Off Panel #221: Finding Ceilings with Brian Hibbs

By David Harper

September 9, 2019

In this week’s episode of Off Panel, retailer Brian Hibbs returns to the podcast to talk about how the year is going for his two San Francisco comic shops, Comix Experience and Comix Experience Outpost. Hibbs discusses the impact of House of X and Powers of X, their weekly nature, the limit to the ceiling of those titles, what could have been done to reach that ceiling, Once & Future and print run games, whether DC and Image reducing their lines has helped, exploding graphic novel sales, his graphic novel clubs, the growth of speculation, transitioning HoX/PoX readers into Dawn of X readers, and more.

You can find Hibbs at his two San Francisco comic shops, Comix Experience and Comix Experience Outpost, as well as in his regular column at The Beat, Tilting at Windmills.

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Thanks to my patrons, including – but not limited to – Paul Salaets, Lytwyn Studios, Akil Wilson, Andrew Nicovich, Nathan House, Alex Dimitropolous, Terry Dodson, Troy-Jeffrey Allen, Liana Kangas, Keigen Rea, Milton Lawson, Wesley Gift, Shawn Kirkham, Harry Small, Alister Ross, Julio Anta, Brett A. Schmidt, Jason Goodmanson, Paul Reinwand, Connor Farner, Vita Ayala, Jay D’Ici and Matt G. Gagnon, Aditya Bidikar, Tara Ferguson, Dave Slusher, Ciaran Marcantonio, WMQ Comics, Akylle, Kokaachi, Phil White, Ben Becker, Shaun Pinello, Kent Heidelman, Phillip Sevy, Al Ewing, Ryan Alcock, Nick Michelin, David Kelley, Robert Wilson IV, Nick Poleto, Eoin McCready, Brenden Fletcher, Gary Moloney, Jonathan Nilsson, Matthew Groom, Jason Nassi, Adam Bogert, Xavier Files, Matthew Taylor, Tyler Turner, Nick Pitarra, Jacob Sareli, Ford Gilmore, David Baroldy, Ira James Udaskin, Modern Magic Stories, Nick Hall, Bobby Angus, Bjorn Basen, John Hendrick, Steve Anderson, Phil Knall, Ian Maxfield, Cliff Chiang, Benjamin Schipper, Colin McMahon, Chris Palmer, Scott McGovern, Nathan Fairbairn, Cat McKenzie, Greg Rucka, Adam Highfill, Nicholas Gardner, Fiona Staples, Chris O’Hollaran, Mark Abnett, Mike Murphy, Michael Shirley, Tom Barnett, Jim Demonakos, Norbert, Nick Lowe, James Kaplan, and Mission: Comics and Art in San Francisco. You’re all the best.

Have a question for Off Panel? You can reach David by email or Twitter.

Header art is of Comix Experience in San Francisco. Off Panel’s theme music is an original track by custom music agency Upright T-Rex Music, written and performed specifically for the podcast. A huge thanks to Ross and Cody from Upright T-Rex Music for putting the track together!

Notable Replies

Prince3PO says:

September 11, 2019

Alright! This is a solid episode, and y’all conversation was really focused, but you also covered it really well! I found myself really agreeing with a few things of note:

7 weeks for the second print of HoX/PoX 1 is insane. I’m more understanding of the print run that you bog seem to be, but 7 weeks is way too long for more of those. I think HoX 1 in particular can probably sell clear through the end of the year to get people interested in Hickman’s X-men so it’s really wild that Marvel would take so long to get those issues into shops.
Spring boarding off of that, DoX really needs more of a push from Marvel if they want it to succeed. Hibs is right by saying that plenty of people will just be in it for 12 issues, and even more people will only stick with the main title. The only reason I’m buying all six is to try them out, but I’ll be ruthless with them once I get em. DoX is a weird wild card.

DC not really cutting down is probably my favorite point though. On the surface it seems like they did, but in reality they just bolstered their line with Hill’s imprint and the ink/zoom books. Beyond that, all the black label stuff is reasonably priced and longer, but they’re still basically replacing two shorter series with a different format book that costs more. It’s inventive and under the radar, but it’s still designed to help their market share the same way Marvel does, it’s just not by volume but by dollars.

As far as what y’all said about Once & Future, I’m definitely more with Hibs in saying, yeah something’s off about it but it’s hard to really diagnose besides well, that print run was real low and why would they do that? I’m very interested in seeing how they sold it vs Die in its first month. If I were Boom! I’m not sure I go with Die as the model or not. I mean, sure, optimism is cool, but I don’t like wasting money or paper. I dunno.
actualtotoro says:

September 13, 2019
I always enjoy when Hibbs comes on, as he has an aversion to sugarcoating that would make a diabetic blush.

I get sad when I hear people drop “Fallen Angels” as the obvious book-without-an-audience of the bunch, but I also understand it. I’m buying it as a Laura fan, but even I am not especially enthusiastic about it.

Two observations about the HoXPoXDoX stuff:
1. I think a big reason that the initial orders on the launch were low is that price point. A weekly book is a tough sell. A weekly $5 book is a tougher sell. A weekly $5 book with two $6 first issues is just an incredibly tough sell. I think the story here is that it managed to reach such high initial numbers despite those factors. I understand why in a vacuum the numbers might be disappointing, but nothing about this exists in a vacuum.
2. I think a related big factor in making folks wary about the Dawn of X books is that pretty much the entire line is double-shipping. Anyone who just wants to sample the first month of each of the new books will have spent as much doing so as it cost to read almost the entirety of HoX/PoX.
Prince3PO says:

September 13, 2019

actualtotoro:

initial orders on the launch were low is that price point

I kinda feel like it’s silly to call 186,000 copies “low” in the comic market we’re in right now. That number of copies cracks top 15 of last year and we know that second print did at least some numbers. And really, it’s selling almost exactly the same as War of the Realms 1, which is good? Like, yeah, Marvel events are gonna sell similarly? I don’t see this as underperforming at all, just performing.

Of course, the price point is a great point! I think higher prices, along with shipping schedule absolutely lower the ceiling for Marvel event comics in general, much more than under-shipping does at least.
actualtotoro says:

September 13, 2019

Prince3PO:

I kinda feel like it’s silly to call 186,000 copies “low” in the comic market we’re in right now.

I’m just responding to Hibbs’ (~10:20) “that’s not really very good, actually.”
Prince3PO says:

September 13, 2019

Yeah! Totally! My initial response was 100% supposed to be, “I didn’t like how Hib’s said that,” because I actually agree with your assessment more than his! I think price/period of release has more of a factor of the relatively “low” ceiling for Marvel’s events rather than print runs do, based on yknow, other marvel events selling similar numbers.