From Memphis, a Local Comic Book Retailer Offers Good(ish) News for the Superhero Biz

It's new-comics Wednesday ... not so's I'd know, um, swear. But it does provide this opportunity to point out that Lone Star Comics' general manager Chris Powell is among those cited at length in a new Publishers Weekly report from the just-wrapped ComicsPRO convention in Memphis, where comic-book retailers insisted...

By Robert Wilonsky

March 25, 2009

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It's new-comics Wednesday ... not so's I'd know, um, swear. But it does provide this opportunity to point out that Lone Star Comics' general manager Chris Powell is among those cited at length in a new Publishers Weekly report from the just-wrapped ComicsPRO convention in Memphis, where comic-book retailers insisted their business has thus far proven recession-proof. Watchmen reissues, Obama comics and other high-profile events have helped in recent months, but, says Powell -- a board member of the comics retailer organization and one of the event's organizers -- Marvel and DC's move to $3.99 titles may not help.

"In my personal experience I have not seen a lot of price resistance -- they grumble but they still buy them," he tells PW. "But some stores report that they have people who have dropped titles." Not quoted in the story is Jeff Albertson, who runs The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop and says of $4 comics, "Worst. Idea. Ever."

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