COMICBOOKMAN SEZ: Free ComicBook Day (FCBD) is a ton of work every year. It starts in January with ordering, then nothing for about two months and then BAM, in April everything ramps up. Hauling, inventory, coordinating shortages, printing labels, stickering the books, lining up the bodies, the set up and of course the day itself. In between there's the regular weekly activities that still have to get done as well as dozens of little jobs around the store that have to be "gotten to" that our customers will never notice, which is exactly the point behind them. All of which why there was no newsletter the 050615. I had about a third of it completed but there was just no way I'd have enough hours in the week to wrap it up and get it out to you. So that happened.

THANK YOU AGAIN: Speaking of FCBD, I'd like to thank everyone who came out last Saturday and made it such a huge success. We've been doing FCBD every year since its inception in 2002 and this was by far our most successful event ever. All but three of the titles were gone by noon and by 2:00 all that was left was the Marvel Spanish Edition and the CSN FCBD Edition. 6000 books shot out the door, and I ordered up 10-15% more copies of some of the more popular titles this year compared to last year. I hope everyone who showed up found something they liked and if so please come back real soon. On the other side of the coin I would also be remiss if I didn't send out a big THANK YOU to the folks who helped me in the weeks preceding/day of FCBD to put it all together. Sarah, Hailey, Ed, Annie, Cody, Dan, John, Wendy and Shannon-THANK YOU! The day would not have been the same without all of your efforts.

TOO MANY SALES: FCBD Saturday culminated our week long Sale-A-Bration that began the preceding Sunday (042615). As you may know, we hold four (4) week long Sale-A-Brations each year, one for each season and each tied with an event. The two big ones are last week's FCBD (Spring) and the Gobbledy Gooker Sale (Fall) which ties into Black Friday. Both of these sales feature our "Biggest Single Sales Days" of the year: Black Friday & FCBD. One of the 8-10 featured sales events for each is "SUBSCRIBERS PLUS 10%" where subscribers can add 10% to their standard discount for the day. Unfortunately, it has gotten lost in the shuffle with all the other sales we're doing that day. I'm not catching it at checkout and most subscribers are unaware of it. Because of this I'm taking this one sale out of the mix for these two sale days from now on. Sorry Subscribers, it's gone from both Black Friday and FCBD.

SUBSCRIBER APPRECIATION DAY: You know, we do two other Sale-A-Brations each year that aren't nearly as big as the two mentioned above. Our Winter Wonderland (Winter) and Store Anniversary (Summer) Sale-A-Brations aren't anchored by two event days so each tends to be a bit anti-climatic in comparison. What if we anchored each Sale-A-Bration to a "Subscriber Appreciation Day" sale where our subscribers would get an additional 10% added to their standard discount for the day? Hmm the Store Anniversary Sale-A-Bration is coming in August. Something to think about.

We order 99.9% of the comics PREVIEWS solicits. Keep that in mind as you read the numbers below; they not only break down our week, but they're also a good representation of the week in comics nationwide.
New Comic Wednesday for the second shipping week of May sees DC again in 1st Place with thirty two titles. 2nd through 4th Place is shared by three companies, each shipping twenty one titles apiece. Ranked by the dollar output of each company, we see IDW taking 2nd Place, Marvel in 3rd Place and Image in 4th Place. arvel, 3rd Place is Image with twenty, 4th Place is IDW. Rounding out the Top 5 is Dynamite in 5th Place with seventeen titles. Indie comics drops 15% this week over last week as fifty two titles arrive on Wednesday. Parsing through those totals finds BOOM! in 6th Place with twelve titles and Valiant in 7th Place with eight titles. This Wednesday, you'll find an overall total of twenty one different publishers on the racks contributing to this weeks total of 164 comics.

Image is shipping out three new series this week and while all three are being "1st Day Sale'd" one of them looks good enough to be our Book of the Week (BOTW). MYTHIC #1 by writer Phil Hester and artist John McCrea will be 40% OFF all week and it's an expedition to the dark heart of weird comics. Science is a lie, an opiate for the masses. The truth is, magic makes the world go 'round. And when magic breaks, MYTHIC fixes it. Apache shaman Waterson, Greek immortal Cassandra and cell phone salesman Nate Jayadarma are the crack field team assigned with keeping the gears of the supernatural world turning, and keeping you from ever knowing about it. Image's second entrant in our 40% OFF this Wednesday pantheon is INJECTION #1 by the former Moon Knight creative team of writer Warren Ellis along with artists Declan Shalvey & Jordie Bellaire. Once upon a time, there were five crazy people, and they poisoned the 21st Century. Now, they have to deal with the corrosion to try and save us all from a world becoming too weird to support human life. It's a science fiction, horror, strange crime fiction, techno-thriller, and ghost story all at the same time. And finally from Image this week there's MANTLE #1 by writer Ed Brisson and artist Brian Level. Robbie never asked for any of this. While drunkenly walking home from a punk show, he's hit with lightning and wakes to find that he's been chosen as the new host for The Mantle, a power set of unimaginable scope. Despite his lack of interest, he's forced into action. The Plague, a being who has spent 50 years killing every previous host of The Mantle, is already coming for him. Like Injection and Mythic #1 this book will also be 40% OFF this Wednesday.

As will Dark Horse's HARROW COUNTY #1 by writer Cullen Bunn and artist Tyler Crook. Emmy always knew that the deep, dark woods surrounding her home crawled with ghosts, goblins and zombies. But on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, she learns that she is connected to these creatures, and to the land itself, in a way she never imagined. Less scary (one would hope) is this weeks "1st Day Sale" second issue entry which hopefully will make all the folks who picked up the first issue at 40% OFF last month. Of course, I'm referring to UNCLE SCROOGE #2 from IDW by writers Jonathan Gray & Jan Kruse and artist Bas Heymans. "Shiver Me Timbers!" Hunting a haunted Caribbean treasure, Scrooge is guided by three ghost pirates' disembodied hand, foot, and eyeball! Maybe it is scary after all. Speaking of us discounting second issues at 40% OFF hot on the heels of first issues being discounted at 40% OFF (well, I'm talking about it!) last week's big BOTW Secret Wars #1 gets it's follow up this week with SECRET WARS #2 by writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Esad Ribic. It's time to explore Battleworld, hope someone survives the experience! Let me mention here, deep in this weeks highlights where only a few will ever find it, we'll be "1st Day Sale-ing" all eight issues of Secret Wars over the coming months. That's right, if you're a regular Wednesday shopper at Alternate Reality you'll save 40% OFF each and every issue of Marvels biggest series for 2015! We're doing it with Convergence and we're doing it with Secret Wars! Speaking of which CONVERGENCE #6 (OF 8) by writers Jeff King and Scott Lobdell and artist Ed Benes.Free of the reign of Telos, a pantheon of heroes unite at last in an effort to defend their collective cities - but they did not count on the threat of Deimos, who suddenly seems to possess the power to tear the Multiverse apart at the seams!