COMICBOOKMAN SEZ: So, as I was saying when last we met: “At Alternate Reality, We're Serious About Funny Books because it’s what we do-it’s all we do”. I ended the last column there because I intended it to be the springboard into this week’s column. Of course this week should have been last week-but we’ll get to what happened with that a little later. But for now I want to go over mixing chocolate in peanut butter and how it may make one of my customers happy or miserable over the long haul. It all depends on how he looks at it.

Back at the first of the year one of my regular weekly customers, let’s call him “Jason” (not his name) went missing for over a month. When he returned I asked Jason what was up and he said he had suffered some chest pains, got to a hospital and one bypass operation later he was feeling 100% better and had a few revelations along the way. He decided he was tired of his job and planned to open up his own business. I said great but was worried the stress of getting a business off the ground would be a little more than his refurbished heart could handle. He assured me that probably wouldn’t be an issue, the doctors said if anything it would be less strain that his current job with the city. “What kind of business” I asked. “Comicbook Store” he said. “Are you insane?” I said-okay I didn’t say that. What I did ask is the most important question I feel anyone opening a business can ask themselves. “Jason, which is more important to you: opening a business or opening a comic book store.” He thought for a moment and said “A business”. Then I asked him the second most important question: “Here on the Southside?” and after a few seconds that seemed like an eternity he replied: “No, down in Georgia. My family’s there and I’m tired of Chicago winters. I’d like to open up a business somewhere that never sees snow or wind chills.” Relieved that I wouldn’t have to groom a future competitor we chatted for about an hour and occasionally still do when he comes to pick up his books.

Not to get all Forrest Gump but opening up a business is like a “Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup”. The business part is the chocolate and the peanut butter filling is whatever you care enough about to form the core of that business. Too much filling and all you are eating is a spoon full of peanut butter. Too much outer shell and you might as well be eating a Hershey bar. Finding the right balance is one of the tricks to running a business. One of the chief reasons a lot of business’ fail because there’s too much peanut butter in the chocolate, so much so that the chocolaty business component is almost non existent. The person opening the business has a virtual fetish for peanut butter but really can’t stand chocolate. Unfortunately what they fail to realize is that that chocolate outer shell is what allows the peanut butter center to exist in the first place. The thinner the shell the more likely it is to snap like an eggshell in your hand. Then you have peanut butter all over your hands and you are literally washing your business down the drain as you wash your hands.

Okay, enough with the metaphors let me tell you about fish, and I don’t mean “Fish Mooney”. A million years ago in the late 70’s when I ran the “Comicbook Emporium” there was a “Bait and Tackle” fishing store right next to us. The guy that ran it loved fishing and he used to talk about driving hours in the middle of the night to get to a lake by 5:00am and start fishing. Any later than 6:30 or 7:00am was a wasted day for him because all the fish would be gone by then. He turned his love for fishing into his business. When he wasn’t taking about fishing or going on fishing trips he would be constantly at work at his counter doing either paperwork, unpacking deliveries, facing his shelves and occasionally dealing with customers. In front of his shop he had a Coke machine that wasn’t stocked with Coke or Pepsi or Sprite or any other pop. Instead he stocked it with leaches, worms and other fish bait which his customers could come by and purchase at 2:00am on their way to their 4:00am fishing appointment. I personally could have cared less both then and now about fishing but I learned a lot about running a business from just watching him and talking fish and comics.

There were a least a hundred or so other things I learned from talking to him about his business and just observing him day in and day out. Like owning a business is not a forty hour a week kind of job but a 24/7 kind of job. Like being a good neighbor in the community is not just “nice” but essential to your business. Like having as many different, but still related items in your store as possible so your customers have a variety to choose from. But first and foremost was: “the business of a business is business” and you have to do whatever you need to do to make your business thrive. Doesn’t matter if it is a Fishing Shop, a Golf Shop, a Flower Shop, a Butcher, Baker or a Candlestick Maker Shop-flexibility, adaptability and keeping your eye on the prize are the most important characteristics one needs to open a business and keep it going. And of course-having the right ratio of chocolate outer shell to creamy peanut butter center. All this applies even for a Comic Book Store which has to be a business first and a love second.

Anyway that’s what I told and continue to tell Jason whenever he brings up the dream of his "Georgia Comic Shop". Like the Fishing Shop, there are a hundred other things he’ll need to know. Many he can learn but even more he can only learn by doing. But if he has the qualities and abilities I listed above in his tool kit, and a lot of luck, which is always an unknown “x-factor variable”, he just might make a go of it.

Oh, and the 061015 Newsletter? I needed a day off to veg out in front of Netflix. One of the things a business owner has to do is not burn out his employees. That "Sense8" series was thirteen hours I'll never get back again!

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 third week of June sees a nice separation at the top of the pack, a tight grouping at the bottom and one of the larger Indie totals for the year. DC recaptures 1st Place with thirty titles, and well ahead of the rest of the pack. Image is a distant 2nd Place with twenty two titles. The bottom of the Top Five sees Marvel in 3rd Place with seventeen titles, IDW in 4th Place with sixteen titles and Dark Horse in 5th Place with fourteen titles. The Indy totals are the big story this week with seventy six titles shipping. Parsing through those totals, we find Dynamite in 6th Place with ten titles and Boom in 7th Place with nine titles. This Wednesday, you'll find an overall total of twenty eight different publishers on the racks contributing to this week's total of 175 comics.