Fun in Baltimore Part 5 of 5

That's about it for the Retailer Summit in Baltimore. I did pick up a few other things while I was there though. Actually the best part of the Summit is usually at the bars. It's then that you really have a chance to talk to other retailers. Find out the stuff that works for them, the stuff that doesn't. Such as, "How's DMZ doing for you", and "How many copies of Astonishing do you sell?" They're benchmarks you see. If store A sells 200 Astonishing and 15 DMZ, but store B sells 100 Astonishing and 40 DMZ, well that tells you a lot about the stores and what type of market they're in. And for the most part you're talking to retailers who aren't even in the same time zone, let alone market, so you're not talking to the competition, you're talking to... well, comrades almost. And being a bit buzzed doesn't hurt either.

The last day of Summit is the Exhibit Hall. This is where all the companies who came to Summit get to set up a booth and talk to the retailers about their product and hand out goodies. Oh and were there goodies! Jim Lee was signing at the DC booth, Frank Cho and John Cassaday were at the Dynamic Forces booth, and Terry Moore had a booth for Abstract Studios. I asked Terry if he was working on anything, or was even planning anything yet. He does have a new project, but it's not far enough along to talk about apparently.

But it was fun all the same, the guys over at Achaia Studios Press, or ASP for short were very cool, and hopefully we'll be able to get a few of them in the store for you guys to meet as well. If you don't know, they publish Artesia and Mouse Guard among others. Speaking of Mouse Guard, Diamond Select Toys was giving away sets of the Mouse Guard PVC sets. They're just unpainted production copies, but they're still pretty cool all the same. And I did get to see the finished products, which were even cooler. Dark Horse had Eric Powell signing at their booth, where they were also giving away these awesome comic displays. They're up at the front counter if you want to see them next time you're in. They got a little beat up in my bag on the way back, but they managed alright. They guys over at Graphitti Designs were also very cool, showing off a couple of nice shirts not due to hit the market for a couple of months yet. Including a very nice Death of Superman shirt. I was very impressed that Red 5 Comics had a booth, as their books haven't even gone to market yet. Though I think that was the main reason they did, they were giving out a complete set of their launch titles to everyone, but more on that in a future blog. Virgin Comics had a nice set up, complete with M&M's (real ones, not fake copies) with Garth Ennis and Dan Dare written on them. Very cool, but apparently very, very expensive. DC was giving out signed copies of All Star Batman & Robin, along with the very cool oversized Watchmen poster that Zac Snyder showed off in San Diego. Marvel was giving away the in-house bible to Brand New Day, which promised to be very cool, but then turned out to be just about the worst thing I got while I was there. Stop by the store and ask me if you want to see it, but it just really isn't all that. There's really only two things you manage to learn from it, first that J. Jonah Jameson sells The Bugle, and somehow Peter is working there again. Wha?

Well, I think that is it for the Retailer's Summit. Oh, wait I forgot. You see that nice little picture up there at the top? The one that looks like John Cassaday might have drawn it? Well he did. Right on the inside cover of my Absolute Planetary Vol 1. Oh, and there will be an Absolute Planetary Vol 2, I asked. I also asked if I could get him to do a sketch in that. He just laughed.

-Dan