Tag: Brian Hibbs

In his monthly column, retailer Brian Hibbs rips the lid off secret retailing groups, and muses on Marvel Legacy.

By Brian Hibbs So, right now Marvel comics is in a little spot of trouble. In February 2017 Marvel’s best-selling ongoing superhero title barely passed 60k on the Diamond chart estimates. They ran three “event”...

Variant covers are an accepted practice in comics publishing and collecting, but is Diamond enforcing its own rules on minimum orders? Retailer Brian Hibbs looks at the plusses and minuses of the world of variants.

  Yesterday this tweet from Spirit of Retailing award winner Packrat Comics was going around: https://twitter.com/Packrat_Comics/status/818961318694809600 with a cosign from Atlas comics https://twitter.com/AtlasComics/status/819004717065977856 "Pull lists" are really a symptom of the Diamond Previews system though. as customers who fear...

By Brian Hibbs   Despite now being in retail for over thirty years now, I have to admit that there are times that I worry about the death of small-business retail. Now my fears are certainly driven...

By Brian Hibbs Here’s my preface on this column, so you understand my point-of-view: I am bullish on graphic novels. They’ve been the leading category in my main store long before it was fashionable or...

Retailer Brian Hibbs is back with a look at the swirling controversy over the state of the Direct Market and the health of the comics industry .

We’re still very much in the short-term phase as I write this as the fifth issues of the initial “Rebirth” series just come out, and we’re still at least a quarter, perhaps two, to see how the greater market ends up reacting over-all – but I can look at my own data and draw out a few initial suppositions.

By Brian Hibbs   Welcome to Tilting at Windmills #252. Some of you will be scratching your heads and saying “Wait, doesn’t this appear on Comic Book Resources?” Yeah, it did, but CBR got sold, and...

Comics Experience owner Brian Hibbs has done his annual service to the industry byanalyzing the yearly graphic novels sales charts as reported to Bookscan. This is information people normally pay thousands of dollars for so it is technically leaked info, but while it's there let's take advantage of it. As Hibbs points out, these numbers do not reflect comics shops, indie bookstores, book fair or libraries, to name but four huge outlets for GN sales. So they are not complete. However they are a metric , and one that's worth studying.

By Brian Hibbs (Originally published February 2016) "There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics” It’s Lucky Thirteen!  Yes, for the thirteenth year in a row, I’m going to try to figure out something...

The other day we presented a story on long running SF comics shop Comix Experience and their plans to increase revenue in the face of the local rise in the minimum wage: a graphic novel book club that's already had a positive response. It's a serious issue for small business owners, and led to a lively comments section. I reached out to Hibbs to see if he had any comments on the comments and ever loquatious, he suggested an interview. The results can be read below. Comis Experience has two locations, the iconic Divisidero St. shop just off Haight St. site of many famed signings by creators from Neil Gaiman to Warren Ellis and an early adapter of the grahpic novel movement; and a newer more superhero focused store on Ocean Ave. that Hibbs took over from a previous business last year. Hibbs has long been one of the most vocal comics retailers. His Tilting at Windmills column at CBR is must reading and the comics review blog he started Savage Critics is, unbelievably, still running after 10 years or so. I'm grateful for him to take the time to talk about issues that are sure to become more and more pressing around the country.