Saturday, May 5, 2007

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!

yeah.

I'm missing the promotion gene. Went to put out the comics this morning, and unloaded the last two or three years worth, have tons of them that never got took. Just put them all out. Raised my limit from 3 to 8.

Then I realized that I didn't keep any of the posters to put up. Really a half-hearted effort. I don't advertise, I don't have sales, I don't get in the gorilla suit. Just plug away with the best selection and best presentation I can come up with, in the best location, and let the business speak for itself.

I love the idea of FCBD. The companies really produce some great comics just for this event. The comics aren't free to me, but they are relatively inexpensive for a promotion. I'm just not sure it produces any results.

Maybe next year I'll make the grand effort.

Driving home, there's a big orange thing (I only caught the back - - a cat, a bear?) jumping up on down on the sidewalk with a sign and balloons. The new retail center across and west of the Forum.

That's the promotion gene I'm missing

3 comments:

Jason said...

I rather like the idea of Free Comic Book Day. It's a chance for us newly minted comic book nerds to explore all sorts of different titles.

I'm not really new to comics n' so forth. I used to enjoy them just like any other sensible kid (I liked all sorts of books, too), but after I left junior high I really lost touch with it all. It's amazing to me just how much the experience has changed since I last visited the comics n' graphic novels world. I've rediscovered my love for such things.

It's nice to be able to sample all sorts of different comics; FCBD gives me so many potential starting points, so many different titles to explore, that I'm practically guaranteed to find something else I'll enjoy.

Ooh, and the Peanuts book was neat! I was raised on Charlie Brown's exploits, so it was cool to see some of the rare ones. A gem and a half, in my humble opinion.

Duncan McGeary said...

So, Jason. What got you to buy that first, modern, comic?

Jason said...

Whoops! After spending nearly an hour on my reply the other night, it seems I forgot to actually publish it!

I'll save the details for my first blog entry (once I finish writing it). For now, though, I'll say that there were two main reasons:

1) A friend insisted that I read a little something called Astro City a while back. He hadn't told me what was so special about those books, just that I'd see for myself. I went through his entire collection at a record pace, even for me. Kurt Busiek may be a bit of a genius.

2) Whenever I came to your store, I couldn't resist swinging past all the comics. I've been curious for years about what's been going on with my favorite characters. As I've said, I stopped reading when I started high school, which would have been about twelve years ago. That's long enough to feel completely out of touch whenever I would see the different titles available. Do I really think I could just start back up after twelve years and not feel like I've missed something? Where would I even start, anyway? The little seed planted by reading Astro City, fortunately, compelled me forward in spite of my niggling little doubts. I ended up buying myself a Spiderman collection, because having a semi-complete story arc seemed like the safest way to decide where to go. From then on, I was pretty well hooked.

Eeesh, I'm rambling a bit. I guess I'll save the rest for later. Hope that answers your question.