Contest of Challengers

Hyping up the Nerd Cred! This episode is an official Public Meeting. The new West Coast Avengers comic looks great! The Kessel Run vs the Kobiashi Maru (and I am not looking up the actual spelling of those). Some of the new Marvel #1's look great. Some do not. Thundercats Roar is a thing. Thundercats + OK K.O.! + Adventure Time + Steven Universe. What Dal wants from the DC CW shows next season. The Dark Nights Metal soundtrack is still happening. Soundtracks to comics can be fun. You know, like Acid Washed. Mark Millar wants the first (and only) printing of The Magic Order #1 to be a collector's item. At any rate that comic will look great. This is our last chance to pitch our SPECTACLE Release Party with Megan Rose Gedris. We close with Acid Washed performing "Acid Washed" from the ACID WASHED EP.

My Boyfriend is a Bear is out now and really fun!! Spectacle by Megan Rose Gedris is out in 2 weeks and we're having a circus-themed release party for it! Free Comic Book Day 2018 is over, so of course we're working on Free Comic Book Day 2019. Ideas come out organically in this very discussion. Contest of Challengers has a new logo… borrowed from a current DC comic. DC is starting to offer incentive variants and we're not really on board with this plan. More and more people are wanting just the DC variant covers each week. We've had more people ask for this week's Suicide Squad variant than we can sell of issues off the shelf. How does that even happen? Young Animal is ending in August. We've heard rumors of a few new DC titles and creative team changes. Bud Plant will no longer exhibit at San Diego, after 48 years. Random House is starting their own all-ages graphic novel imprint, and our friend Gina Gagliano is heading it! This is amazing news for the comics industry! John Barber is the new Editor-In-Chief of IDW Publishing. Black Badge is the new BOOM! Studios comic from Matt Kindt and Tyler Jenkins. Thing black op boy and girl scouts. There is a "Men in Comics" panel at TCAF this weekend and it sounds wonderfully hilarious.

Free Comic Book Day 2018 is history! Hear our complete rundown of how the day went. Plus! The new BCW Comic Book Bin storage box. And, ONI's My Boyfriend is a Bear!

Ever wonder just how the comics find their way onto our shelves and into your subscription box? This episode is an in-depth look at how Patrick and Dal spend their Tuesdays, from driving to the warehouse to putting books on the racks, and every step in-between. Plus, Kent Challenger introduces you to Tarbus the Tardigrade.

Probably the last time we'll talk about Action Comics #1000. This time, how the Midnight Release went, and how it compares to previous midnight releases. It sure seems like Marvel wants a piece of DC's Action cover success with all their upcoming Amazing Spider-Man #800 covers (with still more to -be-announced). Too bad they're going about it in a way that doesn't help build excitement. X-CLASSIFIED, written and drawn by CLASSIFIED starring CLASSIFIED sure isn't the way to solicit a title. We really like Esad Ribic's art, but not his cover to Fantastic Four #1. Lots of new customers in this week couldn't find our New Releases. INFIDEL #2 is as good as #1, and THE DAMNED #9 is so good! As is BE PREPARED. Michael Kupperman has "All The Answers." We think our Book Party book club revival is already coming to an end. Helping a colleague work thru his upcoming venture's early issues as part of a brain trust. Genre-racking was as good of an idea as we hoped it would be.

Action Comics #1000 is out this Wednesday (at 12:01am). How many covers do you plan to buy? Are you ready for the Bendis era of Superman? Superman's past 5 years have been kind of rocky… Nick Spencer and Ryan Ottley's Amazing Spider-Man looks like it's going to be great. Their Free Comic Book Day issue is a lot of fun, as is Jason Aaron's Avengers. Don't miss these new series. Also, Oni's Shadow Roads and Transformers Unicron. Catching up on new comic announcements, such as the new creative team and cast for Astonishing X-Men and Joëlle Jones' Catwoman ongoing. This week's Domino #1 is wonderful, fun, and a solid book about female friendships. Planning a hypothetical signing on a holiday. Hypothetical. The most adorable bat-symbol we've ever seen.

It's a busy week as we talk about the Diamond Retailer Summit, C2E2, a new BOOM! Studios retail initiative, two Richie Kotzen concerts, filming the "My Comic Shop Country" documentary and, of course, BaconFest Chicago. Strap in as this one is over 2 hours!

We proudly announce our creator line-up for this year's Free Comic Book Day. What comic-themed gift can you get for someone that works in a comics shop? Protecting the privacy of our customers (from other customers). Challengers has been in business for 10 years! A brief history of how Challengers started and what it took to get the doors open for business. Our main takeaways from 10 years. Thank you for being part of our first decade!

It's been a week. How have the new changes been received? As a consumer, do you want to be immediately help in a store or left alone? It's time for new Challengers business cards! Coleen Doran gives a brief history of the direct market (via Twitter). Meltdown (a 25-year-old comics shop in L.A.) is closing their store. We don't think it's due to sales. May is going to be SO EXPENSIVE for shops AND fans. SO MANY COMICS!! Some new Marvel comics have match-to levels up to 350% of previous issues in order to get a sales break. Would we rather have free copies overshipped for a new title, or returnability of bought copies? Gene Luen Yang talks about teaching with comics.

But, what? What is changing? Fine, we'll tell you. We're making some pretty big layout changes, while not moving any of the furniture. We're about to turn 10 (but please don't congratulate us until it happens)! We get pretty detailed as to how these changes were made, all the math behind the scenes. We voted early! We hope you're going to vote, too (if you live somewhere where voting will occur). There are a few more new title announcements this week (yup, again), including a new round of DC/Hanna Barbera crossovers that look SO fun! Why is the new Laura Kinney (All-New Wolverine) comic called X-23?!? Patrick thought we'd briefly mention Toys-R-Us and then move on, but that turns into, like, 20 minutes on them. 2 new really good horror books this week, INFIDEL from Image (really moody and creepy and modern) and VAMPIRONICA from Archie (just fun, and gorgeous). Horror comics are the new black.