Contest of Challengers

Why, as a small, retail business, would you not offer gift cards? Once again, our Peoples Gas account was swiped by a condo resident in our building. The Record Store in Howell, NJ, is going out on their own terms. Oh, Border Town... (This segment is what this episode's title refers to). "TKO does things a little differently than most publishers." True, but that isn't necessarily different GOOD.

I dunno, how do YOU swipe credit cards thru the card reader? An update to a prior subscriber story, and Patrick's 2 favorite ways to overreact. Sending comics to prison. For inmates; not to punish the comics themselves. Our lateral back issue filing cabinets are now fully functional. The Avengers Endgame trailer is out and Patrick will not watch it. But Dal will. And did. The effect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Marvel Comics. There is going to be a 3rd Conan series, and he'll be in Avengers No Road Home.

400 episodes of this? Damn. We "acquired" 2 new back issue cabinets. After days of work, they're not what we expected. November was not a great sales month and it ended on a really bad week. Construction + snow = a less than $100 day (for the first time in many years). Patrick's car need over $1900 of work done in November. Subscriber visits over the Holiday season and the GoFundMe for Cave Comics. Speaking if subscribers, it's time to drop more of them out of our pull and hold service. The Mutiny, a Chicago icon dive bar, is closing after 30 years. The new Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic looks pretty good. Publisher output the week of Christmas is not that great this year.

Working Hard vs. Hardest Working This episode was recorded immediately following our 2018 Black Friday sale. We never seem to sell out of the stuff we want to get rid of. Getting burned when subscribers have books on hold for months that they never wanted. Reminding subscribers, in person, the value of our weekly emails. The detailed account of either a subscriber losing 2 comics or us making 5 mistakes 2 months in a row. How Monday pick-up was taken away from us. Are customer attitudes regional or national? One final Lumberjanes Day reminder. Christmas shopping as customers, not retailers.

Rest in Peace, Stan. Recorded live from the show floor of ChiTaG, the Chicago Toy and Game Fair, the worst we have ever done at a convention. This one almost broke us.

The level of engagement we feel defines Challengers. When trivial information becomes exceedingly useful. "+ Conversation" doesn't apply to movie theories. Selling some 1978 Marshall Rogers Detective Comics for 99¢ we didn't know we had. Store signage only works if people are willing to read signs. Or see them. Changes to our personal work schedules for the first time in years, and why. ChiTaG is one week away and we THINK we're ready. Grant Morrison's Green Lantern #1 came out this week. Lumberjanes Day is coming up! So is our Black Friday Sale and more events!

The Isola collection available in comic shops doesn't have the prologue story that the Barnes & Noble edition has. Somehow we missed ordering 3 issues of Die! Die! Die! The 50 Most Favorite Comic Shops in the US (not the Best; the most Favorite). Sincere regards to Barry and Jayme of Southern Fried Comics as they're choosing to close their shop. Patrick has 2 similar ideas for plastic and tote bag usage in the shop. We now have an actual comic book spinner rack of $1 comics. What if we really made a go of Halloween Comicfest in 2019? We have a new Lumberjanes Event coming on December 1st with multiple creators. The Mark Waid Legal Defense Fund.

Patrick talked to Aubrey Sitterson and Chris Moreno about The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling. And the recording turned out to be virtually unlistenable due to technological issues. So… Patrick recreates the conversation entirely in his voice, minus most of his actual dialog. Sound weird? It is! But it was too good of a conversation to not share. Now it's a monologue! Bonus: the actual nigh-undecipherable interview is included. Sorry, Aubrey! Sorry, Chris! Curse you, Pamela (the program; not a person)! Including: The democratizing of opinion sharing; "Worth", their previous graphic novel collaboration; pro wrestling, of course! Not mentioned: Aubrey and Patrick each wrote dialog for Mike Norton's "Battlepug" and for the same characters!

Just like episode #177 from 4 years ago, Patrick is recovering from surgery so Dal has to work every day. That leads to asking if time away makes one like comics more or less than being at a store all the time? If we become millionaires (outside of comics retail, of course) would Challengers still exist? Trying to keep all-ages single issues in stock. So far there are 2 Christmas gift-worthy graphic novels for the season. There are so many Tillie Walden books available! 2 comics of note this week are Exorsisters #1 and Shuri #1. If you like Monstress, do you want more books like Monstress? Or just more Monstress? We held 3 events in the past week. Dal recaps his Ace Comic Con experience. Are you excited for DC's new creative teams on some of their core characters? Is John Byrne coming back to the X-Men?

This episode does not contain an interview with Aubrey Sitterson and Chris Moreno from The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling, and we tell you the unfortunate reason why. Hopefully, the end of the continuing story of Challengers and our alarm company. Paperwork and bureaucracy! Ace Comic Con Chicago is happening. Great for celebrity photo ops! No so much for, you know, comics. Jook Joint #1 is pretty brutal, but certainly worth the read. It's pretty ballsy of Marvel to pay tribute to Ghost Rider creator Gary Friedrich.