Recession Watch: Trouble at comics retail
01/13/09The LA Daily News profiles Earth-2 Comics in Sherman Oaks, and reports that sales are definitely down:
In the year leading up to its Black Friday post-Thanksgiving supersale, Earth-2 Comics owners said it suffered a 20 percent drop in revenue.
That means one in five buyers who had eagerly appeared each Wednesday to pick up such hot-off-the-press hits as “100 Bullets” were thumbing through frayed back issues instead.
Earth-2 Comics owners Jud Meyers and Carr D’Angelo remain hopeful those readers will come back.
“We open earlier now, and close later, because every hour counts,” said Meyers, of the upscale bookstore at 15017 Ventura Blvd. “It’s not that we’re in a downturn, but we’re in a holding pattern.
“But in a time of fear, people want entertainment. They’re going to the movies. And people still want to read comic books.”
The story also includes a chilling tale of a wife who wishes to sell her husband’s comic book collection to raise money — without his knowledge. This sounds like a potential ticket to Forensic Files, if you know what we mean.
