FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2008 - LIVE FROM HEROES

[MattBrady]

Once again, Free Comic Book Day finds Newsarama’s Matt Brady (that’s me) at Charlotte, NC’s Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find. Owner Shelton Drum has once again set up his store as a mini-convention, a prelude of sorts to next month’s Heroes Con in Charlotte (June 20-22nd), with creator appearances, as well as nearly 30 titles available as part of FCBD.

As we’ve reported in past years, Heroes is located just outside of downtown Charlotte, in a rather artsy neighborhood, and is within walking distance for many of its customers. Speaking of the customers, the stores sees a wide demographic (we’ll have photographic evidence of that today), from kids to long-time collectors.

So – how many units does a shop like Heroes order for FCBD? About 12,000 units, total. How many will be left when it’s all said and done? About zero. Well, not quite, but it will seem that way.

We’ll have more constantly today, but let’s get rolling with the pictures, first.

First off – the calm before the storm – the books are once again set out around the counter, with all-ages starting at one end, to books for more mature audiences at the other.



And of course, the ubiquitous store decorations – Adam Hughes’ Mary Jane on the front door and Doc Ock fighting Spider-Man above the sales island and to a statue display case (based on a design by Mike Weiringo and Drum’s son)

And the view from the outside – Heroes has about 20-25 feet from the store’s front to the street, and area in which Drum sets up a tent where the creators will be located. Also – it’s sale time folks - $2 books are on the one side, and $1 books are around the corner of the building.



And yes – there are people waiting already. The first customers showed up at 9:15 a.m. The store doesn’t open until 10:00a.m., and already there’s a line about 30 deep waiting.

Oh, and finally, because we wanted to add that authentic blog flavor – here’s a cool dog who shows up every year. Okay, that’s a lie – he hangs out near Starbucks next door to Heroes while his owner grabs a morning cup of coffee.



Keep checking back throughout the day - creators Ethan Van Sciver, Ian Flynn, Shawn Crystal, Sanford Greene, Jason Latour, Chris Schweizer, Tony Shasteen, Brian Stelfreeze, and Doug Wagner will be on hand from 1-5, and we'll have loads more (and comments from Ethan which will probably see us in court) as the day rolls on.
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10:00 a.m.

“Free Comic Book Day! Whooo!” Well, Ric Flair is a native son…

And the doors open!

The humanity! Oh, the humanity!

Instantly, the store is filled. Seriously. By 10:03, there was a line fully around the entire counter that stretched out the door.



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10:32 am

Do not fight it. Do not deny it. Kids love comics.



Sweet jumping thunderbolts - there are serious shortages already...at this point, the store has seen about 150 people move through the line, with dozens circulating around the back and along the new comics shelves.

Manager Todd Harlan is a touch worried - the burn rate of the free books is more than expected, even though the order number was significantly increased over last year. But do not fear - there will be free comics for all today.

And if you're stopping in, you can also catch Justice League: The New Frontier - it's playing on the store's four monitors.

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10:51am

Asked during a slight pause which now sees the store full of customers, but the line for the free books taking a merciful break, Harlan said that his ordering strategy this year was similar to years’ past, that is, extra-heavy on the all-ages and books aimed at kids, and tapering off on the books as they move into more mature content and less-popular properties. “Even if we’ve got kids books left over at the end of the day, we’re okay with that,” Harlan says. “We end up using them throughout the year.”

“Kids always love to get a free comic,” Drum adds, moving by us as, on to some other job.

Unlike some retailers, Heroes is not giving out copies of DC Universe #0 for Free Comic Book Day. “We were shorted 250 copies on our order for that this week,” Drum says. “We had enough for our subscribers, but if we had put them in their bags, we wouldn’t have had any to put out on the shelves, so we just put them out on Wednesday for people to pick up.”

That said, there are still a few copies for those who want to pick them up for $.50.

________________________________________ __

11:06 am

And can we say it again? Kids love comics.



________________________________________ ___

11:17 am

Phew - the initial rush seems to be over, and the traffic is now steady. It's a busy day for the store, and again, the customers cut across a wide swath of demographic categories - currently, we've got kids, parents, couples, singles, old and young, with many clutches of folks engaged in conversations throughout the store. The most popular topic? The Iron Man movie, of course.
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11:41 am

Another rush - but this time, the line is at the cash register, stretching about halfway back through the store - but that's not really a surprise. "Free Comic Book Day is usually one of the top three sales day of the year for us," Drum says. "It's really comparable to our big sale days that we promote throughout the year."

To date, small-scale effects of FCBD are a spike in sales, not leading to a stronger week than normal. "When you have basically all your customers come in on one day, along with a lot of new faces, it's a day that's hard to replicate, or have continue for a few days after. But we sure hope that they come back for next week's new comics now that they know more about us and what's going on.

"I'm seeing a lot of new faces, and a lot of faces that I only see occasionally," Drum says, looking around the store. "The Heroes Con/Sale crowd - folks you only see for an event."

But of course, that does kind of ask the question - does Heroes recoup its expenses on FCBD? After all, the comics cost the store money - not to mention the full staff has been pulled in to work today. "Usually, on the day of, it doesn't, but over time, it does," Drum says. "It's hard to assess - if you look at it straight on as 'we spent this money today,' and 'we made this money today,' it's probably very close to a break even, but I'm sure we'll be coming out ahead over time when we see folks returning, or starting to pick up new titles that they were turned on to today."

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1:03 pm

Lunch was great, thanks for asking. Traffic remained steady through noon, with a crowd starting to grow in front of the store around 12:30 pm, as people began queuing up at the tables outside, waiting for the creators to appear.

Ian Flynn was the first to sit, and was immediately besieged by kids looking for a sketch. Ethan's running a few minutes late from the looks of it, and already has a line that stretches back towards the nearby parking lot.



And still, the line for the cash register stretches to the back of the store...

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1:24 pm

Artists in the hiz-ouse! Or is that tenznet?

________________________________________

1:30 pm

Do we need to say it again?



Critique from a five year old customer: "This store is awesome! They got Spider-Man, but they don't got Superman..."

And there's another rush on the free books, with the line once again circling the sales island. Meanwhile, the tent is still crowded.

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2:05pm

Heroes is located pretty close to a major hospital. So, if you like your signings punctuated with occasional sirens, this is the spot for you. Also, Jason Latour's mom and grandmother stopped by to say hi to their little boy.

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2:15pm

The store, as a flattened loop:



Or, click here for the picture by picture tour.

And yes, for those looking, the store is arranged by genre (and by character within the genre, so Action would be found with all the other Superman books). It may sound odd at first, but once you get the layout, it's quite easy (easier than other, perhaps) to navigate.

________________________________________ _______

2:37 pm

So what's selling at the registers, given those long lines? "A ton of Iron Man - new issues, back issues, and trades," says Dusty Harbin, just off of an hour and a half shift on the register. "A lot of the Extremis trades have gone out the door today. I also sold a lot of a weird mix of kids stuff - Transformers animated stuff, and all kinds of other stuff - but Iron Man is leading it. I see a lot of parents, fathers buying Iron Man stuff for their kids."

And, all alone on the counter - the last DC pin from last year's con sits, waiting for an owner...

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2:48pm

So what surprises were there this year?

"The rate that we went through books was much faster this year compared to last year, Harlan says. "Along with some surprises among the books that we ran out of early compared to how they performed last year. Also, there really hasn't been a lull this year in terms of traffic like we saw last year."

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3:00 pm

And the drawers are still drawing. Although Doug looks lonely...



There are some dark clouds on the horizon coming in, though. Will it rain? Will. It. Rain?

From the $2 bin. I remember when these issues were hotter than hot - the first appearance of Infinity Inc.! Come on! For $2! There's like almost a full run of All-Star Squadron in here!



If it rains, there's going to be almost a full run All-Star Squadron sponge for sale here.

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3:15pm

It's an age old question - what brings new faces into a comic book shop? Free Comic Book Day offers a unique opportunity to find out, given the absolute crush of new faces seen. The leading answer today? Iron Man, loafing around.

Well, Creative Loafing a free weekly in Charlotte that had a pretty killer story ("A Geek's Guide to Understanding Iron Man") which can be found here. Alongside the story, a sidebar all about Free Comic Book Day, with Heroes address in it.

Copies of Creative Loafing can be found far and wide throughout Charlotte, and, as seen, have a pretty striking cover this week, tying in with the Iron Man story.



________________________________________ ___________

4:00pm

So - what are people drawing right now?

Sanford Greene (Colossus) and Chris Schweizer (Catwoman, we think)



Tony Shasteen (Doctor Doom) and Brian Stelfreeze (Catwoman)



Ian Flynn (Sonic) and Ethan Van Sciver (Nilla Gorilla - yes, Nilla Gorilla. Don't ask)



Shawn Crystal (er....) and Jason Latour (a yet unidentified female)



________________________________________ _________

4:38pm

It's getting darker outside, but so far the rain has held off.

Interestingly, a question that has come up a few times a day..."They're doing an Ender's Game comic?" This of course, due to people picking up the Marvel poster showing the Pascual Ferry art for the coming miniseires, as as announced at New York Comic Con. Already, the news seems to be pricking the ears of folks outside of the normal circles of comics.

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5:00 pm

"The main difference this year?" Harbin asks, standing at the register and pointing backward at the line, "This was not here last year." And he's right. Last year at 5:00 pm, the store was kind of...slow. This year - it's still jumping at 5:00 and the crowd outside with the creators? Still thick.

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5:25 pm

Things finally seem to be slowing a little - a few creators have called it a day (they were scheduled to sign/sketch from 1-5) while others are soldiering on, but there's still a crowd under the tent.

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6:00

And that's a wrap. Though the store will be open for another three hours, that's it for me. All told so far today? Somewhere between 800-1000 customers came through the store, with about 1200 total comics ordered left in the longboxes. Again - not a sign of missing the numbers, but rather those are the comics that were purposely over-ordered to keep copies in the store.

The rest? Nearly a record day for the register, with Iron Man leading the discussion throughout the store.

"Every year, we continue to see new faces," Drum says. "It helps us, particularly, because it takes place two days before the show, but people seem to be remembering it from year to year - we didn't do any mailer for it this as we have in years past, so we know a lot of people are remembering it and coming back. Every year, we gain new customers from Free Comic Book Day, and I'm sure it's not going to be any different this year."

[matthewstarnes]

Great store. The place is packed quickly on FCBD. Have fun!

[L'Zoril]

Let's see some pictures !!

[Ken B.]

Weirdly, my comic store (Bedrock City) is having their big sale next week, not this week to coincide with FCBD and Iron Man being released.

[HNutz]

TODAY's FCBD?!

How'd I miss THAT?

[HopeLantern]

I love FCBD! This store in Charlotte is one of my favorites... there used to be one in Winston-Salem, (my hometown an hour and a half away) years ago, but I believe they left. This store in Charlotte, is AMAZING! I'm glad I got my free comics, and I even splurged and finally got Secret Invasion #1. YAY for FCBD!

[Genki]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

10:00 a.m.

“Free Comic Book Day! Whooo!” Well, Ric Flair is a native son…

Yes. Yes to the Nature Boy.

[Cyphon]

It was a good day. Got the Waid/Weiringo third big hardcover for $10, NYX hardcover for $10 and the Ms. Marvel Premiere HC for $5. Would have spent more too

[alf]

Wow. My local store just has a really small "Free Comic Book Day" sticker on the door. There were like 10-15 customers walking around. That actually may be the most crowded I've ever seen it. They are handing out coupons for free copies of Invincible Iron Man 1 for people who come back next week, though, which I thought was a great idea.

[GohanWinner]

Man I wish I had a place like that around here. I have this tiny shop in the mall that is anything but cozy. =/

[KoozyK]

i went to my lcs. they were having a pretty big sale with all the gn's 25% off and all toys and apparel 20% off. while i was there, they were having a trivia. i didn't want to cut in bc i would have answered all the questions right (of course), but there was one where no one know it. the question was "what is the name of bishop's sister?" and i couldn't let that one go since i love shard so much so i answered and got a superman plush.

all in all, it was fun. the place was packed out and i got my fcbd hellboy and x-men comics.

cheers!

[Tomwaitsfan]

I would love a shop like this. Even a forbidden planet. Near where I live, there is just a really small comics shop which overstocks stuff that wont sell and understocks stuff that will sell

[Sims]

After 18 years, my favorite (and the best) local shop closed its doors on Wednesday. So no FCBD for me.

[roshambo]

Originally Posted by HopeLantern

.. there used to be one in Winston-Salem, (my hometown an hour and a half away) years ago, but I believe they left.

yeah! i sold a bunch of my comics to them when i was a teenager...bunch of 70's marvel stuff...then went across the street to the music store and bought my first guitar and amp.

[johnstumbo]

That is the best looking store ever. Would love to visit it someday.

[papafatass]

My local comic shop {Keith's Comics Elyria OH} totally sucked! They only had 6 FCBD offerings, limiting only one comic per person and each additional FCBD comic was .25 cents per book! WHAT A JOKE! THIS IS "FREE" COMIC BOOK DAY! Not quarter bin comic book day! So I went to York Comics in Parma OH and they totally rocked!!!! Not only did they have all the FCBD comics but the whole store was 25% off except for back issues they were 50% off ! I now have a new regular comic shop and I know where I'll be next FCBD!

[Alex Cruz]

Yeah, just new generations of children can save the Comic Book. But with so much trash monthly comic is difficult.

[Moonbeam]

Great weebly jeebly! That Sanford Greene sketch is gorgeous!

Looks like a fun day.

[c_andrew_s]

Awesome report! Next to Christmas, FCBD is my favorite national holiday

[AlexLothos]

Went to two of my three local stores and they were both doing great. One even broke the sales record set by FCBD last year by the middle of the day, so that was great news.

[H.Pym Esq]

"Hank, you have traveled around this world a dozen times, where do you buy your comics?"

I'm glad you asked. The answer is Heroes Aren't Hard To Find- the subject of this very article.

The criteria for what makes a great comic store varies. I ask you to consider this theory:

There are two kinds of comic shops (this has nothing to do with the content for sale).
1. Shops that smell like a new Avatar Comic (I love Doctor Sleepless)
2. Shops that smell like a new Marvel/DC comic.

(to reply to this post you must take a deep sniff for the sake of science)

There is a slight whiff of funk that comes out of a Avatar Comic. Why? I don't know but I have been in many a local store where that same smell covers the walls. It is not a bad smell mind you but not something you would find in the ingredients of a glade plug in.

Heroes smells like a new copy of Captain America. Crisp, clean,refreshing.

The next time you are in Charlotte do yourself a favor and stop by. Then and only then will you understand what the smell I'm talking about.

[Luke Cage Jr]

The next time you are in Charlotte do yourself a favor and stop by. Then and only then will you understand what the smell I'm talking about.


That's just Dusty.....but we love him anyway!

Thanks for coming Matt!

[KraziJoe]

I wish my local shop was nice. It's in an old building, cramped for space and he still uses the old wire racks, like at the drug store. Most comics I got from there are all bent and creased.
the one a little further away is better but still not the best.

If I had the capital, I would open one up. Maybe one day...

[ark_keeper]

My local shop may not look as awesome as that one, but they had some outstanding deals. Not only did they already have the FCB's bagged and ready to go for a bunch of us, but they had 60% off all back issues 10 bucks or less, 50% off trades, 50% of toys, and 30% off miniatures and clix. Definitely spent more than I had planned.