TALKING SHOP: THE DARK TOWER AT MIDNIGHT

[MattBrady]

by Vaneta Rogers

Although the weather got in the way for some stores, those comic shops that participated in the midnight release of the first issue of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born, the prequel to Stephen King's epic Dark Tower series, said the event was a surprising success.

"We were very pleased and surprised with the turnout," said Mike Wellman, co-owner of The Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach, Calif., which was one of 150 stores nationwide that participated in the event on Tuesday night as the clock struck 12. "We really didn't know what to expect and weren't sure who would trek out at midnight on a 'school night' to pick up a comic book. Despite our common sense conclusion, we gave into the excitement of the occasion and rocked it full throttle."

Several stores said anticipation about the event was obvious even before the shop opened, as new customers called and emailed with questions about the release. "We were getting calls all day asking about when the line started for purchases at midnight,” said Geoffrey Patterson of Geoffrey's Comics in Gardena Calif. "We were as busy at midnight as we were on normal Wednesdays."

Midtown Comics in Manhattan featured a visit by the issue's creators, Peter David and Jae Lee, which helped get people out on what ended up being an unusually cold winter night in many of the northern states. "Despite frigid temperatures in the single digits, a crowd of 80 to 100 showed up at the witching hour," said Gerry Gladston of Midtown. "Peter David and Jae Lee were wonderful, cheerfully signing copies of Dark Tower for fans while the city that never sleeps slept. Marvel luminaries including Joe Quesada and David Gabriel were on hand, as well as performers from the hit live NYC show 'The Comic Book Club.' Coffee and doughnuts were served, and a party atmosphere prevailed, all on a wintery Tuesday night at midnight."

The weather was a common factor in reports from many stores, although most said they still had a positive response overall. "Tuesday night we were, and still are, in the midst of sub-zero temperatures, plus knee-deep in snow," said W. Dal Bush, manager of Graham Crackers Comics in Naperville, Ill. "So, the idea of getting a $4 comic 11 hours early was not as enticing to our residents as those from, say, Arizona. Still, a bunch of new folks turned out, bought a couple copies apiece and left happy, so I’d still call it a success."

"The weather was below zero and we had a lot of snow earlier in the day, which may have deterred some people from coming out," said Bob Moreau, manager of Westfield's Comics in Madison, Wisc., "but we still had almost 40 people, which was more than we anticipated."

"It was a fun event," said Nicholas Purpura of Jim Hanley's Universe in New York, N.Y. "As it was very cold in New York, we chose to keep the store open until 12:00. We also gave out a 30 percent discount on all items in the Universe with purchase of The Dark Tower."

Joel Pollack, president of Big Planet Comics, said his store had a disappointingly small turnout because of the weather. "I'm in the Washington, DC area, so we faced unusual cold, plus snow started to fall at 10:30," he said.

Yet despite the weather, almost every store that responded said they saw multiple new faces come into the store for the midnight release and throughout the next day -- faces they hope to see coming back for more than just the following issues of The Dark Tower comic. Many stores set up displays of comics they thought would interest mainstream book readers who were new to comics -- citing everything from Sandman to Dabel Brothers comics.

"Exposing new faces to comic books is what this event was for, in my opinion, and it succeeded. I added over a dozen new subscribers. Almost every person that came in, looking for the comic, purchased something else. Every person that came in that was not already a subscriber, became one," said Ralph DiBernardo, owner of Jetpack Comics in Rochester, N.H. "Thanks to Marvel and Stephen King, I have a whole new set of customers. Marvel and Stephen King got them in the door; now it is up to me to show them the literary value in other titles -- beyond the Stephen King book."

Carr D'Angelo, owner of Earth-2 Comics in Sherman Oaks, Calif., said his store also tried to point new readers in the direction of other titles. "Any time there is a product that gets mainstream publicity or ties into a pop culture phenomenon (like the Serenity comic, for example), we see people who don't normally read comics, but they want to get the whole story," he said. "In addition to The Dark Tower, the other books we were selling that night were Walking Dead, Y: The Last Man, and Pride of Baghdad. We also gave away the Fables sampler to everyone who bought a copy of The Dark Tower."

"We made sure that every Dark Tower #1 sold to new customers included a sheet that explained our subscription service, our graphic novel club, the Free Comic Book Day, and release dates for the next three Dark Tower comic releases," said Edward Greenberg of Collector's Paradise in Winnetka, Calif.

But besides all the new customers, comic shops also generated excitement among regular customers thanks to some collectible incentives Marvel provided, including two variant covers, as well as the party atmosphere a midnight release creates. "My regular customers were really excited about the opportunity to get the non-Dark Tower retailer exclusive comics that Marvel offered to retailers for door prizes." said Shawn Demumbrum of SpazDog Comics in Phoenix, Ariz.

Mike Banks, owner of Samurai Comics in Phoenix, said he's also noticed the release party made his regular customers nervous there wouldn't be copies left come Wednesday morning. "We are continuing to see a nice trickle down effect -- all day, people have been calling to see if we still had the book in stock. The idea of a midnight release event seems to have created a sense of urgency in everyone. If they weren't able to make it in last night, they are going out of their way to come to the store to pick up a copy," he said.

But Bush of Graham Crackers said some of his regulars were reacting with "a mixture of surprise, skepticism and disinterest."

"Had Diamond allowed us to sell other comics at midnight, we might’ve gotten more (any) regulars to show," he explained, "but none of them were willing to make a trip at midnight for one book, then later Wednesday for the rest."

All the stores we talked to said they utilized marketing materials provided by Marvel for the event, including materials to provide to the press -- with several stores saying their local paper ran the press release with a photo of the Dark Tower #1 cover.

"Marvel went above and beyond in promoting this event and their media machine hasn't been this well oiled since they announced Origin years ago," said Wellman of The Comic Bug. "The L.A. Times had a huge story on the release in its Friday edition with a listing of all the area stores that were participating in the event. The day of the event, KROQ's popular morning show hosts ‘Kevin & Bean’ were apparently ranting excitedly about the book and read off the same list of participating stores. Within minutes, I was receiving phone calls about the event. I have to hand it to whoever coordinated this thing on Marvel's end, to not only generate this kind of excitement, but to be organized enough to point people in our direction."

Marvel also provided sketchbooks, and a lot of the shops who responded did their own advertising, adding to the buzz about the release.

"We included the information on the Dark Tower Midnight Release in our usual print advertising," said Demumbrum of SpazDog Comics. "We posted posters and flyers advertising the event in store. We took The Dark Tower Sketchbooks to local libraries with the release information. We also handed out the labeled Dark Tower Sketchbooks at our booth at the Phoenix Cactus Comicon."

"We placed an ad in a free weekly alternative entertainment newspaper with a circulation of 100,000," said Bob Smethers, owner of the Comic City stores in Detroit. "The only other advertising was through emails to our customer base and distribution of the free sketchbook. We also added a custom graphic to our receipts to promote the midnight release."

Two stores in California took the promotion of the event one step further and made it into a charity event.

"We participated because we saw the level of commitment Marvel had to promoting this and we knew there would be great buzz," said D'Angelo of Earth-2 Comics in Sherman Oaks. "We also used the event to promote a book drive we are doing for Penny Lane Foster Youth Center. Anyone who donated a book got a free copy of Dark Tower."

Wellman of The Comic Bug said they borrowed and remixed the charity idea when they heard about the Earth-2 book promotion in Sherman Oaks. "We've done several charity events at our own shop, but hadn't thought of this as a charity event until that point. I have a friend that runs povertymatters.org who was doing a blanket drive for the homeless in these cold winter months and since King is sometimes referred to as 'The Master of Chills,' we decided to tie it into the blanket drive," Wellman explained. "Those who donated a blanket received a free copy of the book. We received somewhere around 70 blankets! Some people brought brand new blankets purchased from the store and many brought bags and bags of blankets from home. The blanket drive was written up in the local paper, 'The Easy Reader,' and pushed to our regular customers as well."

When asked for suggestions for future events, several stores said the timing of the event could have been better if it had taken place on a weekend or during a time of year when there wasn't such a potential for bad weather. Other suggestions included having more lead time for the event, mainstream media hype and co-op dollars for advertising.

"We could have used more prep time so we could have built greater interest," said Jason Bean, general manager of Kingdom Comics in Birmingham, Ala. "As it was, we changed our previously scheduled TV commercials for Dark Tower to reflect the midnight opening event. If we had had more notice -- say at least a month's time -- we could have had a really large event."

"DC offers advertising co-op money for advertising DC comics," said Demumbrum of SpazDog Comics. "It would nice to see Marvel offer similar marketing dollars for such events. Joe Q. stepped up for Civil War and pimping it out on mainstream media (NPR, Jon Stewart). It would have been nice to have Stephen King in the mainstream media talking about the book. Stephen Colbert is coming out with a title on Virgin Comics. If he talks about it on his show, it could be big."

"I spent several hundred dollars in the promotion of this event," said Dean Allen Phillips, owner of Krypton Comics in Omaha, Neb. "I know offering the book early was probably costly for Marvel as well. Comic book companies have promotions people working for them and they continually put the brunt of the advertising responsibility on the store owners. Most store owners don't have advertising expertise, let alone any budget for said advertising."

But overall, all the stores said they not only appreciated the opportunity to have the midnight release, but hope Marvel and other publishers continue to offer these kinds of events to the direct
market.

"I am a firm believer in trying to expand the readership of comics. We as an industry cannot just sit back and think the customers will magically come to us. We have to go get them. This industry needs more mass appeal events like this midnight release and free comic book day," said Phillips of Krypton Comics.

Besides, as Smethers from Comic City said -- even if the sales generated by the event don't end up being earth-shattering, "it can't hurt now, can it?"

[EmeraldGuy32]

Man, I wish I was in Cali...

[Morrison]

How many direct market stores are there in the US? I know there's got to be well over a thousand, so 150 taking part seems like an awfully small number. I'd guess that the vast majority of shops passed on the midnight option...

[Kolimar]

Interesting article. Good to hear about different kinds of experiences.

[fearlessrees]

well where im from, we're all snowed in, so i wont get mine till monday!

[jwcomics]

I passed on this book. Is it any good?

[LaughingJak]

Yeah - it was great.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

"Exposing new faces to comic books is what this event was for, in my opinion, and it succeeded. I added over a dozen new subscribers. Almost every person that came in, looking for the comic, purchased something else. Every person that came in that was not already a subscriber, became one," said Ralph DiBernardo, owner of Jetpack Comics in Rochester, N.H. "Thanks to Marvel and Stephen King, I have a whole new set of customers. Marvel and Stephen King got them in the door; now it is up to me to show them the literary value in other titles -- beyond the Stephen King book."

Excellent.

[Grimm22]

I have never been interested in the dark tower book series, and I have never been a fan of Jae Lee's art, but this issue shattered those past opinions.

Jae Lee and the colorist (forgot his name) should ALWAYS work together. I used to find Lee's art a bit to dark on its own, however the coloring in Dark Tower proves Jae Lee to be one of the best artists of all time

And although I have never read any of the Dark Tower books I felt completely in tune with the story. In fact I'm probably going to start reading the books because of this comic.

Dark Tower #1 was one of the best comics I've ever read, and it didn't take shock factor or a character death or whatnot to make it that way. Its due to amazing dialouge and breathtaking art.

If the next issue is this good, this may turn out to be one of the most successful comic series's of all time

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

When asked for suggestions for future events, several stores said the timing of the event could have been better if it had taken place on a weekend or during a time of year when there wasn't such a potential for bad weather. Other suggestions included having more lead time for the event, mainstream media hype and co-op dollars for advertising.

"We could have used more prep time so we could have built greater interest," said Jason Bean, general manager of Kingdom Comics in Birmingham, Ala. "As it was, we changed our previously scheduled TV commercials for Dark Tower to reflect the midnight opening event. If we had had more notice -- say at least a month's time -- we could have had a really large event."

"DC offers advertising co-op money for advertising DC comics," said Demumbrum of SpazDog Comics. "It would nice to see Marvel offer similar marketing dollars for such events. Joe Q. stepped up for Civil War and pimping it out on mainstream media (NPR, Jon Stewart). It would have been nice to have Stephen King in the mainstream media talking about the book. Stephen Colbert is coming out with a title on Virgin Comics. If he talks about it on his show, it could be big."

"I spent several hundred dollars in the promotion of this event," said Dean Allen Phillips, owner of Krypton Comics in Omaha, Neb. "I know offering the book early was probably costly for Marvel as well. Comic book companies have promotions people working for them and they continually put the brunt of the advertising responsibility on the store owners. Most store owners don't have advertising expertise, let alone any budget for said advertising."

Very good points.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

"We participated because we saw the level of commitment Marvel had to promoting this and we knew there would be great buzz," said D'Angelo of Earth-2 Comics in Sherman Oaks. "We also used the event to promote a book drive we are doing for Penny Lane Foster Youth Center. Anyone who donated a book got a free copy of Dark Tower."

Wellman of The Comic Bug said they borrowed and remixed the charity idea when they heard about the Earth-2 book promotion in Sherman Oaks. "We've done several charity events at our own shop, but hadn't thought of this as a charity event until that point. I have a friend that runs povertymatters.org who was doing a blanket drive for the homeless in these cold winter months and since King is sometimes referred to as 'The Master of Chills,' we decided to tie it into the blanket drive," Wellman explained. "Those who donated a blanket received a free copy of the book. We received somewhere around 70 blankets! Some people brought brand new blankets purchased from the store and many brought bags and bags of blankets from home. The blanket drive was written up in the local paper, 'The Easy Reader,' and pushed to our regular customers as well."

Well done.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

"I am a firm believer in trying to expand the readership of comics. We as an industry cannot just sit back and think the customers will magically come to us. We have to go get them. This industry needs more mass appeal events like this midnight release and free comic book day," said Phillips of Krypton Comics.

I wholeheartedly agree.

[CParadise]

Originally Posted by Morrison

How many direct market stores are there in the US? I know there's got to be well over a thousand, so 150 taking part seems like an awfully small number. I'd guess that the vast majority of shops passed on the midnight option...

Proves once again, not all shops are the same Many shop owners justified the fact that they did not do it by saying their customers were not going to come because they would just get it next morning, which basically means they did not realize the potential of new customers.

The funny thing is we had a ton of regular customers, because we promoted it and gave our customers an "appreciation" sale. Those 3 hrs (from 10pm to 1am) were probably one of the top 2 days, sales wise, this week. People came in droves.

[EMeadow]

Originally Posted by Kolimar

Very good points.

LOL cept for the part where he said Colbert has a book coming out from Virgin Comics.

Tek Jansen is coming out from Oni Press.

But he's right that Stephen King himself should be doing some promotion for this as well. It almost feels like its unauthorized because even though we know he's involved, he hasn't said anything anywhere to help promote it (that I'm aware of).

And there's a comic store here in Arizona called SpazDog? That might be Best Store Name Ever.

[Allen Jaco]

Originally Posted by CParadise

Proves once again, not all shops are the same Many shop owners justified the fact that they did not do it by saying their customers were not going to come because they would just get it next morning, which basically means they did not realize the potential of new customers.

The funny thing is we had a ton of regular customers, because we promoted it and gave our customers an "appreciation" sale. Those 3 hrs (from 10pm to 1am) were probably one of the top 2 days, sales wise, this week. People came in droves.

I have to admit that I am surprised anyone, not just new customers, did this at midnight. I mean, this is not a ne Harry Potter book.

An appreciation sale was a good way. But then, I actually know your store and your service, so it doesn't surprise me.

[wade138]

Originally Posted by Allen Jaco

I have to admit that I am surprised anyone, not just new customers, did this at midnight. I mean, this is not a ne Harry Potter book.

An appreciation sale was a good way. But then, I actually know your store and your service, so it doesn't surprise me.

I'm not that surprised that new folks showed up. Stephen King has pretty rabid fan base and the Dark Tower is his major epic. I loved every book in the series and was very excited about the release of the comic. If my local shop had a midnight release I may have gone to it.

[Auburn]

Yeah. The Dark Tower has a lot of fantasy fans who don't read King's other stuff too. Just hope they stick through the initial mini-series since it's serialization of a novel that's several years old. It wouldn't surprise me to see even more new folks come in at the next min-series once it gets into new material.

[winkerbean04]

Originally Posted by CParadise

Proves once again, not all shops are the same Many shop owners justified the fact that they did not do it by saying their customers were not going to come because they would just get it next morning, which basically means they did not realize the potential of new customers.

The funny thing is we had a ton of regular customers, because we promoted it and gave our customers an "appreciation" sale. Those 3 hrs (from 10pm to 1am) were probably one of the top 2 days, sales wise, this week. People came in droves.

We didn't do a midnight release for a few reasons, one being that we're a suburban store so we naturally have a smaller crowd than an urban store, another being that because we're suburban we'd need to market HEAVY on it to get the turn out we felt would justify being open, and Marvel just didn't give us enough time to do that. Hopefully future events will be put together further in advance because the small window to promote it was our #1 reason for not holding one. Plus, the media in our area did not seem at all interested in this book, or a midnight event. We could not get a single reporter from our local suburban paper or the larger paper from the big city to agree to come out and cover it or do a story on the Dark Tower comic at all.

But, we did have a better than average Wednesday with Dark Tower being our #1 seller for the day. It brought in a bunch of new readers who haven't been in a comic book store in years, if ever. I doubt we'd have sold significantly more Dark Tower with a midnight release than we did so far without one. As it was we sold 1/3 of our HUGE order on Wednesday, and it was our top seller on Thursday, and looks like it will be our top seller today as well.

Lisa, Neptune Comics
Waukesha WI
www.neptunecomics.com
blog: sequentiallyspeaking.blogspot.com

[Cray_ws]

Originally Posted by Allen Jaco

I have to admit that I am surprised anyone, not just new customers, did this at midnight. I mean, this is not a ne Harry Potter book.

See thats just it, Harry Potter is a children's book yet they showed up with parents at the book store just to be first in line to get a Harry Potter book.

As CParadise pointed out, many shops didn't account for the remote possibility that they'd would attract NEW readers and because of that comic shps will forever be bottom feeders in the retail business. New customers should be your highest priority, not your regulars because they don't need to be coddled and store policies don't need to be altered just to appease regulars.

If you lose a regular, its not the end of the world....you know why? Because if you focus on the new customers then you can replace that old regular. Of course its easier said than done. But clearly alot shops are clueless when it comes to the potential of promotional events like Dark Tower.

[amdin]

Originally Posted by Cray_ws

New customers should be your highest priority, not your regulars because they don't need to be coddled and store policies don't need to be altered just to appease regulars.

If you lose a regular, its not the end of the world....you know why? Because if you focus on the new customers then you can replace that old regular. Of course its easier said than done. But clearly alot shops are clueless when it comes to the potential of promotional events like Dark Tower.

Ah, actually, talk to any marketing guy. It's your older customers that you want to ensure stay happy. Expanding your customer base is almost always a primary goal, but it can't come at the expense of your long-termers. The cost of aquiring a new customer is fairly high, the cost of re-establishing a relationship with a lapsed customer is astronomical in comparison.

You NEED to focus on your older customers becuase they're established spenders and will continue to remain loyal (and potentially increase they're spending) until you give them a reason not to.

[Cray_ws]

Originally Posted by amdin

Ah, actually, talk to any marketing guy. It's your older customers that you want to ensure stay happy. Expanding your customer base is almost always a primary goal, but it can't come at the expense of your long-termers. The cost of aquiring a new customer is fairly high, the cost of re-establishing a relationship with a lapsed customer is astronomical in comparison.

You NEED to focus on your older customers becuase they're established spenders and will continue to remain loyal (and potentially increase they're spending) until you give them a reason not to.

So as a dealer how would you go about ensuring your regulars stay happy?

My point was that once you've got a regular, you need not to bend over anymore for them. Its obvious they are satisfied with the service and products you provide to come in your shop on regular basis.

If you were to roll out the "red carpet" for a new customer, and offer the same quality (and possibly higher quality) than you do with your regulars, then the high cost of aquiring new customers is always worth it. Because even if you don't gain new customers, your regulars see that you care and are willing to provide the same standard of service to all.

Just to be clear I'm not suggesting dealers ignore their regulars, what I'm saying is clearly every shop that didn't do this (except in bad weather) Dark Tower midnight promotion failed miserably to gain new customers.

[adwomack]

Originally Posted by amdin

You NEED to focus on your older customers becuase they're established spenders and will continue to remain loyal (and potentially increase they're spending) until you give them a reason not to.

I fairly certain EVERY business wants to gain new customers. The point of a business is to grow, and it is very difficult to grow your business by getting additional money out of existing customers. That might work in the short-term, but has a very limited potential because existing customers only have a finite amount of money to spend. Also from a pratical standpoint, at some point the existing customers will grow older, change priorities(kids, etc) and have to slow spending on comics or stop completely.

I would say that for the first mid-night promotion in the comic business that I have ever seen, it went fairly well. It was not a homerun, but for a first try it went well. Everyone can learn from what went right, and what could be improved. I'm not sure what big event, would warrent a midnight release any time soon, but everyone should be in better shape to support it next time around.

[Juisarian]

Kudos to Marvel for coming up with an "event" that actually draws new readers into the comic scene!

Boos and Hisses to Diamond for restricting the sale of other new releases on Tuesday night (assuming what Dal Bush said was accurate). That seems counter-productive to me.

Personally I don't care much for the Dark Tower, or King in general - I read the first three books and dropped it - but anything which expans the scope of this hobby is a good thing IMHO.

[beta-ray]

Originally Posted by Morrison

How many direct market stores are there in the US? I know there's got to be well over a thousand, so 150 taking part seems like an awfully small number. I'd guess that the vast majority of shops passed on the midnight option...

Ah always positive I see...

Sounds like it was a pretty successful endeavor... not stunningly so, but good nonetheless.

[spazdog]

Originally Posted by EMeadow

LOL cept for the part where he said Colbert has a book coming out from Virgin Comics.

Tek Jansen is coming out from Oni Press.

But he's right that Stephen King himself should be doing some promotion for this as well. It almost feels like its unauthorized because even though we know he's involved, he hasn't said anything anywhere to help promote it (that I'm aware of).

And there's a comic store here in Arizona called SpazDog? That might be Best Store Name Ever.

Dooohhh!!! I have nothing but love for Oni. I guess when I read their press release I was thinking that it was an expansion of Virgin Comic's use of media figures like Director John Woo for comics. Sorry Oni Press. Bad Comic Shop Guy. Bad. Bad.

EMeadow.....If you like the name, you should see the store. We don't call ourselves "A Different Breed of Comic Book Store" for nothing.

Originally Posted by Juisarian

Kudos to Marvel for coming up with an "event" that actually draws new readers into the comic scene!

Boos and Hisses to Diamond for restricting the sale of other new releases on Tuesday night (assuming what Dal Bush said was accurate). That seems counter-productive to me.

Personally I don't care much for the Dark Tower, or King in general - I read the first three books and dropped it - but anything which expans the scope of this hobby is a good thing IMHO.

Juisarian....I would normally agree with you about the early release of the usual Wednesday titles, but Marvel and Diamond shipped the Dark Tower books out two weeks early in order to make sure that everyone had the books on time and didn't have to pay excessive expedited shipping charges. They would not have been able to get the rest of the books on that timeline. Larger chain stores get their books on Tuesday, but mom and pop shops like mine pick ours up on Wednesday morning and rush to get them on the shelves. It wasn't a matter of "restricting us" as much as a logistics and equity issue. I think that Diamond (and Marvel) did an awesome job of getting us the book so that we could have a successful event.