Wayne’s Word
Welcome to 2012! First up, a big thank you to all our customers that helped Time Warp succeed in 2011. We appreciate each and every one of you. And of course the employees that work here are great and I thank them all very much. I hesitate to name names, because I’ll surely forget somebody, but Garry, Clayton, Gino and Smurf in particular all were big contributors to the cause. There were a lot of helpers behind the scenes; Kris, Kelsea, Jay, and Duane, who really put in a lot of time and extra effort with the new web site, thanks again.
The highlights for 2011 were of course Free Comic Book Day, 24 Hour Comic Day and the New DC 52 start over event. One of our biggest accomplishments this year was getting new fixtures into our store courtesy of the sad demise of Borders. Their loss was our gain, but watching them go away was a bummer.
My big objective for 2012 is to dig in and spruce up the store and restock the graphic novels that keep on selling well, over and over. It was a great year for Walking Dead, Locke and Key, Fables and many more great series. It is a full time job restocking trades, so I feel a real need to do a better job keeping track of those. The back issue comics we have continue to be a huge drain of time and energy here. I have way too many, and collections keep pouring in faster than we can process them. In the next few weeks, you’re going to see the 25 cent and dollar books sections full to the brim. There are some great books in there, so please see if you can find some deals in there to take advantage of. Related to that, is the fact I cannot afford to keep the new comic racks overstocked. I will have to buy new comics to sell out in a month and not have them for back issues. That business model just is not viable any more. We have been offering file holders first crack on getting back issues at 50 % off guide. We want to continue that for one more month, giving you first crack, but then we’re going to open that up to the general public. Not really a big fan of sales, as I feel it devalues our overall collection, but we need the room. Getting too crowded in here.
There are two big comic cons coming up, Starfest and The Denver Comic Con and I encourage you to come to both. Details will be on our website www.time-warp.com.
Thanks for reading,
Wayne
Top Twenty for February 2012
Road Rage # 1- 4 This is the first collaboration between writers Stephen King and his son Joe Hill, creator of Locke and Key. This series will pay tribute to the famous story by Richard Matheson – Duel. Art will be by Nelson Daniel, who has been helping out on the outstanding comic The Cape. Due to Stephen King’s popularity with the Dark Tower comics, I expect this to sell really well. I f we file Dark Tower, Stand or American Vampire for you already, you’ll get this series too. If you don’t want it cross filed , please let us know.
Star Wars: Dawn Of The Jedi # 1 -5 The origin of the Jedi begins here! The creative team is Ostrander and Duuresema, who were the perfect team doing Star Wars comics back in the day.
Murky World one shot– This reprints the Richard Corben stories from past issues of Dark Horse Presents.
Winter Soldier #1 and #2 in this month, this Marvel series will star Bucky Barnes and Black Widow. It will be written by the always reliable Ed Brubaker and drawn by Butch Guice. Ever since Brubaker brought Bucky back from the dead a few years ago, he’s been one of my favorite Marvel characters. I’m really looking forward to this series. Dr. Doom comes to town to ruin the party.
Twelve # 9 and # 10 One of my favorite Marvel series is back to finish the great story started years ago by Straczynski and Weston. This story of time stranded heroes from World War II was on an indefinite hiatus , and I was starting to think this series would never finish.Now if I could remember what happened in # 8. I guess I can read the trade paperback, also released in February
Fantastic Four :Season One Premiere HC $24.99 Marvel is really pushing these hardcovers, but not one single person signed up for this. Too expensive for an untested product. I’ll only order a few.
All so for the entire month of February, Marvel will be shipping two issues on most titles. That’s fantastic in helping move along in story lines.
Batwoman # 6 Finally, the debut of Colorado artist supreme – Amy Reeder ! We’ve been waiting for quite awhile to Amy’s arc to start, as J.H. Williams III has been doing a great art job so far. Amy’s style is very different than Williams, but I’m sure it will be great.
Flashpoint trade paperbacks. 6 Different trades of the series that led up to the big changes in the new DC 52. The regular trade and the Flashpoint : Batman will be two of my favorites
Action Comics # 6 This issue guest stars the all new , all different Legion Of Super Heroes. Grant Morrison is still writing this, so you know it will be good. DC Universe Presents # 6 Deadman is done for now, next up are the Challengers Of The Unknown.Eight survivors of a fiery plane crash live on borrowed time.
Batman Beyond Unlimited # 1 DC is reprinting this from the recent digital first, print second idea I’m not really fond of. If digital is forever with us, how about print first, then digital 14 days later. Do the publishers want comic stores to fail ? Probably not, but they are not thinking this all the way through.Batman # 6 Talon, the Court Of Owls assassin takes out Batman. One of the best Batman stories in years and a big success for DC’s New 52.
Black Orchid dlx. hardcover edition $24.99 This has been out of print for too long. This Gaiman / McKean masterpiece is one I love to recommend to new customers. If you have never read this, do yourself a favor and try it.
Thief Of Thieves # 1 Co-written by two of the most popular writers today: Robert Kirkman and Nick Spencer. This is a story about master thief Redmond, who can steal anything and get away with it. Now he wants to go back to the life he left behind. The art by Martinbrogh looks very good. At a meeting I attended with Kirkman in San Diego this past summer, he was really pumped for this series and said it was one of his favorite projects yet.
Fatale # 2 Brubaker / Phillips series from Image in the vein of Marvel’s Criminal and Incognito. The first issue is out this week. Don’t miss it.
Infestation 2 Transformers # 1, #2 and Dungeon And Dragons # 1, #2. Ties into the Lovecraftian Infestation storyline that starts this month. Ninjettes # 1 From the pages of Jennifer Blood , a Garth Ennis production.Ultra violent over the top action.
Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland HC $ 21.99 The history of one of the most exciting cities in America as told through Pekar’s eyes. Should be a very interesting autobiography. His last work. Intro by Alan Moore.
Ralph Wiggum Comics #1 From the pages of the Simpson’s comes the kid who can’t keep his finger out of his nose. Adventure Time # 1up An all new kids comic I know absolutely nothing about. Getting good marketing though, and I do try to bring in new kids stuff every chance I get.
, its sometimes good to buy a multi-title cross-over seires that features lots of characters. This way, aswell as a big’ storyline, you also get to sample’ lots of different heroes and villians.Years ago I collected the Secret Wars’ issues. The first seires was a mini-seires in itself, but the 2nd seires crossed over into lots of other titles. More recently there was the Planet Hulk thing and the one that came before it. And the X-Men usually have some cross-over story once a year or more.