Alan David Doane is back to some non-Kochalkian comics weblogging, which includes this discussion about Claypool Comics’ impending drop from Diamond’s catalog (and its sure-to-follow demise). Now at our store, the only one of Claypool’s series that ever sold any kind of numbers was Peter David and Richard Howell’s Soulsearchers & Co., and only briefly, at the beginning. I even tried to get it to move, putting up “Hey, this is written by Peter David!” signs by the comic, but no go. I currently have one customer for it at our shop, and he’s a mail order customer, so the one copy we actually sell goes out of state.
Deadbeats started off with no readers at our store, continued with no readers, and currently still has no readers.
Elvira sold so-so at first, but dropped to literally nothing…until one of my customers decided he wanted it on his pull list, so I now sell one copy of each issue. We used to sell the occasional back issue, but it’s been years. (The only Elvira back issue that ever sells anymore is this one.)
We do still order ’em, above and beyond the two actual copies we sell…we get one of each for the rack, which won’t kill us. And you never know, maybe someday the World’s Biggest Claypool Fan may walk in the door needed to buy extra copies of comics he already has for…well, whatever reason.
As an aside, I’d always assumed (rightly or wrongly) that the sales of the Elvira comic through sources other than comic book stores (such as through the official Elvira website or at Elvira’s convention appearances) subsidized the rest of the line. Well, that, coupled with the company’s apparently very low overhead.
I hate to see ’em go…I don’t like seeing anyone put out of work, but like ADD says, it ain’t entirely the retailers’ fault the books lost the audiences they had. I even read Soulsearchers at first, and…well, lost interest. Sorry.
