Leef Smith On Potential Weaknesses In The Direct Market



Leef Smith

Thanks for taking the time to respond thoughtfully and intelligently to Joe's email. And I definitely do see the need for a critical voice in a industry that does tend toward boosterism from all angles. I'm sure you appreciative on some level of Joe's willingness to offer a different perspective. We all are certainly coming at these very interesting issues and retatiling climate from very different views of where the industry stands and where we suspect it may be headed.

I certainly don't have the perspective that either of you fine gentlemen have, both from a retailing viewpoint or from a blogging viewpoint. But I'm happy to be a point of contention and a part of the debate. I'd love to be able to share where I see things and some of my own perspective.

I've actually only been open 11 months now, and even in this economy I've had increases in my gross sales every month with the exceptions of January and March. Anecdotally, many of my customer are people that haven't read comic in years and get very excited to see my store and my selection of books. And I totally grant that 60-70% of my sales are still comics with a spine, and building a customer base for monthlies is slower and a more difficult proposition, but certainly not impossible. In a very tech-savvy San Francisco, there is still, and I think will always been a desire for printed material, especially where the artwork as a printed medium is still a vital part of people's interest in sequential art.

Now you might be tempted to sight my example as an isolated example in a literary/art saturated urban environment, and there could be some truth to that. But you might not also be aware that Mission: Comics & Art is only one of three new comic book retailers within relatively close proximity in a city that could be said to be an already saturated in comic book stores. However, each of the newcomers, myself, Neon Monster and Caffeinated Comics are pursuing rather different business models, and attracting rather different customer bases, while also sharing a smaller subset of customers, and generally doing quite a bit to help building a bigger pie rather then just slicing it thiner. Are we doing it perfectly? Of course not. Will we all survive? Maybe not. Do we need to react to the larger trends comic buying trends, and our own local customer tastes and buying habits? Absolutely! Can what's happening here in San Francisco be used to draw conclusions of general retailing trends? I'm not sure. But I think all three stores are doing more then just providing a "fun store". We are all in the process of re-inventing and changing the perception of what a comic book store is. And I don't think we're alone. My perseption is that there's quite a few new retailers doing new exiting things. Take a look at Red Sky Comics - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Merced-CA/Red-Sky-Comics/134610327255 and Hero's Landing - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Merced-CA/Red-Sky-Comics/134610327255. And I'm sure there's more exciting retailers out there who are finding new ways to build profitable and sustainable small busieness.

From where I sit, and from what I see, it is a very dynamic environment for both new and longtime retailers. I think Brian over at Comix Experience would certainly agree, especially with his recent experience with the Scott Pilgrim Vol 6 release.The Internet is certainly changing things for retailers, and one thing I'm seeing is that retailers are getting a great opportunity to build a greater, more localized sense of excitement and community around comic books. This is something that the best forums and digital readers are never really going tot be able to provide. And that's something I hear from my customers too. but I'm still rather new, and only slowly inching toward being in the black financially. But making any progress in the current economy I think does a lot validate some of Joe's point about there being some very good news out there for retailers.

I absolutely appreciate the analysis and the space for critical voices, but from my own limited perspective and exposure, I also see a need for better researched and more quantitative analysis beyond just convention discussion and anecdotal examples. I absolutely respect your perspective, just as I do Joe's. Whatever the reality is, I'm sure is much more complex and probably more interesting than any of us can imagine, which certainly goes to your point that the the health of comic retailing is going to be an important story to pay attention to in the months, and years to come. I look forward to continuing to follow your coverage and hope you're able to give the story the attention it deserves.

*****

Tom Spurgeon

Leef, I appreciate the letter, but this just seems like more of the same to me.

This isn't about whether or not there are awesome stores like yours out there. I really don't understand what seems to me a simplistic, defensive mentality that interprets my post -- and "critical" is being really broadly employed here -- that way. The post in question wasn't about the awesomeness of stores collectively or individually; it's about what I perceive as potential fragility in the Direct Market spurred by multiple real world events and buttressed by what I'm hearing off the record. To be clear: I rejected you as an example for the point Joe was trying to make because I was talking about the second half of 2010, not the middle of 2009. I would also reject Hero's Landing as an example because it opened in 2009, not the second half of 2010. Red Sky Comics at least opened in 2010, albeit not the half I was talking about, but the thought of it representing some sort of overall gain in the marketplace I'd also reject because it basically grew out of the ashes of a previous store.

Please note that this is not a referendum on your awesomeness, or the awesomeness of these other two stores, or the awesomeness of the store in Hattiesburg that Joe mentioned that was more directly on point, or all the great things that go on in the Direct Market.

I also reject the implication that my post was somehow lacking because it wasn't a 25,000 word treatise with hard numbers that engaged the entire market as you and Joe would have me engage it. Some days you write an article like that -- although I've never had much luck getting retailers to divulge hard numbers -- some days you can't, and some days you build what analysis you can from the not-for-attribution words of sources you trust, again, to buttress multiple real-world examples.

Leef, I could end up being really, really wrong, and the second half of 2010 sees a massive economic recovery led by the opening of 400 new comic book stores. Or maybe things don't change at all, in which case the possibility for weakness didn't end up being as important as its reality. We'll see. For what it's worth, I hope I'm wrong, not you. But I don't regret putting it out there, not at all. And if I'm wrong, I promise I won't demand you recognize all the other awesome things I do. I'll just be wrong.


 
posted 11:45 am PST | Permalink
 

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