12/27/2023 0 Comments Gaston dl meltdown comics owner![]() That is the story of mainstream comics in a nutshell in 2011.” If you can get comics digitally or if you can get them on Amazon people will go to those places. We’ve got Amazon on one side and digital on the other side and that’s beating the hell out of us. The mainstream stores are hurting because people are pursuing other ways to access that media. I don’t carry a lot of Marvel or DC for example. “My gambit from the beginning – I’ve only been here four years – but I started out specializing in more oddball types of publications, things that are more on the fringe of the mainstream comic world. ![]() So I have to maintain and make sure by all means necessary that we continue to grow, adapt and cater with our core product, which is comic books.”Ĭomic shops like Brooklyn’s Desert Island avoid the mainstream market and concentrate on a more discerning customer base, said proprietor Gabriel Fowler. I could go work for someone else, but I would die in a week. It’s crazy – the wanting to create your own way of making a buck. The goal is to sell, not to show off your collection. “If someone thinks that they’re going to make a buck as a hobbyist in consumer society, then they might as well close down now. Meltdown concentrates on its core customers and does what it can to encourage a continuing crop of comic consumers, said Dominguez. We’re deeply embedded into our neighborhood, our community.” All we need is a super hero knitting circle. “We hope to be a nerd hub,” said Dominguez. Its carries all the latest comics, games, and graphic novels, along with a wide range of children and adult apparel, two display galleries, a comedy theater and after school classes in making comics. Meltdown operates in 14,000 square feet of retail space at a high rent address. ![]() Every time I have to put a $3.99 comic book two months later for a quarter in my quarter bin, that’s hard cash, like two bucks gone, literally hard dollars. The idea of the SRP (suggested retail price) has been shot out of the water when the manufacturers themselves are selling it at a discount. “Most manufacturers, like Marvel from the top to the smallest micro-press, will sell directly to customers for cheap. This practice especially annoys Hollywood’s Meltdown Comics owner Gaston Dominguez. On top of that, shop owners now also have to contend with the deep discounts offered directly to consumers from the same publishers who wholesale stock to stores. Comic shop owners are up against Amazon and other online discounters, and, unable to compete, are forced to watch people in their stores scan ISBN codes with their smart phones, then hurry out empty-handed so they can order the same books at a discount from Amazon. It’s not easy to succeed as a comics/graphic novel retailer in the era of digital communications. For most comic shops, it’s their bread and butter. For Marvel and DC, comic books are a means toward that end. Scott Pilgrim didn’t have to wait as long for big screen success as Peter Parker and Bruce Wayne, but he also began his career in the funny papers. Nevertheless you first need to publish Spider-Man comics if you want Sam Raimi to make three blockbusters movies based on them. The superhero-based companies still control the vast majority of the comic market, but today they find themselves making scads more money in multi-media outlets – feature films, video games, digital applications – so much that comic book divisions have become the poor relations of the biz. Power fantasies are still way more popular than reality based books or graphic freeform experiments. Most of them, however, will just keep selling superhero tales to adolescents of all ages until they go the way of blacksmiths and smoke shops. Some dare to ignore established retail models and rely on the quirkiness or intelligence of their customers to keep their heads above water. Others hedge their bets by incorporating atypical merchandise along with their comic offerings. Features A Seasonal Snapshot of Retail Funny Businessĭuring this holiday shopping season, as the big box retail chains plead with us to meet our patriotic obligations by buying shiny new stuff from our Asian creditors, comic book shops rely on different strategies to ride out the recession.
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