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Comic
Shop Owner Interview
with Mike Giacoia of October Country Comics April 2015 Shop: October Country Comics City: New Paltz, NY Year Established: 1979 Website: http://octobercountrycomics.com QRD – What is the first comic you ever bought? Mike – INCREDIBLE HULK #108. QRD – What the one comic book that would be the crown jewel in your collection... the comic equivalent of the holy grail for you? Mike – AMAZING SPIDERMAN #1. QRD – What is currently your favorite comic on the market & why? Mike – I don’t have one favorite. QRD – When did you first start working at a comic shop? Mike – 1976. QRD – How did you come to own your own shop & what do you wish you’d known beforehand? Mike – My friend & I bailed out a small shop in NJ & owned it for three years. QRD – Have there been any particular trends in the comic book market that you've found especially exciting &/or troubling since opening your shop? Mike – Exciting: how the movies have made reading & enjoying comics more mainstream. Troubling: the constant events for events sake & the lack of character loyalty by newer customers. QRD – Have you always focused on comics exclusively or do you find it a necessity to stock toys, games, etc. as well? Mike – We’ve had to add gaming & toys because comics alone cannot support a store anymore. QRD – Would you be interested in diversifying your inventory or do you think your store has successfully developed a personality that needs preserving? Mike – We are much more diverse than we were in the past & continue to what our customers seem to want. QRD – How much of a factor do you think the personality or atmosphere of a shop plays in establishing a customer base? Mike – A lot. A clean store with helpful, personable people are a must. The old “comic book man” in the dark boys club is passé. QRD – How active of a role does your shop take in social events like release parties, movie outings, etc.? Mike – Not very. We tend to create our own events. Of course, FCBD is a must. QRD – Do you do in store events with local comic creators or ones doing a book promotion tour? What do you feel has to be done for those events to be worth it to you? Mike – We do have creator autograph signings & they’ve been very successful. Getting the word out is the toughest thing after securing the talent. QRD – Do you believe these types of events create new readers? Mike – I haven’t seen much evidence of it. QRD – Have the comic book summer movie blockbusters & Free Comic Book Day been a boon to your store? Mike – Recent movies have helped spike interest & FCBD is huge for us. QRD – What advice do you have for publishers, writers, artists, & distributors that you think would create more sales? Mike – Less line wide events. Less re-numbering. More dedication to well written long running titles. QRD – Do you do things to try to cultivate local comic talent? Mike – We do sell product by local talent when it’s presented to us. QRD – When a new customer comes into the store with little experience in comics or having left comics for a decade, what do you to cultivate their interest in comics in general & your store in particular? Mike – Our store sells itself. It’s something we’re proud of. As for cultivating interest, we’ve found just engaging the customer in conversation about their likes & dislikes (it helps if the person engaging in the conversation is personable with a good comic background) will usually get them interested in an item or two. QRD – When people walk away from buying comics, what do you usually here as their complaint for leaving the hobby? Mike – Money. Reboots. Renumbering. QRD – What are your thoughts (as a business & as a fan) on digital comics? Mike – I’ve always been in favor of anything that gets the medium into more hands, but as a store owner digital has not been a friend to us. QRD – Can you tell us your opinion on Diamond Comics Distributors in regards to their exclusive deals with some of the bigger publishers... is it a monopoly? Mike – Yes. We get nowhere near the service we did with multiple distributors & everything has costs attached to them that didn’t before. QRD – Do you feel like the quality of service Diamond provides would keep you from trying a legitimate competitor if one were to spring up? Mike – I think a distribution competitor in the current marketplace would be very difficult. QRD – With the rise in Kickstarter comic projects, do you look for comics for the store on Kickstarter? Mike – We haven’t. QRD – When customers say they can get something for a better deal on Amazon, how do you react? Mike – We don’t. They are entitled to buy where they want & matching Amazon’s prices is a quick trip to bankruptcy. QRD – What do you think about CGC & the other professional grading companies? Are they a benefit or detriment to the hobby? Mike – I personally hate it. I do see the benefit to it when buying on the internet, but the artificial price increases on common books is shameful. I also don’t like that they are no longer books -- since you can’t read them. QRD – Do you think the drastic overhauls like DC's New 52 are fundamental for the big two to stay relevant? Mike – No. Tweaking has always been necessary, but it seems reboots are more of a “jumping off” point now rather than “jumping on.” QRD – How well do small press & local comics sell at your store? Mike – Very well. QRD – What do you think of the "wait for the trade" mentality? Mike – They’re a different type of reader that we may not have without that format. QRD – In the coming years do you see monthly comics or the trade paperback/graphic novel format being the dominant form of comics? Mike – I think the monthly format will reach a price where it is no longer viable. QRD – Do you buy high-end stock (e.g. hardcover deluxe editions & statues) on speculation for your store or only by special order? Mike – Mostly special order, but we do keep our customers in the loop. QRD – Does your store exhibit at comic book conventions? Do you think having a presence there is a crucial part of bringing in new customers? Mike – Local cons only. We have gotten some visits from those shows. QRD – If fifty years from now all comics are digital, do you think there will still be shops where people go to buy the physical relics that we all read today? Mike – They’ll be like “rare book stores.” Most will be sold online. QRD – If you weren't operating a comic book shop what would you be doing instead? Mike – It’s been 30 years. I really don’t know. QRD – Do you have bargain bins & what are the prices of things in them if so & where do the books in them come from? Mike – Yes. 25 cent comics, $1.00 comics, & half off trades. Some are overstock, some purchased from people coming into the store. QRD – What makes your store special to your community that another store transplanted from another city wouldn’t have going for it? Mike – History. QRD – What do you think is your store’s all time bestseller & why? Mike – I have no idea. Probably Sandman trades or The Watchmen trade. QRD – How has owning a store effected your own fandom? Mike – Yes. It’s not as much fun to be a fan when you have to think “sellable” first. QRD – Would you ever sell the store? Mike – When I’m ready to retire, yes. QRD – Anything else? Mike – No. Just let me know when you’re done with this project. I’m curious to see how it reads.
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