We've made this super easy for you: We've opened a Shopify store! Nearly all of our graphic novels are listed, with single-issue comics in the works. Options for getting your books are the same as usual (local pick-up, weekly local delivery, and Priority Mail shipping) and selectable at checkout. Hopefully you'll find some cool books and be able to get them without too much hassle. If you have any problems with this new initiative, please let us know and we'll try to help. Thanks so much for thinking of us as a way to keep reading comics, and please stay safe.

It’s true! Both Challengers Comics + Conversation locations are BAD IDEA stores!

So just what does that mean? We’re glad you asked…

BAD IDEA is a brand-new comic book company doing things in a new way. They are self-distributing their comics, and only to a select number of stores around the world (100 stores, to start). Both Challengers locations are the ONLY Chicago stores that will have BAD IDEA comics for sale (again, to start). Here’s an article about them from The Comics Beat, but keep in mind that initial number of stores has already changed from 20 to 100. 

Also, there will be NO collections of their series, and NO digital versions available, either. Just single-issue comic books, plain and simple. And NO variant covers. Only 1 cover per issue.

And here’s their other big rule. Only ONE (1) copy per person of any BAD IDEA single issue. Period. We are not allowed to sell you multiple copies of ANY of their titles. That is a hard rule, so please don’t try to get around it. I’m sure your best friend really, really, really wants a copy, too, but they’ll have to come get it on their own.

So now, here’s how it works at Challengers.

If you want to subscribe to any of their titles, to be picked up at either of our locations, you are absolutely welcome to join our FREE Subscription Service. In fact, here’s a link to a handy form for it. That form also has all our rules on it, so be sure to give it a close look. And hey, you’ll get 10% OFF of every title on your subscription list!

Here is our one catch: If you want us to hold any BAD IDEA titles for you, you have to subscribe to the whole series. Our subscription service is not for individual issues; it is for ongoing series.

We will not hold a copy of a single issue of any BAD IDEA titles for you. But they will be available on the shelves, so you are always welcome to come in and grab yourself a copy (ONE copy) if you don’t want a subscription.

Will we Mail Order subscriptions? Sure, but you’ll have to pre-pay for the first 4-issue arc and pay $10 for USPS Priority Mail shipping. Your bagged and boarded books will be shipped out after all 4 issues have been released. You can order that at this link.

And that’s it! That’s all you need to know! We’re sure you’ll be hearing a LOT more from BAD IDEA in the immediate future and we’ll do our best to keep you updated, too!

Keep Reading Comics!

As we've done in years past (based on posts from other retailers like Brian Hibbs from Comix Experience), here's our list of the 100 top-selling comics at Challengers in 2019. This list is based on the number of copies each issue sold, with the higher priced issue being listed first in the case of a tie. I'm sure we'll be discussing this list on an upcoming episode of Contest of Challengers, so keep an eye or ear or whatever open for that in the coming week. Otherwise, look over this list and see if you need to check some of these out in 2020!