From The Frontline Of Shutdown – Comic Store In Your Future

Rod Lamberti of Rodman Comics of Ankeny, Iowa writes weekly for Bleeding Cool. Find previous columns here. He writes from the heart of shutdown,

Been trying to stay the course here. Using the store's Facebook page to keep in touch with our customers. Giving updates on when we are able to reopen. Trying to maintain a good attitude. Trying to be calm and "professional". Trying to do my best Spock impression while holding back, wanting to go all Kirk. "Full speed ahead, break the Prime Directive for the tenth time!"

It was announced by the Iowa Governor this week that Polk County where my store is located will have the non-essential closing mandate extended until May 15th. Iowa has been handling the coronavirus very oddly. Iowa was divided up into six sections for dealing with the virus. I understand the reasoning for extending the mandate. Public safety. Iowa has 99 counties. 77 counties in Iowa are easing restrictions. That I do not understand. I am not a scientist, though from what I got out of Monday's press conference by the Governor is if I want to eat in a restaurant, I cannot do that in Polk County though I can drive twenty minutes or so to another county and eat inside there. Is that not a great way to possibly spread the virus? Or get the virus? It is a heck of a gamble. If the virus does not spread people will say it was the right thing to do. If it does spread then people will be saying it was a mistake. Granted some restaurants are closed for good, some will not reopen due to the restrictions, though some will reopen. They are not doing it because they are bad people. A business needs to make money to pay debts. To me it is all very risky.

Things are changing. Stores received DC comics from their new vendors and from what little I have read seemed pleased. I know I was. Plenty of bubble wrap used. Comics were not pressed up against the sides of the box. Groups of comics were wrapped in plastic to prevent movement during shipping. No shortages or damaged comics. A lot of effort was made for the protection of the comics. Often in the past we could have two books thrown loose in a box and when I get them, they are damaged.

We did do curbside Tuesday from 5:30 to 8. We had people thrilled they could get new comics thanks to DC letting us sell their comics on Tuesday. DC fans no more waiting until Wednesday? We have plenty who would love that. I hope DC's new vendors are here to stay.

Tuesday also gave me more hope. The turnout was far better than I thought it would be. We announced it through our Facebook page and posted some of what we had on hand. I posted some of the True Believer comics Marvel has put out. I figured maybe some people would like dollar comics in these crazy times. Within fifteen minutes all the True Believers issues of the recently released Fantastic Four, She Hulk, and Avengers were gone. Same with the Justice League Dollar Comic by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. We will be sure to have more dollar comics for our curbside next Tuesday. Many of the back issues we posted on Facebook sold. Higher end items like the Marvel Masterworks vol 18 of Amazing-Spiderman sold. People wanted reading material.

From The Frontline Of Shutdown – Comic Store In Your Future.. Image from Rodman Comics.

DC Tuesdays currently look to be here to stay. What other things may change? Disney went from looking great money wise, to bleeding millions of dollars. Disney may very well need cash in the future. Disney bought Marvel for over four billion. The Marvel movies have most likely made it worth a lot more. Could a sale be in the future to bring in much needed cash? Disney has a lot of properties they could sell instead and may be able to borrow their way out. Time will tell how long people will stay away from movie theaters and amusement parks. Even before the theaters closed, attendance was going down due to the virus.

Comic sales. Will being unable to buy new comics make people want comics more or less? I've used this Mark Twain quote before, "in order to make a man or boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain." Will people be more excited about comics due to not getting comics for roughly a month? With the economy suddenly going from almost every able-bodied person being able to get a job (granted it might not be a great paying job) to unemployment spiking, will people be forced to cut back on collecting comics? The same principle applies to the Magic the Gathering card game. Will it be as popular as it was? Will it be more popular due to not being able to get new cards for a while? Or will Magic players move on or be unable to afford the hobby? I wish I knew the answers to these questions. If I did, I would know if simply letting my store close is the right thing to do. I worry about going for months with losing money only to reopen to dismal demand. That would be a kick in the butt, lose thousands of dollars only to learn too many people lost their jobs or are hurting for money to keep a business open.

As I said Tuesday gave me hope. It was great seeing people who I had not seen in roughly a month. I was expecting a much lower turn out due to starting to hype curbside Tuesday only a day before. I was waiting to see what the governor was going to announce on Monday. I was wondering if May 1st we might be able to have limited numbers of customers in the store. I did not see what was announced coming. Running in and out of the door so often on Tuesday made me think at least I am getting some exercise. One customer even said he was glad to have DC put out new comics again because he was getting out of the habit and now this pulled him back in.

Diamond has announced May 20th will be the return of sending new weekly comics. That is great news! I believe the comic market can easily handle multiple vendors for comics. Will DC keep their two vendors going as things return to normal? In the upcoming months we will find out.

I had been asked by various people about the store. How much trouble is it in? When asked I try giving as honest an answer as I can. There was talk closures due to the virus could last a year. That would be a bridge too far for us. Imagine Christmas with many stores still closed, that would be a dismal shopping season. Things are changing so quickly and the biggest challenge is the unknown for us. When will businesses be able to start to return to normal? How long will I have a business that is an expensive storage unit? As I mentioned in a previous article, we are current with our Diamond account. We are not behind payments on anything. We did not get any government money. I might be naïve but I looked into it and thought it looked complicated. I had never done something like this before, had no idea how long everything would last and thought I might just be using money someone else might need more. Granted I read about businesses that ended up returning money I do not think they were meant to get in the first place. The money was returned due to criticism. Such as the basketball team the LA Lakers. They returned a 4.6 million coronavirus relief loan. The team is valued at over 3 billion. They were alright taking money that could have helped less fortunate businesses. That is a lot of greed.

To me things are starting to look up. There are finally rays of hope but still unknowns in the future. Some publishers may be too damaged after all this to recover. DC is getting their comics out. Diamond Comics is returning to weekly shipping in May. My customers have helped my outlook a lot by just being them. If they can soldier on and stay positive so can I.