CHALLENGERS comics + conversation

Monday, September 6th is Labor Day, and here's how that's going to impact Challengers this week:

MONDAY, September 6th, we'll be open from 11am-5pm.

New comics will be out THURSDAY, September 9th.

Next week will be back to normal.  Have a great holiday!

So, I'm talking to Patrick Brower (from Challengers, yeah?) this morning (and only this morning) and he says, "We're really getting behind on Contest of Challengers.  We're down to once-a-month."  Now, I normally tune Patrick out, but this time I inexplicably listened.  Lucky for me, because he has a point.  We are getting behind on Contest of Challengers, our store podcast.

Originally, Contest of Challengers was meant to be a quick, weekly discussion with a random customer/reader.  Due to listener feedback, we lengthed the run-time to around 30 minutes.  Around the same time, frequency of recording dropped off.  I'd love to blame someone else, but the two aren't connected.  No, this one's kind-of on our haphazard booking tactics.  See, our method for arranging a Contest of Challengers recording has been "hope we have time" and "hope you have time".  As you can tell by the lax updating, this is not ideal.

But you may notice I said our method HAS BEEN hoping things line up.  No longer!  We are now attempting to SCHEDULE time to do Contests of Challengers.  If you want to give us 30 minutes of your time in exchange for the Internet attention (that means listening along with three other tasks) of easily fives of people, let us know when you can come in to talk with us.  We'll work with you ahead of time to either clear our schedules for that half-hour, or reschedule for a better time.  Starting Friday, September 3rd, either give us a call (773-278-0155) during store hours, or shoot us an e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with the subject "Contest of Challengers Booking", and we'll help you achieve web non-fame.

-Superchunk, "Rope Light"

The first five people to pick up Superchunk's BRAND NEW (and thoroughly excellent) album Majesty Shredding at Challengers on September 14th will get a FREE Majesty Shredding poster.  It's like a gift (free poster) on top of a gift (SUPERCHUNK)!

Thanks to Jay at Merge Records for providing the wholly unnecessary enticement to pick up this fine new album.

Megan Byrd & Cameron Keleher got married today.  At Challengers.  In Star Trek uniforms. And Patrick performed the ceremony.  The whole event was streamed live on the Internet (so all their Australian peeps could watch) and the music playlist consisted of songs by The Muppets, Omodaka, Sex Bob-Omb and the Star Trek Next Generation theme song.  Video coming soon.  The above picture features Shelby, Michelle, Bride Megan and Molly.  Make it so! 

The November Future Release for Marvel, DC and Dark Horse are up.  The rest (Image, Other Publishers) should be up by Monday evening at the latest.  August 22nd Update:  All done!  Go have a look.

Aaron, the winner of the Challengers Choice prize from our Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour Costume Contest, stopped by to pick up his prize today.  Here's a photo of Aaron with the most valuable prize you could ever win:



A 1-Up.

Winners!  We can finally announce the winners of our Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour Costume Contest.  If you've been paying attention to the voting these last few weeks, you'll know that, while a few entries took off to an early (some might say "insurmountable") lead, it did go back and forth between two competitors.  The winners, including the Challengers Choice special prize, are listed below.

One note first, though.  Originally we'd intended the contest's end to coincide with the release of not only the Scott Pilgrim movie, but a ton of related merchandise due to be released the week before.  Thanks to our "valued" retail partners, that turned out to not be the case.  Many items have been pushed back to the second half of August.  But we promised a winner would be announced, so here we are.  We will absolutely honor the awarding of prizes, we just have to wait for the prizes to exist, for the most part.  Details about specific prize availability accompanies the listings.




FIRST PLACE: The Boys!! And Crash, with Ramona Flowers

TB!!AC and Ramona will be splitting the following prizes:
A set of the 8" plush Scott and Ramona dolls (tentatively available August 25th)
A Scott Pilgrim T-Shirt oftheir  choice (some in-stock now, some in-stock August 18th)
A PSN gift card to pay for the Scott Pilgrim videogame (will be here August 15th)



SECOND PLACE: Kim Pine

Kim Pine wins:
A Scott Pilgrim T-Shirt of your choice (some in-stock now, some in-stock August 18th)
A set of the 4" plush Scott and Ramona clip-ons (tentatively available August 25th)



CHALLENGERS CHOICE: The Amount Of Money Matthew Patel Leaves After Being Defeated

TAOMMPLABD will be the "proud" owner of:
Still under construction.  We'll post pictures on Monday, August 16th, at which point the winner (who still needs to contact us!) can come pick it up.

There you have it.  Thanks to all those who participated, either in costume or through voting!  We'll be doing something like this again real soon, I'm sure.

We FINALLY have a confirmed time for our Scott Pilgrim screening.  It's 7:50pm at the Muvico Rosemont this Friday.  Dal'll be in the upstairs Premeire lobby (upstairs lobby?) starting at 7pm Friday.  You can pick up your tickets there between 7-7:45pm.  If you have any questions about where/when/how/why before Friday, let us know.

Currently, we offer in-store subscribers (those who have books held for them on a weekly basis) the ability to track and manage their subscriptions through this website. Since the beginning of this function, we've done it for each subscriber, updating their My Subscriptions page with new releases each week, removing purchased titles, and monitoring their pages for books they'd like to receive in the future.

The problem we've found, a few months later, is that most subscribers don't use this function, and many aren't even aware it exists.  That's doubly a problem since this feature isn't automatic, it requires dozens of hours of work each week.  Those that do utilize the service have told us that they like it, and want it to stick around.  But we can't keep spending hours each week updating data that's never seen.  So, here's what's happening: we are moving the My Subscriptions feature on the website to an OPT-IN feature. Meaning, if you want us to continue to update your My Subscriptions page with new releases and delete purchased products, YOU HAVE TO TELL US YOU WANT TO USE THE SERVICE by August 31st. At that point, anyone who hasn't responded by phone, e-mail or in-store will cease to have their online data updated.  After August 31st, if you decide to use the service, you are more than welcome to ask us to start updating your page again.

Once again, if you want to continue using the My Subscriptions feature of the website, LET US KNOW.  If you have any questions or comments regarding this change, please pass them along.

Introducing Fanboy Scouts Merit Badges! Series 1 consists of 10 different designs and all are available at Challengers right now! Each 100% high-quality embroidered 2" iron-on/heat seal patch comes attached to a full-color award placard that explains the requirements for the merit badge. Patches are $4.99 each.