Counter Culture Spotlight: Super-Fly Comics & Games

Welcome to the first installment of a new feature here on PoP! Counter Culture is an opportunity for us to discuss issues concerning the direct market and how they pertain to comic shops. Every month we’ll be interviewing a new shop from various parts of the country about what they think about the state of the comic industry while getting an idea of how they do their business in this varied and diverse industry. Let’s kick off this feature by talking with the capital of the Super-Flyland, home of the Super-Fly Podcast and official comic shop of Panels on Pages, Super-Fly Comics & Games.

What’s your name and what’s your position at the store? I’m Anthony Barry, and I’m the owner of Super-Fly Comics & Games.

Where are you located? In specific, we’re at 132 Dayton St in Yellow Springs, OH. In general, we’re located smack-dab in the Midwest  in a small hippie community in one of the most volatile swing states in the nation. Fiscally, we’re located on the outer rim of a cluster of other local shops – which creates quite a bit of pressure to really stand out and create a visible and unique shop personality. We’re also littered all over the digital landscape at www.superflycomics.com, @superflycomics on Twitter, /superflycomics on Facebook, our ComiXology digital storefront and our eBay store. We used to have a MySpace page too, but lets not kid ourselves on that front, shall we?

That’s perhaps a bit more thorough than I expected but I guess that is a pretty open ended question. How long have you been in business? I’ve been working in the comics industry for nine years, while Super-Fly has been open for five of those same years.

How many employees do you have and are they a mix of full & part-timers? With a community like Super-Fly’s that ends up being a slightly complicated question. The hard facts are that there are two full-time employees, myself and PoP contributor Jared Whittaker. After that we have our bookkeeper and Magic Tournament organizer, Mike. Both work part time, as well as a newly-hired sales associate Rakel (two of those people are women; take THAT Big Bang Theory!). However, if I just called that the extent of our help I’d be sorely disappointing some very significant members of our crew. Without PoPulation members @RealKingTravis and @AlphaNaught, we’d be nothing – we also have Max Lake writing blog entries for the store and former employee Loren Goins and Non-Employee (albeit honorary “closer”) Brian Hawke on-call for convention help. But then Mike has his own crew of helper-monkeys too. And I’m certain that I’m forgetting some folks here too. That’s really the thing that separates this industry from many others – I don’t think Walmart very often taps their fans to say “hey why don’t you help us on this away mission and we’ll drink with you in exchange,” y’know?

Portrait of the Super-Fly Comics & Games founders as (slightly) younger men: Anthony Barry (left) and Thacher Cleveland (right) at the store’s original location in 2008

Comic shops always seem to attract a crowd of people willing to lend a hand a be part of the magic. It’s nice to see Super-Fly continuing in that tradition. How did your store get started? Once upon a time, in the fabled far-off land of the same town we’re in currently, myself and my former business partner (whom you may recognize as the host of this particular interview) had worked together at a comics & used book store. However, the nature of the store seemed to be growing more and more fragmented as the respective audiences seemed to divide themselves more and more. It seemed like more and more frequently customers would only see one half of the store, while the other would remain completely invisible – meanwhile each of the sections began vying for each others’ space more and more. It ultimately seemed that the best choice was to split the store into two separate models, one which would focus primarily on the antiquarian aspects of the business, and one which would focus more primarily on the pop-culture needs of the community. So we made an offer on the “new” aspect of the business, moved it across town and began fresh; we expanded more heavily into gaming and toys/merch than the space requirements of the previous business ever would have allowed and our attentions were freed up so that we could pay considerably more attention to the hot new trends like My Little Pony or Adventure Time.

Ah, the good old days. Do you carry any non-comics merchandise like toys, games (video, card or board), accessories or other unique items? We carry toys, apparel, games of the board/card/miniatures/video varieties, bumper stickers & magnets & other assorted accessories. We’ve recently expanded into skateboard equipment as well since there’s a skate park a stone’s throw from the shop and every skate kid in town was leaving town to go the mall for their kits. Well THAT dog won’t hunt; shopping locally is very important to my mindset and that was an untapped market. We’ve also recently started to stock some nerdcore albums (Adam Warrock, MC Lars, the Thought Criminals, etc). Essentially, if its hot, trendy, and even slightly geeky, then rest assured we’ve got our fingers in that pie.

Eugene Ahn aka Adam WarRock gets ready for a show at Super-Fly in January 2011

Selling nerdcore albums amuses me greatly, given that where Super-Fly is now used to be a record store. Two years after they closed we still got people coming in the door going “Where’s all your CDs?” But since most people come in looking for comics what kind of pull-file system do you operate? What kind of discounts do you offer and what requirements do you have? We offer 15% off all purchases in-store for subscription customers (although if you identify yourself as a listener of our podcast that becomes 20%). We require no minimum number of titles – but we do ask that you purchase at least *most* of it at least once a month. We ship to customers world-wide as well. We have monthly shipping customers in Indiana, Florida, Alaska and even the UK. Subscription customers are also always welcome to a complimentary copy of Previews magazine. Many stores prefer to sell Previews to their customers – we instead consider it a loss-leader; our customers find stuff they want to buy from us in Previews, why would we charge them for the privilege?

Makes sense to me! For those that don’t have a pull file how do you rack your comics at the shop? By publisher, by genre, alphabetically, by “family” of titles? Do you have a dedicated new release section or use shelf talkers to point out new releases? All of the above, actually. We have a dedicated new release wall for first-week books. After the first week, books are distributed out to genre sections – Marvel, Image and DC each have their own sections, but then we have Manga, Literature, Crime & Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi, Sword & Sorcery, etc – from there its much more of a “what feels natural” method.  For example, in Literature we go straight alphabet – so you’ll see a sequence like “Love & Rockets, Maus, Persepolis.”  Whereas in the heroes’ sections its much more family-based, eg: all of the Batman & related Bat-titles live next to each other on the same shelf. We use shelf-talkers sparingly – its very easy to accidentally over-load the amount of signage in a store and have nobody read any of it as a result.

Super-Fly Comics hosting one of their live art shows, featuring store manager Jared Whitaker aka jfx316 DJing for the crowd.

What do you think makes your store stand out? Its all about personality. We live in a world where, basically, if anybody wants free access to the literature we sell, they can get it. Between torrenting, libraries and lending – our audience generally has access to the stuff if they want it. So it becomes a question of ingratiating yourself to the audience – and finding a way to be indispensable and irreplaceable. What can’t they find on the internet, right? So we really go out of our way to befriend as many of our customers as possible. We host events – Magic Tournaments, Nerdcore concerts, Guitar Hero Tournaments, occasional guest appearances, and so on. We host our weekly podcast through Panels on Pages with direct intent to replicate the in-store experience as much as possible so that our distance customers can still feel like a piece of the community (and they very much are). These days especially, if you want to make it as an indie retailer, you really have to think about the community you’re building and your active role in it.

Speaking of reaching out to people across distances, Super-Fly had a relatively public email altercation with Wizard World regarding their Mid-Ohio show. Has there been any fallout or further contact from them since then? Precious little. I’ll leave it to this piece’s author to link to the original story, here, in case anyone desiring context missed it. As per my rather stern request, we were not contacted to appear at WizardWorld Ohio this past year. At C2E2 this past year I had a handful of people come up to shake my hand regarding the incident; every once in awhile at some local show I’ll hear snippets of a conversation “I hear Wizard was harassing some shop around here…” and so on. There were a handful of “oh, but it was an alright show” comments, but otherwise its been pretty low-key. I never did receive any kind of formal apology from the clowns – I imagine they’d just assume the incident never happened.

Brandon and Lori, the hosts of the PoP!-Cast Network show “So You Think You Know,” visit Super-Fly and show of the Hack-Slash variant cover by PoP!ulation member Kristin “Foxy” Allen.

Speaking of comic conventions do you exhibit at a lot of them? Which have been your favorites? We attend as many shows as feasible, with the notable exception of The-Convention-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named (y’know, that one I named in the previous question). We’ve attended Origins Game Con, Gem City Comic Con, Ratha Con, River City Comic Con, Champion City Comic Con, Cincinnati Comic Expo, and probably some others. We used to attend Mid-Ohio Con when it still existed, but *cough* the rest of that story (see previous question). Above all else, we’ve attended every C2E2 – Reed Exhibitions really knows how to put on a show. And they know how to draw a crowd (and not in the George Perez sense – though he REALLY knows how to draw a crowd).  I’ve been to more conventions than I can count by now and quite consistently C2E2 is my favorite.

C2E2 always has a special place in PoP!’s heart, so we all look forward to seeing you there again this April. What’s that worst thing a comic shop can do? I kind of want to say “Don’t be {store name redacted}” but I won’t. Seriously, though, it can be entirely too easy to think too big of oneself in this industry. Everybody loves the comic shop, everybody wants to work there, to get to know the workers.  You’ve got the insider information – you get to be the first to know about the newest details on everybody’s favorite stuff. In many cases you can become a true and earnest pillar of your local nerd community. That said – its a big world – considerably bigger than any local comic shop’s pond can quite imagine. And there are much larger fish out there than you in your role as shop proprietor. Any public misstep can eat you alive if you’re not careful. At all times it is imperative to remember your role in the community and to work to serve that. If you think too big or too small people leave you – often without explanation.

You’ve got to know your stuff.  People expect you to have a baseline knowledge of whatever thing it is that they’re into – and if you don’t have that they’re going someplace else.  I can’t tell you how many times we’ve picked up business just because {different store name redacted} didn’t know what a Dr. Who was.

And you’ve got to be personable and welcoming.  If you’re running the stereotypical comic book store (see: Android’s Dungeon from “The Simpsons”) you’re serving a dwindling audience.  Innovate or die, that’s the world we’re in right now.  We can’t just sit back and wait for the Ninja Turtles and Neopets money to roll in like we used to.

Um, actually it’s “Doctor Who” so maybe you should check your facts. How do you think the direct market has changed since you opened your shop? I feel like I’ve witnessed an entire life cycle on variant covers. When I got into the business the idea of variant covers was mostly laughable with only a handful of books really actively publishing them. Since then we saw a fairly steady trend until it seemed like almost every book on the shelf had some sort of variant cover available. We’ve seen the rise of the shop-exclusive variant cover – and even the dreaded return of the foilogram variant. In the meantime, I’ve seen demand for the like vanish approximately as quickly as the production ramped up.

Speaking of variants, here’s the Super-Fly Comics store variant from IDW’s Godzilla #1.

It kind of reminds me of the snake eating its own tail. What’s one thing you would change about the direct market? It’d be nice if we could all grow up a little bit. It quite often seems like the industry as a whole has a fairly immature attitude about itself. Its difficult to host civilized and mature/rational conversations about anything even the slightest bit controversial. There are a lot of voices in the din and each one thinks itself the most important. I’d like to see big publishers like Marvel take their retail partners more seriously – and trust us with things like accurate and complete solicitation information – or actually bother to talk to us about market trends.

There’s a staggering amount of distrust in seemingly every level of the industry. Diamond charges us (and theoretically every other account) $4 per week to fund a secret shopper program to police day-early delivery. Marvel jumps the gun and spoils their own stories first so that we don’t have the opportunity to. Diamond literally can’t be trusted to get shipments correct.  There’s no faith by stores or customers alike that important story changes will remain important. Across the board there’s precious little accountability in our field. That needs to change.

It is strange how publishers and distributors seem to treat direct market shops like an unknowable entity. It’s seems pretty easy to figure out what they want and that they’re very eager to work with the people who make the product they sell. Speaking of that product, what has been a surprise hit for you in your store lately? Image. Everything Image. Seriously, we’ve seen enough Image books with serious legs (Saga, Walking Dead, Thief of Thieves, Manhattan Projects, Bedlam, Revival and on and on) that Image now has as much floor space as Marvel does right now. Frankly, I think that speaks for itself.

That is a big deal. With regard to the “Big 2” have their recent reboots and relaunches made much of an impact with your customers? The DC relaunch was (and still is) a phenomenal success in our shop. Our Justice League numbers tripled. Our Batman and Superman family numbers across the board doubled. I don’t think we’ve lost numbers on any DC title that had existed before Flashpoint. Marvel, on the other hand, has lost pulls on literally *every* relaunched title. I know we at the shop have developed a touch of a reputation as being anti-Marvel, but it gets tough when customer after customer sees YET ANOTHER Captain America #1, rolls their eyes and wanders off. I don’t mean this as criticism of any creative team in particular but rather at editorial as a whole. There comes a point when it doesn’t even matter if you’re telling a compelling story if your audience doesn’t have faith that it’s going to be relevant tomorrow.

DC has a certain infamy for their relaunches but they’re typically spaced far enough apart that even the folks who didn’t approve can get the bad taste out of their mouths. Marvel, by contrast, updates their status quo so often they don’t even get a chance to tell a single whole story in-between them anymore.

Good points. All of that having been said, at the end of the day what keeps you coming back to this job? Its the only thing I’ve ever been good at. Talking about and selling comics is the only thing I’ve ever done that didn’t make me feel like a slacker. I seriously don’t know what I’d do with my life if I didn’t have a professional life in the comics industry. Likely I’d wither away in some isolated boozeatorium.

Well, at that point I’d probably join you in said boozeatorium. Thanks for talking with us this month, Tony. We’ll hear more from Tony and five other shops from around the country in two weeks when we debut our Counter Culture PoP! 6-Pack of questions, talking about current trends and ideas across the direct market landscape.

If you shop or work at a store that would like to be a part of Counter Culture drop us a line and we can chat. 

Filed Under: Features

Tags: Adam WarRock, counter culture, featured, super-fly comics