A Paid Advertisement.  July 8th, 2008 (Los Angeles, CA) --  BOOM! Studios today officially launched a new Retailer Only Blog -- a blog designed specifically for direct market retailers that highlights BOOM!'s forthcoming releases --  with the full issue of their benefit anthology, PULP TALES #1.

The Retailer Only Blog features new issues at the retailer's convenience a week before they are released, as well as periodic pre-releases like PULP TALES #1 as they become available to coincide with solicitations in Diamond's Previews.

 

All profits from PULP TALES #1 benefit artist Josh Medors, who was recently diagnosed with cancer, and features an all-star lineup of talent.  PULP TALES contains work by Steve Niles, B. Clay Moore, Chris Samnee, Seth Peck, Tony Fleecs, Kody Chamberlain and many more! Everyone involved, including the printer, has donated time, talent and resources to make sure every last dollar goes to Medors.

 

"We created the Retailer Only Blog to get our comics into the hands of retailers so they will be able to order our books with more confidence than ever before.  I can't think of a better book than PULP TALES #1 to launch the Retailer Ony Blog, as every additional order directly benefits Josh Medors and helps in his fight against cancer," said Chip Mosher, Marketing and Sales Director of BOOM! Studios.

To gain access to the blog, retailers should email their full store contact info to: retailerpromo@boom-studios.com.

 

BOOM!'s Retailer Only Blog has been in "beta test" mode for the last six months with a small group of retailers as beta testers.  Noted retailers Mike Malve of Atomic Comics and James Sime of Isotope -- the comic book lounge had this to say about their experiences:

 

Mike Malve of Atomic Comics -- "BOOM! Studios is really going above and beyond to work with retailers to promote their product and their new retailer-only blog continues this extraordinary outreach to the community.  BOOM!'s a leader in the field of making sure retailers and publishers work hand-in-hand to help each other succeed."

 

James Sime of Isotope - the comic book lounge -- "I think this is a really exciting, innovative idea on BOOM!'s part, and I couldn't be happier to see this publisher doing what it can to help get guys like me the information we need in order to truly order with confidence."

"Because by the very nature of the business, we retailers are the industry's financial Evel Knievels who make the comics world go 'round just by revving our collective engines. We're the funnybook equivalent of high-stakes Texas hold'em all-or-nothing gamblers, ordering product sight unseen on little more than a hope and a prayer that it'll sell.  Knowing that anything I order that doesn't sell comes directly out of my paycheck, my spending money when I go out, the nice gift I was saving up to get for my girl's birthday, my ability to put food on the Sime household's table?  Only an insane fool wouldn't do whatever it takes to hunt down any tiny little scrap of information or any little piece of art from a new title that a publisher might decide to bless us with before placing those orders.  And you'd better believe Momma Sime didn't raise no fools."

 

"BOOM!'s commitment to providing their retailing partners with such an awesomely useful tool to help us do our jobs is like telling Evel Knievel how many busses he'd be jumping before he zipped up his famously star-spangled suit. If we could only get more publishers to do business like our friends at BOOM!... I bet we retailers would break a hell of a lot more records."

 

Mark Waid, Editor-in-Chief of BOOM! Studios, agrees.  "What better way is there to get our comics into the hands of readers than to get them into the hands of retailers?" said BOOM! Studios Editor-in-Chief Mark Waid.  "Now we can establish a direct relationship with retailers and give them a chance to see our books weeks to months before they hit the shelves.  And there is no BOOM! book more deserving of their attention right now than PULP TALES #1."

 

Retailers are encouraged to print out and show PULP TALES #1, and any other new issues posted on the blog, to customers so they can get exposed to BOOM!'s latest offerings.  Every week, PDFs will be posted highlighting the newest issues for the month of both new and ongoing series.  In addition to individual comics, trade paperbacks will also be available online.

 

"We have a lot of great titles -- titles we know comic readers will like," Waid said.  "This is a proactive step to getting more books to more readers in upcoming years."

 

About BOOM! Studios:

BOOM! Studios (http://www.boom-studios.com) is a unique new publishing house specializing in high-profile projects across a wide variety of different genres from some of the industry's biggest talents. In its inaugural year, Wizard Magazine named BOOM! "Best New Publisher."  Founded by the creator of the TV show EUREKA, Andrew Cosby, and his partner Ross Richie, BOOM! Studios continues to be on the leading edge of comic and graphic novel publishing.