CR Sunday Magazine

Factoid I've Never Seen Before

Hank Ketcham's Dennis the Menace panel began 55 years ago today -- in 16 newspapers.

Preview: Sex, Rock and Optical Illusions



Are we just out of touch or are we really out of touch?

I've started doing shipping lists again for the site, and the one thing that keeps rattling around in my head the more weekly lists I do is some variation of the fundamental market question: "Who's buying this stuff?" There's so much material coming out in any single week it's almost impossible to grasp the entirety of it in snapshot fashion.

I swear it didn't use to be like this. In fact I seem to remember the last time I had a "pull file" (standing advance orders) at a comic book shop, that store's entire expected allotment of monthly comics could be placed in clearly legible fashion on two-thirds of one sheet of paper . Of course, this was 1983, and the store in question was getting their comics from a comic shop that was sub-distributing via Capital. But still. How does any store fill their gallon jug's worth of comics by standing in the middle of the current weekly tidal wave? Sheesh. I get confused just trying to remember the difference between "O/A" and "RES".

Another thing I wonder is if most of this stuff actually sells. Assuming it does, I wonder who buys it. I think it has to be a type of customer that is rarely talked about, let alone catered to by comics various journals, sites and tabloids. I wonder what their view of comics is like. My guess is they don't have one, and not in the way that any healthy consumer of the arts can opt out of such discussions but in the way where it just never occurs to them there's a discussion in the first place. Am I the only who that looks at all this stuff, all the San Diego booths from people you never hear about anywhere else, the on-line campaigns for books that look like a thousand other books 1980 to now, and wonder if we're getting the entire picture?

Happy 78th Birthday, Sy Barry!



First Thought of the Day

Is there a functioning comic shop back in New Orleans yet? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
 
posted 9:14 pm PST | Permalink
 

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