I was going to do a year-end review, but I think I pretty much covered that yesterday. Sales were up, inventory was up. Comics and graphic novels sales were pretty much the same as last year; so were anime and manga. Same thing with used books and role-playing games. I think the term the financial pro's use is; mature.

These are all 'mature' lines. Easy growth is not easy to come by easily.

Meanwhile, product lines I've long carried but sort of re-dedicated myself to, had a banner year: Sports cards, toys, and card games all had huge increases.

And the newest addition, new books, sold much better than I expected.

FUN HOME continues to garner accolades, by the way, apparently just about everyone thought it was the best of the year. (Meanwhile, as is usual in Bend, I've sold one copy. Yep, one.) The Oregonian did a review of CANCER VIXEN, which I also liked. (Have sold no copies.)

I'm a bad businessman, I tell you. You wouldn't believe the amount of worthy stuff I carry that doesn't sell. At any one time, I seem to have one or two adventurous customers. (One of who just left town.) Not trying to make anyone feel guilty here -- reading something you wouldn't ordinarily read, is something I don't encourage. I just think its a matter of local demographics. I see the same lack of interest in foreign films at the local theater. But just like the theater feels the need to show "Prestige" films, I feel the need to carry "Prestige" graphic novels.

And unfortunately, my odd, quirky taste in comics doesn't help me much in selling them. This year, I liked TESTAMENT; THE EXTERMINATORS; THE BOYS, by Garth Ennis; DESOLATION JONES; JACK OF FABLES; 7 BROTHERS; BOMB QUEEN; PLANETARY; all of which sell in the single digits, as well as ALL-STAR SUPERMAN, which sells better (though I seem to hear the comment, "I don't read Superman," a little too much.)

My taste is squarely middle-brow; most 'art' comics I enjoy when I actually read them, just like I enjoy most 'art' films, when I actually watch them, just as I enjoy most 'literature.' But I naturally gravitate toward better written mystery, adventure, and science-fiction. Can't help it. I like a bit of a hook in my stories; give me a well-written genre story any day.


I was going to do a list of how things have changed in my business in the last 26 years -- but it became clear to me that would quickly turn into a history of just about everything. So I'm going to do one per day.

PRICES. Comics cost all of .60 when I started. Sports cards were .35 cents a pack. You could start a comic store with your own collection and a few thousand bucks. The monthly order form was a mimeographed copy 8 pages long. (Mimeographing, for those of you who haven't heard of it was when you took a stone tablet, carved the message, ground down roots for ink, and applied it to tree bark).

Now? The average comic is 3.00, the average pack of cards is 4.00, and my monthly order form for comics is a catalog 500 pages long. Graphic novels (which are half my graphics sales) didn't exist. Underground comics, which were all about sex,drugs, and rock and roll, have morphed into independent comics which are all about sex, drugs, and rock and roll -- but also about a whole lot of other things. In fact, comics can be about anything the creator wants them to be, from the daily experiences of a mailman in Cleveland, to the upbringing of an Iranian woman, to the Holocaust.

Looking back, it gives me hope that the world does indeed progress....