The Four Color Media Monitor: Another NY specialty store closes down

AM New York's reported that St. Mark's Comics, located in the East Village neighborhood, is closing down their business:

The final panel for a Village geek haven is coming next month.

St. Mark's Comics will close its doors for good in February after nearly 36 years of business.

Mitch Cutler, who runs the East Village comic shop staple, says he's closing because of several factors that made it harder to keep the store afloat. It's time, he says, to end on a good note.

Some of those factors would doubtless be the plummeting quality of comicdom, intrusive leftist politics and terrible artwork plaguing Marvel, among other issues that the business has clearly not recovered from. And now, this store is sadly the latest victim.

The article also notes a certain pseudo-writer who's got a role of his own in the downfall of comics pretending to be disappointed in what's transpired:

Comic writer Brian Michael Bendis, who co-created the "Jessica Jones" Marvel character, tweets that he's left "gutted" by the announcement. "I salute you @StMarksComicsNYC you've been amazing to my pals and i for our entire careers and always a delight when we stopped by. go there and enjoy them while you can."

Seriously, what business does the man who made a mockery out of Marvel as far back as his work on Daredevil got any business lamenting the demise of a specialty store he did no favors for in the long run? His work on Superman isn't faring well, and clearly did nothing to improve the store's own fortunes, so what good does it do for Bendis to say he's sorry to see it go? If he's not a draw today, it's no wonder he wouldn't even make a good promoter for the store if he tried.

I'm certainly sad the store has to close, but it's even sadder if almost nobody will honestly cite why this is still happening, if at all. I will argue though, that if some business managers were to try crafting stores to sell OGNs only, and not the pamphlets, they might be able to develop a better business strategy. That's assuming of course, that anybody still wants to get into this kind of business, and for now, it's clear many won't, for understandable reasons.

Labels: moonbat writers, politics, sales

Sorry if this is a dumb question...but, what's an "OGN"?

Posted by Justin | 8:36 PM

An Original Graphic Novel, and I probably should've specified more clearly (I actually have a few other times). Anyway, as noted before, I believe that would be the best way for stores to operate, if there's any left to do it in the future.

Posted by Avi Green | 8:50 PM

I hate to burst your bubble,Avi, but, graphic novels sales have peaked.

Even the propaganda pushing sjws in the "press" have to admit graphic novel sales have stopped growing.

https://www.comicsbeat.com/analysis-comics-and-graphic-novel-sales-down-6-5-in-2017/

In the face of the fact that the fictitious "Young Adult" graphic novel market has stopped growing , they're adamant that their woman-orientated and diverse market is much bigger and better than the Direct Market.

I have come to understand that a huge part of book publishing is hype. Hype, also known as marketing, makes a release seem more popular and controversial to the Establishment than it really is. Eve L. Ewing is a "best seller" despite the fact that most people don't even know who she is or know of any of her work.

The comics industry has adopted the marketing style of many big book publishers in an effort to grab a crumb of the coffee table market of people with money who want to show how cultured they are without having to read or understand anything,

https://brooklynbased.com/2018/11/27/five-graphic-novels-for-your-brooklyn-book-collection/

I have come to understand, through Mr. King*, that comics are not for everyone, they are for women and minorities but this doesn't sound like a booming market.

But I guess that’s the point.

But the point seems to contradict claims of a rapidly growing market for graphic novels by sjws.

*King is the surname of Tom King, the spiritual leader of what is left of mainstream comics.