It’s January, so that means it’s once again time for others to predict the death of the direct market!
Graphic Novel sales seem down in stores across the country, but not at Challengers.
DC’s Zoom and Ink are a good idea but we don’t know that they’ll land with our customer base.
The white-washing of Damian Wayne.
Yes, the industry is evolving, but it needs to evolve.
All the problems retailers are identifying now feel like things we’ve already been thru.
2018 sales by category vs 2017 sales.
Patrick’s niece was in Australia on her honeymoon, so we asked her to swing by All-Star Comics in Melbourne and give them a little Chicago care package.
We’re pretty excited for WrestleKingdom 13, but it’ll have happened by the time you hear this, so never mind.
Post-credit tribute to Mean Gene Okerlund (from CoC #314).

Diamond Comic Distributors catches Patrick’s ire one last time for the year.
Some customers only see what they want to see.
Some stores got next week’s book’s last Monday. We still don’t have them.
Specifically nerdy Christmas gifts we received.
With almost nothing new on the shelves the week of Christmas, people are finding some older comics, and that’s neat.
Keep Reading Comics n 2019!!
At the start of 2018, we tried to plan more experiences than signing. That did not work.
Lucy Knisley returns to Challengers in March! As does Women’s Comics Month.

It’s a Christmas episode! Just by the fact that it’s recorded in late December. Also, Santa has a cameo, and so does Stan Lee.
Another long-running comic shop is calling it quits.
Santa came to hang out and spread some Holiday Cheer this Wednesday, and he made a video to remind subscribers to pick up their comics. And then we decided to share it with other stores…
Marvel’s Stan Lee tributes make selling those comics just a little bit harder.
New Comic Releases for the next 2 weeks are kind of weird; the content and the actual shipping dates.
An audio transcript of the ‘Email Primer’ we’re giving out to all subscribers in 2019.
The Christmas Eve release of the newest Dogman graphic novel.
#joinin
And, unlike the Aquaman movie, this episode has a post-credits scene! (Aquaman has a MID-credits scene, but not a POST-credits scene)