HOPE! ending - JOY! Begins Howdy! I have a longer-than-usual newsletter for you today, but that is because the world is such a state of flux these days that I hardly even know where to begin. Never, ever, have I seen so much change in such a short period of time. It seems as though no sooner do I have one reasonable strategy in place, then that seemingly rational plan gets totally obviated by evolving events. On many levels this is both frustrating, and also maddening. Especially for someone (like me...) who likes to feel at least (somewhat) in control. A world filled with nothing but chaos is truly discomforting for us all. I'll begin by mentioning that the world is finally beginning to wake up to the fact that we will never return to the economic reality we had just eight weeks ago. We all read about the millions of job losses and business closures, but those manifestations of change are but the tip of the proverbial iceberg. In the specific case of the comics world, it is becoming increasing clear to me that the entire process of publishing new material is about to change. While Diamond Distributing is supposedly gearing up to reopen on the 20th, they essentially will have nothing to ship. There are a tiny number of periodicals and trade paperback collections in the pipeline, but that's it. Mystery Pack pulling area Sadly, no significant publishing plans have been announced for June, either. For many comics shops, that lack of upcoming product spells their doom. A few longtime comics shops (Lee's Comics in Palo Alto and San Diego Comics) have already thrown in the towel, but they are but the first of what I foresee as a massive wave of bankruptcies. Sadly, the majority of comics shops in America hitched their fortunes to the concept of being Diamond Catalog Outlet Stores, living almost entirely on the revenues provided by their weekly shipments from that one huge single-source supplier. Now that those shipments no longer exist, their cash flow is essentially crippled. Absent an infusion of some external capitalization, they are out of business. Where this nightmare scenario gets really ugly is not from some percentage of Direct Market Comics Shops folding (which actually has happened many times in the past), but rather from the resulting further diminishment in advance orders being placed with Diamond. The new comics industry was already "Mature" in the parlance of economic theory, with the market leaders minimizing investment, and instead seeking to milk the last few bits of cash out of a steadily declining market via increased cover prices. Sadly, however, it is precisely those kinds of businesses that an economic downturn such as the one that we are experiencing right now devastates, as production costs begin to exceed any possible benefit. Simply put, without 100% of the comics shops reopening and placing orders for upcoming periodicals, our critical mass that justifies going to press with most new comics is lost, forever. Jason Street Mega Store I wish that I could somehow sugarcoat this news for you, but I have spent many sleepless nights in contemplation, and I don't see any easy way out of this critical mass dilemma. On the plus side, we reopened our Jason St. Mega-Store on Saturday, and had a wonderful outpouring of support from our local fans. That having been said, we benefitted enormously from our immense back issues selection, with nearly 90% of our revenues that day being generated from back issue comics, out-of-print comics trade paperbacks and hardbacks, and out-of-production collectible toys. Simply put, selling new publications has always been an afterthought for us, which was quite intentional. I always thought that the idea of being a "Diamond Catalog Outlet Store" was inherently very risky, and now the prescience of my concerns is becoming clear. Relying entirely upon just one supplier is seldom a good idea. Just saying. Now that I've laid some groundwork, I'll pass along some site-specific observations. First, our 50% off HOPE! codeword sale on all of our back issue comics and magazines will need to end on Wednesday morning, at 10 AM. If you choose to place a last-minute HOPE! codeword order, please allow us up to three weeks! for your order to ship. We may be able to get your order out much faster than that, but even as I am typing this newsletter, I have been receiving dozens of updates on my cell phone from our server that even more orders have been placed with us. Those are in addition to the 300+ orders that arrived over the weekend. Simply put, in just over 72 hours we sold over 15,000 individual comics, magazines, graphic novels, trade paperbacks, and comics hardbacks. Oh, hell... Jason Street Mega Store So you know, this surge in online demand is really unprecedented. We were actually feeling really good on Friday, as when we left that day we were completely current in our shipping of orders. Everything that we had received as of noon that day, had shipped. That all changed, however, when so many orders flooded in to us during this past weekend, we are now completely booked for at least this entire week. Some of those orders were for our incredibly popular "Mystery Boxes," but a significant number were from fans filling in individual missing issues, sometimes ordering more than one hundred items at a time. Those orders take a really long time for our staff to pull and invoice, which is why I am now projecting that it will take us a considerable period of time to catch up. So why are back issues suddenly so popular? My theory is that a great many housebound people are finally getting bored with binge-watching older cable shows, and have started rediscovering the joys of comics and graphic storytelling. In addition, fans who had fallen behind in their reading of new issues are finally catching up, and then realizing that they missed out on some excellent titles. As a direct result, demand for interesting titles from the past ten years has simply exploded. Print runs on most of those titles were tiny, however, so collecting recent back issues has suddenly become a huge game of "musical chairs," with prices surging upward as a direct result. Chuck with one million comics In the midst of all the other madness, it should come as no surprise that I am suddenly receiving offers to buy vast numbers of our back issue comics. It seems that the entire world has finally figured out that I am the one on the planet who hoarded ten million+ awesome back issues during the happy decades of oversupply, and that now that new issues are in abeyance, I am sitting on a (theoretical) fortune. Broad hints have even been dropped that certain people would be willing to buy our entire company. That's all very interesting, but not at all appealing. I have spent 50 years building up our inventory, and I now find that I am so wrapped up in comics as a part of my own personal persona, that I cannot imagine life without them. Besides, this has never been about money for me, as my personal financial needs are next to nothing. I honestly just like serving fans like you very much, and want to do nothing else. It's just that simple. I will close by mentioning that, as of Wednesday morning at 10 AM, our new 40% codeword will be JOY! As per usual, this 40% off discount will apply to all ten million+ of our in-stock back issue comics and magazines, excepting only new issues, a few variants, and our professionally-graded items. Happy collecting! Chuck Rozanski/Bettie Pages, President - Mile High Comics, Inc. May 11, 2020 Out-of-print Trade Area P.S. I forgot to mention that we can no longer offer any discount, at all, on our graphic novels, trade paperbacks, and comics hardbacks. I am still going to be selling our 300,000+ books, but I am done giving them away. In all honesty, this elimination of discounting on our books is reflective of my own personal fear that many longtime fan favorite book titles are about to go out-of-print, with no new printings scheduled. Simply put, with so many of the Direct Market comics shops now likely gone, how are the publishers ever going to cost-justify going back to press on their older book titles? Bookshops will buy some, but for many comics book titles, what are extant right now is all that there will every be. Truly, this is a watershed moment in comics history, one from which it may take many years to recover. Above all else, I am doing everything that I can to prepare for a very long drought. Please be safe... Current Newsletter