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Pittsburgh, PA, February 22, 2024 – Day One of the ComicsPro Comic Industry Meeting was filled with distributor updates, educational classes, and publisher announcements to excite retailers for the year ahead of them. While everyone acknowledged the challenges of 2023, the general tone of the day was optimistic, focusing on how stores and publishers can work together to generate readership and sales through 2024.
Presentations from distributors highlighted changes to shipping and payment options meant to alleviate some of the pressures on retailers, including the 3% of retail flat-rate shipping cost from Diamond, upcoming updates to the statement and bill payment process from PRH, and Lunar announcing a switch to affidavit returns for most of the publishers they distribute.
Educational sessions included a variety of opportunities for attendees to learn things that could help them with everything from balancing their work/life balance to how to work with your sales rep. Attendees could spend time learning how to create outreach programs for schools and libraries or in-store events that generate excitement with the community. There were tips on how to run your store, work with your rep, and boost your bottom line with back issues, toys, online sales, or grading services.
Of course, the big highlights of the day were hearing the presentations from publishers such as DSTLRY, First Second, Boom Studios, Rocketship Entertainment, Magma Comix, Ghost Machine, Marvel, and DC. With big announcements on everything from Keanu Reeves’ Brzrkr universe to updates on evergreen titles and resources from the Big Two to DSTLRY’s Kodansha cover swap plan, the room was abuzz with excitement. A couple of the stand out announcements include:
– Publishers discussing ways they are expanding their marketing to outside avenues, like DSTLRY’s national press campaigns to treat every release like a pop culture event, Boom’s commitment to creating partnerships with influencers and develop book trailers for their titles, paid media ad campaigns from DC, and a slew of free resources coming from several different publishers, including Marvel!
– First Second had a slew of great new graphic novels including the expansion of things like the Investigators Universe, their Science and History Comics line, and the new Asgardians line.
– Boom brought several teams of creators to discuss upcoming titles including the Roger Rabbit-style coming of age story, Uncanny Valley, from Stray Dogs’ Tony Fleecs and TMNT’s Dave Wachter.
– Ghost Machine revealed details from their first three books launching April 3 as part of what they call Ghost Machine Day.
– Marvel packed their presentation with teasers, including a new line of covers from the always popular Skottie Young and in-stock must-haves for the upcoming Deadpool release including promotional window clings.
– DC announced evergreen content such as omnibus prints of DC Vs Marvel Amalgam crossover, fan-favorite facsimiles. But they stole the show, receiving a standing ovation, when they announced the return to New Comic Book Day Wednesday with FOCs on Mondays.
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