Comic book store reverses midlife crisis for comic book industry

A few weeks ago, while making the final delivery of new comics from the Diamond comic, the comic book retailer Aaron Haaland A Comic Shop in Orlando, Fla., raised a rallying cry. He said he was ready to take any new comics from any publishers or creators still around who wanted to send them and sell them to him. Since then, he’s been hosting live shows and sales from his store, and encouraging other stores to do the same. “The direct market was built by retailers, we’re a bottom-up industry, that’s what we are, it’s punk rock, punk isn’t dead, comics aren’t dead. comics was never really about you. They care about you. I know you care about your customers. Go ahead and engage. All midlife crises are canceled .That’s the culture of cancellation. ”Also“ we’re low end, ”but most seem to prefer the previous sentence, so it’s the canceled mid-life crisis.

Aaron Haaland is quite energetic and infectious – in a good way, of course. He used to run A Comic Show videos on Bleeding Cool and we certainly missed him. Maybe now is the perfect time to bring him back. Since then, Haaland has launched a number of battle cries on Facebook. Including telling all of us, “If you can sell new comics for a profit, you can definitely sell old comics for a profit too. Go online, phone and sell all the old comics you have. Do like me. , undo your midlife crisis and learn how to best use new technology … and sell comics. Then you would have no excuse not to pay your Diamond bills when the printers restart, and a viable Diamond can ship from new comics to viable stores, then we can ALL go back to what we’re all here for: to make fans say “shut up and take my money” so you all get PAID! Palette needs us to be them. best comic book sellers we can be! This is the testing ground of our generation! Use this time to sharpen your selling swords. “

A Mid-Life Crisis In Infinite Stores

I mentioned to Aaron that a lot of store owners can’t even access their inventory to sell things right now, as lockouts and closings vary from territory to territory. Haaland responded in bombastic form. “I was shut down for two weeks by a state hold order. Even with that, they can go to their store, pick up their print boxes, computer, label printer, scale and their boxes. Use their cell phones to FaceTime their subscribers, some are in pain while others are bored with working from home and would like them to ship their books to them. Any store can sell their gift cards, bonds or paid orders on t-shirts! Let’s sharpen our swords. “

Jesse james criscione from Jesse James Comics in Glendale, Arizona, and another longtime friend of Bleeding Cool added his own opinion. “Stores can’t sell their product in their store, so they have to take it home. There is always a way. We have to teach these stores, who say they can’t, they can. . “

While Edouard Greenberg from the California comic book chain Collector’s Paradise told me “the order to stay home means I can’t force the employees to work or ask the customers to come to the store. The owner can sit there and make calls , expeditions, whatever. ” With Aaron Haaland sharing his best advice “I just have a Walmart bag with socks in it as an alibi shotgun… so if the cops stop me.” And showed us previously where he got this bag. “I risked a trip to Walmart and my side quest was rewarded with all the bubble wrap we need to ship last week’s online comic book sales.”

It’s also worth noting that Diamond comic book distributors now ship existing inventory to retailers’ home addresses rather than just their business addresses. This is another opportunity for some comic book stores to keep moving forward. A Comic Shop’s next live-sale show is tomorrow, April 9. Danny from the store says, “Despite the Stay-in-place order, A Comic Shop is committed to always giving everyone good books to enjoy while you work from home, or to help you forget those stressful times. So , with that being said, we’ll bring you both of the extra shows on Saturday, so we can hopefully fill the void that Diamond has left us all. Keep an eye on this event page for more details. once, thank you all for the love and support, we couldn’t do this without all of you, and while Aaron seems full of energy, it is all of you who fill him up for him every day allow us to bring this entertaining content and good sales (that feeds me, Danny). ” And Aaron has a message for every comic book collector who views their wishlist.