This week Brian and Django are Jeffless, and spending time in the Windy City checking out comic shops and attending C2E2.

They talk about C2E2, the Future of Comics Retail panel. Their thoughts on artist commissions, and various fun they've had in Chicago.

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Thanks to our sponsor Murphy's Apple Juice, It's the shape, not the taste, but it's also the taste, which is pretty dang good.

Thank you for listening to the latest issue of Data B.R.O.S. please like, rate and subscribe to the DataB.R.O.S. on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Visit Brian and Manage Comics at @managecomics on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, as well as at managecomics.com

Visit Jeff, Django and Comic Shop Assistant at @comicshopassistant on Facebook or Instagram or visit their website at comicshopassistant.com

You can also visit The Comics Place in Bellingham Washington on their website, or visit them on Facebook and Instagram, or listen to their podcast - The Comics Place Presents on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

This week we’re going to talk about the impacts of Inflation on the comics industry. We’ll look at rising prices and the pressures of inflation, rising rents, labor costs, and everything else in between and how “Holding the line at $2.99” is a total fantasy that simply doesn’t match up with economic realities.

We’ll talk about the challenges of the industry, and the strategies for surviving in an industry where cover prices are under pressure to remain low despite rising costs.

This week and every week try to break our topics down into three segments:

1. Data Broification: The underlying data that supports our subject
2. Industry Yammer: How the comics industry supports, or presents challenges with our subject matter
3. Shop Talk: The practical ins and outs of the subject and how we deal with the topic in a retail environment.

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Thanks to our sponsor Murphy's Apple Juice, It's the shape, not the taste, but it's also the taste, which is pretty dang good.

Thank you for listening to the latest issue of Data B.R.O.S. please like, rate and subscribe to the DataB.R.O.S. on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Visit Brian and Manage Comics at @managecomics on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, as well as at managecomics.com

Visit Jeff, Django and Comic Shop Assistant at @comicshopassistant on Facebook or Instagram or visit their website at comicshopassistant.com

You can also visit The Comics Place in Bellingham Washington on their website, or visit them on Facebook and Instagram, or listen to their podcast - The Comics Place Presents on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

Join us this week as we dive deep into the world of email marketing—a vital tool for any business owner looking to enhance their outreach.

In this episode, we'll uncover why an email list is not just a tool but a valuable asset. We'll guide you through the best practices for managing and growing your list, navigate the tricky waters of compliance and permissions, and share the effective tools in use at The Comics Place, and some tips and tricks from our friends at Manage Comics.

Tune in for a 30-minute journey that promises to equip you with essential insights and actionable tips to revolutionize your shop's email marketing strategy. Don't miss out on making the most of this powerful marketing channel!

Check out the Manage Comics blog post that inspired this episode - Modernizing Your Comic, Game, and Hobby Store: A Guide to Building and Marketing to Your Email List

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Thanks to our sponsor Murphy's Apple Juice, It's the shape, not the taste, but it's also the taste, which is pretty dang good.

Thank you for listening to the latest issue of Data B.R.O.S. please like, rate and subscribe to the DataB.R.O.S. on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Visit Brian and Manage Comics at @managecomics on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, as well as at managecomics.com

Visit Jeff, Django and Comic Shop Assistant at @comicshopassistant on Facebook or Instagram or visit their website at comicshopassistant.com

You can also visit The Comics Place in Bellingham Washington on their website, or visit them on Facebook and Instagram, or listen to their podcast - The Comics Place Presents on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

In this very special episode of the Data B.R.O.S. we dive into the Murphy's Apple Juice drama, what exactly is going on at Murphy's Apple juice? When you look back on all 10 episodes thus far, it is an interesting story of an organization that may be experiencing growing pains.

We'll be back with a regular episode next week, but in the meantime please enjoy this special episode of Data B.R.O.S.. Inc.

EDIT: As this issue was being given a final polish, Brian got an unexpected text message from a 209 area code (209 is Modesto California...the home base of Murphy's), it just said "Play this coward.", and had the final clip you'll hear at the end of this episode.

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Thanks to our sponsor Murphy's Apple Juice, It's the shape, not the taste, but it's also the taste, which is pretty dang good.

Thank you for listening to the latest issue of Data B.R.O.S. please like, rate and subscribe to the DataB.R.O.S. on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Visit Brian and Manage Comics at @managecomics on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, as well as at managecomics.com

Visit Jeff, Django and Comic Shop Assistant at @comicshopassistant on Facebook or Instagram or visit their website at comicshopassistant.com

You can also visit The Comics Place in Bellingham Washington on their website, or visit them on Facebook and Instagram, or listen to their podcast - The Comics Place Presents on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

On a previous episode we spoke a bit about employee autonomy, this episode we break down what Employee Autonomy means, how it helps with employee growth, and how it benefits the business overall.

In this episode we talk about:

• Hiring for Autonomy
• Dealing with failure
• Checking in on autonomous employees
• Success stories for autonomous employees
• Rewarding autonomous employees
• What makes a Manga a perpetual seller?

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Thanks to our sponsor Murphy's Apple Juice, It's the shape, not the taste, but it's also the taste, which is pretty dang good.

Thank you for listening to the latest issue of Data B.R.O.S. please like, rate and subscribe to the DataB.R.O.S. on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Visit Brian and Manage Comics at @managecomics on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, as well as at managecomics.com

Visit Jeff, Django and Comic Shop Assistant at @comicshopassistant on Facebook or Instagram or visit their website at comicshopassistant.com

You can also visit The Comics Place in Bellingham Washington on their website, or visit them on Facebook and Instagram, or listen to their podcast - The Comics Place Presents on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

This week we dive into the recent X-Office announcements, and the X-Men relaunch that was made at SXSW recently, and how that affects comic shops, what could be done to make announcements like that actionable, and how to improve overall overdering.

We also talk about marketing concepts like earned vs paid media, calls to action, and closing loops.

We'll also dive deep into "Auto-Subs" (from Comic Shop Assistant), or "Cloning Subscriptions" (with Manage Comics), and how stores will subscribe people to this line-wide relaunch.

We'll also talk about line-wide burnout, how readers

Plus, we previously touched on “Line Wide Burnout”, and I would love to give an anecdotal story on when I fell off the Krakoa stuff (and how I was a lapsed X-Fan who likely won’t come back to this new relaunch because it’s already too much at 3 titles).

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Thanks to our sponsor Murphy's Apple Juice, It's the shape, not the taste, but it's also the taste, which is pretty dang good.

Thank you for listening to the latest issue of Data B.R.O.S. please like, rate and subscribe to the DataB.R.O.S. on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Visit Brian and Manage Comics at @managecomics on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, as well as at managecomics.com

Visit Jeff, Django and Comic Shop Assistant at @comicshopassistant on Facebook or Instagram or visit their website at comicshopassistant.com

You can also visit The Comics Place in Bellingham Washington on their website, or visit them on Facebook and Instagram, or listen to their podcast - The Comics Place Presents on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

WE COME FROM THE FUTURE WITH WARNINGS FROM THE PAST!!!

With the COMET Presentation at the ComicsPRO presentation in Pittsburgh in February 2023 in the books, the metadata working group moves into its next phase, implementation and iteration.

Jeff, Django and Brian are joined by Katie Pryde of Books with Pictures, and Jessica Wells of Penguin Radom House to discuss what the next steps are for COMET as a standard, and the Metadata Working Group as an entity.

Check out the COMET Standard at: https://cometstandard.com

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Thanks to our sponsor Murphy's Apple Juice, It's the shape, not the taste, but it's also the taste, which is pretty dang good.

Thank you for listening to the latest issue of Data B.R.O.S. please like, rate and subscribe to the DataB.R.O.S. on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Visit Brian and Manage Comics at @managecomics on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, as well as at managecomics.com

Visit Jeff, Django and Comic Shop Assistant at @comicshopassistant on Facebook or Instagram or visit their website at comicshopassistant.com

You can also visit The Comics Place in Bellingham Washington on their website, or visit them on Facebook and Instagram, or listen to their podcast - The Comics Place Presents on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

SECRET NO MORE!!! The Origin of the ComicsPRO Metadata Working Group is revealed!!!

Before there was a COMET, there was the ComicsPRO Metadata Working Group, who had worked together informally for a year before meeting for the first time face-to-face in Pittsburgh in the winter of 2023. These brave men and women set out to redefine data for the comics direct market in a way that hadn't been attempted in more than two decades.

This is their secret origin, their individual stories, and the tale of the team coming together for the first time and setting out on a path that would result in the COMET Data Standard, and ongoing work to reshape how data works for the comics industry.

Thanks to our sponsor Murphy's Apple Juice, it's not the taste, it's the shape, but it's also the taste...which is pretty danged good.

Thank you for listening to the latest issue of Data B.R.O.S. please like, rate and subscribe to the DataB.R.O.S. on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Thanks to our sponsor Murphy's Apple Juice, It's the shape, not the taste, but it's also the taste, which is pretty dang good.

Thank you for listening to the latest issue of Data B.R.O.S. please like, rate and subscribe to the DataB.R.O.S. on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Visit Brian and Manage Comics at @managecomics on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, as well as at managecomics.com

Visit Jeff, Django and Comic Shop Assistant at @comicshopassistant on Facebook or Instagram or visit their website at comicshopassistant.com

You can also visit The Comics Place in Bellingham Washington on their website, or visit them on Facebook and Instagram, or listen to their podcast - The Comics Place Presents on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

This week in a very special BONUS issue of the Data B.R.O.S. podcast, Brian is flying solo, but Django and Jeff are here in virtual spirit. In place of a normal issue, we're replaying Brian's overview of ComicsPRO and the COMET Standard from his Meanwhile...at Manage Comics podcast (with a couple of tiny bonuses thrown in for good measure).

Segment 1:

The ComicsPRO Overview

Segment 2:

COMET Standard overview

Get more information about the COMET Standard at https://cometstandard.com

Get involved with the COMET Standard by filling out the form at https://cometstandard.com/contact/

Thanks for listening to the latest issue of Data B.R.O.S. please like, rate and subscribe to the DataB.R.O.S. on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

INVERTING THE INVERTED PYRAMID!!!

In this exciting episode we flip the entire episode on its head, starting with Shop Talk, moving in to Industry Yammer, and finishing off with Data Bro-Ification!

We want to hear YOUR thoughts on the DataB.R.O.S.? We would love to hear from you, send us an email, or a voice mail to [email protected] and we’ll feature you in an upcoming issue!

Shop Talk

• The Back Issue Time Machine
• Shout out to Collected Comics and Games for inspiring the Back Issue Time Machine
• Empowering employees

Industry Yammer

• Facsimile editions, barcode issues
• How to make a facsimile series

Data Bro-Ification

• COMET Overview
• What is it?
• When it was created?
• Why it was  created?
• When it will be announced?

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Thanks to our sponsor Murphy's Apple Juice, It's the shape, not the taste, but it's also the taste, which is pretty dang good.

Thank you for listening to the latest issue of Data B.R.O.S. please like, rate and subscribe to the DataB.R.O.S. on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Visit Brian and Manage Comics at @managecomics on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, as well as at managecomics.com

Visit Jeff, Django and Comic Shop Assistant at @comicshopassistant on Facebook or Instagram or visit their website at comicshopassistant.com

You can also visit The Comics Place in Bellingham Washington on their website, or visit them on Facebook and Instagram, or listen to their podcast - The Comics Place Presents on Apple Podcasts or Spotify