Monthly Archives: December 2011

It’s just a few days to Festivus, and while this is not the Airing of the Grievances, it IS a present for you, a NEW Episode!

We actually start with our sponsors, including what a great webhost Dreamhost is while explaining why last week’s

Joe is back from his one week training and has stories about his trip to Gathersburg Maryland starting with talking about the comic shop he found there….less then 2 blocks from his hotel. How did Cory!! take this to do quotes from Ed Woods movies? The man just can’t stay on focus. Ooooh…a squirrel! Anyway, they discuss some indy books as well as their theories as to how to display comics, alphabetical or by company.. Joe goes back to talking about the shop, fun things they had and what he actually bought.

Then, 32 minutes in, we get to the theme of the episode. Oh…wait, no we don’t. Cory talks a little about how the DC 52 are selling. THEN we get to the theme of the episode – Diversifying product in comic shops by selling things like card games and other fads!

They talk about Magic Cards, pogs, the history of Beyond Shinders, how Joe tried to get Joe hooked on silly fads. Joe has a lot of stories about the Magic Card crazy, Cory has stories about super-hero trading cards both from selling them and the silly ones Stan Lee used to do in the 70’s. They discuss how cards sold, the rise and fall as well as personal stories about selling these sorts of things. They also discuss the fad from the 90’s that they did NOT jump on despite it making a lot of money for McDonalds.

All of this and multiple cricket appearances, plus the usual shenanigans!

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What? Another episode? With Herman Cain dropping out of the race the same way he came in, quoting Pokemon, Cory and Joe have more time to record! Joe is right out of the gate, hyping the Variant covers he has available on eBay, which leads to the Tales From The Shop section brought to us by Chris B where we discuss variant covers in shops. And that Chris B had kept her copy of Action Comics #1, she could have sold it for $2.4 million and could afford ads on a popular podcast! But mostly about how Variant comics started in the 90’s and how some comic shops could get their OWN variants.

We then have our first visit from Stan Lee Mania! Not Stan Lee, but an incredible simulation! Joe asks “Stan” a bunch of questions…and, well, hilarity ensues.

After “Stan”, Joe and Cory discuss Harlan Ellison because one of our many listeners asked for it, explaining why comics cared about what Harlan had to say, Harlan’s work in comics and other things about Harlan Ellison. We then run an ad for Bartcop.com. That’s right, ANOTHER AD!

After this discussion, they get into comics that they have been reading. Cory’s been reading Supreme Power, Jonah Hex “ and Joe has a HUGE announcement about the future of the podcast! All of this and the usual shenanigans in this episode!

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It’s been a month since the last episode because Joe and Cory have weird schedules, but it’s time for a new episode! How do they start? Talking about Thanksgiving TV specials!

They DO get to comics, mostly comics that after Flashpoint are no longer in continuity. After we roll through the ads, they get back to comics. Cory talks about Old Man Logan, and the conversation goes to DC’s new 52, DC’s weekly series, Frumpy the Clown and Joe’s car problems. They also discuss the “Regeneisis” reboot of the X-Men books. This actually leads to a discussion of the Marvel Adventure line and how Comics are available outside of comic shops.

They then change the discussion to comics sales, and how DC dominated the sales charts for October. This leads to a long discussion about what is going on with Marvel canceling mini-series, laying people off and announcing they will not carry much backstock and inventory. This leads to “Tales from the Shop” (sponsored by Chris B) about how shops dealt with Marvel sending their distribution and merging into Diamond. There’s then an ad for Bartcop.com, another new sponsor. Ad-a palooza!

We end the show talking about Black Friday sales and how Joe was one of the first shops in the Twin Cities to actually have sales…and how it made the other comic shops FURIOUS!!  They also discuss how they sold back issues, how they decided what prices to use on back issues and how the back issue market has changed from the 80’s to today.

All this, and the usual shenanigans, crickets and stories of silliness!

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