Talk the Talk, Walk the Walk is a weekly column by Kendall Swafford of Up Up Away! in Cincinnati, Ohio. This week, Kendall comments tells the story of the Cincinnati issue of Superman in his store.Twenty-five times. Talk about turning a cow's ear into a silk purse! It’s Saturday morning as I write this, and as of close of business Friday evening, we’ve sold twenty-five times the number of Superman #703's as we did of #701 or #702. My best projections over the next several days conservatively raises that number to nearly twenty-NINE times. This is what I was talking about; WE made the effort, and in spite of the lack of support from the publisher, and a writer who couldn’t meet his deadline causing a month-long delay, we managed to position ourselves as THE place to be when Superman arrived in Cincinnati.
I have to admit, my enthusiasm for the entire event had waned considerably recently. Twice delayed, I was certain the media would look at us as the boy who cried wolf. "C'mon guys, Superman's really coming to town this time, I SWEAR!" That’s what they had to be hearing at this point, right? But this time, the planets seemed to align perfectly in our favor. The Reds were swept in the playoffs, everyone’s tired of talking about what might be wrong with the Bengals, and no one got shot in the Queen City this week. So when the press releases go out, and the calls are made, the media seemed to collectively decide to give us some press. And like I’d been saying all along, the name of my store is Up Up & Away!, I had to make this place the center of the universe when Superman comes to town.
But, having grown weary from the delays and the lack of enthusiasm coming from DC, I had scaled back our orders to initially a little less than ten times our normal sales level, based upon pre-orders and my gut telling me that we’d move some extra copies, but most people had moved on to something else shiny.
Tuesday morning, Meghan Mongello from FOX19 calls, and they want to broadcast live from the store Wednesday morning. That immediately creates a logistics nightmare on a Wednesday morning, but hey, that's part of the fun. Having spoken to not only the local FOX affiliate, but two other local TV stations and The Cincinnati Enquirer, they were all stunned that not only did I not have an advance copy, but that we receive our product only three HOURS before it goes on sale. More on that later...
The previous Friday I received a call from The Enquirer looking for a quote, and what our plans were for the day. At this point I still had the local actor coming as Superman, and the city had already issued the proclamation, making September 15th, no September 29th, wait October 13th Superman Day. No reason to change those plans, I was just a little discouraged at that point, but the reporter said they MIGHT put something in the paper on Tuesday if they have room. So now, the number one local morning show wants to broadcast live from my store for two hours Wednesday morning. I order a few hundred more copies on Tuesday morning. Then the NBC affiliate calls, wanting to know when they can come out. Tuesday afternoon, The Enquirer calls to tell me the story ran in this morning’s paper, and they want to send a photographer out Wednesday while Superman is in the store.
I call Tom, the best sign-maker around, and tell him I need a banner for the outside of the store, and I need it delivered. Today. "No problem." He has it there by 2pm. So far, so good. Of course, a little sprucing up is in order, a little spit & polish for the TV camera, no big deal. That’s on top of everything else we do on Tuesday to prepare for Wednesday; prepping the invoice, moving displays, etc... The phone won’t stop ringing thanks to the newspaper article, but we weren’t the only store mentioned in the paper, so I expected more, but not an avalanche. But my gut tells me to order more, so I do.
Unbeknownst to me, 700 WLW, the big, mega-watt giant AM talk-radio station finds out somehow that the mayor had proclaimed it Superman Day, so they interview him on Tuesday for a Wednesday morning broadcast. Turns out, it sounds like a five-minute commercial for my store, because they’re pretty proud to have us there, and Jim Scott, the DJ thinks Up Up & Away! is a great name for a comic book store!
Wednesday morning, 5:00am. I’m up and getting ready to meet the camera crew at the store at 6:00am. I’m usually at UPS at 8:00am picking up the shipment, but my wife has been left with that task. While I’m on TV, it occurs to me how ludicrous this is, given that the store won’t be open for hours, and we can’t even show them a copy of the comic book! Meghan from FOX19 finds six different ways to ask the same questions, and I find six different ways to answer. Since this is live, the store is already getting calls, both the NBC and CBS affiliates have it prominently on their websites, and the radio interview with the mayor has already begun airing.
By now, friends are texting, calling and emailing me about it all. We're expecting my wife to arrive at 8:45 with the comics, they want to film that, film us stocking the shelves and show the comic in the last segment at 9:00am. When the boxes arrive, all I can think of is Geraldo opening Capone’s vault; please Diamond, don’t fail me now! So far, everything has gone perfectly; I’m charming and charismatic on TV (ha!), the product arrives right on time, and I manage to get FOX19 wrapped up and out of the store, leaving us about 90 minutes to check the shipment in and get the store ready to open. Thanks to my wife and daughter, we actually open early! And the phone never stops ringing. So I order a few hundred more for delivery on Friday. My main man Don Mahanna from Diamond (Best. Diamond Rep. EVER.) hooks me up with some variant covers to go along with all the reorders.
We’re open, everything’s running like clockwork, and the flow of customers is never-ending. Clearly, we’re never going to have enough copies, so I asked many of my regulars to wait for their copy, and most do so gladly. They’re thrilled to see THEIR comic book store getting all the attention and are happy to help. We took pre-orders online, and let all of those customers know they could pickup beginning Friday, giving us a few hundred more for the shelf. And we make it through most of the day, taking pre-orders and pre-payments the last hour or so that we’re open.
Restocked on Thursday, out by Thursday afternoon. Now what? When I placed my last reorder on Wednesday, I was sure we had plenty for the shelf for the weekend. D'oh! By Friday evening, they’re gone. Again. With nothing on the shelf for Saturday. So here we are, facing an entire weekend, taking pre-paid orders for Wednesday pickup. I have to admit, it’s a really nice problem to have!
I have to say, after seeing the coverage we got, and after waiting on hundreds of customers hungry for this book, I got the distinct impression that everyone else got the distinct impression that my store was the ONLY place you could get the book. It was never said, nor implied, and The Enquirer explicitly stated it was available in other stores, but the dumb luck brought on by the name of the store coupled with the widespread coverage on TV, radio and print made people believe that this was the place to be if you wanted to see Superman in Cincinnati.
So... I was right. This is the kind of event that mobilized hundreds and hundreds of people to flock to my store, because it’s just kind of cool to see Superman in Cincinnati in a comic book. It’s a cheap thrill for three bucks. People were excited, even though we were reduced to four pages in the comic itself. Hey, Batman stopped by to chat with Superman, imagine what we could have done with THAT information. It succeeded way beyond my wildest imagination, with ZERO thanks going to DC Comics.
DC did NOTHING but ignore me or break promises to me. After what some would call my public temper tantrum in this very column, DC stepped up and promised to send buttons and posters. I’m still waiting. I realize the last several weeks have been very tumultuous at DC, but that’s not my problem. If someone at DC would have said, "Listen, the sky is falling right now in New York, many of us are unsure if we even have a job come October 13th, so you’re gonna have to fend for yourself..." I would have been cool with that. People's lives were being affected by all the changes at DC, but the train still has to run on time. And if someone promises buttons and posters, I expect buttons and posters. I moved several hundred more units of DC's product, with no help whatsoever from them. I put money in my pocket, I put money in THEIR pocket, I put money in J. Michael Straczynski’s pocket. It might not be Hollywood script money, but you’re welcome, by the way.
As the title of the column says, this really is a story with a happy ending. DC makes the right decisions 90% of the time in regard to how they treat direct market retailers, and I respect that. J. Michael Straczynski has a proven track record of delivering scripts late, and I could have, or should have, anticipated that. I won’t count on him ever again, but I’m still looking forward to reading Superman: Earth One.
I found out I could count on my publicist Bob Sanders, my wife and family, my customers, and of course, myself. I hope the stores in Chicago, Des Moines and wherever Superman lands next enjoy the same success we did. It's been a wild ride, but next Wednesday is right around the corner.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
