June is now over with. Along with hopefully all that rain. My backyard was a lake Monday. It’s now July and we are talking about record lows? Very odd.
We will be closed this Friday July 4th to celebrate the holiday. It wouldn’t be very patriotic of us to be open. So of course no Friday Night Magic. Saturday will be the normal EDH and standard play.
This month the prerelease for M15 is going down. It will be on July 11th through July 12th at midnight, noon, and 8 p.m. The format will be a sealed event such as what was done with the Journey Into Nyx prerelease.
July 18th will be the release of the new Core MTG set.
Our selection of Magic cards continues to grow. Eldrazi cards are starting to trickle in. reliable at writing essay Meaning I am prizing them.
I also need to go through my own personal collection of Magic cards from the 90s. I have some of the dual lands that I need to donate to the store.
We will have more shelving built to help display all the products better.
The website is finally seeing some progress! This month the check out should finally work. The plan is to update the check out to exclude products that we are currently out of and to add new products. It will be great to stop having emails and phone calls from upset customers over a website check out system that didn’t work.
Wizkids still has not told me what all I will be getting and what are the price points for next months “Con in your Store” Heroclix event. Ironically most of the regular boosters I ordered have sold so I may have to order more. I have listed the August Heroclix events though they may change as soon as I get the details from Wizkids. Though with Wizkids I may not know till the day the shipment arrives. How much products cost is usually helpful wizkids. Meaning how much am I being charged for the Spiderman and his Amazing Friends exclusive heroclix?
Heroclix War of Light part two will be July 12th at 4. Yes, the same day as the M15 MTG prerelease. It will be a busy day.
Come August we will see the next wave of War of Light Heroclixs. Should be interesting.
Guardian of the Galaxy movie counter top heroclixs are in. With the movie hype interest should only build.
Online seen some images for NBC’s upcoming Constantine coming out in the Fall. I geeked out over the image with Dr Fate’s helmet. I think it looks very cool.
It has been announced that artist David Finch and his wife Meredith will be taking over Wonder Woman. Hopefully Finch can keep close to a monthly schedule. It seems books that he does the art for are usually late to say the least. Which can hurt profits and reader interest.
How can late books hurt sales you ask? My bills are all due on time each month like yours are. So when books are late that is profit that may or may not happen at a later date even though my bills are still due on time. Say Finch’s new WW sells 100 copies an issue while the current creative team’s sells 40 a month. Finch falls behind and there are only four issues released in a whole year. Which sadly in this day and age of comic publishing isn’t rare enough. That is 400 copies sold of WW in one year at the store. Now the current creative team sold less than half of what Finch’s WW sells but comes out monthly so twelve times a month. That is 480 copies sold in one year. I am making more money on the creative team that sells 40 percent of what Finch does but manages to come out on time and monthly.
I enjoy Finch’s art and would even like to own some of his artwork. But Forever Evil was months late along with his two runs on the Dark Knight series and his work at Marvel did not earn him a reputation as an on time monthly artist. Late books hurt sales.
What is going on with writer Mark Waid? He is so hateful and bitter towards DC. He has even manage to poo poo on DC’s current writers for Future’s End which they really didn’t care for. Yes, Waid we know you were one of the writers on the weekly 52 series. I liked it. We know you didn’t like DC’s next weekly series Countdown. I know anything DC does you will not like. Get over it.
The Indestructible Hulk series finally got an ongoing artist and Waid jumps ship as writer. Groan. The Hulk should be doing much better than it is sales wise. Marvel has let the Hulk drift aimless to long.
Deadpool vs X Force is out this week. Fans of the 90s X Force and Deadpool should like this limited series.
Original Sins is indeed confusing people.
Some of the “sins’ that spin off to other titles are not really earth shattering. Seriously Luke Cage’s father briefly leading a super powered team is a “sin” in Mighty Avengers?
Read the most recent issue of Earth 2 issue 25. This series has been great from the get go. If you are not reading this series pick up an issue and discover some good writing and art. Nicola Scott is a good artist. She has done a majority of the art on the Earth 2 series. In this day and age an artist doing over twenty issues of art on a series is pretty surprising. Earth 2 has stood on its own for 25 issues. No crossovers. I strongly encourage you to check out an issue.
The biggest surprise to me in July? The announcement of a Wizard Des Moines Comic Con. If our own Mathew Skinner hadn’t posted about it on his facebook page I would never have believed it. Come June 2015 Wizardworld will be at the Iowa Events Center. This could be really cool. So far no comic professional guests have been announced. If Geoff Johns is showing up I am so there. Not as a retailer but a fan. Will I go as a retailer? Most likely not. Though there is a small part of me that is tempted. It may be good publicity. I used to do shows many years ago but with the internet making it so easy to buy and sell collectibles now it has really made it harder to sell at shows. Showing up at a show to sell 50 cent comics is not a good use of time. As Jeff, the former owner of Dragonfire Comics and I have talked about having a booth at a local comic con really isn’t profitable. And now the internet is even more popular for shopping purchases than when Jeff owned Dragonfire. And on the flip side instead of using hours trying to sell product at a show I can just list online what I want to sell.
That said never rule anything out. As soon as the guests start being announced that will influence my decision. If by some miracle Geoff Johns, Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, David Finch (who better be working on Wonder Woman!), Ed Benes, Ivan Reis, Jim Balent, Gary Frank, George Perez, and/or Jim Lee are there then I am so there as a fan. If the biggest names announced are Scott Lobdell and Chuck Austen I am so not there.
This could also help get more professional comic writers and artists interested in making appearances in Iowa. I have been working on trying to get a professional writer or artist for the October anniversary of the store but so far no go. The ones I have the most contact with are not even in the country making it to costly to even attempt a visit. After Wizard World in Des Moines maybe it will buck Iowa’s rep for just having lots of corn. Don’t knock the corn though. Iowa sweet corn is very good. Hopefully Wizarld World’s visit to Des Moines will be good also.
It should easily be a bigger comic convention than Iowa has seen for quite awhile.
And on the flip side hopefully there will be enough people attending Wizard World and enough money spent to make it worth Wizards time and money to come back and have another show. Good old capitalism.
The biggest name announced so far for the Des Moines Wizard World convention is William Shatner. The actor who played the best damn Captain any ship named Enterprise has ever seen in my humble opinion. This is going to date myself. Jeff and me once seen him when he was in Des Moines many years ago. It was fun. He was a good speaker. Not sure about spending $80 to get his autograph and a picture with him though. Wow, I need to dig out my collection of Star Trek autographs. Been a long time since I looked through them. They hopefully are stuck in the back of storage. Time to boldly go where no one has been for years and dig them out.
I am excited for a 2015 comic convention in Iowa now. Wizard World could be great for central Iowa.
The last few weeks people have been bringing up Dragonfire Comics here. More so than ever. I discovered Andrew shops here because it reminds him of Dragonfire Comics. Another person said she brought her son to Dragonfire Comics and he now shops here. And so on. It was weird since this is almost my fourth year and last month was the most Dragonfire Comics was ever brought up by customers.
Even had positive feedback about our customer service. Hey, it is so much easier for a person to be negative than positive. So positive feedback is good to hear. Means the personal customer service does mean something to some people.
Often times with younger people, usually gamers that are new to the store they seem shocked I say hello to them. Like why are you talking to me is the typical expression.
Jeff was good at personal customer. It was fun for me to go there and talk comics when he was there. Truthfully at times I am burned out with the multiple jobs and the feeling of doing it all my self. Which doesn’t mean I take it out on the customer. I was just joking if you overheard when I said, “Buy something or die!” to that one customer. I kid I never said that.
And that also doesn’t mean I don’t try to give great customer service. My hope is that when you come in you get good if not great customer service. Class 1000 customer service is my goal.
The day job means great benefits which means I do not have to pay a lot more for benefits if I only owned the store and paid for them myself. And it is extra income. I want to make it rain cash!
By no means is Rodman Comics just a hobby to me. It is a business. And it takes up a lot of my time. As I have stated often even if you do not see me here odds are I am doing something for the store. Sunday was bill paying and pricing magic cards. Monday I took my car to get checked out and then priced cards. Fun!
I have tons of inventory that I need to get priced. From comics to heroclix to magic cards I have plenty on hand.
The store’s fourth anniversary is coming up in October! Toying with having face painting for the kids. Debating getting a professional comic artist. Toying with a lot of things for the anniversary.
We are on facebook. Feel free to “like” us.
As always my heartfelt thanks to everyone who comes in and spends their hard earned money at Rodman Comics. I want my store to serve all your collectible needs!
