Retailer Menachem Luchins has been a notable part of his community — both in his geographic one of Huntington, New York and of the comic book variety — since his shop Escape Pod Comics opened in 2013. And throughout its existence, his goals for his shop have always have been pretty simple: he wants to sell comics to readers, and to highlight how magnificent and varied the medium really can be. It’s a wonderful aim, one he’s succeeded at delivering on for the 11 years his shop has been around.

Lately, though, Escape Pod has been up against some challenges, and it’s looking to make some changes in the face of those. And to get where he needs to go, needs to accomplish a couple goals first. One is to clear inventory, and the other is to put Escape Pod in a better financial position heading into 2025. Hopefully both will be accomplished by selling lots of comics and graphic novels to his shop’s customers — or really anyone who happens to catch one of his daily livestreams — during a series of weekly sales this month, including this week’s manga-centric effort.

Luchins has been very public about what needs to happen at Escape Pod, and when I saw him talking about it, I knew I wanted to order a whole bunch of comics to support the store. Check on that one. But I also wanted to know more about what’s driving all this. To do that, I reached out to Luchins to see if he wanted to chat. Good news: he did. So, we hopped on Zoom to talk about what he’s doing at Escape Pod, why those sales are happening, what he hopes it will allow him to do, the current environment for comics retail, and a whole lot more. It was a great conversation — one that resulted in me ordering even more comics, even! 1 — and one that’s been edited for length and clarity.

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I will let you take the floor to start. You have some big weekly sales going on right now. What’s fueling the need to have those sales?

Menachem Luchins: What’s really fueling this need is that the store is suffering on multiple levels. Our finances have been hit a bit this year, but for the last two years we’ve just been selling less and less. The issue at hand is that while we’ve been selling less and less, the publishers have been making more and more. Almost every part of the graphic novel and comic book world has expanded their lines. They’re churning comics out, and it’s not in a bad way. They’re not making cheap stuff. But as a shop that tries to have a wide selection for a wide number of readers, it’s been a real albatross around our neck.

I already knew I was going to do a big sale in November, but when I went to California recently, I went to the bookstore Annabelle’s Book Club. And to my eyes as a bookseller, it was empty. There was so much room and so few books. Now part of that was to have a beautifully made wall where the shelves are recessed into the wall, so nothing was sticking out. That was a big part of it. But it was also the fact they didn’t have tons of stuff. It helps that they’re down the block from a Barnes & Noble and they have a specific young adult bent.

But even so, I asked them, “What’s your audience? Do have families that come here specifically to shop?” They go, “It’s mostly weekends. People browse on the weekends, and they buy something.” And it really hit me that our weekends, which are busy…our browsers are overwhelmed by the amount of stuff we have in the store. There is simply too much.

For those who don’t know our store, our major focus is comics, and nothing else. So right now, the only things that we have that aren’t comics besides art or comic related art are little Kirby figures. Everything else is comics. We have dollar back issue comics and the latest graphic novels and sets of old and new series. But it’s too much for someone who’s casually browsing. They’ve read some (R.) Crumb, some (Charles) Burns, and (Dan) Clowes, and they just want to find a graphic novel. Or they read Ultimate Spider-Man or they heard about Absolute Batman, and they just want to browse. There’s too much stuff in the shop. It overwhelms them.

So, I realized that when we did our sale, we had to really clearance. We have to get back to where we were eight or nine years ago when we first opened, and we were a big open space. People would say, “There’s not a lot in here” when we opened. But we’ve gone too far in the other direction.

So, the choice has been to do a massive clearance by section so I could try and really pull it down. I had superhero stuff that was as much as 90% off one shelf and 75% off another shelf. We just did single issues, and that was an amazing eye-opener. Let me tell you, to see who the market for single issues actually is…it’s something that I knew, but it’s something that’s incredibly frustrating when you sell reading and the medium and what comics can do, which I know you appreciate immensely.

Who was it?

Luchins: It was collectors who showed up.

My regulars who are readers showed up and they jumped on a few things. I had a woman in her mid-twenties who ordered a book last week, came to pick it up, but wanted to look in the sale. All she wanted were Nightwing comics. Dick Grayson is, like, the thing amongst 20-year-olds, and I had loads of $1 Nightwing comics. Like, the Chuck Dixon and Devin Grayson era series. She just wanted variant covers. Not just. She bought a bunch of stuff. But the thing that really got her were those Nightwing variant covers. I had Nightwing in the snow, Nightwing working out…and it wasn’t because she loves Dick Grayson’s butt. It’s not that she loves what’s on it. It’s that they’re fun, they’re cute, and for $2.50 they’re worth it. But they’re not worth it for $5. She never would’ve bought that.

So even someone who’s a reader who loves the character, that’s still what they’re gravitating to with single issues. Because single issues are crap, value-wise. What they cost you and what you get out of them. This person, she’s subscribed to DC Universe Infinite for $8 a month, and each single-issue costs $5.

I want to talk about something involving that bookstore you went to. In Anchorage, we have this bookstore called Beauty & The Book, and it’s a romance bookstore that is singularly focused on indie romance books. When you go in there, there is so much empty space. Part of that is because they’ve been very popular. But they’re also extremely curated. Is that one of your big takeaways from this? Basically, when there’s a sea to choose from and everyone’s overwhelmed when they go in there, what you’re looking to rearrange your store for in 2025 is a curated experience?

Luchins: It’s true, but it’s interesting to hear you say that. My shop is exceptionally curated. My shop is comics. Like I just said, there’s a floodgate open in 2018 and every publisher went, this is the market. This is where we can create backlist books that we can sell forever. Every publisher wants, and it’s going to sound so such bad taste, but every publisher wants a Maus. They want a March. They want a book that will sell forever to high schools, colleges, everything, and they’re running to do it.

But what does that mean for you? What does that mean for Escape Pod?

Luchins: It means…I’ve been saying this a lot. We used to get about 30% of the market and now we get about 10%. So, it means I’m curating as much as I possibly can and there’s still too much. So, we have to move to not just curation, we have to move to the service industry.

We have to make it, “No, we don’t have that, but we’ll order it for you because we can’t curate anymore.” I talked to a lot of other retailers. There’s this market for comics that just wants to sell comic books. They want to sell single issues. They want to sell the collecting and the joy of community and all that. Which is wonderful. But to finance that they’re selling a lot of other crap. They’re selling cards, they’re selling games, they’re selling toys, they’re selling mugs. A great example of that is Strange Adventures in Halifax. They probably have one of the widest selections of any comic shop in the world. They have incredible back issues, extensive graphic novels, and they also sell a load of crap. Simpsons action figures, the latest Super 7s, t-shirts. And Cal (Johnston, the owner of Strange Adventures) cares about that stuff. He loves comics.

But just selling books…there’s too much. I can fill the shelf with all these different books, but there’s not a wide enough audience for them. So, for us, this means creating more dedicated spaces. I have a horror section, I have a crime section, but there are books that aren’t face out 2 in those sections. We need to get them all face out.

The store that I probably respect the most in the world, Page 45 in Nottingham… 3 they have all sorts of amazing things. Their book of the month is in the British Library Archive. I believe they have 85% face out (at their shop) because people come, they’re looking for a read, and that’s how it catches your eye. Meanwhile, I’d say 80% of my store is not. 80% of my store is spine out. So that’s a huge part of it. We’re trying to literally make space.

I’ve also had inability to host events. We don’t have room for events. So when I started doing all these big sales, I did a big social media push, which is a whole other issue that we’re having. That social media is dead. Thank you, Elon Musk. But I had a couple of creators go, “Oh, do you want me to send you signed things? Do you want me to arrange a signing?” And I said, one, I don’t have the bandwidth for that right now. We’re in do or die sales mode. Two, I don’t have room for it.

We’ve downplayed the idea of community. We’re for readers. We have a community, we have people, but we’re not running events. We’re not doing trivia nights; we’re not doing game nights. We’re just, “You want to read great things? We have that.”

It seems like there are two things. You need to clear inventory for space reasons, and then the second is you need to have a financial turnaround going into 2025. It also seems like the sales are having an impact to some degree. You’re moving units, you’re doing what you need to do. Obviously in an ideal state, you’re selling more for the explicit purpose of being a profitable business and all that. But what does that do for you in 2025?

Luchins: There’s a threefold attack here. You already hit to the first two, which is one, it gives us more room. My garage will probably absorb many fixtures that are just too big or bulky for the shop, but we don’t want to just get rid of. If I can find other stores that want them, great, but that’s becoming harder and harder. So, one is making space so that we can host events so we can have more stuff face out.

Two is get rid of inventory so we can have more face out. But then three is start pushing a much more limited selection. If people are coming to read great things, I’m just going to have great things. I’m not going to stock things that look good. Or “maybe there’s a small audience for this.”

Iron Circus put out an exceptional book that I’ve been reading recently, The Worst Journey in the World. It’s about the Scott Expedition to Antarctica in the early 20th century, and it is insanely, meticulously researched. 11 years were spent researching this, reading everyone’s journals from the journey. I bought three copies of it having read a little bit about it. But I’ve only sold one copy of it. And it’s a great book, but I can’t have on my shelf things that are wonderful, but there’s a limited audience that’s actually going to appreciate what went into it.

And that is 80% of what is coming out.

So how do you decide what your curation approach is in 2025?

Luchins: So, our curation approach for 2025 is going to be, one, things we can do events with. If I can convince Lucy Knisley to come out, she’s come to us before and he’s got a new book in her Stepping Stones series, we will restock all the Stepping Stones. I will obviously be restocking the regular steady sellers, the Dog Mans, the Rainas, 4 which again, I’m letting fall apart during the clearance sale. Also, one of the beauties of the clearance sale is helping me not do lots of reorders. “Clearance sales all month, sorry, no, we don’t have that. You want me to order it for you? I’ll order it for you.”

Another part of it is superheroes. It is absurd to me that in today’s day and age, I have customers walk in and say they love Batman, and then go, “Have you got Year One?” 5 And I go, “What have you read?” And they go, “I read Hush.” 6 You read Hush, and you love Batman?? (David laughs) You can read Hush and love Jim Lee or love Jeph Loeb. But no, it’s because they’ve seen the movies.

So, the superhero way will be very much not great stories, not the classics…cheap. DC has the new Compact Comics. Marvel has these $15 books and $12.99 books. That is where we’re going to go with superheroes. Classics as well. We always had a sampling of classics. We’ll get Dark Knight Returns; we’ll get Year One. We won’t have it all on the shelf.

So, in that case, it’s more about accessibility than anything, right?

Luchins: Right. Yes.

I think Far Sector is one of the best things DC did in the decade.

And it has a Compact Comic.

Luchins: I think it’s very much a pain to read in the Compact edition, but it’s $35 otherwise and the Compact is $10. So, we’re going to stock that.

The other thing that I’m really looking into for curation is customer recommendations. If a customer is crazy about a book and really loves it and thinks everyone should read it…we used to do this. We used to have a whole shelf where people wrote little recommendations, and we put them up.

I love that.

Luchins: I’m now going to try and speak to customers about coming on the livestream. We do a live video every day in the store, so I’m going to speak to customers about coming on the livestream, promoting that book, and us placing orders for it. So that’s going to be trying to get people more interested in sharing their books. Otherwise, I’m the guy, and people come in, they go, “Look, everything you’ve recommended to me I love, so just tell me what to read next.” I look at them and go, “Who are you?”

You talked about the community experience where you’re talking about people coming in for events and things like that, but I also think part of it is a retailer is a guide to figuring this world out. And I think that’s part of the value of it.

But do you think that as part of this, that you might further shift away from single issues? Because if you’re looking at real estate from a pure math standpoint, and you’re talking about 85% face out, single issues have a tough time fitting in there.

Luchins: Well, so I have an amazing relationship with single issues. When I opened, I was sure that by now single issues would be a thing of the past. You’d have maybe $5 or $6 books that were two or three issues from the digital printings, and then those would get collected into trades. I had all these ideas of where it might go.

I didn’t know where it was going to go, but I certainly did not expect Ultimate Spider-Man or Absolute Batman. I didn’t expect 17-year-olds coming in and going, “Yes, Peter Parker with a beard and kids, this is what I need.” But I’ll tell you, I had loads of people coming in for #1, and now it’s 11 issues in, and I have a few people coming. The single-issue market…I want to think of how to say this as nicely as I possibly can.

It’s a market of attrition.

Luchins: Well, it’s a market that is more about being part of the scene than actually enjoying the product. It’s about getting the book the day it comes out. It’s about being up on the conversation of one or two things a lot less than I read things that I really love. And a lot of that is this hype machine that creates…I have to get the hot new issue and have to get the big thing. So a few companies, DC actually included, have been very good about that. When they create a hype machine, they have been offering us exceptional deals.

BOOM! has their returnability, DC has been offering these wonderful bundles of discounted books if you hit a certain ratio on them, and they’ve been offering them for Absolute Batman and Absolute Wonder Woman. And not just issue one, but on and on. So, our curation is going to obviously take a lot more advantage of that. But I’ll say the biggest thing about our curation is something that we already have done. Most of the single issues that I cleared out are from 2023 and older. We really don’t buy anything after issue two or three unless it has an exceptional footprint. If we’re selling five copies of something, I’m not ordering number three for a shelf.

I think that’s an important distinction though, is for people who read this, when you say you don’t order it, it means if somebody has it on their pull list, you’ll get it for them still.

Luchins: But I don’t order it for the shelf.

Yeah, you don’t order it for the shelf.

Luchins: I had it just happen this week. A guy walked in, and he picked up some new #1. I see this guy maybe every four or five months, and he goes, “You don’t have the new Batman.” And I didn’t. He goes, “You sold out of it already?” It was Wednesday. I said, “No. We have one person subscribing to Batman. So, he gets Batman.”

Wow.

Luchins: I have like 15 people subscribed to Absolute Batman.

He looks at me and he goes, “What do you mean?” He couldn’t understand. It’s Batman.

It is a little surprising.

Luchins: Absolutely. It’s 100% surprising. So, I said to him, “I’m with you. Every time there’s been a new storyline, we have ordered multiple copies and tried to get more people onto it. They’re in my box if you want them. They’re $1 off.” And it’s not an attack on Chip (Zdarsky, the writer of Batman), it’s not an attack on Jorge Jimenez (the artist of Batman), or anyone at DC. It’s simply that my customers aren’t buying it.

Look, we had this wonderful little thing that we did. Dimitrios (Fragiskatos) of Anyone Comics 7 came and watched the shop while I was in California for a few days. And before he did that, he came for a Sunday at the shop. He helped me out, I showed him how things work, and we were closing up. He goes, “A lot of your customers aren’t comic readers.”

Interesting.

Luchins: And I looked at him and I said, “Yeah, they are. They’re buying comics.” He goes, “You know what I mean.” And I knew what he meant. But it’s true. A lot of our customers aren’t looking for Batman #152. They’re looking to read something with Batman, read something with Spider-Man, they’re in town at a restaurant, so they’re just browsing through the shelves. See what’s what.

I had a woman who came to a concert around the corner from us and wanted to know if we had any Crumb. So, I gave her the latest Mineshaft. 8 I showed her some old Crumb we have. Then she starts talking about Mary Fleener, and I’m just showing her all these books again. Not things that I have tons of copies of. She was wowed by what she saw. But at the end of the day, she walked out with a $10 issue of Mineshaft. She’s impressed by everything she sees, but she’s only buying one book. And that’s who we have.

Our customer base is people who are interested in something and buying something. They’re not collecting. They’re not obsessive. I’d love to have some of those people. We have a few of them on our pull list. But the simple fact is that is exactly why the single-issue market is as bad as it is. It’s a market driven by collecting an obsession. It is not driven by great stories.

One of the books that I’ve been pushing for a couple of years is Ryan North’s Fantastic Four.

Yeah, it’s amazing.

Luchins: Fantastic. I don’t mind having issues on the shelf because almost every issue is a standalone story, so you can just hand it to someone, and they can enjoy it. But someone asked me, “What happens when it’s over?” I said, “Then it’s over.” And he goes, “What if I don’t like the next writer?” “Then you stop getting it.” (David laughs) To the comic reader, it’s this dedication. “This is my book. This is my character. I care.” But that’s absurd.

I don’t have that gear in me, but I am aware that that is a real thing.

I did want to ask about the sales. Each week of sales has a theme, like you mentioned earlier, the most recent week emphasized single issues. I think you have children’s books and manga coming up.

Luchins: No children’s books were the first week. We’re trying to play two fields here. So, we did children’s book and superhero books the first week. Second week was all single issues, but that meant $1,000 issues in the case were 25% off and dollar back issues were 17 for 10. So, that covered a huge range.

This week, it’s manga, which I’d like to consolidate at least a third of our section out. So, we’re doing lots of BOGO 9 a 75% off rack of number ones and twos and used books. Now, our used books are already half off their cover price. They’re going to be an additional 30% off. We also have a beautiful collection from a customer of mine. He gave it to us a few years before he passed away, but after he passed away, his widow said to just keep selling them. And he was a humongous collection. He collected EC Comics when he was a kid in the forties, and he has been a comic fan ever since. So, he just has this massive collection of art books, animation books and all that stuff. All that’s going to be 25% off as well.

What’s the final week?

Luchins: The final week is all our major displays. So, all our graphic novel series that aren’t superheroes, which take up three Billy bookcases from Ikea, are going to be buy one get one free. Our horror section. A recommendation section. Those are all going to have heavy discounts. How much of a discount? It depends on how well manga goes. Superheroes went very well. Again, a huge amount of our customer base is just looking for good things to read.

When you take a Marvel Epic and you make it half off, they pick it up.

Are those themes for the weeks just to give the sale focus or is it more about those are the areas you most need to clean up, so to speak?

Luchins: It’s both. One is there has to be focus. We’ve done tons of sales in our 12 years, and it’s always better to have specific sections on sale.

Yeah, it’s curated sales in its own way, focusing people’s attention in a specific direction.

Luchins: A lot of it is we always do our end of the year clearance from December 25th through January 1st. And every year, that’s where I take the opportunity to clearance out things. “Oh, no one’s buying this. It’s 90% off.” So, a big part of this is giving me time to look at each section and see, okay, what is four years old that I made 75% off and still didn’t move? And if I do the whole store, it’s way too overwhelming. But if I do it in pieces, I can really get an idea of what we need to clearance. And I think our end of the year clearance this year is going to be gigantic. It’s been a long time since I had multiple 90% off sections, but I think I will this time.

So, have you learned anything from this exercise so far that might shape things going forward for you?

Luchins: I didn’t learn anything. I got a lot of things that I was aware of…

Confirmed.

Luchins: Yeah.

Number one is the biggest, which is…I feel so horrible saying this, but it is something that has been drummed into my head in the last two years. It’s that you don’t go to the comic shop as often as you think you do. It’s just a fact people have in their head that they are regular comic shop goers because they go three times a year. They think they go every month, and they get books from Amazon or bookstores or the library. So, they’re reading graphic novels. It’s not like they’re not readers. But they come to me and go, “What’s new?” I’m like, “What’s new? What?”

They’re like, “What would I like?” And I’m like, “From the last two weeks, which is 50 books, or from the last four months?” So, that’s really been confirmed as people come and commiserate with me, all very sad faced about how they need this place, and they love this place. And I’m like, “I don’t even know you.” And that’s sad. It’s upsetting.

The other thing that I’ve really learned from it is that it does not matter how cheap you make something that is great. If there isn’t an audience regionally buying it, it’s not going to help. For example, our recent back issues, which are about a year and a half to two years of back issues, and they’re each a dollar. And I saw people going through them. People who I’ve recommended specific books to that I know were in there, and they did not bother. They’re not against the book, but they were looking for certain things. So, it’s just going to help me not bash my head against the wall and not keep stocking stuff because people should be reading it. Because they’re not.

And more than anything, it’s really taught me that…people would much rather donate money to an ailing cause than buy something. They love the altruism of giving money to help someone a lot more than buying themselves something. Maybe it’s a selfishness or selflessness, I don’t know. I don’t know the psychology of it, but the number of people who were ready to just throw money at me and said, “Oh, do a GoFundMe.” I’m like, “Buy things.”

I’ve got close to a million dollars in stock and over this month, I’m discounting all of it. Just buy something. “Oh, well, I don’t live near you.” Yeah, we’re actually putting all of the stock up for each sale Monday on our YouTube channel. I go through everything that’s on sale. I tell you an email address and how to order it. It’s really not a problem. And they’re like, “Oh, okay.” None of those people have reached out.

Did I do this wrong? (laughs) Should I have just tried to give you money instead of buying 10 books from you?

Luchins: No, you did exactly the right thing. You did what I love. And I’ve had a few people do it. A few people have been like, “Oh, can you give me books? I don’t want to mess up the sale, but I really don’t want superheroes.” I’m like, “Don’t worry, I’ll give you a discount.” I’ve done that, but it’s two or three people. Whereas the number of people suggesting that I crowdfund is exponentially more.

We already talked about this a little bit, but let’s say somebody reads this interview and decide they want to help. What are the best ways that people can help?

Luchins: There are two things. One, is…I’ve told this to customers, but it has not been made public yet. Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, we’ll be doing a special offer. Hold list customers come first in this offer because it’s going to be very complicated. But we’re doing wish list ordering for you. You send us a wish list anytime Thursday through Sunday, and we will send you an invoice for every single thing that is in print that’s available for us to order at 25% off.

Wow.

Luchins: That is a blanket 25% off anything.

Dang.

Luchins: As long as it’s in print. So that actually is quite limiting for a lot of people’s lists. I’ve already had a few customers ask it’s it better to check if it’s in print first. It’s absolutely better for me. I really don’t want to be digging through your entire list. Oh, so yeah, so that’s a huge one. That’s why we haven’t made it public yet, because I don’t want people to go crazy. But this is one week in advance. That’s not too terrible. So please, send us a wish list.

If you want to help right now, go to our website. There’s a button to order gift cards online. Buy a gift card. You can pay for your wish list with that gift card. No harm, no foul. You can go to our YouTube channel and look at what was available on Monday from the manga sale and what was available for the single-issue sale. But again, some of that’s gone.

That’s the week that all the main sections are going to be on sale, and we’re going to be putting them up. We don’t have every volume of these, but Department of Truth, Saga, MIND MGMT, Dept. H, Cerebus, A Distant Soil, all those are going to be buy one, get one free. But like I said, the wish list thing is the big one. That’s really our last hurrah of the sale that weekend.

So, it seems like the biggest thing for you can be boiled down to “Buy comics from Escape Pod.”

Luchins: Buy comics from me, but I keep trying to explain this to people. If the store closes in 2025, along with probably many other businesses besides comic shops because retail is rough out there. I know that I did this for 12 years, and I set out to show the breadth of comics, show how much is available, and make a lot of new readers. I did it.

The thing is, is people need to start thinking about why do we have comic shops? Why do we value retail space? If you don’t, and if you don’t care for that and it doesn’t matter to you, then I can’t speak to you. But if you’re someone who’s telling me that you love bookstores and you love looking around, and then when your kid goes, “Oh, get me that,” and as they walk out, they go, “It’s much cheaper online.” I always want to scream. There’s a reason for that. What you just enjoyed and appreciated in here, that costs money.

Look, I’d love to be in business. I’d love to stay in business. But I can stock shelves and make more money for my family. So more importantly, people have to start thinking about why they want businesses to exist.

Thanks for reading this conversation with Menachem Luchins of Escape Pod Comics. If you like what you read, consider subscribing to SKTCHD to support the work that I do and to read more like it.