Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Comic Shoppe Talk: Lucky's, Vancouver
:: Posted by Bryan @ 3/19/2008 11:55:00 AM 
This week's interview subject is Gabe Wilder, owner of Lucky's Comics in Vancouver. The store is celebrating its lucky 13th year in 2008!
Lucky's is a stalwart of the arts comix scene on the West Coast, with regular gallery shows and special events featuring Canadian cartoonists. Wilder describes his store as "cozy, under 1000 sq. ft. We have a front room gallery behind the front door, a main area with books and comics on shelves and racks, and Lucky's Gallery in the back room (about 200 sq. ft). Opened in 1995, just turned 13 last month. We're located on Main Street in the Mount Pleasant area of Vancouver - it's truly one of the best areas of Vancouver, replete with coffee shops, local designer boutiques, antique shops, and restaurants." My thanks to Gabe for supplying the following thoughtful replies to my standard, boring questions.
What is the general age/gender breakdown of your customers? What is the culture of your store?
Hard to break precisely, but here goes: probably about 20% boys ages 7 - 13, 10% girls ages 7 - 13, 25% males 18 - 35, 25% females 18 - 35, 20% parents of the boys and girls, usually 35 and older.
What do you sell more of by volume, graphic novels (including trades and manga) or monthly comic books (floppies)?
We sell vastly more graphic novels than floppies.
Do you have a store specialty or area of expertise? What makes your store unique?
We focus on work by self-publishers and independent publishers, and within those categories have a good selection of local art books and zines. We are probably somewhat unique for focusing on the aforementioned material, while also selling mainstream graphic novels (Marvel, D.C., Dark Horse), and even some fiction and non-fiction books, and children's books. Our two galleries and the amazing talent displayed in them make us unique, and make us an interesting destination by themselves. For example, right now we have original painted shoe forms from Chris Von Szombathy's FIRE AWAY, and six silkscreens from Owen Plummer's Flip Flop Prophets book (Le Dernier Cri), both in the front gallery (both here in conjunction with book launches); and in the back gallery an installation called The Game of Life, by Ryan McCormick.
What do do you sell more of by dollar value? What percentage of your business is comics? What is the state of the back-issue market?
Comics and books account for 2/3 or 3/4 of our sales. The state of the back issue market is - nil. I don't sell them in the store currently, mostly because of space considerations. It would make more sense to move that portion of the business online if I had the time and wherewithal to do so.
What are your bestselling books? How accurate is the bestseller list on your website?
Our bestselling books over the past year (I may be forgetting some here) are:
all the Bone books
Moomin vol. 1 and 2
Tintin books
I Shall Destroy All Civilized Planets by Fletcher Hanks
Acme Novelty Library 18
Milk Teeth by Julie Morstad
Fire Away by Chris Von Sombathy
Nog a Dod, edited by Marc Bell
Watchmen by Alan Moore
Complete Persepolis
In Me Own Words, and Me Write Book, by Graham Roumieu
We sell a lot Drawn and Quarterly books, probably more than any other publisher - closely followed by Fantagraphics. The bestseller list on the site is fairly accurate, but usually reflects sales of the last couple of months, not some up to the minute stock ticker.
The manga question.
We have a small manga section - maybe this will sound strange but I have never had a huge demand for it. We try to carry some classics - Tezuka books, Lone Wolf, newer pop titles like Naruto and Shonen Jump magazine, but that's about it. I admit that I get intimidated to the point of paralysis by the sheer volume of titles available.
What do you see as the major trends in graphic novels and comics retailing over the next year? The next 5 years?
I don't know about major trends in graphic novels...I don't think it's that easy to pin down. I think the success of Bone has publishers realizing that the age 7 - 13 demographic may not be entirely lost to them, and hopefully there will be some kind of renewed focus on books for young readers. Over the next 5 years I think companies like Picturebox, Fantagraphics, and Drawn and Quarterly, who put great emphasis on high quality production and design, and consistently release creative and interesting works, will thrive and see increased demand for their products in the mass market. And not just these three companies - I think any quality work published by smaller publishers will be increasingly found and embraced by a wider audience. As far as retailing goes, it's a tough gambit, but I think stores can really help themselves by hosting events, building community, welcoming local artists and creators who want to consign books, making sure to stock kid's comics so that under 13 year olds have a reason to visit...I guess those aren't really trends...whatever. Trends - hopefully the trend in retailing is toward welcoming, cleaner and more aromatic shops...and humor, more funnybooks.
What comics do you find yourself recommending the most?
Different for different people, but...see best seller list above to start. As far as off-beat stuff with wide appeal, I like to recommend Tiempos Finales by Sam Hiti, Fuzz and Pluck by Ted Stearn, Sock Monkey comics by Tony Millionaire, Dogs and Water by Anders Nilsen, Lynda Barry, Chris Ware, most of the First Second line is pretty broadly appealing to comic neophytes...Owly, Korgi, Moomin, Bone, Gon, and Usagi Yojimbo are often recommended for the younger crowd...Red Son, Kingdom Come, Therefore Repent and 1602 seem to sell well to non/new comic readers looking for a fun read.
What are your favourite comics?
Fuzz and Pluck, Tiempos Finales ... any thing by Gary Panter, Marc Bell, Big Questions, Madman, several of Fantagraphics Ignatz books, like Gipi's Wish You Were Here, Grotesque, and Ganges, Gabrielle Bell's Lucky, all Joe Sacco, David Collier, I'm probably forgetting tons of stuff ... almost forgot Zippy the Pinhead, one of my all-time faves.
What comic would you recommend for an 8-year-old girl?
Drawing Comics is Easy by Alexa Kitchen, Amelia Rules, Owly, Korgi, Archie comics (gasp!), Little Lulu. I wish there were more....
What comic would you recommend for a 40-year-old urban professional?
Most of our graphic novels from D&Q, Fantagraphics, First Second, etc...again depends on the person and what kind of genres they're into.
Why are you a comics retailer?
It's fun.
How important is the web to your business?
We use the interwebs to publicize store events through Facebook and Myspace. We've recently redesigned our website, and plan to perform more regular updates on it. Planning to expand this portion of the business ... online commerce and all that.
The dollar question.
I'm in the "it's about time" camp. We've been charging U.S. price in Canadian for at least a year, so it doesn't really affect us. I personally prefer to just see one U.S. price on the book, and let the Canadian stores work out what they want with the exchange. I'd be surprised if a store wasn't charging at par at this point on all their books...even if you're taking a bit of a loss on older books purchased before the current state of near dollar parity, they're older books, you might as well price them lower to move them. The question for stores is, at what point do you abandon the "at par" policy? What would the repercussions be if $1.00 Cdn bought $1.50 or $2.00 U.S.? Or if it went back down to the old days of $1.00 Cdn buying only 70 cents or less? Seems that if publishers want to play it safe, they should just be putting one (U.S.) price on the book. In these uncertain economic times, who can say where the U.S. dollar will be in 6 months or a year? So to answer your question, the change in the DC pricing policy reflects what Canadian consumers expect anyway, so, it's a good but obvious and necessary move.
Vancouver has a thriving comics scene and Lucky's seems to be a big part of that, with gallery shows and signings featuring local artists. How would yu characterize the scene there? Are there any local creators/zines/minicomics that you promote in store? Any upcoming events?
The "scene" here is pretty disparate in style, but incredibly friendly, welcoming, and supportive. We promote a lot of local creators/zine/minicomics/artbooks in the store...some favorites are Owen Plummer, Ben Jacques, Jo Cook's Hell Passport series, Jason McLean, Radar Friends, Laura Eveleigh, Niles Armstrong's Heavy Humans out of Portland, Cometbus, check out islandsfold.com for great books from Luke Ramsey...lots more. Upcoming launch for a book by Billy Mavreas called inside outside overlap: a boy priest and lifeform the "cat" adventure. New gallery shows in the back room every month - openings usually on the first Friday.
Lucky's Comics
3972 Main St.
Vancouver, BC, Canada
V5V 3P2
www.luckys.ca
gabe@luckys.caLabels: comics retailers, comicshoptalk, graphic novels
-  Stumble It! -
0 comments
|
|
