SAVANT::Retail

A few weeks ago I received the following E-mail:

"can you send me some of that sweet sweet cecil for retail this week?"

I'd like you to note two things about the above request, sent to me by SAVANT REX Matt Fraction. The first is the vaguely homocentric nature of the question. While I've known for months that he desires me sexually, I never realized that he was so conflicted about his nature hed hide erotic innuendoes in a query for submissions. The second thing Id like you to notice is the fact that not one letter in this sentence is capitalized. Not even the first letter, the one that begins the sentence. Hell, not even my fucking NAME is capitalized. This, I hasten to add, is the guy whom I allow to check my work for mistakes.

I got this letter (the one sentence-- only Matt's INTERVIEWS are long), and wondered for a moment about what I could do a SAVANT piece on. Specifically a RETAIL, which I always feel weird about. I worked in a shop for a year or so but I didn't own it, and I'm reluctant to tell someone who's staked their financial future on a dream how to run their business. Regardless, I always want to make myself available to my good friends the SAVANT editors. And I get a cheap thrill from seeing my name on their site.

So I thought about what I could write an article on. The answer was right there in front of me.

Supply and demand. We've all heard of that. Even lazy-ass-threw-my-future-away-on-a-liberal-arts-degree-bums like me. If the demand evaporates so does the supply. Think of Seventies memorabilia like Pet Rocks, Bicentennial neckties, and Chevy Chase. There's just no demand for this junk, so no one makes it anymore. The best way to keep this from happening with comics is to convince non-readers to try them out. The best way for readers to do this is to do what SAVANT has been saying for months: give them free comics to begin with.

Retailers, of course, cannot be expected to go this far. They are, you understand, in a business. And as much as I do believe in the Buying Stuff For Others method of comics infiltration into mainstream culture, allow me to quote The Godfather's Bruno Tatagglia: "After all, we are not Communists."

Retailers can have quarter bins for comics they can't otherwise sell. This allows kids (and cheapos like myself) to browse and buy stacks of Marvel's Indiana Jones comics for mere dollars. They can do what great shops across the planet do with back issues and put story runs together, with the 'Ace of Killers' arc from Hitman in one bag, for instance. Sell these back issues for a little less than the trade (or even better, with stories not collected in TPB format) and sell 'em to people who would otherwise not get a chance to read them. Retailers can do a million things to improve their businesses if they care enough to do it and have a steady stream of traffic.

And therein lies the problem. How do you get non-readers into your store to begin with? You have to look outside the world of comic books for the answer to that particular query.

Added to all you've already heard about online comics, the biggest boost comics can get from the web has so far gone unnoticed. The Internet has, in the last few years, removed the stink of geekdom from Science Fiction, Japanese Animation, and technical know-how. I believe that sooner or later, the web will work this same makeover magic on comic books and comic book readers. Already we see stories featuring fantastic settings and plots flying off the bookstore shelves. In fact, after reading Matt's request for sex - I mean an article - I looked up at the banner ad on my screen and saw an advertisement for Amazon.com. You know what they were using to get people clicking on the icon that would take them to the website?

Harry Potter.

I mean, for the love of Christ, how easy is this? You have a nephew, niece, cousin, or some other little rug-rat reading this stuff? I've read the Harry Potter books. I know what I'm talking about here. I think author J.K Rowlings is amazing in the same way I think Scary Godmother creator Jill Thompson is amazing. Managing to keep a delightful kid's tale going on while simultaneously keeping adults interested is tough. Both Rowlings and Thompson make it look easy. If you're unable to convince a child who's read these books to try out a comic, you should avoid any job that requires you to deal with children. Hell, you should avoid any job that requires you to work with PEOPLE. Or animals. Or machines. If you're unable to transfer the luster of Harry Potter onto a comic, you must be a social retard who sits around in his underwear, smoking cut-rate weed and wondering why Disney hasn't released Condorman on DVD.

And the great thing is that not only kids are reading this stuff. I see some person every day, on the subway here in NYC, reading the hardcover version of 'Goblet of Fire', the newest addition to the Harry Potter books. Adults are getting into a fantasy story. And let's be brutally honest here, not just geek adults. These are people who go to work and feed their kids and go out to eat and have never heard of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. They have no idea who wrote The Hobbit and they don't know the name of Chewbacca's dad. They couldn't tell you the difference between Jae, Jim, or Stan, and they think that Siegel and Shuster publish paperback books of Nietzche quotes.

These people watch Friends and go see movies that feature SNL characters. They care about what happens to Felicity. They buy CDs by Whitney Houston and Don Henley. They eat Chicken Caesar Salads and worry about homeowner's insurance. These are normal people, Soccer Moms and Angry White Males and Angry White Females and Democrats and Republicans and everyone else who hasn't picked up a comic at any point during the Clinton administration, if at all during their adulthoods.

Once or twice a year they read the same damn article in their local paper about comics. Sometimes it's the "Theres a convention in town, look at all the weirdos!" article. Sometimes it's the "Remember all those comics your mother threw out? Well now theyre worth thousands of dollars!" article. And sometimes it's the old "Bang! Pow! Zap! Holy Grown-ups, Batman! Comics aren't just for kids anymore!" article. Other than this brand of stunning journalism, they have no "In" to the world of comics. On top of that, they don't have much of a desire to enter even if they did, due to the stereotype of the comic fan (see Paul T. Riddell's CAT PISS MAN article for the greatest description of the stereotype I've yet to see). The success of the Harry Potter books can be used to change this.

The adults who read Harry Potter have already opened their eyes to the possibility of enjoying something they formerly saw as foolish and childlike. The same way they still see comics. If a retailer puts 'The Sorcerer's Stone' in the window, it just might get a customer who otherwise would have walked right by. Put 'The Chamber of Secrets' on a display next to the Sandman trades with a printed explanation of the similarities between the two stories, and that customer might take a look at Seasons of Mist. Place 'The Prisoner of Azkaban' next to The Books of Magic, and you might have a phenomenal sale that afternoon.

Which brings to me to the question of Books of Magic / Harry Potter similarity. The truth is that while they look like the same story, there aren't that many similarities at all. The physical appearance of the two characters and the geographic location of both stories are similar. It's like saying that Excalibur and Highlander are the same movie. Anyone who takes the time to look will see that they only appear the same on the surface.

It's being handed to us on a silver platter, this opportunity to reach a larger audience. And this isn't some Hollywood blowhard thinking he can make a buck off a new Superman franchise, either. This is the average guy-or-gal on the street, opening their minds to new things. The Harry Potter phenomenon has brought the mainstream right to the door of comics. We can wait until they knock before we let them in, or we can open the door before they change their minds. An easy decision, I would think. It isn't exactly rocket science. Hell, it isn't even 1st-grade Reading.

You know, where you learned to capitalize the beginnings of sentences.

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