Contest of Challengers

Space Ghettos Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow. How'd our Six Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton signing go? Hint: Awesome. Our new in-store mask policy. Asking for a Spider-Man collection is really asking for _______________? New week, same ComicSuite running errors. Still learning how to order thru Penguin Random House. The non-death of Bad Idea. W.E.B. of Spider-Man #1 was this week's most annoying comic....

Green Lantern after Geoff Johns volume 4. So many damages from our distribution partners. Problems with single issue comic backorders. EVERYTHING is in short supply right now (not just comics) and it's making people go insane. The different mindset of the suburban comic shop. More advance PDF's please! Dal really liked Made in Korea and Patrick is totally on board for Vinyl (from the team behind P...

Black Lives Matter What's in Patrick's pocket? Delaying the Batman/Fortinite reprints is annoying. New DC solicits (Batman the World). Signings are back at Challengers! Kyle Starks & Chris Schweizer, Michael Moreci, Tim Seeley, and Dave Scheidt, for starters. Maybe we'll have plans for FCBD after all… Black Lives Matter. Thank you for all thinking so highly of us.

It's a Linear Path Friday afternoon dranks. Bad artists can really make you stop reading a book. Losing John Paul Leon and David Anthony Kraft. We have current comic bags available again! Working with other comic shops. Or not. What became of our unsold Hank Howard copies? Low Marvel print runs on Disney+ properties. New Marvel sales terms from Diamond. Also from Diamond, new shipping fee structur...

A Frictionless Process Tech support working on ComicSuite all day Friday. Upcoming potential ComicSuite patch to make importing ALL publishers easier. Hachette's (one of our new regular distributors) refund issue. DC Comics Final Order Cutoff is still 4 weeks out. Street date for new D&D hardcover! Comic bags from Chenxin. We seem to have mis-ordered some recent new DC titles in a big way. *UPDATE...

Okay to Work With, But Mouthy It's a pseudo anniversary episode: 1 year since Patrick's TMNT injury and 2 weeks since Patrick and Dal received their 2nd vaccinations. How Bad Idea's Whalesville button when terribly wrong this week. All the effort it will take to sell $1 copies of Bad Idea's Hank Howard for 8 hours. Danhausen is very nice, very evil, and on an Image cover. If only it were easier to...

What's the worst weather for the shop to be open during? Free Comic Book Day is not this Saturday. The pandemic is still a thing… especially if you're trying to order Comic Supplies or Manga. Why are DC Final Orders now 4 weeks out instead of 3? "Worthless books" and why we're not a mail-order store. There are no Sacred Cows in Comics Retail. Where oh where can all this backstock go? Bookshelves t...

Contest of Challengers #530 Cry Wolf Putting the Biz in Ness. Man-Bat's Nite Fort .0 The Beta Ray Bill #1 International Sales Battle is mired in controversy. Future ordering. New DC and Marvel series for July. Fun with balloons… and the police. Wolf.

Of course "infrastructural" is a word. And we ARE relating to the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, such as Challengers Comics + Conversation. Time Before Time, another upcoming Image title, is definitely worth your… time. Running a comic shop vs running a comic business. New non-Marvel Legends toys. Having Invincible c...

Benhur's safe is safe! Phew! Seriously, masks are still required in-store!! Sheesh. 7 months of Andrew. Woosh! Changes in the X-Men titles this summer! Snikt! New Marvel Legends action figures just announced! Bam! Bad Idea pins… *Sigh* "I Don't Know" is Unacceptable. Humph. Image's The Good Asian is an excellent detective (Chinatown Noir) comic! Ka-ching!* *Okay, so I felt a little weird using "Ka...

6 Weeks of Aggravation This week has been a solid week of sales. Is it Easter? Spring Break? Our windows really need some attention! Bad Idea strikes again! Shopify online payment options.

So, anything interesting happen in the comics industry this week? The majority of this episode is about, of course, Marvel Comics leaving Diamond Comic Distributors in favor of Penguin Random House. This Wednesday is our 13th Anniversary. Volumes Bookcafe is closing their shop in our neighborhood (for now). Square and Wyze, 2 services we use all day long, both had server issues today. The 6 Sideki...

It's So Byzantine This year's Sale t-shirts are in, but what if we made a 2nd shirt each year? Free Comic Book Day is still happening in 2021, in August, but what are we doing for it? Gregg Schigiel has designed our new book mark! He also designs great masks here: https://www.teepublic.com/user/hatterentertainment It's been 1 year since Chicago shut down for the start of the pandemic. How has the...

We seem to have broken yet another audio receiver. And by "we" we're blaming Kent. Some people find our Rogues Gallery prints fairly valuable. Protect the Eisner at all costs, Dal!! Diamond allocations and the Prisoner's Dilemma. With 6 months to go, the landlord at Blue is now even more frustrating to deal with.

New AEW figure announcements and signings! WandaVision pulling out all the stops (we had not watched Episode 9 before this recording so there are no spoilers at all). Just knowing a landmine is there only helps you avoid that specific landmine. The Joker #1, and a look at the cultural impact of the Joker. Checking in with the first of DC's post Infinite Frontier books (Superman, Batman and Wonder...

All Star Comics fires shots from afar using someone VERY close to home. Keanu Reeves' BRZRKR #1 arrives this week! Oh, USPS. Why do you only have 1 good mail carrier in our area? Everything new Bad Idea does makes it seem more about limited/collectability than about reading good comics. Stopping in at Chicago's Vertical Gallery. A series of connected one shots vs. a mini-series. Too many themed co...

Pokemon Shining Fates was released today and… well, we carried all of it. For now… Rumors of a DC Comics buyout by rich fans. DC final order orders can be less final than we'd like. Buying comics for more than cover price. Bad Idea working with Diamond? New rules for publishers offering returnability thru Diamond. Todd McFarlane's vision of the future of comics is… Image comics from the mind-1990'...

Digging Our Own Grave DC is Digital First, Retailers Last. Affidavit Returns can be tricky when not everything is listed on your invoice. The books we wish were selling better. This year's SALE was way more frustrating than ever before, with higher highs and lower lows. Plus, more procedures to pull it off with an online component. Ordering collecting supplies is more challenging than ever before....

Rip-Off Culture Friday customer interactions (no, we do not cut hair). Frozen water pipe BEFORE the Chicago Deep Freeze. It's SALE TIME! The practice of music sampling (in a comics podcast??). Never attribute to Malice what you can attribute to Stupidity. Several new Bad Idea happenings this week alone! What will Marvel do about Immortal Hulk #43? Or really, HOW will they do it?

My Love for You is Like a Truck Just when you've got all of 2020's taxes are sorted, 2019 rears its head again. Polite, thorough communications. Missing 1 Lunar box for next week's DC books. The generous people of the internet. We will be carrying EVERY BRZRKR #1 cover. A new international sales battle! Good comics of your future, including: Fear Book, Orphan & 5 Beasts, Jonna and the Unpossible M...

On the Rocks. We join the recording in-conversation about the act of viewing Wandavision. We don't talk about the show itself, but the art of trying to stay spoiler-free in today's social internet age. Subjective not objective. The Bad Idea Preview Book dropped and it's bringing out the worst in too many people. Our Bad Idea "Hero Trade" contest(s)! Possible monthly raffle drawings for some fun me...

Don't Let Perfect be the Enemy of Good No, the Sale is NEXT month. Why do so many people need x2 copies of all the Future State books? Our new Instagram name. Tom Taylor is writing Batman? Santa must have gotten Patrick's letters! Seriously, Kaijimax is SO SO SO GOOD. Previews Dal has read: Shadecraft, Orcs and Karmen. Slower sales in January. Shipping damages in the time of Covid-19. Sammy Hagar'...

Our yearly "I Love You But I've Chose Comics" sale is coming up and Anissa Espinosa designed this year's shirt! The difficulty getting the Transformer "Scorponok" and other items. Week 1 of DC's Future State is under way, so how are they doing? This week's annoyance: Star Wars High Republic #1. Top Graphic Novel sales for 2020 (https://challengerscomics.com/index.php/announcements/item/2310-top-gr...

Our Year, In Words.  It's a look back at our 2020, in as chronological of an order as we can remember but seen thru the eyes of 2 people that have come out the other side with our business intact. So less of a "can you believe that??" look back and more of a "so that happened" reminiscence. There's also a brief story about insurance, and the monthly Patreon thank yous. Also, just a tiny bit of wre...

Spatial juxtaposition. Emotional dissonance. We're Not Santa. It's okay to ask us for help. We're here to help you. Well, not HERE, but in the store. Mechanical engineering. Why we'll never fully embrace Instagram. Comics of your future: ULTRAMEGA. FEAR CASE. Thoughts on WW84. #RIPBrodieLee