was revamped. He's weary of the title though.
"Warren Ellis will last ten issues or so before he starts getting late. Then they'll rush to just get an ending put out. Then a new creative team will jump on."
Before I finished quizzing Schifeling, I had to see what the big upcoming books were.
"World War III will sell. Countdown (Editor’s note: there is no series called Countdown yet…wink wink, nudge nudge) will go crazy too. Annihilation was the party that everyone was six hours late to. I hope they find a way to connect World War Hulk with Annihilation so that the Internet really cracks in half this time because everyone missed Annihilation. Six months from now people will come up to me and ask if I have any Annihilation Prologue in stock, and I'll tell em' that they missed out."
Well, that’s it for the first installment of Shop Talk. I hope you enjoyed it! Plus, coming soon, look for the first installment of “Weekends with Jamal,” where I talk comics with Nightwing penciller Jamal Igle.
