Hey, Folks!
I suppose I should start out the blog this week with a heartfelt apology to all my beloved customers. No, it isn’t about Future State again (THAT apology is later in the column), but instead is about something possibly more important…the temperature of the store. You see, I realized about 6:45pm yesterday that I had neglected to turn the heat on! This was actually the third business day in a row that I forgot to turn the heat on…lol. This is, of course, after about three days in a row where I forgot to turn the heat down when I left the store at night. For years, Steve drilled into me the fiscal importance of turning the heat on/off at the beginning/end of the day. I mean, he left little “love notes” to me for years about it…notes containing a lot of all caps and multiple exclamation marks. I was even thinking yesterday that I felt a little chilly, but just attributed it to the door opening and closing. In any case, I am most certainly NOT trying to freeze y’all out. I’m just a forgetful idiot…lol. So if you notice it is a little, well, frigid in the store don’t be shy about mentioning it.
So one of the changes I want to make in the store is to start carrying a little more merchandise on the counters. To this end, I hope you will start to notice some of the stuff I’ve decided to put on the counter. In the last couple of weeks I’ve started carrying more Funko vinyl POP figures (which are all 42 off the price marked right now!) and this week I’ve begun carrying Marvel posters again. The first two in stock are the Captain America #117 Facsimile Edition poster (featuring the first appearance of the Falcon) and the Symbiote Spider-Man Marvel Tales #1 poster (featuring a stunning image from Inhyuk Lee). There are also some pretty cool Justice League logo keychains (Batman, Flash, Superman, and Wonder Woman) which are pretty nifty as well. Next week I will have some absolutely adorable Mandalorian doormats as well as some new t-shirt designs (including the cover of the now famous Amazing Spider-Man #56 and the cover to Immortal Hulk #42!) So keep your eyes open during your next weekly visit to the store and please feel free to make any suggestions for the kind of comic book merchandise you would like to see on the shelves!
Speaking of posters, I had a weird moment of synchronicity over the weekend. On Saturday the phone rang and when I answered it some one asked for Steve Shufritz. I gave a small chuckle and told them that I was sorry, but they missed him by a week and a half and that he no longer works here. The guy seemed surprised and said, “But I thought he was the owner?” I said, “’Was’ being the operative word…lol. He retired. I’m the owner now…can I help you?” Well, he introduced himself as the owner of a local business and said that he had read Steve’s interview in the December holiday issue of The Mirror and thought he might have something in his warehouse that we would be interested in. I’ll admit that at this point I rolled my eyes a bit, but politely asked him to go on. It turns out he has a WINGED POSTER RACK! I was absolutely thrilled as I had been looking for one of the damn things for months and hadn’t had any luck scoring one online and had pretty much given up my dream of having one for the store. The gentlemen texted me some pics of the rack and it is a beauty! Of course, I told him I wanted it and I am now waiting to hear back on how much it will cost me. As long as he isn’t asking a king’s ransom for it I am hoping it will be in the store by the end of the month. I can’t believe that I had been looking soooo long for one and then it just ended coming to me!
I guess I should begin this week’s thrilling episode of “Apologizing for Screwing Up My Orders For Future State”. So, just to get it over with, once again and with exponential feelings, I am incredibly, remarkably, undeniably sorry for not having more copies of D.C. Comics’ Future State line available for sale on the rack. There is, however, some good news to come out of all this at long last. First off, D.C. has starting soliciting the inevitable second printings of the titles that have already sold out. The first round of second printings with a release date of 2/3/21 include: Future State The Next Batman #1 & 2, Future State Dark Detective #1, Future State Harley Quinn #1, Future State Swamp Thing #1, and Future State Wonder Woman #1. I have already placed my orders for these titles and I have also begun a list of folks who want copies of them. If you would like to preorder a copy for any of them please contact me on Facebook or in the store and I will add your name to the list. (Please make sure you actually want the book though before asking me to hold it for you.)
The second slate of second printings include: Future State Teen Titans #1, Future State The Flash #1, and Future State Kara Zor-El Superwoman #1. These printings will be due out on 2/10/21. I haven’t put out a Facebook notice or anything about them because my FOC for them is today because of the Monday holiday. I have already put orders in for them and I will take preorders until they are all sold from anyone contacting me on Facebook messenger or mentioning it while they are in the store.
I’m sure that there will be other second printings announced next week so please watch this space as well as the Facebook page for any announcements. Of course, there may not be any need for second prints after this week as it appears that not only have some of my advance reorders started to fill on next week’s Future State titles, but it looks like I have some Future State reorders of previously sold out titles showing up in my shipment including copies of Future State Justice League #1 (CVR A), Future State Superman Wonder Woman #1 (CVR A), and Swamp Thing #1 (CVR A). If any of you are interested in copies of the restocked titles then let me know ASAP before they sell out again. Also thank you to everyone who has been patient and understanding during this particular faux pas. I’ve gone big on the second issues of these books so there shouldn’t be anymore quantity problems going forward.
I’ve also received official word this week that D.C. Comics and Lunar Distribution are currently working with both Diamond and UCS at getting all of the D.C. Comics backlist material installed in their warehouse so that they can begin filling backorders on missing titles. Of course, I have no idea how long this process will actually take, but it was good to finally hear some sort of information regarding it. Also, please remember that if you order a trade paperback in January or February you will still get the 25% discount whether it actually shows up by the end of February or not. I think that I’ve figured out Lunar’s reorder system as well so I should start having a better idea of when you can expect to get any D.C. Comics items that you’ve special ordered. Thanks again for your patience while I get this new distributor stuff figured out.
Well, that’s it for me this week. I’ve got plenty to keep me occupied today and, judging from the first week, it looks like Thursday is going to be my slow day for the week. That means I have a little extra time to focus on getting stuff done that I can’t when manning the counter. I feel like I have already slipped behind on some of the stuff I wanted to get started on, but at the very least the back room is starting to get sorted. I did get a chance to add some backstock to the back issue boxes (including a run of old Swamp Thing comics and some X-Men miniseries items) as well as to the dollar boxes. I’m hoping to get to more of that soon, but it is all predicated on how quickly I can get some other tasks completed. I’m also hoping to get some more cleaning done around the store as well. Please feel free to trace “DUST ME” sigils over the store to point out the worst problems…lol.
Have a great weekend, Folks, and I’ll see ya when I see ya!
Eddie