Free Comic Book (Sun)Day was a HUGE SUCCESS. We didn’t do any sort of amazing business that day, but lots of new people came in and saw the store, which is what it’s really all about.

I got here an hour early after setting most of the stuff up on Friday. At 10am there were about a dozen people waiting outside, while we worked putting the finishing touches on the place (mostly this involved putting up signs that clarified which comics were free, how much Sale items were discounted, etc) that number doubled. VIEW »

OK, so I was sitting around thinking about comics that most people who stick to super-hero books haven’t read or even heard of. You see the same comics, time and time again, get acclaim from the big sites, where they constantly push the same comics (mostly by the Big 2). I wanted to take this opportunity to push some comics I love that you’ve probably never read (and some of you may not have even HEARD of).  All the comics selected are readily available to buy which is why I’m not including some of the great Kickstarter comics, which don’t exist outside of kickstarter rewards for backers, or books that are long out of print and now virtually impossible to. All of these are complete too, not on-going series. I don’t think I can judge an entire series when it isn’t complete, though there are amazing series out there still on-going like Unwritten and Colleen Doran’s A Distant Soil. Obviously, this list is not complete by ANY measure and if you’ve heard and read of all these, then… CONGRATS. You and I have similar tastes. VIEW »

While Free Comic Book Day is important and all, here at Escape Pod we’ve been working just as hard on our new Window Display. If you recall, we wanted to take our cue from Page 45 and make interesting, evocative windows that get the average person on the street to walk into a comic shop, even if ( especially if!) they may never have done so before. Unlike Page 45, we don’t have the guts to eschew comic books completely from our displays, so we’ve compromised with displays that have a light-hearted feeling and put comic in a different context than people are used to seeing them in (examples here and here).

So, first I’m going to post a couple of pictures from our new display and you guys see if you can guess what the theme is.

Some of the books in the display:

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To collect or not to collect, that is the question.

Not really.

You can buy singles, trades, digital or any combination of all three. Some even have enough income to do all three for everything they love (definitely not me.) However, the question still stands: when should you read a collection (Trade Paper Back, or TPB) and when should you buy month-to-month issues? VIEW »

So, it’s been a while since I last updated y’all about what’s been going on here and stuff.

First off, we have been getting books, books, and more books into the store! I’m constantly re-arranging the shelves as more and more awesome stuff comes in. And goes right out the door, at times! I ordered two copies of the Nao of Brown, sight unseen, after hearing so much good stuff about it from Page 45. They were gone by the next day. Don’t worry, upon reading it I realized everything Stephen said was true and have ordered more copies, a few of which are already spoken for! VIEW »

I know what you’re thinking, dear reader.

“ANOTHER Superman puff piece by this guy?! Good grief! I sat through FIVE meandering, rambling pieces on The Mask and TWO on the flippin’ Man of Steel already! Why would I want ANOTHER bit on Superman?! Where’s the Batman stuff? The Joker? All the other articles he’s talked about??”

They are coming, dear reader. I promise they are. VIEW »

Most of you probably know I’m a huge Legion of Superheroes fan. Huge. They’re one of my favorite teams of all times. Lately, though, their sales have been a little rough. While DC doesn’t seem to be canceling them just yet, some ideas have been bandied about by fans on how to help boost these flagging sales. Some deal with rebranding and chopping the team to less than half their current membership (which is at 25-30 members, rather typical numbers for them). Some think it should become a back-up in another books, others think we need more crossovers. Anyhow, you get the point. A bunch of different ideas on how to deal with the Legion of Superheroes are floating out there on the Internet. Most, surprisingly, don’t want to change the current team, a fact I thoroughly agree with.

That being said, enclosed here are some of my ideas on how to fix the current Legion title. VIEW »

Here we are, more than two months into this grand experiment and things are really starting to pick up. Despite our truncated Holiday hours, sales are up and more and more people are becoming regulars and even getting items “pulled” in advanced. A lot of it is, of course , due to the awesome window display Sarah made which drew a lot of attention, badly needed as we STILL don’t have a sign. That whole mess finally looks like it’ll be sorted this week and the sign work can finally go ahead. I hope to celebrate our third month of being open with a nice bright sign over the shop.

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