In which I finally have something to say about Fell.
- Over at Dave Olbrich’s Funny Book Fanatic site, my little weblog thingie here has been declared BLOG OF THE MONTH, which puts me in the running for Dave’s BLOG OF THE YEAR in, presumably, about 10 months. So vote early, vote often!
Sincerely, though, thanks a lot, Dave! It’s greatly appreciated, especially coming from a former editor of one of my all time favorite comic magazines, Amazing Heroes. (And if you all haven’t visited yet, Funny Book Fanatic is a fun site, and well worth visiting. And I’d probably say that even if I didn’t get BLOG OF THE MONTH!)
- Flush twice, it’s a long way to Hollywood: Brett Ratner to possibly inflict Youngblood movie upon unsuspecting public.
It’s actually come up a couple of times over the past week at the shop that the currently-running Youngblood comic book series isn’t all that bad, but, you know, good luck convincing anybody of that. Its symbolic value as a representation of ’90s funnybook excess is such an insurmountable barrier that pretty much anyone working on the book is doing so in near-obscurity. Even Alan Moore’s too brief stint on the title did nothing to counter the long-cast shadow of THIS.
Again, like I said, the current incarnation is fine. But if you’re reading it and enjoying it, it’s like you’re part of a secret club. The “Hey, This Version of Youngblood Ain’t So Bad” Club, with, on average, about one member per comic shop.
- We’ve been having a brief uptick in sales on Fell, Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith’s crime comic with the $1.99 price point gimmick. I’ve mentioned in the past that we keep every issue in stock and on display on one of the comic racks in the shop not devoted to new releases, and it’s remained a consistent seller. I’ve explained before why I like having this comic around, and I certainly hope we see a new issue soon.
Keeping every issue of a series on display, as opposed to simply keeping them all available in a back issue bin, can be a difficult strategy to implement if you’re short on rack space…a common problem when there’s a dozen X-Men or Batman comics out at any given time. But sometimes it pays off…until very recently, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Lenore, which were also continuously kept on display at our shop, were selling gangbusters for us. If we’d simply thrown each issue in the back issue boxes as the new one came out, I don’t know that we would have sold anywhere near as many. Well, okay, I know we wouldn’t have sold as many. (I’m not sure what’s causing the recent dip in sales I mentioned…either the local market is saturated, or perhaps this particular style of comic is falling out of favor…I don’t know.)
The “keep ’em all on the rack” strategy doesn’t work with everything…there’ve been a couple of other titles I’ve tried this with, but got no rack sales love. And of course it helps if all the issues are kept in print…something that’s certainly worked to Fell‘s benefit, with some issues having gone into sixth printings.
- Mr. Dan Kelly brings you…restaurant superhero murals of Evanston, Illinois! Who else would dare?
