Hey, Folks!

 

I actually planned on going on and on about a couple of different topics this week, but I got so behind today with business stuff that I just don’t have the time. I mean, I will get to it next week, including bits about how Brian is doing a terrific job moving the furniture around in the store again and the current FCBD news and some other fun little tidbits, but today I will limit myself down to just one little thing.

 

I know that between the Jersey collection and the BG collection that there is a lot of new back issue material that I am posting about on the Facebook page, buy I want to stress that we do NOT do any mail order service. The biggest reason is that we aren’t a mail order store, meaning that the whole point of Monarch Comics is that most of this stuff you can find online, but we are selling the Comic Shop Experience and that is something that cannot be done with mail order. I’m also worried that if we started with the mail order we would be arguing until the cows come home over the condition or the price we charged for it. It’s just a bunch of situations that I want nothing to do with at this point. So, please bear that in mind when you see the stuff going up for sale on Facebook. Also, please be patient when you send us messages VIA Facebook about the books being displayed. Keep in mind that we receive a dozen messages about such things per day and we don’t always have time to check the messages right away.

 

Okily dokily…time to get this sub form up and running! I hope y’all have a great week and keep your eyes peeled for new back issue stuff on the Facebook page…😊

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

Welcome to the first EDitorial of the year!

 

Of course, I really don’t have much to say this week. After achieving the BEST MONTH EVER in December and adding everything up for the year and discovering that Brian and I achieved the BEST YEAR EVER I will admit that I have been taking it easy. I have also been living in mortal fear of what my 4^th quarter estimated tax payout is going to be since the we did so well at the end of the year. If you hear a blood curdling scream tomorrow afternoon it will be finding out how much money will be shoveled into the gaping maw of small business taxes.

 

But let’s focus on the good times…lol. I have been working very hard for the last 3 years in our transition to a “back issue” store and I finally feel like all of the hard work Brian and I put into the new stock in the last year is paying off. We have, in recent weeks, put many of the juiciest comics from the BG Collection out for sale and the response that we have received for them has been, in short, amazing. I honestly had no idea that we had quite so many customers looking for these kind of comics, even in the sometimes extremely low grades. It has been occasionally stunning, but I’m glad that we were able to place them in the hands of folks who will love them. The BG Collection has many more treasures yet to be unveiled and I will be doing some wheeling dealing today in order to secure some more stuff to be posted before the end of the week. None of these books will be part of the Post-Holiday Sale, however, and will be boxed separately and be behind the counter. Always feel free to ask me or Brian to let ya take a look at the current books we have ready to go.

 

Additionally, I am working hard at getting the rest of the Jersey Collection sorted, priced, and on display. Unlike the BG Collection, the Jersey Collection will be available under the terms of the Post-Holiday Sale, although the newest material will be boxed on the counter and will be going for the 20% off discount. This will change as the month goes on if I am as quick to sort through them as I was at the beginning of this adventure as I will run out of room on the counter and the books will naturally migrate to the 50% off boxes. Stay tuned!

 

Okay…back to work for me. I’ve got a million things to do today including helping Brian rearrange the store a bit, finish my Lunar FOC, head over to the storage unit to get some more Jersey boxes, and so on.

 

Have a great weekend and I will see ya next week!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

Welcome the final EDitorial for 2023! It has been a, shall we say, challenging year for Monarch Comics, but we came through the best and worst of it and, while the final numbers aren’t in yet, it looks like we have managed to come in with the best year in Monarch sales history. Thanks to everyone who contributed to our success and who stuck around while Brian and I adjusted to a continually changing comic book landscape. I had no conception that when I took the reigns from Steve back in 2021 that in two short years I would be able to affect such changes in the store while surfing a wave of distributor and publisher weirdness.

 

One of the biggest changes that I made in our business model was the pivot we began back in 2020 to becoming more of a back issue store. I mean, for 30 years Steve and I focused on being your favorite stop for new comics and, especially, hard covers and trade paperbacks. We would dabble with cards or merchandise on and off at various intensities, but we were basically here to keep you caught up on all of the latest comics being published every week. As the amount of publishers and comics kept multiplying over the years it became increasingly difficult to achieve this without losing our shirts in unsold product and when the stupid Covid thing hit and the comic companies froze in place and stopped supplying our weekly fare things started to look a little shaky. Okay…a lot shaky. Add to that all of the stuff we had planned for Steve’s 2020 retirement were blown out of the water and the difficulties of shifting the business controls over to me with half the government shut down due to Covid…well, I won’t lie and say that I wasn’t rather harried during the changeover.

 

So I started bringing the huge amount of stuff that I had stored at home and began making Monarch Comics a place that had a back issue stock that was more than just a storage place for all of the comics that ordered too much of during the year. It bumped up our sales significantly in 2020 and let Steve retire on a high note. In the 2 years since I have continued on that road which has drawn a great deal of new/old customers to Monarch and has generated excitement that I have never seen before now. And with my gamble on the New Jersey Collection (which I am still laboriously working through) and the BG Collection (which we still have plenty to go as well) it looks like Monarch Comics is set to continue for a good long time.

 

This is all new to me and I can’t tell you how exciting it is to realize that after running a comic shop for 30 years that there are still new things for me to learn and new paths to take. I will admit that I was starting to feel a great weight of tiredness, especially when I was confronted with all of the extra work being the Head Honcho was gonna add to my usual work schedule. Brian, however, came along and has been a HUGE help and a great influence on me. He’s really pumped up my enthusiasm and has taught more about comic book grading then I had ever paid attention to before. He’s taught me the evil of “foxing” and has been there to help me separate the “valuable” from the “truly valuable”. He also saved our copy of Journey Into Mystery #83 from the trash…lol.

 

Of course, I can’t diminish the help and support that I’ve gotten in the last year from my dear husband, Hillman. Hillman is very much behind the scenes here at Monarch and his love and support since we met have been invaluable. He’s my best sounding board and I’m not sure I could have done this without him. Also, he sold me a bunch of X-Men copies really cheaply…lol.

 

For those of you who have been excited and delighted by the recent spate of classic silver age comics that we have put up for sale in the last week or two, rest assured there is more…much more…coming in the weeks and months to come. Later today there will be some key X-titles hitting the Facebook page and I am committed to completing my unboxing of the rest of the Jersey collection in the next 6-8 weeks. The BG collection and its many treasures will take a little longer to get out, but we should have more ready to post by the end of the January. And oh how juicy those posts will be…😊

 

Please remember that starting January 2^nd will mark the start of the our annual Post Holiday Sale that will go on through the end of February. I’ve posted it a lot already, but here’s the sale details once again!

 

MONARCH COMICS POST-HOLIDAY SALE!

 

HARD COVERS/TRADE PAPERBACKS 25% OFF

 

BACK ISSUE BOXES 50% OFF

 

SHOWCASE BOOKS 20% OFF

 

POP VINYL FIGURES 50% OFF

 

$3 OFF PUZZLES/LUNCH BOXES

 

$10 FOR ART COMIC BOXES

 

That’s it for me this year, my friends. I am going to get the subform up and running and then try to knock out another box of Jersey collection books before I jet out of here for the next two days. I will be here on Sunday this week for our regular store hours, but the store WILL be closed on Monday for New Year’s Day. I hope that everyone has a safe and fun New Year’s Eve and I will see you next year!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Mmmm…okay, maybe not, but the day of celebration IS almost here now and Brian and I are already looking on to the big sale event next month as well as getting some new high end back issues in play. I am also doing my level best to finally get through the final 20 long boxes of the New Jersey collection. We are planning to do some rearranging at the store with our racks between Christmas and New Year’s and will hopefully have a bunch of new “on sale” trade paperback and hard covers out on the floor before the end of the year!

 

Just to make sure everyone knows the timeline for the next couple of weeks…here are a reiteration of our holiday hours!

 

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24^TH, CHRISTMAS EVE: NOON-5:30PM

 

MONDAY, DECEMBER 25^TH, CHRISTMAS DAY: CLOSED

 

SUNDAY,  DECEMBER 31^ST, NEW YEAR’S EVE: NOON-5:30PM

 

MONDAY, JANUARY 1^ST, NEW YEAR’S DAY: CLOSED

 

TUESDAY, JANUARY 2^ND: THE BEGINNING OF OUR POST-HOLIDAY SALE!

 

And, once again, the details for our upcoming Post-Holiday Sale!

 

HARD/COVERS/TRADE PAPERBACKS: 25% OFF (including all sale prices)

 

BACK ISSUE BOXES: 50% OFF

 

SHOWCASE COMICS (including the boxes on the showcase): 20% OFF

 

POP VINYL FIGURES: 50% OFF

 

PUZZLES: $3 OFF

 

ART COMIC BOXES: $10.00 EACH

 

That’s all she wrote for me this week. I have been busy as heck today and I also had to install the new Square equipment I got in and wrap up the old Square equipment to send back. I also have to calculate my final FOC pages for the year AND get my initial December orders ready to upload to Diamond next week. Frankly, I’m not even sure I will have the time and/or energy to do an EDitiorial next week…lol.

 

So, Brian and I wish everyone a safe, fun, and very Happy Holiday!

 

Eddie

Morning, Folks!

 

First off this week, I would like to thank everyone who came in and helped make this year’s Black Friday Sale a resounding success! I’ll admit I basically showed up for it just because I wanted to make sure Brian had a little back up. I mean, it didn’t seem cricket to throw a big sale and then drop the running of it into Brian’s lap. I figured I would come in, help out here and there, and then retreat to the back room to get some end of the month work done. Nope. It didn’t happen that way at all. Instead I was behind the counter hustling for my holiday dollars and got to watch happily as everyone came in and mobbed the back issue boxes like they were going out of style! It truly was a thing of beauty. Also, the haul helped cover my quarterly sales tax payment and that was great as well.

 

So looking on to the end of the year, Monarch Comics will be on cruise control coasting through the month of December. Hill and I will be taking a short sojourn to Chicago next weekend to burn through some of Hill’s vacation time before the end of the year. I will work very hard to make sure that it doesn’t affect the weekend ebb and flow of store business. Our holiday hours for this season are essentially the same as they have been for the last 30 years or so, but I will reiterate them now for any late comers…

 

CHRISTMAS EVE, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24^TH: NOON-5:30PM

 

CHRISTMAS, MONDAY, DECEMBER 25^TH: CLOSED

 

NEW YEAR’S EVE, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 31^ST: NOON-5:30PM

 

NEW YEAR’S DAY, MONDAY, JANUARY 1^ST: CLOSED

 

Please remember that Monarch Comic’s Annual Post-Holiday Sale will begin on January 2^nd and extend until February 29^th. I have already started the adds going for the sale, but in case you’ve missed it the sale will include the following:

 

25% OFF HARD COVERS/TRADE PAPERBACKS (including marked down prices)

 

50% OFF BACK ISSUE BOXES

 

20% OFF SHOWCASE BOOKS (including the boxes currently on the Showcases)

 

50% OFF POP VINYL FIGURES

 

$3 OFF PUZZLES

 

$10 EACH FOR ART COMIC BOXES

 

I will be out of the store this weekend as it is time to do a little holiday baking with a buddy of mine and I need the weekend to really prepare for it…lol. I haven’t really done that much baking since I took over the operation and now that Hill and I have done some apartment upgrades I’m looking forward to getting my groove back. Judging by the substandard biscuits and bread I have attempted lately I have a lot of work to do to catch back up to my former skill level…lol. This week is it as I attempt some gingerbread and sugar cookies. I’ve done well with both on the past and I am hoping my friend Amy can help up my decorating game!

I want to mention as well that I am going to begin phasing much of the variant cover stuff off of the New Release rack in the next few months, so it becomes imperative for you to let me know if there are any specific covers you are interested in acquiring. I mean, if I get special orders for a specific cover in excess of, oh, say 5 copies (or more) then I may decide to carry some on the rack for coverage, but otherwise I think we will mostly go with whatever the main cover is. I am just terrible at deciding what covers y’all are going to be interested in purchasing, so I think the conservative way to do it may my best option. Of course, I could always change my mind three months down the road, but we will see…

 

Thanks for tuning in this week and I will talks at ya next week!

 

Happy Holidays!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

It is currently Wednesday afternoon and I am writing you this fascinating missive from the comfort of the dining room table in my country estate. This Thanksgiving holiday is promising to be a rather frantic one and I am trying tog et as much done today as possible so that I have a minimum of things to get done tomorrow. As many of you know, I have been living as a vegetarian for the last year and I have decided to treat myself to some turkey tomorrow and I would prefer to have nothing to distract me from my enjoyment besides my husband and a board game or three.

I have so much end of the month stuff to catch up on that I will also be in the store all weekend. Of course we will see how long it takes me to do the stuff that I’ve set aside for Saturday as well as how busy we are what with some stupid football game going on. It will be interesting to work all week with Brian with me at the store. Hopefully I will have a chance to get through some more of the damn Jersey collection as well all the paperwork.

Of course, I do have to mention the Monarch Comics Annual Black Friday Sale that Brian and I are running on Friday. I haven’t said anything to anyone, but depending on what are business is like on Friday I might extend the sale in to Saturday. We will see how it goes…

In any case, here’s the sale details:

 

25% OFF HARD COVERS/TRADE PAPERBACKS (including already marked down items!)

50% OFF BACK ISSUE BOXES

20% OFF SHOWCASE COMICS

$3 OFF POP FIGURES & PUZZLES

$10 FOR ALL ART SHORT COMIC BOOK BOXES

This is, of course, the same sale that will be running for January and February, but I find it is always nice to have a little preview of the sale. Also, please remember that Monarch Comics has finally entered the late 20^th century and we now have gift cards to offer as opposed to the cheap and tacky paper gift certificates we have used for decades.

That’s it for me as I now have to get to work making my annual pumpkin cheesecake with the chocolate ganache topping. It takes a few hours so I should probably get to work on it. I hope that everyone of our customers have a safe and fun-filled Thanksgiving celebration!

See ya on Friday!

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

I hope everyone is having a good week as we careen into the Winter/Holiday Season. I mean, I was a bit taken aback by the burst of snow we got on Halloween, but tis the season and all of that guff. It certainly woke me up regarding my holiday obligations for the store. I totally dropped the ball with Halloween this year although there are still copies of the Marvel and D.C. Trick Or Treat comics on the counter. Please feel free to grab some when you come though the store in the next week or two.

Monarch Comics will be doing our annual Black Friday sale on Friday, November 24^th. Our hours of operation will be the normal 11AM-7PM although obviously if I have a store full of rabid holiday shoppers at 6:50 I’m not going to be in a hurry to start clanging pots together and herding folks out of the store…lol. The Black Friday sale will continue to be a preview of the January/February annual sale and will include the following:

ALL TRADE PAPERBACKS/HARD COVERS WILL BE 25% OFF (EITHER COVER PRICE OR PRICE MARKED)

BACK ISSUE BOXES WILL BE 50% OFF

SHOWCASE BOOKS OR SHORT BOXES ON THE COUNTER WILL BE 20% OFF

PUZZLES AND POP FIGURES WILL BE $3 OFF PRICE MARKED

COMIC ART BOXES WILL BE $10.00 EACH

I’m afraid I do have a big apology for everyone this month. You may have noticed that we have yet to produce this month’s DC Connect catalog. Well, apparently I didn’t order it. According to my spreadsheet notes I did indeed order it, but my spreadsheet notes mean nothing when Lunar simply says, “Look. You didn’t order it.” I have some coming now and actually would have already had them, but FedEx apparently doesn’t have any policy that says they have to deliver while a business is actually open. I’m going to try to be here early tomorrow morning so that I can catch them so that we will have them by the weekend. In any case, as per usual, sorry for the mess up and I’ll try not to let it happen again.

I do have some good news this week! I have finally dragged Monarch Comics into the late 20^th century…lol. WE now offer ACTUAL gift cards rather than those crappy generic paper gist certificates that we have offered for centuries! We can load these attractive cards with any amount for the best gift card ever. They are totally reusable and can reloaded. Also, we will no longer be charging you the sales tax on gift certificates. I am very excited by this new development and I am kind of kicking myself for not doing it sooner as it was a very easy process. Now maybe I will get those long promised business cards in the works…

Finally, this week I am ready to announce our holiday hours for 2023!

Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 23^rd: CLOSED

Christmas Eve, Sunday, December 24^th: 12PM-5:30PM

Christmas Day, Monday, December 25^th: CLOSED

New Year’s Eve, Sunday, December 31^st: 12PM-5:30PM

New Year’s Day, Monday, January 1^st: CLOSED

That’s it for me this week! Enjoy the low key warm up this weekend and I will talks at ya next week!

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

Huh…another day, another bleary, grey, and quasi-rainy day! Now don’t get me wrong…I am very happy that we’ve turned the corner away from the blisteringly hot days of the summer, but I do find it more difficult to get my engine up and running on these slate grey days.

 

Of course, it IS October so Hillman and I have begun our nightly horror movie regimen and have managed to do it for 11 days out of 12. It was broken only by the day that has the final episode of Ahsoka.  It has not been very good horror movie bounty this year and I can’t tell whether I’m just not in the mood for gory and cheesy horror pictures or if my choices are just not good ones. The original Exorcist movie is the best one we’ve watched so far this year. I hadn’t seen it in at least 25 years and I will admit that I didn’t remember it all that well. It is a terrific film, however, and it was well worth another sit through. My second favorite this year, a distant second, was Terrifier 2 which had a pretty amazing series of extremely gross out practical effect murders and while the script was a bit flat the performances were quite good. It was also nice that watching the first one was not terribly necessary to follow the plot. Anyway, if we stumble upon any other goodies I will pass them along to you folks.

 

Just to let those of you know who fill out a monthly order form, it would be quite nice to see all of those orders turned in by the end of next week. Diamond initial orders are due in for me on the 26^th and you can’t believe what a pain it is to process pre-orders after the FOC date has come and gone…😊

 

The holidays are getting closer and I do have some good news for Monarch customers. I have finally taken the steps to order in some Monarch Comics gift cards! If I understand it properly, these gift cards can be preloaded for any amount and should be reusable and good for any amount of time. They will be bearing the new store logo (which you may have noticed on our Facebook page). Hopefully they will be here by the end of the month, but you will know because of the attractive display case that I also ordered for them. Stay tuned, True Believers!

 

That’s it for my ramblings this week except to let everyone know that I will be out of office on Friday and Saturday this week, but, to make up for it, I will be here ALL 7 days next week, including the weekend. Why? Because Brian just has to have a weekend off…lol. Of course, he’s earned it so I must acquiesce. Also, I posted it on the Facebook page, but if you are looking for something fun to do tomorrow the Earnest Brew Works on Monroe St is hosting a Crokinole event tomorrow starting at 6pm! Crokinale is the ONLY dexterity based board game I play and it goes well with draft beer. Hill and I will be there at some point for the fun.

 

Have a great weekend and I will see ya next week!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

Whew…I must admit that I got used to having smaller and more manageable shipments! I mean, I’m sure that everyone else also appreciated having ship weeks that had a few lesser tasty comics on the rack as well. I mean, processing all of the subscription orders was certainly a bit more time consuming last week and while I didn’t rack the books myself this time I was appropriately impressed by the great job Brian did dealing with them this week. Next week, as you will see, is also a heavy ship week, but I don’t think it is quite as heavy as this week was. My sincerest apologies for having to skip out on the Afternoon Delight show this week, but I had a funeral to attend and I had to go home to dress and then attend. I just couldn’t fit the show into my schedule. I assure you it will be back next week…😊

 

We are starting to get all of our Image books now from Lunar Distribution and I readily admit that I am having a little problem with getting all of my orders placed properly. I am working on a new format for getting my Image orders processed that I will begin to implement with initial orders this month. I thank you for having some patience and here’s hoping that all of the publishers stick to where they are at now for a few months!

 

Speaking of September initial orders, if you have a order booklet to turn in please make sure you bring it in by the end of the week. Of course, I can certainly accept it later, but it will make a lot easier for me to deal with before I have to place my orders.

 

Okily dokily…back to work for me. I’ve got tons of FOC orders to place this week and I really want tog et back to sorting through more of the Jersey books. Hopefully, there will be more key issue posts on Facebook today! Have a great weekend, Beloved Customers…😊

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

Well, the big wedding/anniversary party has now come and gone and things can start going back to a somewhat regular schedule behind the scenes. I haven’t really talked much about it, but planning and executing TWO weddings, much less just one, is a physically and emotionally exhausting experience…lol. Now don’t get me wrong…I wouldn’t have traded the experience for the world and the only thing better than marrying Hillman is marrying him a second time on our first anniversary. I’d like to thank everyone who helped move the party along and who attended and made it a great deal of fun. Special kudos to remarkable photographer extraordinaire, Jodi Smalley, and the work she did to chronicle the whole evening. Of course the work of “thank you” cards begins this weekend, but let me also thank everyone for the generosity that was displayed to Hillman and I in regards to our gifts. It was truly moving and I love all of you…😊

 

I keep forgetting to update the signs, but we will be extending the Dollar Box sale through the end of September. Considering I still have another 25 boxes or so of Jersey boxes to get through I do believe I will probably extend it through the end of October as well. I know new back issue stock has been a little stalled in the last two weeks because of the wedding party I am now back to full steam ahead on finishing the Jersey stuff. Brian has completed a crucial step with the BG collection and I am hoping to get through all of those books once both Brian and I can work on them together. After that, of course, we will be negotiating with the owner of the comics on a deal and then we can start putting the stuff out for sale. I know some of you have been tantalized by the amount of good keys and interesting books in the collection and hopefully we will be ready to start selling them before the end of the year.

 

That’s it for me this week! I am almost caught up with everything I fell behind on while preparing for the party and I do believe I can get the work done today. Hill and I are now concentrating on getting some basic home updates done and I am planning on spending more time in the store, so I hope to see you over the next couple of weeks. I hope everyone enjoys this mild weather we are experiencing!

 

Eddie