Someday I will open my own shop and it will be called “Mike’s Magical Comics Fort.”

§ April 11th, 2014 § Filed under free comic book day § 8 Comments

Well, our shipment of Free Comic Book Day books has (mostly) arrived at our shop, and oh good gravy there are Too Many Comics:


That’s just a couple of the stacks of boxes that comprised Mike’s Magical Comics Fort that I built behind one of the counters, whilst I popped open cartons and did inventory counts.

Every year, as I go through the FCBD inventory, I have the simultaneous feeling of “I’ve ordered way too much” and “ooh, I hope this is enough,” and the worry sets in about covering the costs, even though we’ve never ever ever lost money on a Free Comic Book Day event. It’s just the worrywart inside me, or just barely inside me since it’s usually pretty obvious when I’m being distracted about stuff like this. However, it looks like a pretty good selection of books this year, and if you can only get one, I’d recommend Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck: A Matter of Some Gravity from Fantagraphics, featuring a couple of great Don Rosa stories…you know, as if there were any Don Rosa stories that weren’t great. (But what kind of store would only offer you one FCBD book? Sheesh.)

Now, I said the books had “mostly” arrived, since, even after receiving this enormous shipment that probably put a few new creaks in our UPS guy’s bones, there is still one box out there, wandering about, alone, on the mean streets. Or, perhaps, sitting on a dock somewhere. So, even after spending hours breaking down and counting the order, there are still more FCBD books headed our way, and even on top of that I’m thinking of bolstering our stock with some selective reorders of some books on which I feel I may not have received sufficient quantities. Because, you know, I’m completely insane.

I still have about a box or so of leftovers from the 2013 event, and I think I’m actually completely out of any leftovers I’ve had from the years prior to that. I do have some other stuff I’m thinking about using for further giveaways at the shop as well. Also, while working on my personal comics inventory, I went through the stacks of FCBD books I had in the Vast Mikester Comic Archives and pulled out the ones I wanted to keep, and am returning the rest to the general giveaway stock for this year’s event. If any customers missed that copy of the Transformers: Infiltration freebie from 2006, now’s their big chance!

I wasn’t deliberately trying to hoard comics…I took one of each for review, to decide which comic went into which age-appropriate bag (explanation here) and then I’d be lazy and forget to bring ’em back and they’d just sit in a box at home, unloved. Well, I don’t do the bag-sorting anymore, as I prefer to stretch the stock out a bit by putting everything out on the tables and letting folks take what they want, so I don’t need to do that extensive of a review anymore. A general “for God’s sake don’t let kids take the Avatar book” type of warning to the employees monitoring the freebies was good enough last year, and it’ll probably be good enough again this year.

And like I always do every year, I peek in on the eBay to see who’s already selling this year’s FCBD books despite the retailer order form having this to say:

“By buying FCBD editions, you agree that you will give them away for free on May 3, 2014, with no purchase required.”

…And of course, there are plenty available at some optimistic pricing. “We’ll give some of these Rocket Raccoon comics out for free, but we’ll charge five bucks apiece for the rest! …Hey, they didn’t say ‘give them all away!'” Okay, maybe it’s not retailers doing this, maybe it’s just plain folks anticipating being able to grab stacks of free books they can sell later. Sure, why not.

8 Responses to “Someday I will open my own shop and it will be called “Mike’s Magical Comics Fort.””

  • coby says:

    as always, i appreciate your insight. there’s really nothing else like this blog out there

  • Willy Lee says:

    (But what kind of store would only offer you one FCBD book? Sheesh.)

    Oh, you’d be surprised.

  • Michael says:

    My wife’s birthday is on FCBD this year, and near it most years, so actually getting to a comics shop on one of those days is always a distant second priority. (Same problem when it comes to enjoying the Kentucky Derby, sometimes.) Those times when I do make it, it’s usually after any furor has died down but also after anything I would be interested in has disappeared. One of these years, though, I’ll whisk her away to Ventura for some romantic bday getaway, and somehow connive or stumble my way into your shop

  • RDaggle says:

    Methinks he doth protest too much.

    “*sigh* Christmas, again!”

  • Snark Shark says:

    “Too Many Comics”

    WALL OF COMICS! You could build a house out of those. and then READ your house!

    “Because, you know, I’m completely insane”

    CLEARLY.

    “Well, I don’t do the bag-sorting anymore”

    good- that sounded like a PAIN.

  • Tenzil Kem, Esq. says:

    Do you get all the titles you ordered? My store was shorted our copies of the Flash Gordon book and the Smurfs issue, and we only received half our order of Rocket Raccoon! Even more annoying, our Diamond rep tells me not to expect replacement copies for anything other than Rocket Raccoon.

  • Snark Shark says:

    ROCKET RACOON!!! ROCKET RACOON!!!!

    I just like saying it.

  • Dario Delfino says:

    My son…

    There are many questions to be asked. Here, in this Magical Comics Fort, we shall try to find the answers together…