When we discuss the success of comic shops, most questions orient around the “what” and “who” rather than “how.” This isn’t surprising. It’s much more of a draw to consider “What comics are selling?” or “Who are the hottest creators?” than the domain of “how,” a murky, often inside baseball realm with considerably less curb appeal than its brethren in the six Ws.

That idea has been on my mind lately, as I considered a topic someone in comics had recently mentioned to me. The subject was the most successful comic shops and the tie that binds them all, beyond, you know, selling comics. They suggested to me that one of the biggest keys to the growth these stores have seen wasn’t the answer to a “what” or a “who,” but a “how” — as in, “How have they expanded their audiences?”

Mail order.

Initially, the idea seemed obvious. We’re in year three

Naturally, a mail order giant like DCBS,

“Our mail order business has increased significantly,” Steve Anderson of Maryland and Virginia’s Third Eye Comics shared. “We were already seeing an increase before the pandemic, but definitely during and after.”

That last note Anderson made is a critical one. While a pandemic-related spike on the mail order side comes as no surprise, the fact that its growth continues as the world has normalized is noteworthy. Its ascent – Anderson described mail order as “one of our fastest-growing departments” – has even required structural changes for some shops, with increases in staffing and real estate necessary to support it.

“We just revamped our website to better accommodate the increase in mail order business and have increased staffing, warehousing, and more to better serve our mail order customers,” Anderson said.

How significant mail order is varies dramatically shop to shop. Eitan Manhoff of Oakland’s Cape and Cowl Comics told me it represents roughly 5 to 10% of his overall transactions at this point, a significant but not dominant portion. Bruno Batista of Dublin’s Big Bang Comics, on the other hand, estimated that 50% of the shop’s business is mail order,

“It’s not a majority part of our business, but it’s significant enough to continue to push it forward and expand what we offer.”

Obviously, this is only a fraction of shops, and some undoubtedly have far less mail order business. Some may even see considerably more. But it’s still a startling change considering where these shops were before the pandemic. Big Bang, for example, didn’t even have a website with an online store before then. Mail order was a tiny portion of their overall efforts. Once they opened their ComicHub

Here’s where this topic takes a massive turn, though. As discussions took place for this piece, an essential wrinkle became apparent. While mail order is a big part of this story, I’d argue an equally significant one is that shops were forced to build the necessary infrastructure to have an effective online store by the pandemic. Batista described Big Bang’s mail order success and its online store as “inseparable,” something others echoed.