How The Ink Alliance Is Changing The Comics Industry - An Interview

[00:00:00] - [Speaker 0]
Your ears do not deceive you. You have just entered the cryptid creator corner brought to you by your friends at Comic Book Yeti. So without further ado, let's get on to the interview.

[00:00:11] - [Speaker 1]
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[00:00:55] - [Speaker 2]
Hello everybody, and welcome to the Cryptic Creator Corner. I am your host, Byron O'Neil, and I have a question for you. Did you know that less than 1% of independent comic book shops in The US are black owned? When I found that out, I thought it was just absolutely simply bananas. The Beatles famously sang, I get by with a little help from my friends.

[00:01:15] - [Speaker 2]
And the idea is at the heart of today's episode because hanging out with me today is a crew from the Ink Alliance, a collective of 10 Black owned comic book shops that have all come together to change the game. They're working together to open new doors for creators, strengthen their businesses, support their communities, and build a stronger ecosystem for everyone involved. And I've got to say when 10 comic book shops join voices like this, I feel like there should be a signal in the sky or something like that. So InkAlliance assemble. Welcome to the show, everybody.

[00:01:50] - [Speaker 2]
Hello.

[00:01:51] - [Speaker 3]
Thank you.

[00:01:51] - [Speaker 4]
Thanks for having us.

[00:01:53] - [Speaker 2]
A 100%. So let's do a quick introduction who y'all are, where the shop is located. I will start with Jermaine from At Me since I'm my local shop, and I'm repping the fit no less. So if I can tear you away from trying to read all the new releases before new comic back day tomorrow.

[00:02:10] - [Speaker 5]
This is Jermaine Axum. Also Lord Retail Online, if you know that name for some reason. Coming at you from Acme Comics in Greensboro, North Carolina. Happy to have you as a pull box, customer, Byron. We appreciate that.

[00:02:25] - [Speaker 5]
And it is new comic book day eve, so this is super rare. I've car brought some time. You know? I'm gonna have to eat super quickly and get straight into comics, but I've made some time for you.

[00:02:36] - [Speaker 3]
Thank you. Appreciate it. Who's next? Although, I'm Philip Rollins, also known as DJ Young Venom, owner of Offbeat here in Jackson, Mississippi.

[00:02:47] - [Speaker 2]
All right.

[00:02:48] - [Speaker 4]
And I am Mike Davis, one half co founder of the Underground, located in La Grange, Illinois, along with my best friend and partner, Marcel Kirk. Thanks for having us.

[00:03:01] - [Speaker 2]
Absolutely. So I gotta ask, DJ Young Venom, are you a DJ as

[00:03:06] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. It's not by just name. I've been DJing for twenty two years now.

[00:03:11] - [Speaker 2]
Oh, that's awesome. So how do you manage this between comic book shop and I assume weekends are really busy doing DJ stuff. So

[00:03:19] - [Speaker 3]
So my DJ stuff, I I've gotten to the point where I choose what I wanna DJ and who I wanna DJ for. So I still do, like, weddings and stuff. But as far as clubs, I've kind of retired from doing clubs because club life was just not for me, and it wasn't And, but I get booked here and there, so I host events, I'll do my own parties, and we have events here in the shop where we'll have, like I'll do, like, sets and stuff like that here.

[00:03:48] - [Speaker 2]
Oh, that's rad. Okay. That's cool. Yeah. Well, Mike, I'm gonna throw this softball to you.

[00:03:54] - [Speaker 2]
Tell me about how this whole thing started so we can kind of synthesize this.

[00:03:58] - [Speaker 4]
Okay. That's, that's kind of a long story. I'll try to make it quick. But we, we got our start out of a conference that happens in our industry. ComicsPro is a retail organization, nationally known, and they do a big conference every year.

[00:04:16] - [Speaker 4]
And a few years ago, I found out about it and flew out to California to participate in it. And I had an experience that I wish I'd had when I first opened my business, right? I struggled through the first three years in this game. I had no idea what I was doing. And I get out there and I'm just surrounded by other retail shop owners who are more than willing to be mentors, to give advice, what's working, what's not.

[00:04:44] - [Speaker 4]
I'm meeting publishers, distributors. And while I'm soaking up all this information, it's not lost on me entirely that I was the only black retailer in this entire conference thousands of other, potentially retailers in the room. And so when I got back from the conference, I felt like it was, you know, I already felt kind of on an island, you know, in Chicago, I knew there was one other black owned shop here, but, you know, there was just not this comradery, right? Like I didn't know who the other black retailers were. And then I started getting curious like, well, who are they?

[00:05:15] - [Speaker 4]
Because it can't be that, you know, it's just me and Terry here in Chicago. Like there's gotta be others. So I went on a hunt and I just started, you know, I started a discord chat and I started reaching out to other black retailers just calling them. DJ Young Venom was one of the first people that I reached out to that joined the Discord with me, and I actually convinced him to come out the next year to Comics just to make sure I wasn't crazy. Because I'm like, I'm not trying

[00:05:38] - [Speaker 3]
to send you off.

[00:05:39] - [Speaker 4]
I think this might be worth your time to come and experience this. And so he flew out there with me, we both had the experience together. And I asked him, I said, man, am I crazy or was this, you know, beneficial? And he is a hard read. I mean, you could say it like, like he is a hard person to read.

[00:05:53] - [Speaker 4]
And he looked at me and was like, he was like, no, Mike, I actually think this was legit. This was worth our time, and we need to do what we can to get other people to have this type of experience. So then he joined me on this quest to find the other Black comic shop owners. At that point, I just started picking up the phone and calling folks. I went on this crazy hunt, like, if you know of a black owned comic shop, I'm a call them.

[00:06:15] - [Speaker 4]
And I started having these conversations, and Jermaine was one of the first people I called because he had a relationship with someone at DC that knew me, and they connected us, and I called them and I'm like, Hey, trying to assemble a team here, I need your help. We just want to get to know you. I'm not trying to sell you a damn thing. Just want to get to know you and make sure that you know me and we can bounce ideas off of each other. And right away, Jermaine said, I think that's great.

[00:06:37] - [Speaker 4]
I'm busy. The guy's extremely busy, but he's like, I'll make time for this, just call on me. And right around the time that I was making these phone calls, I got an unexpected Instagram DM from Sanford Green. And I should back this up. First Marvel, I mean, I'm sorry, DC sent me an email and I didn't have a chance to check it because it was my birthday weekend.

[00:06:58] - [Speaker 4]
Was too busy having fun. But DC sent me a heads up that there was a project coming out for, static joining the titans that he wanted, they wanted to see if we'd be interested, in some type of an opportunity. Knew I was, I was aligning all of these black comic shop owners, and so they wanted to see if this was a good opportunity for us to do something. And then Sanford Greenslides in my DMs, and he's like, Hey, I'm working on this project. I really want to, you know, talk to you about it.

[00:07:23] - [Speaker 4]
And so by the time I connected with Sanford, it was right after I read the DC email. He didn't know that I knew about He was just like, look, I've got this crazy cover, man, I just did for DC, and I don't wanna give this to DC as like an open order variant, man. Really want this to stay rooted in like a black, it needs to stay in a culture, like it needs to stay with a black shop. And I listened to him and I was like, yo Sanford, that's dope. He even sent me like, we got out the way that I knew about the project.

[00:07:48] - [Speaker 4]
I'm like, DC's already emailed me. I know what you're working on. He sent me the and I said, damn Sanford, like this is some dope ass shit. Like I was like, I see why you're so crazy about this. I but I can't buy a thousand copies of this damn book, Sam, for that ain't nothing.

[00:08:02] - [Speaker 4]
I'll be out of business. I ain't bought a thousand of no book, right? So I'm like, I can't do this solo, but I got this group of black retailers that I've been pulling together. And maybe if I can get us to agree to work together and go under one banner, maybe we could figure this shit out before the book comes out. And so, he left me with it, I called all the members, showed them that cover, and right away everybody in the group had the same reaction I did.

[00:08:27] - [Speaker 4]
Damn, that's some cold shit. We need to figure this out. And so it accelerated all of our plans to create an organization, come up with branding, come up with a with contracts and all the things that happened behind the curtain. We figured that shit out in less than a month to make sure that we can get that cover locked in with DC. And we did, and we pulled it off.

[00:08:44] - [Speaker 4]
So that's the very long story trying to make it short.

[00:08:48] - [Speaker 2]
That is bananas. I would have absolutely sworn that it would have been everybody getting together first, and then this whole thing with Sanford was sort of a byproduct of it. So, wow, that's putting all this together in a month is a Herculean of, like that's that's harder. That's really hard to do.

[00:09:08] - [Speaker 4]
Yes, it was. You ever

[00:09:10] - [Speaker 3]
heard a better

[00:09:10] - [Speaker 5]
origin story? Only imagine. Just hearing it like that, but I do have an amendment for you. Mike, I don't know if you remember this or not, but I got put into a text message with you and I looked it up in March '25. Okay.

[00:09:23] - [Speaker 5]
And you had the energy back I did not have the energy back then. Not that I had the air out, but that's how long ago you stayed on me. You kept calling. It wasn't just a one call you kept calling and you happened to call me when I was sitting in the parking lot. If I'd gotten inside this store, if I'd gotten inside the store, I I really don't know if if I'm in in this, on this podcast or part of this thing now.

[00:09:46] - [Speaker 5]
I really don't. You got me in just the right time. I took your call, I'm and still taking your call to this day.

[00:09:53] - [Speaker 4]
You for taking them because I'm a persistent bastard. If nothing else, I'm like, y'all go talk to me. Go figure this out. Because we all busy, right? And I get that, and we're all, as retailers, we're heads down, we're in our stores, we got our rhythms, you know, but my thing was I could not kick this idea that at the minimum we should know each other.

[00:10:15] - [Speaker 4]
At the minimum, you ain't gotta work with us, you ain't gotta do these projects with us, but at the minimum, I wanna know who you are. So I'm a knock the door down until you tell me who you are, tell me your backstory, and know that I'm here if you ever feel like picking up a damn phone and relaying that back. So

[00:10:30] - [Speaker 2]
Well, that first salvo, as you reference, that was the variant cover for New Titans 38.

[00:10:35] - [Speaker 5]
Mhmm.

[00:10:35] - [Speaker 2]
Same for Green, thousand copies. Each of the 10 stores each got a 100. Absolutely smashed it. You know, this is a milestone. Okay?

[00:10:44] - [Speaker 2]
Association intended, you know, as Static joins the titans. You know, I was working at Big Orange Comics and Cards in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1993. Yes. That's how old I am. When the first, you know, icon showed up or Static showed up in icon number one, I think that's what it was, and that was part of DC's milestone initiative.

[00:11:02] - [Speaker 2]
So that was groundbreaking then. Now okay. I hate saying this. Thirty two years later, you know, what does this moment mean to y'all?

[00:11:11] - [Speaker 5]
I think that I forget sometimes that there's a whole generation of people that know Static to be a a cartoon character. You know? Because I kinda I I think I went without cable during that time period. I saw maybe one or two episodes. I did not realize how long the show ran.

[00:11:29] - [Speaker 5]
I saw him, you know, reappear on that Batman Beyond episode, but I didn't realize that there's a whole generation of now, adult kids that static was part of their their cartoon diet. You know, right there with Batman and and Superman and and other characters going into your home once a week. Now I don't feel like static was on the shelf very much when that cartoon was was going on. Certainly no products, but that's a whole other story about the products. But, I forget that.

[00:11:57] - [Speaker 5]
You know? And I was kinda reminded that, yes, static isn't just a comparable character to people. There's more to it than that. And these people are adults now. They have, means to make purchases, with their discretionary income, which we appreciate that.

[00:12:14] - [Speaker 5]
And, they wanna show up for a thing. If something's going on with a character that they like or an artist they like or an artist they would like to like, maybe you just heard of a I'm sure somebody just heard of Sanford Green. They're a huge fan now. But, I think it's it's something that I forget about that people often know these characters beyond just comic books.

[00:12:37] - [Speaker 4]
I think for me, to just piggyback on that a bit, it had a very profound meaning to me. Not only because, you know, seeing this Inc. Alliance come together the way it is, has been hugely rewarding to watch and to witness and to know I had part of play in. But also like my own personal backstory, like I grew up in that era of static. I knew about the comic, I watched the television show, I knew the story of Milestone, and those guys were my heroes, man.

[00:13:10] - [Speaker 4]
Like when I first saw a documentary, this was years ago, AMC had a show like behind the comics or something. And they did an episode featuring Milestone story. And I learned the backstories. I never really knew much about, you know, Dennis. I didn't know much about Dwayne the, you know, the other folks.

[00:13:28] - [Speaker 4]
So I started to listen and find out all this history of how they got the milestone deal and what it meant to the culture at that time. It And inspired me in some way when I wrote the essay up, it's a long story how I got my shop, I'll save that. But when I started dreaming up my place in this business, initially I wanted to pay a tribute to Milestone. Like we all both made our shop a nonprofit and called it the Milestone something. Was gonna have Milestone in his name because we cared that much about their brand.

[00:14:00] - [Speaker 4]
So to have this opportunity to connect all of this to a Milestone character was just so significant for us because we're aware of the legacy of Milestone Comics, Static being a and part of what those brothers did. In some way, I feel like now we have contributed to Black comics history in our own way. And that feels really great. So that's the best way I could put it. It's very profound to me.

[00:14:27] - [Speaker 4]
Well, it's

[00:14:28] - [Speaker 3]
been Go ahead. No, no. It's just, I'll be real quick and brief about it, but the history and significance, me and Mike probably were around the same age. So I had a godfather who exposed me to Milestone comics. My mom read comics, but this is the era where you didn't have to go to a comic book shop unless you wanted something specifically.

[00:14:49] - [Speaker 3]
You could go to Super D or Kmart or any grocery store and get them off the rack. But that era is so far gone now, and we're just donation shops. And so the importance with bringing static back amongst hearing about boycotts and representation is very important. Everything that happens with static, hopefully it'll lead to a snowball effect, hopefully, for more representation for all races. A lot of people are learning about static, they still just calling him Static Shock.

[00:15:27] - [Speaker 3]
They think his name is Static Shock, which is funny because it's the people that just know him from the cartoon. And to see him, you know, with the titans and, you know, to be presented with the opportunity to do this cover was, like, you know, monumental, and we're extremely, like, you know, lucky and blessed to be able to do that stuff. I'm just happy to be a part of it. Everybody's saying we making history. I'm just like, we're just getting started.

[00:15:50] - [Speaker 4]
That's right. That's right.

[00:15:51] - [Speaker 2]
Okay. So what does that look like? I spent fifteen years working with bands, know, and nothing pulls people in more than a sellout. You know, tell people they're too late to the party and they really start paying attention, right? So you've got people's attention.

[00:16:07] - [Speaker 2]
How do you build on it?

[00:16:09] - [Speaker 4]
Well, I think that it's going to it's gonna be a few things. We don't want this organization to just be known for having dope exclusive variants, right? Like we know that's a byproduct of it, but I think the bigger message that we wanted to draw attention to was just how few black owned comic shops there are in this country, right? That percentage that you said in the beginning is not something that we want to continue, right? Like it does us no favors to say we are less than 1%.

[00:16:40] - [Speaker 4]
So what we're hoping that this moment can do is number one, call attention to the fact that there are entire states, entire regions where you don't have a black owned comic shop. And so I'm hoping that part of this inspires some folks who may have been on the fence and maybe didn't know how few of us there were to decide, you know what, I wanna jump into this industry. I'll be the first in the state of Nebraska or wherever, right? And decide to open a shop and get involved in this industry. And to know that there is an alliance of retailers out there who will support them and help them through that journey, I think is one thing that I want this organization to be known for.

[00:17:22] - [Speaker 4]
I think the other thing is, you know, having the artist and the creator's backs, right? There are some very extremely Black creators that work for all publishers, not just the big two, but all of them, who are deserving of our attention and our praise and our support. And so if in some way our alliance can bring, more of their work to life, if we can do more of these various with the intention of making their work as popular as some of their contemporaries, then I think that that's one of the things we'd like to accomplish. Like this week we saw a top 10 list and Sanford's cover right there at number two, right? And that's like, we know he's worthy of that, right?

[00:18:07] - [Speaker 4]
But to be a part of putting his work up there on that list felt really incredible. And now we're thinking, well, how many other Black creators can we help and get their work out there to more folks so that they can be recognized in and of the same way? And then of course, you know, how we, you know, collectively can do things that are uniquely different in this industry to take advantage of opportunities that we have been historically locked out of, not always because of the known systemic barriers that we've had in this country, but sometimes based on the mere size of our shops, right? Part of what this whole thing proved is that there is way more that we can accomplish together, working collaboratively, than any of our shops could do individually. Covers are just one example of that, but it was a big barrier, right?

[00:19:00] - [Speaker 4]
Like I was at the convention when, DC asked the room, how are these exclusive variants paying off for you? And it was like, you could see the split, the divide right in the room. The big retailers right away, oh, it's the best thing you all have created. Keep doing them, you know, keep that minimum order quantity down. And then you had all of the smaller retailers quiet.

[00:19:20] - [Speaker 4]
Most of them, I didn't even know what it was honestly. And then when I found out what the minimum order quality was, I understood why I didn't know about it, right? Like it was a barrier. And so we have been able to tear down this barrier, but that's not to say that's the only barrier. We're looking at all aspects of this business, including conventions where for this day, but for now I just appreciate everybody who's tuned in, that's dialed in and that's watching us, because we definitely want to continue projects that excite them just as much.

[00:19:50] - [Speaker 4]
Allow my colleagues, if I missed anything, let me know. That's just my list.

[00:19:54] - [Speaker 5]
He said pretty much everything.

[00:19:55] - [Speaker 3]
I think the one thing we probably missed out on is like, highlighting what we do for the community, all the community work. Whether we do it or anything else, whether it's fundraising, literacy for kids, everything like that, and we definitely wanna highlight that more. One of the core things I wanted to do with this group was be sure that this group is seen and highlighted. We haven't had this much attention on a Black retailer since Amalgam, and that was years ago. I think me and her started I think we opened around the same time in 2014, and I remember her getting all of this press, and I remember like, Dang, I just opened up, I ain't getting no press, but she was also in Philadelphia.

[00:20:43] - [Speaker 3]
Sure. So we have so many stores in smaller areas, smaller markets, and being able to do something like this and for them to get attention from at least their local news stations and to get on podcasts and talk about this stuff is very important because it's also bringing light. Not everybody would be like, Oh, I didn't know there was a shop in my area. Let me start a pool list with them. Even if I'm not close, they could ship it to me and stuff like that.

[00:21:11] - [Speaker 3]
Internet's a thing. We have capabilities to do that stuff. That's right. That's one of the things that's very important to me.

[00:21:22] - [Speaker 5]
I gotta pull on a string that you put out there at the start of this podcast. I gotta do it, and I gotta remind myself I'm not just talking to the three that other people listen us to. So something that you said was that getting comic shops to work together on anything, that's kinda hard to do. Alright? Comic book stores are weird.

[00:21:41] - [Speaker 5]
Yeah. And sometimes it's weird in the in in in the wrong way. So the fact that so many of us, so many different types of stores, different vibes, different, ways of doing things have been able to come together, text one another, do Discord, which I didn't know how to do that three weeks ago, to communicate together with these, like minded goals. That's so rare. That's so rare.

[00:22:12] - [Speaker 5]
That's that's such an uncommon thing because comic book source can be they can be a little weird. You know? Fred from Eastgate Comics in High Point, he is, very close to where I'm at. I've known him for a long time. You know, he he took a reading off of me a long time ago.

[00:22:27] - [Speaker 5]
I took a reading off of him. Good guy. You know, we we communicate. We talk. But otherwise, as far as North Carolina, I talked to maybe I talked to three other stores.

[00:22:38] - [Speaker 5]
You know, three other like minded, well intentioned, good to their customer stores. And, know, maybe I'll find some more. I hope I find some more. But for years, this has been about three of them. Now I talk to stores in in other states frequently, but the fact that we've all been able to get on some type of same page, that's kind of amazing.

[00:23:01] - [Speaker 5]
That's not normal for for for small businesses of of many type, but comic bookstores to be able to do this. That's kind of a thing. And we haven't really said that. I don't I don't know if we've ever actually articulated that before amongst ourselves. It's certainly not publicly like this, but it it's it's a thing.

[00:23:17] - [Speaker 5]
So so, It's

[00:23:20] - [Speaker 3]
not an easy thing. It's not an easy thing at all. And I deal with it because I sell records and comics, and so I deal with the record industry more. So I deal with it longer than I have for the comic book side. So, comic book industry is Well, the record industry, let me correct myself, is very click ish, and it's a lot of clicks.

[00:23:43] - [Speaker 3]
If you're not part of There's many coalitions in that area. And so the only time I would talk to other stores I didn't have a lot of other stores in my area. There's one other one an hour and a half away, and I only know him because I used to host Record Your Vengeance. And the comic book scene, we have one in the suburbs, but they don't talk to me at all. And so, to get people to talk in the same industry as you is difficult.

[00:24:12] - [Speaker 3]
It's not impossible, especially when you have like minded people. And it just takes patience, it takes getting to understand everybody's schedules and working around that in some form or fashion. And the thing about it is we're all human, and we're not all going to agree on the things, and everything's not gonna line up perfectly. But if we have the same goal, it's gonna happen in some form or fashion. It may be bumpy on the way there, and trust me, this first launch was bumpy.

[00:24:42] - [Speaker 3]
But, you know, we learned, you know, you we learn from the mistakes, and I always tell, like, myself tell my son, like, you can't fail unless you try. And so the first thing we had to do was try to do this, and then we see what the result is.

[00:24:58] - [Speaker 2]
Well, I'm sure you you all have seen it. I didn't get to get out last week. I had that thing happen with my parents and stuff. I really wanted to, but I've I've personally witnessed online content creator friends just how much fan service and how much this means to the the blurred community, you know, fellow North Carolina and BJ Kicks got out to chat with Fred at Eastgate, and he got over to you, Jermaine, as well. And Lex from Wednesday poll, you know, got out to Gulf Coast.

[00:25:25] - [Speaker 2]
And, you know, there's so much hype, which is absolutely fantastic, you know. But traditionally, you know, you've gotta have something else that signals to DC and Marvel that there's real financial inertia within the community. You know, blurreds want more representation. So that demand box is checked in my mind. It's always been there, but it's never been properly recognized.

[00:25:49] - [Speaker 2]
So in your mind, how does this change things? You know, what's really going to move the needle?

[00:25:55] - [Speaker 4]
I think in some ways the awareness is now cemented. I remember when there was, the book before this that was popular, The New History of DC Dakota Incident, which came out. And there was a Joe Illich who put out a call, you know, we want to sell And this book out, there was doubt as to whether or not we could sell that book out, yet alone get it to second printing, right? And we took the charge, all of us, before there was an ink alliance and decided we're going to fully back this book, like across all of the shops, across all of the different, you know, communities that exist in Blerdom, because we're not a monolith, but we were like all United, yo, we are going to sell this book out. And I remember like when people were rushing to the stores to buy it, I had retailers and the ComicsPro and other Facebook groups that I'm in going, what is going on with this book?

[00:26:51] - [Speaker 4]
You know, they had not ordered many copies. And now all of a sudden they got a line of people coming in the shop asking for this new history of DC. And they're in these retailer groups going, should I reorder this? Like, where is this hype coming from? Because, you know, there are speculators in this market and that can sometimes happen to a book that isn't great.

[00:27:08] - [Speaker 4]
It's just, you know, somebody thought it was gonna be a collector's item, right? And so I was in those groups saying, no, this is legitimate hype. This is because the Black nerd community is saying, we want more of these stories told at DC. We want to see more milestone characters at DC. And we were successful at selling that book out and getting it to second printing, which was a huge accomplishment, right?

[00:27:30] - [Speaker 4]
And then you have this book, which, you know, was an exclusive variant done by, you know, 10 shops. And we only ordered a thousand copies and we were sold out of this thing before the end of the week, right? Like four days of this thing sitting on a shelf before it was completely sold out. I think these are the types of, you know, markers when we hope what signals up to the leadership chain up at DC and Marvel and other places is that there 's a not growing demand, the demand is there. You said, it's always been there.

[00:28:00] - [Speaker 4]
But one of the challenges we have in this industry is that once books are ordered by the shops, most of the major publishers don't know how many of those books actually get sold off the shelves. They really don't have like insight into that, right? So they look for signals like this to tell them how is this book actually selling? So when we report back, yo, this thing sold out in four days. When we show that DC's or the Dakota incident sold out and that they rushed it to second printing, these are actual things that we're hoping they can take back and say, hey, these are the market indicators that we were looking for to fund more of these projects happening at any of the publishers.

[00:28:39] - [Speaker 4]
So, and then you're starting to see like announcements coming out the woodworks now with like DC announcing Vixen and Cyborg and all these other things that maybe were in the works before, but have definitely gotten more momentum behind them now. And now that we have proven that this is something that isn't just a fad, it's not going away. Black nerds, blurrs, if you will, exist and are participating in this market like has never been done before. So that's my quick spill on it.

[00:29:06] - [Speaker 2]
You guys got anything to add?

[00:29:08] - [Speaker 5]
I guess just to to roll it back to ComicsPro, it's like I was a pretty regular ComicsPro attendee for the last, like, fifteen years, but California was kind of a bridge too far for me, and I I I couldn't get out there. I couldn't get out there, but I'm so glad that, Mike was there. I don't know what made you decide to go. So glad that Philip went as well. I don't know if I'll be there at the next one.

[00:29:35] - [Speaker 5]
I'm rethinking about it.

[00:29:36] - [Speaker 4]
I don't if I'll be there at

[00:29:37] - [Speaker 5]
the next one. But, comics probably is a transformative experience. There's nothing quite like it. And, you know, there were moments where, you know, even though this is my thirtieth year of doing this, there were moments where, I get hit with some, you know, impostor syndrome. Like, am I supposed to be here?

[00:29:56] - [Speaker 5]
That guy over there, you know, he's been doing this a lifetime. I'd find out he'd been doing it for seven years. He's been doing it for four years. You know? A lot a lot of, misconceptions for me about what was going on.

[00:30:08] - [Speaker 5]
And, yes, sometimes I would notice that, you know, it wasn't the most diverse room. It just wasn't. But, I'm glad that that's changing now. I really would like some more Ink Alliance members to, be in that Comics pro room. That would be wonderful.

[00:30:25] - [Speaker 4]
And we're already, talking to, ComicsPro's leadership team about how to make that more of a focus to bring more of these shops in, and they are. Because one of the things is like, like I had told them this, they did nothing to make me feel like I didn't belong. As a matter of fact, all of the textbook stuff you would want a group to do to make someone feel that sense of belonging, they did, which is why I flew out there the second time, right? But it's obvious that, you know, getting the message out to black retailers that this group exists and that it's welcoming to them is one of the things that I've asked them to consider because it's a bit intimidating, especially if you don't see a lot of your not only just your general area, but then you look at this association and you see no other black retailers in it to think I would be the one to fly in and try this experience out, right? So they have me on the horn, they've got Jermaine on the horn and Philip on the horn now that are saying to other black retailers, y'all gotta get in here.

[00:31:23] - [Speaker 4]
Like they got some great content. This is a great convention and it's a great organization to be a part of. And so I think we'll see more membership. I think we'll see more attendance. I'm hoping I can get all the Ink Alliance, including Jermaine to fly out there in February to be a part of it.

[00:31:41] - [Speaker 4]
Because, you know, even though we all seem familiar now, we've had a lot of Zoom calls, I really can't wait to meet these folks in person. I can't wait to, you know, like one of our members has been getting on the road, Sean at Cuts and Comics actually got on the road and started visiting a few of the other black owned shops and building that rapport. I want to get out to these shops and build that rapport. So I'm hoping we can take advantage of opportunities like that because one of the things I didn't say earlier that I wish I had said is that one of the other intended goals of this organization is to build that camaraderie, to build that type of relationship that allows us to learn from each other and help strengthen each other's business. Like I genuinely want these other retailers to succeed.

[00:32:19] - [Speaker 4]
I don't, benefit from like, you know, the syndrome of like, I want to be the one. I don't. I want them to even in my own area. Like you heard Jermaine talk about Fred is thirty minutes drive from him, I got Terry up here in Chicago. He's less than thirty minutes from me.

[00:32:35] - [Speaker 4]
I want Terry to be successful. He's not taking any business from me. He is important to this space as I am. And so in as much as we can build those types of connections with each other and help fortify our businesses, I think that's another intended consequence of this is that our businesses can survive. We can thrive together.

[00:32:53] - [Speaker 4]
We can build together and make this space that we all love a bit more inclusive while we

[00:32:57] - [Speaker 2]
do it. So what is your five year vision then for the Ink Alliance? What would you like to see? What would you want it to become? Man,

[00:33:09] - [Speaker 4]
I'll say this at the outset because I want to hear Philip and Jermaine's answer, but I'll just say this one. I said this on a call we had last week. I'm hoping that earlier than five years, somebody in some remote town, some state that didn't have a black owned shop in it comes to the Inc. Alliance and says, I just got a loan or I just signed a lease. I'm opening my doors in whatever month, and I'll be a Black owned comic shop that exists because I saw the story about the Ink Alliance, and I believe that this is something that I could succeed in.

[00:33:42] - [Speaker 4]
So for my five year vision, I just want to see more stories like that of people who felt brave enough to get into this industry, to open a shop someplace where there aren't a lot of us, to build community in areas where we need that type of space, right? And say that it was because this organization existed. And of course I wanna see more dope ass covers just as a fan of the media, okay? Like I do, I don't wanna say that I don't wanna see that. I do wanna see more dope ass covers like that and exclusives and content.

[00:34:11] - [Speaker 4]
I wanna see us at conventions. I wanna see us on stages talking about the work that we're doing in our shops. I wanna see these businesses thriving. I wanna see more of our stories told. I wanna see more of our creators getting nominated for Eisner so we ain't gotta wait thirty years to see the next one.

[00:34:26] - [Speaker 4]
Those are the things that I hope that this organization can help to achieve. I know it's not just on us, but I hope that this organization can take part in helping.

[00:34:35] - [Speaker 3]
For me, I want this to be a catalyst, basically. Like Mike said, for stores to be inspired, but also I want to make sure that we are a proper system for stores to stay open. Everybody knows with any business, the first three years are the hardest. So if a store opens up, we're going to be like I mean, we should be there and be like, Hey, man, get prepared for this. Figure out what your slow month's going be, because that first year is going to be hell.

[00:35:07] - [Speaker 3]
And then once you know what that is, then you know how to prepare for the next year and how to order. And having like minded people that have already been through it or know what it is or seeing what the trends are or knowing how to navigate social media and how to do marketing on the low end. It's stuff that they can learn on school, University, but it's also stuff you can learn from firsthand accounts as well too. And a lot of these stores have so much knowledge that we definitely need to keep them. Like we need to keep Jermaine, we need to Tony for sure.

[00:35:46] - [Speaker 3]
And, you know, I got the most joy on that launch day when I heard back from Jermaine. It's like, I've never had a day like this. That brought me so much joy in my heart. Don't think y'all understand. Because I experienced that with record store day.

[00:36:04] - [Speaker 3]
I had people lined up outside to get Taylor Swift records and shit. But for a random Wednesday in August, so for only 100 copies, and people are driving out of state to a store like this and to experience why it's at this store and how this store looks and the community behind this store and the community that is appearing just for that book and for their regular pools, it's something to be experienced. And I want everybody to have that experience.

[00:36:35] - [Speaker 5]
As far as, you know, the the the future, I I think a San Diego Comic Con panel is not, you know, fantastical thinking. I think that's a very realistic thing. Who knows? Maybe a, Ink Alliance passport where if you go to all the stores, get it stamped, if something cool happens for you. I don't know.

[00:36:56] - [Speaker 5]
But, yeah, I think there's definitely more to come. But, also, there is that business aspect of it that especially means a lot to me where comic shops can be very isolating. You know? You're you're doing the grind every day. You're doing your orders.

[00:37:10] - [Speaker 5]
You you're you're you've got the blinders on, and you can really feel like there's nobody else out there that knows what you're doing. You might feel like you're doing everything wrong, like, why isn't this working? But the fact that they're now I wanna make assumptions, but maybe there's some stores that didn't have a regular someone to text, someone to call at the ready about business stuff, store stuff. How do you handle this? How do you deal with that?

[00:37:41] - [Speaker 5]
And again, I'm very open source with good stores, well meaning stores, so I'll share all the failures too, not just the successes. I'll share those things I don't want to happen to anybody else. But, yeah, I it's, so much more to do, including, you know, maybe things that won't necessarily be,

[00:38:05] - [Speaker 2]
front facing. It'll be successes that are, you know, between the stores, I guess. Let's kinda look at what maybe big picture success could be. Like, I'm I'm a data guy. We saw the recent DC So White initiative was this public outcry that said something needed to change, you know, a very visible one.

[00:38:24] - [Speaker 2]
And you talked about static being announced as an ongoing and, you know, Stephanie Williams, first black woman ever nominated for an Eisner Award for best writer. You know, you have Kari Randolph working alongside her on the series. And I think if memory serves, Vixen was slated to have her own series back in 1978. You know, this notion that is out there for whatever reason that black comics don't sell has been around for a very long time. So from a retailer's perspective, what metric is going to equal success in your minds with these upcoming books?

[00:39:05] - [Speaker 2]
Because I want I want to spread some positivity here. There's been so much negativity, especially directed at Stephanie, and it's really

[00:39:12] - [Speaker 3]
pissing me off.

[00:39:14] - [Speaker 2]
Yep. I

[00:39:17] - [Speaker 3]
think it's going to boil down and honestly, and this is going to be kind of a Debbie Downer on this. It's going

[00:39:25] - [Speaker 5]
to rely on a lot of us. And when I

[00:39:28] - [Speaker 3]
say us, the Ink Alliance and fans of Stephanie and fans of Fix It, or fans of comics in general who want it to succeed to push this book and future books as well, too. It's so easy to promote Batman because Batman is just ever great. In marketing Vixen, Vixen is going to be difficult for them, especially if they don't already have a plan in place. Now, if they have a plan in place, that's a whole different story. No.

[00:40:01] - [Speaker 3]
But let's assume that they don't. Because I'm not thinking negatively, I'm thinking realistically. And in the past, we saw what they did with the DC book with Joe Ilyich. They didn't really promote that. That was all Joe.

[00:40:18] - [Speaker 3]
He made his own video for Christ's sake. It's things like that, it's like, okay, you now see his three books. I wasn't expecting a solicitation immediately. That was ridiculous for people to think that. I thought that was stupid.

[00:40:34] - [Speaker 3]
Art takes time and books are art. But the thing about it is we can only wait and see on this, and it's like, Okay, let's make sure that our stores are promoted to the right people. And historically, and we all know this, just like with the music industry, this is a white male dominated market. And so, white men cannot relate to Vixen like that. And so, we need to relate this to Black women, Black girls, Black men, just women in general as well too, for Vixen.

[00:41:18] - [Speaker 3]
And so, if they don't have that in line in marketing that properly, then it's not going to be successful. And so it's going to be on our shops, and like I say, fans and customers as well, to be like, Hey, you need to go ahead and pre order this book. Hey, we need to get behind this book right now if we want more like this in the future, because that's the only way it's going to take. It takes buying dollars, and it's just like with Boycott and Target right now. It's like, Okay, we need to prove to you why this is going to work.

[00:41:48] - [Speaker 3]
And so our dollars count in all sense of forms of fashion.

[00:41:52] - [Speaker 4]
Yep. I think he nailed it on the head. I'll just say that I think one of the metrics that I'm looking at personally are how many of these series are turning into ongoing series. I remember when I was at ComicsPro a couple of years ago and DC invited us to a meeting to ask what was working, what wasn't. And one of the things I told them then, was before there was a campaign, before there was a tag or boycott.

[00:42:16] - [Speaker 4]
I said, you know, when customers come into my shop, I would just love to be able to subscribe customers of mine who want these types of stories told to an ongoing series rather than a one shot. Cause up until that point, that's all we had. We had a one shot of, I think it was I Am Batman or something like that. And we had a one shot of, Milestone and the Static season one or something like that. And so it was like, I would build up all this hype and I get people excited to get these titles, but they'd only run for six issues, 12 issues, and then you won't see those characters anymore.

[00:42:47] - [Speaker 4]
I am hoping that a metric that comes out of this is it being, you know, multiple series on a shelf that are good series done by great creators that are ongoing titles so that when my customers come in and they say, Yo, I wanna support, I can say, Yo, have you checked out Black Lightning? Have you checked out Static? Have you checked out Vixen? Oh, let me take over to Marvel. Okay, let me check out Storm, check out Black Panther, check out You know, it's not saying that again, Black folks are monolith and that's all we read are stories with Black led characters, but I wanna have a selection of them to say, for those that are coming in looking to support those characters and those artists and creators behind it, that you have options here.

[00:43:25] - [Speaker 4]
You know what I mean? That those opportunities are as much available to those creators, as their contemporaries to do Batman and all of the damn Bat Family and all of the other spinoffs that they do. So that's one metric that I'm looking at. I mean, was excited that not just with Stephanie, that Cody and Morgan and other names are attached to projects that are coming out soon too, are attached to ongoing series. And I hope we just get to a place as an industry where that's not so damn taboo, that it is not so damn surprising, that it's not thirty five years before we see the next, you know, Black woman nominated for an ISER, that we start seeing multiple Black folks, because they're deserving.

[00:44:05] - [Speaker 4]
It's not saying that these are folks who, you know, we're just giving them that leg up because we're, you know, we're focused on the black. No, they are outstanding writers and creators. Stephanie Williams is one of the best writers in the game right now, period. That ain't because she a black woman, it's because she is a damn good writer and she happens to be a black woman, right? Like, so those are the things that I hope become less taboo as the years go on and the metrics that I'm gonna be looking at.

[00:44:29] - [Speaker 5]
I think to a degree that, you know, the the success formula is not that different from any other book. In that comics and comic shops is not a if you build it, they will come kind of thing. You know? I I I say over the decades, if I'm gonna put a 100 copies of Legion of Super Heroes on the shelf, I gotta make sure people know about it. I gotta make sure they're anticipating it.

[00:44:54] - [Speaker 5]
They know what when it comes out. They know what the crave team is. I gotta make sure they know all those things so they can say, it's finally here. But I think that we, and also DC Comics to a degree, if they would like to, really need to drive home how their industry works, which means that you put in preorders, which lets the store know how many copies are already sold. And if it passes a certain threshold, then the store's got to order some more copies.

[00:45:20] - [Speaker 5]
Okay? And if that continues, then your series grows. It stays alive. But I think that we're kinda on the cusp of people figuring that out. And I don't mean like your regular customers.

[00:45:31] - [Speaker 5]
So your regular customers, I think that we can present to them, very effectively. Like, right now, I've got 16 preorders for Vixen. There's no solicitation it yet. Right? That's pretty good numbers.

[00:45:41] - [Speaker 5]
I need it to be 30 in about two weeks. I think it's possible.

[00:45:46] - [Speaker 2]
Go add me. Done.

[00:45:50] - [Speaker 3]
But I do think I do think

[00:45:52] - [Speaker 5]
that DC, through their social media, maybe they'll mention how preorders may work. How do you guarantee you get a copy instead of showing up? On the day it comes out, you you went somewhere like you're supposed to on the day it came out, but they were sold out. What happened? What were you supposed to have done?

[00:46:08] - [Speaker 5]
How could I have not missed a copy of this thing? That'd be nice if they would, and all publishers really would kind of let people in on that aspect about how their slash our industry really works. That's kinda it.

[00:46:21] - [Speaker 2]
That's a tricky industry really to navigate. It's not like anything else. I've been in the music business. I've spent a lot of time in the music business, and it is very, very, very different. But I will say comic books is also special.

[00:46:34] - [Speaker 2]
Special. But You You know, know? It it has has a the community really does rally around things. They they really do, in my experience, you know, have been super, super, super supportive of each other. And, you know, fostering that is something that is is really, really important to me, near and dear to my heart.

[00:46:52] - [Speaker 2]
So, like, seeing this ground swell that that y'all have created, I think, is is absolutely fantastic. Well, I know you've got other stuff up your sleeves in terms of variants. Kari is an obvious choice, but can you tell me who is next, and why is it Brian Stelfries?

[00:47:14] - [Speaker 4]
Wow. Alright. Since we know

[00:47:18] - [Speaker 3]
who No, it

[00:47:20] - [Speaker 4]
I'll just play. Alright. You know we can't. And I'll be

[00:47:23] - [Speaker 3]
like I know. Know.

[00:47:24] - [Speaker 2]
I I just wanted to pitch Brian because I love Brian.

[00:47:26] - [Speaker 4]
We love Brian. We love Brian. And that's the thing, we have a long list of folks, and even some up and comings like Ryan Oakley. Like, we have so many artists, so many creators that we have on list, like literally, we came back after this project and we were like, yo, for these next projects, who do you want to consider? And it's this laundry list of just amazing talent to sift through.

[00:47:51] - [Speaker 4]
And it has to be somebody dope, but we have options, we got, you know what I mean? Like, we got options. So, I mean, we'll see and we'll be announcing it soon. I think right now what people are going to see, it's not going to happen right away. Like, won't you won't see an Ink Alliance announcement in the next few weeks for the next cover.

[00:48:09] - [Speaker 4]
We're not moving at that speed because I think one of the things we talked about on here, right, is how quickly we had to move just to take advantage of the Sanford Green, you know, New Titans thirty eight. One of the things that that didn't allow us to do as a group is figure out, well, who is the Ink Alliance? Like, on paper, how do we make decisions? How do we decide which projects to take on, right? None of that got established in the first month that we started this thing.

[00:48:35] - [Speaker 4]
So, we have some housekeeping that we've got to do first. We've got to create the structure that will make sure that the Ink Alliance is not just here today, gone tomorrow. That is an Ink Alliance here in five years, and in ten years. And so, we're laying some of that groundwork right now. We're gonna take a pause to do that.

[00:48:50] - [Speaker 4]
And then we've got another project that's gonna come out and you'll hear about it, in sometime in the near distant future.

[00:48:59] - [Speaker 3]
Man, Mike talks too Mike talks too That's why he's here.

[00:49:03] - [Speaker 2]
That's why he's here.

[00:49:03] - [Speaker 4]
I will. That's right.

[00:49:06] - [Speaker 3]
He talks, he talked. No. No. That's why we don't need him here. We're telling

[00:49:09] - [Speaker 5]
too much.

[00:49:09] - [Speaker 3]
I will say, as far as covers go, I had one person explain kinda kinda grilled me a little bit, like, how come you didn't ask me to do that cover?

[00:49:25] - [Speaker 5]
And so yeah.

[00:49:28] - [Speaker 3]
And be the only representative because Mike left me high and dry at Comic Con.

[00:49:33] - [Speaker 4]
I was by myself. He was five.

[00:49:36] - [Speaker 3]
I had to I had to take the, I had to hold the weight on that one. But, the next cover, one of them is already confirmed. I can't say that. And I think everybody's gonna be pleasantly surprised and enjoy it. And I'm excited to see, what this person is up.

[00:49:56] - [Speaker 4]
Now now who's talking too much? Look, y'all almost slipped instead pronoun. Look at you you slipping, I

[00:50:02] - [Speaker 3]
just slip I don't know anything, so I can't I'll see gears.

[00:50:04] - [Speaker 2]
I'll switch gears.

[00:50:07] - [Speaker 3]
I'll I'll save y'all.

[00:50:08] - [Speaker 2]
So looking at this from the lens of a collective. Right? A collective of of retailers, a collective of fans. What surprised you? Like, this one month experiment, you know, that you've tried to throw together to make this happen.

[00:50:23] - [Speaker 2]
What's blowing your mind?

[00:50:27] - [Speaker 4]
So many different things. But I I think the thing that's blown my mind the most is how many people drove so far out of their way. I mean, you have folks driving across multiple states to come to an Ink Alliance shop to pick up this cover and to support a Black comic shop that they found out through this process. I mean, I have had big days, like I've had, you know, free comic book day and, you know, people excited for that, but I have never seen something like this before where I opened on a Wednesday and had a line out the door of folks who had traveled from all over the place to come to Chicago or come to LaGrange more specifically to support this project. I think that's the thing that surprised me the most on a Wednesday, is that we got that kind of, support from folks and we got people who have subscribed to us.

[00:51:19] - [Speaker 4]
I'm shipping now all over the country to people who've asked for those poll lists. So I think that's the thing that surprised me is how supportive supportive people people have have been, been, how how far out of their way they went to support this project. And the other thing, you know, like, Philip said earlier about Jermaine's comment about it being the one of the best Wednesdays or the best Wednesday, right? He's had in thirty some years in business that that doesn't get old. That feeling doesn't get old that so many of us have been in this industry for years, like over thirty years in some cases had seen a day like that.

[00:51:57] - [Speaker 4]
And so those are the surprises I think I took away from this the most.

[00:52:02] - [Speaker 5]
Just seeing you know, I I I kinda thought that maybe people would come from, you know, Raleigh, Charlotte, Durham. That did happen. But to see people in the, you know, Wednesday line of people where where we turn to key at 10:00, there's there's people. But see people in that mix come to find out they come from Maryland, they come from Virginia. That was incredible to me.

[00:52:26] - [Speaker 5]
And and they weren't like, oh, two people did that. Several people did that. Several. And just the fact that they had a good experience here, they said they would like to come back. I was like, oh, well, do you have family here?

[00:52:41] - [Speaker 5]
Do have stuff going on in the area? They said, Nope. Just want to come check out the shop again. You can't buy that type of support. Can't buy that type of support.

[00:52:55] - [Speaker 5]
Corporations are trying to do it constantly, But that's not something that you buy. That's something that you that's something that you aren't. That type of support.

[00:53:03] - [Speaker 3]
That's right. That's right.

[00:53:07] - [Speaker 4]
I just had someone just really quick to say I didn't say this earlier, I had someone in The UK, reach out to us and actually placed an order on my website. This is what's crazy, right? So like, we knew we were like getting publicity here in The States. I had somebody overseas reach out to me about an order and it wasn't even for the new titans. It was just some stuff that was on my website that they saw and they ordered and they wanted to see the status of the shipping.

[00:53:38] - [Speaker 4]
And they said, you know, do I, they messaged us on Instagram and she said this is an international order and right away I said, we don't ship in there. I mean, ship to Canada maybe, but like, definitely don't do international shipping and we haven't figured out those logistics yet, right? And she said, messaged me back and said, Don't worry about it. I figured out a way to use a forwarding service. So you're going to ship it to Portland and then it's going to ship out to me in The UK, and then she sent me this lovely message about how she heard about the Ink Alliance, and heard about our shops, and wants to support us that much that she figured out how to do, she figured it out herself, and had us ship to Portland so she can get some books from us sent over in The UK.

[00:54:25] - [Speaker 4]
A black owned shop in LaGrange, Illinois.

[00:54:28] - [Speaker 2]
Wow. Wow. Yeah.

[00:54:33] - [Speaker 3]
I wanna beat a dark horse here, not to surprise me.

[00:54:36] - [Speaker 2]
Junker. Right.

[00:54:38] - [Speaker 3]
Nothing surprised me. Because, I mean, I was you know, I as, it's a term in the in the industry called a hype beast. So it's people that are go after, like, toys and sneakers and stuff like that. And being a former hypebeast, I've driven many miles out of state for shoes, for records and stuff like that. And so I knew what we had was special, and, you know, I figured, like, all of this stuff was gonna happen, and I was already mentally prepared for it.

[00:55:14] - [Speaker 3]
It was getting everybody else mentally prepared for it. Because I was just like, hey, this is what's gonna happen.

[00:55:19] - [Speaker 4]
Because they're like, oh, what am I

[00:55:20] - [Speaker 3]
gonna do with? I'm like, it's gonna be fine. If they just run your day, run your stuff as normal, have stuff bagged and boarded and ready to go, have your bags stamped, whatever. And, you know, just greet customers, because there's gonna be some new people that come in, you're have some regulars that come in, you're gonna have some people just gonna try to get more than one copy. I said, that's just the nature of the game.

[00:55:42] - [Speaker 3]
There, like, you know, even with the resale, I think that's probably the most surprising, is how much is reselling for 10 times as much plus without it being graded. That's probably the most surprising thing. Yeah. But, you know, I expected it to be resold because Sanford Green covers do get resold on the aftermarket. But all of this stuff that you know, I saw it I saw the vision already.

[00:56:05] - [Speaker 3]
I was like, you know, I was like, I don't know, Hannah Montana or something. Like, we just I saw I saw all this stuff happening already.

[00:56:15] - [Speaker 5]
You did? I was you're listening. You

[00:56:17] - [Speaker 2]
Well, there's gotta be yep. There's always one in the group. You gotta have one of those in the X Men. So don't forget. You're good.

[00:56:25] - [Speaker 2]
You're good. Well, I always like to end my show on a positive note. So around here, we do a shout out. This could be something that inspired you recently or someone that did you a solid you'd like to mention or just, frankly, an expression of gratitude. I'll go first to give you all a minute to think about it.

[00:56:41] - [Speaker 2]
I'm gonna thank my friend Ryan. Our AC went out today on the 2nd Floor. And boy, does it help to have somebody who owns an HVAC company sometimes because I shot him a quick text this morning. He was out this afternoon to fix the compressor, which was a huge deal as I'm someone with an autoimmune condition that is super sensitive to heat. So thanks, Ryan.

[00:57:02] - [Speaker 2]
What y'all got?

[00:57:04] - [Speaker 5]
Thank you to the, Acme Comics team. You know, this is not an island. It takes a it takes a whole group of people to put on new book day, to to, do special things. It takes a whole team to do that. So thanks to, everybody that keeps all this stuff running and, you know, thanks to Mike for calling me one more time, texting me one more time.

[00:57:27] - [Speaker 5]
You know, I can't thank you for that enough. I I say it's a canon event. Okay? It's a moment that had to occur or or the whole, you know, thing just just goes,

[00:57:37] - [Speaker 3]
the the

[00:57:38] - [Speaker 5]
whole storyline goes crazy. It it was a moment that had to happen. So I appreciate that. And, yeah, just, for including me in all this.

[00:57:49] - [Speaker 3]
It's our honor. Start out my wife for

[00:57:53] - [Speaker 2]
That's a good one.

[00:57:54] - [Speaker 3]
Helping me out around the shop. He's been reorganizing our bobcat shoe bins, which are in lateral foul cabinets. And my son has not been putting stuff in the right spot because he also helps. So she's been catching hell with that. So I'm gonna shout her out for helping me out because I don't like doing it.

[00:58:13] - [Speaker 3]
I ain't gonna lie to you.

[00:58:13] - [Speaker 5]
I hate doing it. I'll

[00:58:16] - [Speaker 3]
put a loan box back there. I'm like, hey. Becky's shoes last week. I'm right here. But she's been helping out a lot with that and helping make sure that inventory is properly counted for when I get my Lunar and penguin shipments because it has been some stuff.

[00:58:30] - [Speaker 5]
It's been a rough few weeks here on the Lunar side. Sorry, Lunar. As you know, you knew before I knew.

[00:58:37] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. Yeah.

[00:58:40] - [Speaker 4]
Oh man. You said just one man. See the problem with shout outs is that if I shout somebody out and I miss some shouting somebody out, then I'm in trouble. So I ain't

[00:58:49] - [Speaker 2]
gonna Sorry, blame me.

[00:58:50] - [Speaker 4]
Yeah, can't do just one. All right, well first my partner Marcel, I would not be in his business without him agreeing to get on this crazy ass journey with me. He couldn't make it here today, but Marcel Kirk, my entire Blurreds Underground team, Zoe, Ben, Ed, Kevin, all of y'all who are in the shop every day making this brand a success. My wife, of course, like Philip, my wife was the one that inspired me to actually make this thing a reality when I thought, you know, I just had my hands full with enough things. She supported me throughout this journey, but the one the one group that I just want to I want to let end on that originally came to my mind is the DC team.

[00:59:30] - [Speaker 4]
So to Nancy, to Matt Keller, to the entire team at DC Comics, I thank you because as I said earlier, they sent us an email weeks before it was publicly announced that Static was joining the new Titans. They thought enough of me and knew enough about what I was doing to send an email and ask if I'd be interested and they made this process smooth for us. It was not easy. It was not the machine was not created to operate this way to get 10 stores to collectively split a bill and buy it. This was not set up like that, but they all came in and they figured it out with us and figured out a system to make it work so that we could participate in this.

[01:00:09] - [Speaker 4]
So I just want to shout out the entire team over at DC Comics for that.

[01:00:14] - [Speaker 2]
Awesome. I feel compelled to just add add to that and say thank you editors who are working behind the scenes because you're working up against a billion dollar corporations here. And Yep. You're doing it every day, and you've done it for years.

[01:00:28] - [Speaker 3]
That's

[01:00:28] - [Speaker 2]
right. And you're fighting for representation across the medium. So God bless y'all, because that is largely a thankless job.

[01:00:36] - [Speaker 4]
That's right. Marquise. Yep. Exactly.

[01:00:39] - [Speaker 2]
Well, I really appreciate everybody coming on the show today to chat. It's absolutely fantastic initiative. So what's the most helpful place for listeners to follow along with what the alliance is up to so they don't miss the next drop whenever that is?

[01:00:54] - [Speaker 5]
Gotta be Instagram. Right?

[01:00:55] - [Speaker 4]
Hit them, Philip. Hit them, Philip.

[01:00:58] - [Speaker 3]
I gotta do everything. And and Goliath shops on Instagram and threads. Also, you can find us on Facebook. The news will hit there first, especially if you're on Instagram and also be on our website, theincalliance.org.

[01:01:16] - [Speaker 2]
Cool. I will make sure to throw that in the show notes. Everybody, make sure to give them a follow. This is Byron O'Neil. And on behalf of all of us at Comic Book Getty, thanks for tuning in, and we'll see you next time.

[01:01:26] - [Speaker 2]
Take care, everybody. Peace. This is Byron O'Neil, one of your hosts of the Cryptid Creator Corner brought to you by Comic Book Yeti. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of our podcast. Please rate, review, subscribe, all that good stuff.

[01:01:41] - [Speaker 2]
It lets us know how we're doing and more importantly, how we can improve. Thanks for listening.

[01:01:47] - [Speaker 0]
If you enjoyed this episode of the Cryptid Creator Corner, maybe you would enjoy our sister podcast, Into the Comics Cave. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.