|
|
|
Comic Relief
|
Business New Haven
9/8/1997
By: Kevin Wheeler
|
It doesn't look like much from the outside - a relatively non-descript storefront between a Dunkin Donuts and a liquor store. But 1181 Chapel is much more than meets the eye: It is a veritable Alternate Universe, which happens to be the name of a comic-book shop that pulled in $165,000 in its first year of business.
Part of that success is due to the established clientèle owners Joseph E. Stinson and Erik P. Yacko inherited when they took over the space in 1996 from a comic book chain called Dream Factory Moondog's, a fixture for more than ten years. Another part is the duo's management, business savvy and knowledge of the industry.
Showing early capitalist tendencies, Stinson and Yacko started collecting comics when they were five years old. They eventually ended up working in comic book shops, including Dream Factory, where they earned invaluable experience in tracking sales and tying them to stock orders. By 1996 they were in business for themselves, picking up where their former employer left off.
An important first decision was keeping the location's following by minimizing the amount of lag time between when the former shop closed and Alternate Universe opened - one week. After that, the challenge became to assure customers that the new store was a dependable source for new comics and offered a wide variety of “alternative” and back-issue titles. “Collectors,” Yacko explains, “like their security. They want to know that if they're coming in on Wednesday (delivery day), the books they collect are going to be there.”
Business for comic book stores is largely driven by publication and distribution. Most characters are released monthly, although for certain titles, such as Superman and Spiderman, there's a new edition weekly. Irrespective of publication schedules, Wednesday is the biggest delivery day nationwide for distributors and, not incidentally, it is always a big draw for collectors trying to stay on top or looking for a collectible variant cover, as well as for readers looking for the most current fix.
Comic books and animation have become much more sophisticated since the days of bullet-proof superheroes in spandex. Stories now depict humans dealing with realistic challenges, such as surviving a convenience store robbery, and often feature women as main characters. Also changed
is the demand outside mainstream comics for Japanese animation (“Japanimation”) and Japanese illustration (Manga), as well as the emergence of collectible customized card games (Magic The Gathering and Star Wars ).
Those new markets are where Stinson and Yacko try to distinguish themselves from their competitors - they carry a wide selection of Japanimation, Manga and small press comics (books printed with maximum runs of, say, 5,000, as opposed to action comics with a minimum circulation of 40,000). Nevertheless, the traditional action comics are still the most popular, accounting for at least 65 percent of the shop's revenues. The other 35 percent is a mix between customized collectible card games and new comics.
While the new comics at an average $1.99 are the bread and butter for Alternate Universe, its rare issues, mostly from the 1960s, including Fantastic Four: The Coming of Galactus and The Amazing Spiderman, are the centerpieces. Once sold for 12 cents, these collectors' titles now sell for $210 and $450, respectively.
Which begs the question: What did you do with all your old comic books?
|
Go FirstGo PreviousGo
NextGo LastGo
to Index
|
|
