So… we haven’t had anyone calling about Captain America #25. No passionate phone calls imploring us to hold them a copy. No “Is it True!?”. I’m almost disappointed, actually, because apparently that’s been happening a lot today everywhere else. What with the news and all. The thing is, we actually have plenty of copies of Captain America #25, and are in no danger whatsoever of selling out. Maybe that’s why we’re not getting those anxious phone calls? We’re not the store that sells out of event books on the first day? We ordered correctly the first time around? I dunno. Sometimes I miss the excitement of that sort of thing, but I guess I just like having the books in stock too.

- Christopher.

““Our readership is way up,” said Foglio. “At a conservative guesstimate by a factor of ten. Our sales have quadrupled, and not just from our online store. Sales through Diamond have gone way up, and I hear from store owners all the time saying that we’re one of their bigger independent sellers. We no longer have to spend the time and effort to lay out individual issues, and with the time we save, we actually produce more ‘Girl Genus’ material per year. Not producing the periodical comics saves us money – at least $20,000.00 a year.”
- Phil Foglio in an interview at Comic Book Resources about his series Girl Genius

I saw this linked a few days ago, and have been thinking about it since then. I’m not really a fan of Girl Genius, and admire Foglio’s work in general but haven’t been moved to really… purchase… any of it, so I sort of let this go. The figure that Foglio asserts have stuck with me though.

See, I work at The Beguiling in Toronto, Canada. We’ve long been touted as one of the best shops for supporting ‘independent’ publications like Foglio’s work, and a quick check shows we have Girl Genius trade paperbacks and issues on the racks, a bunch of What’s New With Phil and Dixie, and even a more-or-less complete run of the XXXenophile collections too. Oh, and Buck Godot. So I have mixed feelings about some of the larger implications of the situations in Foglio’s interview, about going to collection-only or giving away entire books for free. Books that I am at least attempting to sell. My retailer instinct, sort of like my Lizard brain, flares up and wants to shout and stomp and threaten… but luckily I can subdue that most of the time.

Phil Foglio is saving $20,000 per year, not printing comic books.

Holy shit. Even if that number is inflated a little, that’s still a lot of money’s worth of time and physical dollars not disappearing into the void, essentially. Because, and let’s face it, we’re not hooking new readers of fuck-all with issue #8 of Girl Genius. It’s all established readership by that point. The financial factor alone is a pretty solid financial incentive for Foglio to keep working and providing salable content, which is what I as a retailer really actually want, rather than what I think I want, which is issues cluttering up my racks and formats competing with one another.

Speaking of which, just in a dollar-for-dollar sort of a way, if I sell exactly as many trades as issues, and as long as the trades are more-or-less the same price as the issues would have been, we’re not losing any money. Maybe we’re only dragging the reclusive Girl Genius customer out of their bedrooms once every 7 or 8 months now instead of 4 times a year, which is unfortunate, but it’s my job as a retailer to give’em a reason to come back for something else (although it wouldn’t hurt if Foglio would send more of his fans out in search of other comic books either…).

But here’s the thing:

Foglio: “Sales through Diamond have gone way up, and I hear from store owners all the time saying that we’re one of their bigger independent sellers.”

He’s… right. Not about being one of our ‘bigger independent sellers’ or anything, not at our store. But about sales being up? Yupperz! In fact, our trade initial orders are up to around 10 copies from 2, and so far we’ve reordered both of the new trades (since the series moved online) to the tune of around 10 copies each. In fact, just yesterday, a dude I’d never seen before came in, asked for the Girl Genius trades, paid his $51 for volumes 4 and 5, and then walked out. Not that I don’t value the conversations I have with my customers, but if our sales were all 3 minutes per $51, I’d most certainly be earning myself a raise. So, yeah, 20 copies of Girl Genius trades a year is not a couple hundred copies of Acme Novelty Library or anything, but it more than earns it’s spot on our shelves.

So, congrats to Phil Foglio on developing a new serialization format that is beneficial to both him as an artist and to us as the middlemen who provide his art to the public.

- Christopher
P.S.: My friend Carla Speed McNeil underwent a similar shift last year, moving her series Finder online and releasing trade paperback collections. To be completely honest, I have no idea at all how that did for us. I’ll look into it. In the meantime though, check out Carla’s Finder series at http://www.lightspeedpress.com/index.php.

In Diamond’s Previews catalogue now is COMICS FESTIVAL 2007, featuring new stories by Darwyn Cooke, Hope Larson, Chip Zdarsky, and a new Scott Pilgrim story by Bryan Lee O’Malley. This is Bryan’s cover for the book (Darwyn Cooke is also contributing a cover: coming soon), and it’s pretty awesome so I wanted to share.

Not every book is available at every retailer for Free Comic Book Day. If you want to see this book at your local comic book retailer, espescially to give away to new readers, then make sure to let your retailer know about it a.s.a.p. I’d appreciate it.

- Christopher

Kind of a Big Deal…

Scott Pilgrim @ the Library
Presented in partnership with Toronto Public Library
Part of Keep Toronto Reading 2007
http://www.keeptorontoreading.ca

Sit down with critically acclaimed graphic novel creator Bryan Lee O’Malley, the man behind the witty and hilarious Scott Pilgrim series, selected as the Independent Comic of the Year by Entertainment Weekly (2006). Bryan chats with The Beguiling’s Peter Birkemoe and you never know, he might just give away a few exciting teasers about the highly anticipated new volume of Scott Pilgrim.

North York Central Library (Concourse)
Tues. Feb. 20, 6 - 7:30 p.m.
http://keeptorontoreading.com/anime.php#scott_pilgrim

Also: Live chat with Bryan Lee O’Malley!

Can’t wait until the 20th? Chat online with Bryan a day before the event on Book Buzz: Toronto Public Library’s Online Book Club. It’s the perfect appetizer to what will be a highly memorable event.

Mon. Feb. 19, 4-5 p.m. FREE.

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I have to say it’s pretty cool seeing the store logo up there with the LCBO and STARBUCKS, sort of the perfect triumverate of vice… At any rate, Keep Toronto Reading is a pretty big deal in the city, a publically-funded month-long literacy initiative by the Toronto Public Library, and the mayor even gets involved and declares it “Keep Toronto Reading Month”. Having a graphic novel event as part of the proceedings is very chic, and says good things about the library’s commitment to “graphic fiction”. All in all? The Beguiling couldn’t be more pleased to be a part of the event, and I think it’ll be a lot of fun.

- Christopher