Talk the Talk, Walk the Walk is a weekly column by Kendall Swafford of Up Up Away! in Cincinnati, Ohio.  This week, Kendall shares his impressions from the ComicsPro Annual meeting, recently completed in Dallas.

ComicsPRO 2010.  There are three kinds of retailers in this business: the clueless ones with no business sense, largely made up of fanboys-turned-flea market dealers-turned store owners.  We’ll call them 'amateurs.'  Then there are plenty of successful retailers who simply aren’t joiners; guys that have terrific operations but no aspirations to be a part of the comic retailer community at large--ones I call 'isolationists.'  Then there are the rest of us--ComicsPRO members.

ComicsPRO members are as varied as the comic book stores they represent.  From a guy like Chris Powell of Lone Star Comics (seven stores + mycomicshop.com) to Barry Herring of Southern Fried Comics (who was in the ComicsPRO mentoring program just a year ago) to Jud Meyers of Earth 2 Comics (Southern California’s retailer to the stars), ComicsPRO truly represents, and conversely is represented by, some of the finest people I’ve ever met.  It’s not a club of solely the biggest, most well known stores in the country, it’s truly a cross-section of store owners big and small, famous and notorious.

Which brings us to Dallas, Texas.  The weather has been well documented (it was colder in Dallas the day I arrived than it was in Ohio!) as has the BOOM! Studios RV (what happens in the RV, stays in the RV).  So we’ll move on and try to reconstruct everything I can remember from the week.  I arrived too late to take advantage of Bob Wayne’s hospitality, but think about this for a moment: Bob Wayne, all-around good guy and now a Senior VP at DC Entertainment, invited everyone in town on Wednesday over to his home in Texas for a barbecue.  He certainly didn’t have to, but it illustrates to me how guys like Bob Wayne feel about the people in this group.

So those of us who didn’t make it to Bob’s place spent some time in the hotel bar.  I spent a few hours chatting with Ralph and Katherine of Alternate Realities, and also met Jay Bosworth of Maximum Comics.  Both stores are in Las Vegas, and it was refreshing to see the two stores not be in an adversarial relationship, but actually enjoy each other’s company.  Jay recently opened a second Maximum location, and I was anxious to learn about that experience from someone who’s gone through those growing pains recently.  It was also Jay’s first time at a ComicsPRO annual meeting.  I hope he found it worthwhile.

Thursday is always DC Day, as the fine folks at DC Entertainment sponsor the entire day of programming.  It’s an investment for DC of tens of thousands of dollars, ultimately to just have a conversation; a dialogue with a group of retailers interested in moving their business and the industry forward.  The broad strokes of editorial are presented, but it’s really not the focus of why we’re here.  Content is King, of course, but the editorial stuff coming down the pipeline is information that already reaches us at lightning speed.

DC really spends the day wanting to know what we think.  About "Drawing The Line At $2.99;" about the threat (actually, the non-threat) of digital comics to our business; about new ways to use Co-Op dollars; and about a dozen different issues that affect both them and us.  DC spends a ton of money simply to take the temperature of the room, and I want to be a part of that.  Everyone tries really hard not to get caught up in the minutiae of every teeny tiny problem, focusing instead on bigger issues, and I think DC really appreciates that.  And as scary as it is to some, I welcome the addition of a guy like John Rood to the ranks.  John made his ComicsPRO/DC Day debut last year in Memphis, and a lot of people seemed wary of the guy in the suit.  I like John because he’s not afraid to hold this business up to the harsh light of real-world business metrics and make decisions based upon that, all the while still allowing the passion that drives this business to still shine through.  We talk, DC listens.  DC talks, we listen.  We don’t always agree and that’s OK.  And yes, Thursday evening turned into Friday morning, thanks to Chip Mosher of BOOM! Studios.

Fridays at the Annual Members Meeting are always a bit frenetic.  Lots of panels, lots of vendors, lots of candid discussions during meals, in the hallways and elevators, in the bar and RV, and so on.  A new addition this year was Retailer Roundtables, which quickly became known as speed-dating sessions.  Like speed dating (I guess, I’ve been married too long to know for sure) the retailer roundtables gave small groups of us 10 minutes per vendor/publisher to discuss issues big and small.  Speed dating motivated me to give Haven Distribution a chance, motivated me to add more titles from Papercutz to my All-Ages section, and helped me understand Marvel’s aversion to inventory. (I disagree with it, but it was nice to hear their side of the story)  And I have a whole new level of respect for Todd McFarlane, which we’ll get to momentarily.  In hindsight, we all seemed to agree that only 10 minutes for each vendor was too tight, but it was a great format and discussions that began in speed dating continued over meals and drinks later that evening.

Going in, I had little to zero interest in hearing what Todd McFarlane had to say.  Having never met Todd, my perception was that he was pretty detached from what’s currently going on in the comic book business, and he was too busy making dump trucks full of money in the toy business to care about comics anymore.  These were simply my assumptions and no one else’s.  I never begrudged him any of that; he built it all from nothing and if toys are how your family gets fed, then go with God, as they say.  And for many years now, Todd doesn’t make me any money.  Spawn sells poorly, the Spawn backlist sells poorly, I think we all predicted the wheels would come off of Image United pretty quickly, and they did.  Was it because Todd was late drawing his part of Image United?  I dunno, but I assumed it was, given his track record.  So when it was announced that Todd would be in attendance representing Image Comics/TMP, I thought to myself, "so what?"  Todd’s products are a complete non-factor in my store.  Spawn still has terrific brand-recognition, but everyone gave up on buying Spawn on a regular basis a long time ago.

Anyway, I have to admit I was wrong.  Admitting past sins is never easy, but Todd realizes in the past he has been part of the problem, not the solution.  And after hearing him speak, and after speaking with him personally, I believe he wants to change that.  He is incredibly passionate about this business, and clearly has a low tolerance for some of the petty BS that can (and does) bog us all down.  He has a clear vision of how we can move forward, and some great ideas to back up that vision.  As he said to me directly, (and I promise I’m paraphrasing at best) he doesn’t deserve any credit for anything until he goes and he does it.  When we meet again next year, I hope he’s lived up to the promises he made in Dallas.

I met the legendary Joe Ferrara for the first time.  In the space of several hours, Joe and I covered topics as wide-ranging as music (we’re both musicians), marriage (we’re both married, and of course, comics (we both own comic book stores--see how it all connects!?).  We also spoke of a great many other things, and I consider Joe a friend that I look forward to chatting up a great deal more.  If you could boil down the ComicsPRO Annual Member Meeting into one thing, it would be guys like Joe.  Getting the opportunity to get to know people like Joe Ferrara, people who only want to move this business forward, that aren’t bitter and angry and defeated.  Guys like Joe have seen it all in this business, and yet they still want to BE in this business.  And that’s inspiring.

After attending a few more speed dating sessions on Saturday, we wrapped in the afternoon and then hopped on CP’s Bus Tour of Doom!  Chris Powell, of the Lone Star Powells, organized a jaunt around town to four of the local comic stores.  About fifty of us went along for the ride, and our first stop took us to Keith’s Comics.  After enjoying Keith’s hospitality and amazing art collection, we headed to Richard Neal’s Zeus Comics, a previous recipient of the Will Eisner Spirit of Retailing Award.  Richard clearly has a vision for his store, and it’s a wonder to look at.  Generation X was next on the list, and Wayne McNeil was a terrific host.  Besides comics, Gen X sports an amazing game selection, with plenty of space for gamers.  Our last stop took us to Lone Star Comics & Games, again another wonderful store.  Open and spacious, it’s easy to see why Lone Star is so popular.  I really appreciate everyone’s hospitality.  Visiting other stores is one of my favorite things, and getting to do it with fifty of my colleagues was a blast!

There were a few people I didn’t get to spend as much time with as I would have liked: Mike Malve from Atomic Comics, Brian Hibbs from Comix Experience, Carr D’Angelo and everyone on the ComicsPRO board, just to name a few.  There’s never enough time.  And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Amanda Emmert, our Executive Director.  She really is the hardest working person in comics, and our not-so-secret secret is that the whole thing falls apart without her dedication.  Not to slight anyone on the board or any of our wonderful volunteers, but Amanda pulled off another terrific annual meeting, and did it all with a smile on her face.  I’d love to sit and talk more with her, but she never stops long enough to do so!

If you’re reading this and wondering if joining ComicsPRO is worth it?  It is.  At the top of this column I mentioned the three different kind of retailers: amateurs, isolationists, and ComicsPRO members.  I hope I’ve given some of you a sense of what it’s like to be a part of something.  Something greater than the sum of its parts.

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.