Contest of Challengers

BEFORE THE DAWN •Too many Spawn variant covers. •The "DAWN of DC." •Refunding website orders. •The Manage Comics Order Helper Tile is LIVE! •Initial order fun. •AMC (the channel) Comics. •Bad Egg Comics. •Ultimate Fallout #4 cover scam? Contest of Challengers #612

OH YES, COMICS •Our visit to the EXCELSIOR! Art Show opening! •Why it's harder to recognize new subscribers. •James Acaster! What? This is a comic podcast and he's a comic! •We just saw Black Panther Wakanda Forever and really liked it! •Why Shopify keeps pushing back the approval of the Manage Comics Order Helper Tile. •Dealing win non-subscriber special order requests. •Which graphic novels look...

WE HUNGER •Will Morris starts us off! Thanks, Will!! •Image has several upcoming books we are REALLY looking forward to. •Batman/Spawn is coming! It's after Final Order Cutoff, but its Final Order Cutoff period was only 3 days. •Final Order Cutoff windows are getting longer AND shorter! •DC has just announced 10 DC/Spawn covers and half of them FOC this weekend! •Galactus hungers… Contest of Chall...

•Welcome to the brand new Challengers Podcastitorium! •Diamond Replenishment shipments. •Reminiscing over ChallengeJR's (ChallengeJuniors). •ALL AGAINST ALL #1 is really good! •Diamond Best Practice Awards. •January solicitations. •"What a shithole!" Contest of Challengers #609

THE CONVERSATIONALIST •It's an all Pizza-and-Beer episode! So, of course that means no Dal. •Hailey is back! https://instagram.com/chicomic_girl/   •Fancy, wooden comic book storage boxes! •Tattoos! •The ideal comic book shop! •Actual social media experts working with comic shops. https://romanyhouseboxes.com/   10% Off Promo Code: CHICOMICGIRL Kaye Publicity Retailer Rx: https://kayepublicity.com...

BOOBIE-ROCKETS, AWAY! It's a 3-man announce team this week as Patrick and Dal visit one of their all-time favorite comic creators (and human beings)!  WHO is it? WHAT do they talk about? WHY are they there? 1. You'll find out a few minutes in. 2. Lots of stuff! Mazinger Z (or, as it was called in the US, Tranzor Z), baseball, NYCC, and a whole lot about their current, mega-successful, one of the y...

MAIN COVER B •Plugged ears make recording an audio project so fun! •Just announced Batman Spawn covers. •Shopify missteps: Active vs Draft •Being ghosted by new Subscribers. •Curating in reverse. •An update about GIANT DAYS on Kickstarter. •Dan and Jason were the best! •Marketing to the Sidekicks crowd. Contest of Challengers #606

VIRTUE & VICE •Surprise! Now we're BOTH sick! •Sep 2022 sales are down from both Aug 2022 and Sep 2021. Sigh. •HEART EYES #2 is excellent! •Why do 2nd issue sales fall so far from #1's? Like, 80% far. •Getting our Holiday plans underway (we started weeks ago). •GIANT DAYS on Kickstarter. •The legend that is Carlos Pacheco. •Marvel Legends news from Hasbro Pulse. •Thanks, Patrons!  Contest of Chall...

NOTHING SPECIAL •Dal returns! Sorry? •Challengers is/has "nothing special." •Dal visited Fantom Comics in DC! •Dark Horse is leaving Diamond! •DUCKS by Kate Beaton! •Batman Day 2022 is history. •Library wreaths. •MJ loves Batman/Spawn?? •More covers now than ever before!  Contest of Challengers #604

Patrick is joined by @chicomic_girl, Hailey Dezort ! Hailey is a wonderfully excited comic fan who has an unparalleled enthusiasm and a penchant for sharing her comic book love via Instagram/YouTube/Livestreams/Podcasts. Her fandom is infectious, and this conversation only scratches the surface of her knowledge and dedication to this amazing artform we all love. After listening to Hailey talk abou...

WIL MOSS Patrick is joined by Marvel Editor WIL MOSS! They talk about Wil becoming a comics fan, going to college in Chicago and his journey to comic book editing super-stardom! It's a fun conversation with 2 people on different sides of the comic book industry united by the love of comics!! Comics are the best and Wil is/was Editor for some of THE BEST comics (Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, anyone?)!!...

FULL CIRCLE •It's AEW All Out weekend in Chicago, so we start with some rasslin' talk. Sorry. Not a lot, though. •DC Comics are now available from a second distributor! •In this post-covid retail landscape, prices keep going up!      Including: Magic Cards, Backer Boards and POP Vinyls. •Ordering from Southern Hobby. •Fantastic Four Full Circle. •Thanks, Patrons!  Contest of Challengers #601

ADDITIVE TO THE PROCESS •The 4 th Invincible Compendium! •Why DON'T we buy dirty coins and sports photos? •"I had to ask!" No, you did not. •New Marvel Legends packaging. •We do not ship storage boxes. •Recommending new series. •ALZ5K 2022. •Politics in-store. •How great is Rachel Bard ?? •32 Years!! Contest of Challengers #600!!

TERRIBLE LONG-TERM STRATEGY •Tom Palmer R.I.P. •Visiting the Bill Sienkiewicz art exhibit in Libertyville. •New difficulties getting into our own store! •The November 2022 solicits are… plentiful… •Visiting 2 other comic shops. •The tragic end to our safety pin banner. •X-Terminators #1 = Fun! •Trying to keep up with new subscribers/subscriptions. Contest of Challengers #599

MANUFACTUTRED COLLECTIBLES •The audio quality of last episode. •This week's Manage Comics Thoughtstream. •Hachette credit hold. •Tom Brevoort's Substack is pretty fun. •99¢ BACK ISSUE SALE! •Freebies vs Collectibles.  Contest of Challengers #598

ACTIVATION! •Patrick, Dal and MJ talk about C2E2 in a car with shitty audio. It was a 20-minute conversation in which 10 minutes were completely unlistenable. We have GOT to turn off the phone Bluetooth before we record in the car. Sorry. Bad parts are edited out of the official release, but left in for the Patreon Raw Audio release. •The Art Institute lions have a dark history with Patrick's feet...

YA(wn) •SILVERLINE is out now! •We are years late in making a Young Adult section. •Manga is a Medium, not a Genre. Except, it is a Genre. •The eventual return of a Discount Graphic Novel section. •We wish we were better at promoting the comics we enjoy reading. All of them. •Manage Comics 2.0 functionality we're looking forward to. •Next week is our Wes Craig singing, a Lunar Distribution seminar...

ALL THE COOKIES •Late deliveries. •Fun toys. •Special guests (in the store, not on this episode). •SDCC comic announcements (so far). •BOOM! Studios Kickstarters. •Other stuff, we promise. Contest of Challengers #595

SITUATIONS ARE FLUID •Friday's (not at all heavy) rain causes more grief. •Another SQUARE outage. •We hope this podcast (as a whole, not just this episode) is informative yet also entertaining. •The recovery of Patrick's comics… •More comics industry theft (but not at Challengers) •We'll work with anyone if it's good promotion for us. Contest of Challengers #594

YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE THE ENDING! •Another AT&T story! Who could have seen this coming? •Where has Dal been?!? •A shattered window and alarms going off in the middle of the night! •A JENNY FRISON signing with a violent outburst! •A Dal HUEL interlude. •An ending we never saw coming!!   Contest of Challengers #593

AN ORGANIC VALUE All these topics are discussed in this episode, BUT in a different order than they are listed here! Why? Because I wrote my notes BEFORE we recorded, because I am a G-D professional!! •Thief? •Great news for the creators of EIGHT BILLION GENIES! •June sales (-30 on Wednesday). •It's two weeks after Patrick's comics were stolen, and he has an update from the detective on the case....

OH YEAH, THAT'S A THING •Burritooooo! •The new DC and Marvel catalogs are (kind of) out, for product shipping in September. •License shifting between publishers. •It's one week after Patrick's comics being stolen.  •IDW Originals: Dark Spaces Wildfire #1. •Shifting special order item codes between 'New to Order' and Shipping make it almost impossible to get people their orders. •We're so excited f...

The meat of this episode is a harrowing tale of the worst thing that can happen to a lifetime comic book collector. And then, Patrick visited a trio of comic shops in Asheville, NC over the past weekend. Sadly, there were no T-Rex's. Contest of Challengers #590

SOMEWHERE WITH A T-REX This one's a mystery! Who's on it? What do they talk about? WHO KNOWS?!? Okay, we know that it's Dal and MJ, and they're probably talking about store stuff and distributors and comics and what not. But actual specifics? Well, neither of them write these previews, and I haven't listened to their episode, so let's all be surprised together! Contest of Challengers #589

CR-APP-TACULAR •Not Free Shipping!! •The recipient files the claim. •Shopify app update chaos. •We're not wearing masks anymore (for now). •Donating to Little Libraries. http://littlefreelibrary.org •Tim Seeley's just-announced new Dark Horse comic THE ROADIE looks fun! •Adding to a 'complete' summer crossover checklist after-the-fact. •Working with Image for our exclusive cover wasn't as straight...