Elfsar Comics & Toys Blog

Hey all,
Here is the latest News from ELFSAR COMICS & TOYS.
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YOUR MONTHLY IMPORTANT ORDERING REMINDER!
OCTOBER ORDERS ARE DUE TODAY WEDNESDAY the 21^st!
October orders are already due, so if you have not already done so please send your adds and reductions to us ASAP.  If you are having trouble deciding or want to know what we think on the December solicits than Make sure not to forget to check:
http://www.elfsar.com/Elfbytes%20Articles/Elfbytes.htm
Note: All Comic Saver File Customers should really find the time to read this as we sometimes offer product not yet listed in Previews and some product may not be automatically ordered for you on your file.
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FREE COMIC BOOK DAY HALLOWEEN IS NOW ONLY 10 DAYS AWAY!
FCBD COMES EARLY THIS YEAR (Exclusively at ELFSAR!!!)
Before hallows eve (if you dare) make plans to come to Elfsar and help us raise food and money for the Vancouver Food Bank!  We have a lot of comics to give away and need as much help as we can get.

On Oct 31st. Put on a costume.

Come to Elfsar between 11am to 7pm and get 5 free comics.

Bring food or money donation, and get 5 additional free comics.

Take pictures with awesome costumed heroes & villains.

Meet comic creators, get sketches & stuff signed.

Win Prizes in our raffles and help us with our fundraiser.

We have a store wide sale on as well:
SAVE 20% OFF ALL TOYS, MODELS, GAMES, POSTERS, T-SHIRTS and MORE!
BUY 2 GET 1 FREE ON ALL GRAPHIC NOVELS!
SAVE 50% OFF ALL BACKISSUES and RARE VARIANT COVERS!
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SPECIAL GUESTS INCLUDE:
ABBY DENSON: From Green Candy Press, Lulu Award-winning cartoonist Abby Denson is a regular script-writer for both Marvel and DC Comics, and the creator of the queer comic Tough Love: High School Confidential will be joining us on Halloween for a comic book signing of her new book Dolltopia.
Abby is touring across Canada and she will be bringing, the punked-up Barbies and stripped-down Kens from her new book Dolltopia to join us on Halloween. This is a special stop on her tour to celebrate it’s release.
Abby will be giving free cupcakes to anyone picking up Dolltopia.
Bring a punked up doll to the event and you may get a signed Dolltopia for free!

RYAN MORRIS: Meet local writer Ryan Morris and get a signed copy of his new book called “Molt”.

LARRY KRAUSE: Larry has been interested in the fantasy and horror genres for years, in particular the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the horror classic Halloween.  In the “Witch” novel, Krause has accomplished a fusion of both fantasy and horror genres. Larry and will be signing copies of “Witch” with a cover and illustrations by Ethan Peacock.

ROBIN MITCHELL: A talented artist who has worked with clients like Hasbro, Wizards of the West Coast, Brand Studio Press, Imaginism Studios & Blue Dream Studios,
Robin Mitchell will be showcasing his art in books appropriately called:
ART OF ROBIN MITCHELL VOL 1
ART OF ROBIN MITCHELL VOL 2

SEAN O’RIELLY: From ARCANA STUDIOS writer and Shuster award winner Sean O’Rielly,
Canada’s top Independent comic publisher with over one hundred properties to his credit.
(Kade, Ezra & Clockwork Girl are just a few of Arcana’s titles.) Arcana Studio is currently working for Disney as an official vendor, Ubisoft, HBO and developed Dragon’s Lair, Reboot, Se7en and Final Destination for Comic Books. Sean will be signing copies of the Elfsar exclusive cover to Kade!

ETHAN PEACOCK: For the fist time ever Elfsar’s Ethan Peacock steps from behind the retail counter to sign copies of his cover to Kade written by Sean O’Rielly and published by Arcana Studios.
Ethan will be giving away copies for Free to anyone who donates $2 or more to the Vancouver Foodbank.
He will also be doing some free sketch work.
Take advantage of this rare opportunity to get a free one of a kind drawing of your favourite comic book character and get your hands on a free copy of the first ever Elfsar Exclusive comic brought to you by Arcana Studios.
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TAKE PICTURES WITH COSTUMED HEROES & VILLIANS
At Elfsar you will be greeted throughout the day by costumed heroes and villains who have taken a break from crime fighting and devious plans to rule the world so they can be with us on our 2nd national geek holiday. These great people will be posing for photographs with anyone who gives a donation to the food bank.
So remember to:
1) Bring a camera.
2) Donate food and or a few loonies and toonies.
3) Get your photo/s taken with a number of Heroes & Villains.
Forgot to bring a camera? No problem, there will be some very talented professional photographers on hand to take your picture for you.
You can then download your picture from our website.
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WIN RAFFLES:
Win a STAR WARS DARTH VADER LIGHTSABER!
Win a DARK KNIGHT JOKER 1/6 SCALE COLLECTOR FIGURE!
Win an AMAZING SPIDER-MAN OMNIBUS HC!
Win a HORRORCLIX GREAT CTHULHU!
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HELP US WITH OUR FUNDRAISER:
Nothing can make you feel better than giving back to YOUR own community. We strongly advise everyone to bring in a non-perishable food item to donate to the Vancouver Food Bank. You would be amazed at how far a simple jar of peanut butter will go to feed the hungry. By just bringing in a $2 worth of food or $2 money donation, you will qualify to get a FREE entry into one of our raffles and get access to even more free books than just the ones listed as FREE COMIC BOOK DAY ones!
Check it out on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=136562234276&view=all#/event.php?eid=156366728045&ref=nf
Keep checking our website: http://www.elfsar.com/FCBD/Halloween/Event.htm
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CTHULHUPALOOZA II: SON OF CTHULHUPALOOZA
Last year at Cthulupalooza Elfsar customers rocked out at a Rock Band competition.
(See http://www.elfsar.com/Events/Elfsar_Rocks.htm)
The first Cthulhupalooza included a Rock Band contest, a screening of the HPLHS’ “The Call of Cthulhu” film, and a live performance by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets. This year on December 5^th they will have more films, more diversity, and another live show by The Thickets!
In fact they want you to get involved. If you have a film you’d like to submit or an idea for a performance or activity at this year’s Cthulhupalooza, please contact the Second Level Wizards! info@secondlevelwizards.com
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GET ANIMATED! FREE ANIMATION SCREENINGS & WORKSHOPS:
FREE screenings of award-winning animation, many in gorgeous 35mm, and also free workshops by award-winning animators!
That’s right, it’s FREE. Not only that, but FREE at venues which serve reasonably priced popcorn!

Check there website: http://films.nfb.ca/get-animated/pacific.php#vancouver for more info.
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HANNAH’s HEROES NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT!
Raise Awareness and funds for pediatric brain tumor research in honor of Hannah Hatlen
The fall fundraiser is taking place Nov 7th at the Tsawwassen Golf and Country Club.
Tickets are now available for $25 and include burger and a beer (or wine/soda).
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/146153?m=4a83263b

Notably, a very serious price war has broken out between Amazon.com and Walmart.com over advance order bestselling books, with the retailers offering discounts as high as 74% off retail on hot upcoming titles.  These prices are most definitely below cost for both retailers.   Titles involved include the upcoming titles from Stephen King, James Patterson, and Sarah Palin.

The price war started on Thursday, according to the Wall Street Journal, when Walmart cut prices on ten hot upcoming titles to $10.  Amazon matched the price, and Walmart then cut prices on the titles to $9.  After Amazon also matched that price, Walmart cut its price again, to $8.99.

The nation’s largest book chains aren’t cutting prices to match, which probably means that they will lose market share on these key titles.  At a time when book retailing is already challenged by slumping sales due to the economy, a price war between the 2 “Big Dogs” appears to be the last thing Chapters, Barnes & Noble and every other smaller book retailer thereafter need.

It reminds me of dogs fighting for table scraps each going for the jugular not caring that they are both going to loose.

To a book business that has already been rocked by the beginning of digital delivery to handheld devices and subscription services, you can now add two more trends with game-changing potential:  piracy and store-based print-on-demand.

A story in Sunday’s New York Times titled “Will Books Be Napsterized” raises the possibility that all books might end up like recorded music. 95% of digital music is unauthorized and industry revenues, including rapidly growing revenues from sales of digital copies, have dropped by half in the last ten years.

A site called RapidShare is the source of the most illegal copies, according to the article, which reported that of 166 illegal copies of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol found on the Web, RapidShare was the source of 102 of them.

Another potential gamechanger is the Espresso Book Machine, currently selling for around $100,000, which can print, bind, and trim a 300-page b/w book with color covers in under four minutes.  A new version of the EBM is now currently being deployed to bookstores and libraries.  The devices draw on about 1.6 million titles from On Demand Books, the creator of the machine, and another 2 million titles from Google’s digitized book library.

A device that produces DVDs on demand is rapidly changing Blockbuster’s business model.  The company is closing nearly 1,000 stores as it deploys around 10,000 of the DVD-producing kiosks by the middle of next year. To have a similar effect on the book business, the price of the EBM will have to come down significantly, but it’s early in the life cycle of these devices.

The next stage of Google’s book strategy became clearer yesterday when the company announced that it would begin offering electronic books to any device with a Web browser through a new online store, beginning in the first half of 2010.

What does this mean for our beloved comics?  We are currently in a situation (like a stand-off right out of the wild west) where each company is waiting to see who will make the first move.  It is always less expensive to see what the other guy develops and try to improve/adapt and correct his mistakes, than to make those mistakes yourself.

Everyone who has not been living under a rock has heard the news about Disney buying Marvel (See Disney-buys-Marvel-comics-for-4-billion) and now Aniboom and Marvel are holding a Motion Comics Competition. The grand prize winner will get $10,000 and have their work posted on marvel.com.  Marvel loves the motion comic.

DC Comics and Warner Bros. have recently restructured to create DC Entertainment (See DC-and-Warner-Brothers-create-DC-Entertainment), where part of their development is to experiment with the digital medium.  No specific news has been given other than from various interviews that say that there waiting to see what happens.

Sony is bringing downloadable graphic novels to its PSP with the “digital reader,” that will bring “a range of media” to the portable console. “Hundreds” of comics are said to be lined up for the service starting in December, with publishers Marvel, IDW Publishing, iVerse, and Image Comics contributing brands such as Spider-Man, X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Star Trek, Archie Comics, and Proof.

Also a notable comic book news site, recently conducted a poll regarding the future of the digital distribution of comics. This was in response to a recent blog entry by Filip Sablik, Editor-In-Chief at Top cow Comics (WANTED, WITCHBLADE), which advocates for free, ad-supported distribution. More than two-thirds of Newsarama’s readership decided that the best option for digital comics is a fee-based, with the majority choosing a $0.99-per-issue iTunes-type model. The least popular option was a subscription-based model, similar to Marvel Comics Unlimited, which is the current method of distribution at Marvel.com.

It is very interesting where our industry is heading.  I predict a lot of changes in the next 5 years and it is no coincidence that I am seeing a lot of comic books stores carrying more toys and games than comics.  Now don’t get me wrong, I can still see comic books being published in print form fifty years from now, in the same way pulp magazines are still being published, facsimile reprints and pastiches with print runs maybe in the hundreds sold to a small but devoted fan base.  But I have to face the fact that I really have to think long and hard about my future as a business in the act of selling comics.  I love them and will always be around them and comics will never die.  Just the way you and I get them will be different. On the bright side of things, there’s nothing like “they don’t make those anymore” to make something more valuable so it will be an absolute boon to those selling back issues.  I just have not been impressed enough by digital comics… yet.  But if they ever make a color kindle, I might change my mind.

DO YOU WANT FREE COMICS NOW?  LET ELFSAR SHOW YOU THE WAY.

Free Golden Age Comics Book Downloads

There are many free download resources for comic books which have expired copyrights and are now in the public domain. Check out: Golden Age Comics (No, I am not talking about the only other comic book store in downtown Vancouver) for free comic books that have expired copyrights. Downloading any other comic book or graphic novel without the permission of the publisher is illegal and counts as copyright infringement, punishable by large fines and possible jail time. Yadda yadda yadda.

Free Comics, Graphic Novels and Manga

Don’t have a computer? No problem, there is an entire collection of DC, Marvel, Vertigo, Image, Darkhorse, and Manga waiting for you just down the street. Where? Your local library. Public libraries often include a graphic novels sections, which is the perfect place for comic book readers on a budget or for those just starting out in the hobby.

Free Comic Book Day

Lastly, don’t forget about Free Comic Book day. On Free Comic Book day, every one gets a free comic book, no computer or library card required. Held annually, typically on the first Saturday in May, visit any good comic shop and walk with away with a free issue, just like that. Free Comic Book Day is a partnership of comic book retailers to help spread the word about comic books. But here at Elfsar you don’t just get a free comic you get free comicS with an “S” at the end.  We link it to a charity (the Vancouver Food Bank) event and the average person walks away with about 10 Free Books!  And you don’t even have to wait until May for the next one as we are bringing Free Comic Book Day to you again on October 31st (Halloween) as it falls on a Saturday this year.  Check it out: http://www.elfsar.com/FCBD/Halloween/Event.htm