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About Us
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Howdy! Saturday, May 4th, was Free Comic Book Day, which is our busiest day of the year at our Mile High Comics Jason St. Mega-Store. I had all sorts of plans for my participation in this exciting annual celebration, but they all came crashing down (quite literally...) when my huge cargo van slid on ice while descending Vail Pass on April 15th, and hit the concrete highway divider head-on at 60 mph.
Ironically, because my cargo van is so solid, I might have actually walked away from that terrifying event, but for the fact that the explosion of the steering wheel airbag shattered the two primary bones in my left forearm into ten+ pieces each. The force of that explosion also dislocated my left shoulder, but that shoulder injury was quickly resolved in the ER. I also compressed away 1/3 of my L-1 disc in my lower back during the impact, and suffered a massive "whiplash concussion" that completely reversed all of the progress that I had made from the similarly severe concussion that I suffered in March of last year. Sigh.
I mention the details of my injuries only so that I can point out how I adapted to these dreadful debilitations. I need to begin by noting that even though I am now well past typical retirement age, I remain the driving force behind our marketing efforts at Mile High Comics. In point of fact, I only suffered these injuries because I was on my fourth journey to California (in a span of just 90 days) to pick up toys from the hundreds of wholesalers who operate in the world-famous LA Toy District.
My plan had been to fill my cargo van to the ceiling (again) with all manner of cool Manga and Anime-related imports, highly popular items that no one else in Colorado is able to offer because they are imported in such small quantities that the California retailers typically end up buying them all. I also had a deal arranged with a Southern California toy retailer who was liquidating his overflow warehouse to purchase $50,000 in his brand new toys (most of which we had never before offered) for only $10,000. In a nutshell, this trip was intended to provide a significant portion of our core inventory for this year’s Free Comic Book Day.
Well, my crash shot that beautiful FCBD marketing plan all to hell. After four days in the hospital in Vail, I left with an arm cobbled back together only after seven hours of surgery (and copious applications of glue, a steel plate, and steel pins), a very tender lower back (no lifting allowed for at least 60 days), and a brain so scrambled that I could barely stand up without support. Not a particularly good prescription for creating future prosperity, especially during our upcoming physically-demanding Free Comic Book Day event.
Long story a bit shorter, while I cannot at this time drive, stand for long periods, or lift, I do still have my iPhone, and about two hours of reasonably good mental energy each day. From the moment that I was wheeled out of the hospital, I began brainstorming over the phone with my incredible team at Mile High Comics about how to adapt to this unexpected change in plans. Pam and Will took the lead in this effort, with Pam working to upgrade and enhance all of our existing product displays, and Will organizing the daunting logistics of smoothly distributing ten thousand-plus free comic books. Suffice it to say, those tasks were quite difficult.
For my part, I focused my limited hours of mental acuity upon writing ads and online newsletters to boost interest in our Free Comic Book Day. The "national" ad that I composed about our Mega-Store has (up to this morning) already elicited 85,000 post engagements, while our "local" ad campaign (which was exclusively about Free Comic Book Day) concluded Saturday after more than 9,000 post engagements. Given the paltry sums that I had to invest in these ad campaigns, those were incredibly positive outcomes.
Another bit of good news is that my previous three buying trips to Los Angeles were so successful that our store actually lacked for very little going into Free Comic Book Day. In point of fact, my beloved wife, Nanette Furman, was convinced prior to my leaving on that fateful April 15th that my fourth trip to Los Angeles was an exercise in overkill, and that we really did not need all of that additional stuff to make our Free Comic Book Day a success. Well, she has been proven to be completely correct. We absolutely smoked yesterday, with our sales coming in at a staggering 152% (!) of Free Comic Book Day 2023. Woo! My take-aways from this grand adventure are that tenacity and preparation can help you to overcome even the most dreadful of calamities. As regards tenacity, I could have laid back and allowed my unceasing post-concussive brain fog to have stopped me, but I instead chose to utilize whatever lucid moments that I could garner to brainstorm about how we could somehow make more, out of less. It helps beyond all telling to have an incredibly experienced and talented team to back me up, but my role as the head of marketing also remained a critical aspect to our success. I could no longer drive to CA, lift boxes, or help with building displays, but by writing some truly evocative ad copy, I shared the news of our upcoming event with the 3,000+ people who ultimately chose to visit our Mega-Store yesterday, and who helped us to succeed far beyond all prior expectations.
As regards preparation, my three previous buying trips (obviously) helped to stock us, but Will and Pam also did an incredible job of rearranging displays, cleaning and refurbishing all of the darkest corners of our vast Mega-Store, and assiduously buying choice collections from local sellers that filled in whatever few gaps that remained in our inventory. Throughout all of this all that I could really do was to provide moral support, but I do think that my remaining a part of the process did at least help a little.
I want to close this little discourse with a couple of cogent points. First, I believe that you need to always have the humility to realize that you cannot make it in this world alone. Creating and maintaining lifelong friendships is hard, as we all go through changes that require a constancy of adaptation and acceptance. Sometimes those changes in our friends can be jarring, and quite hard to accept. Having people who care about you and will back you up during times of great difficulty is critical to getting through this life, however, so investing the time and emotional energy needed to empathize with the life changes that our friends are dealing with is totally worth it. Second, always have back-up plans and redundancies. I have had innumerable people call me a hoarder over the years, and I do willingly own that attribution. But, when the poopie hit the proverbial fan on April 15th, I already had an overabundance of great stuff stashed away to get me through this years Free Comic Book Day, and also the rest of 2024. Need I say more?
Finally, do try to always remember that your success in this world also requires other people to see you achieving your dreams as being important to their own lives. I get up every morning dedicated to the premise that I am going to (some way, some how) create some good in the world that day. Simply put, yesterday was the culmination of a great many of those good intentions. Please do take a moment to scroll through the accompanying photos (below) from our Free Comic Book Day event, and take special note of all of the smiles, especially on the children. More than any other reason, I believe that it is my creating these moments of heartfelt joy for so many people that justifies my continued existence in this world. That is also why I am so truly grateful that I could still be here to share in Free Comic Book Day 2024. Love is love!
Chuck Rozanski/Bettie Pages, P.S. My only other news note for today is a quick reminder that our 60% off FCBD! codeword sale is still in effect for you on all 10,000,000+ of our back issue comics and magazines. Only new issues, a few variants and restored comics, and our professionally graded items are exempt.
Past eMail NewsLetters:
May 6, 2024 - Free Comic Book Day Wrap-Up |
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