IDW Publishing is holding its first ever sale of comic books and graphic novels at its San Diego headquarters on Saturday, December 6, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.  This is a fantastic opportunity for comic book collectors to scoop up some real bargains and hunt down some rare titles they may have missed, including some limited editions and signed copies – all at bargain prices.  There will be surprises and giveaways with every purchase.

A number of comic book creators will be on hand offering free autographs on their work, including Ben Templesmith (Wormwood, 30 Days of Night), Chris Ryall (Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show, Zombies vs. Robots), and Chris Mowry (Transformers).

The sale gives IDW a chance to thank fans for their continued support and for helping with the company’s phenomenal growth over the past few years.  IDW was recently ranked No. 4 comic book publisher in the United States by Diamond Comic Distributors. 

The sale is primarily intended to free up space in IDW’s warehouse for the company’s expanded and exciting line up of titles in 2009.   

“Our warehouse manager is literally buried,” says IDW’s Chief Operating Officer, Greg Goldstein. “After 10 years of publishing, it’s only natural that the boxes have piled up because of accidental print overruns, books that were set aside as office copies, books intended for reviewers and others earmarked for promotional purposes. Time to get them out of here.”

The sale will be held in IDW’s parking lot, 5080 Santa Fe St, San Diego, CA 92109.

IDW is offering new comics for $1 each (Reg. $3.99 cover). Titles include — subject to availability — 30 Days of Night, Transformers, Star Trek, Wormwood, Spike, Fallen Angel, Dr. Who, Scarface, Gene Simmons, Metal Gear Solid, Clive Barker, Zombies vs. Robots, and CSI.

Trade paperbacks / collections will be $5 each (Reg. $19.95-$24.95 each).

Other books, comics and magazines will be up to 80% OFF cover price.

Most items are brand new; some with nicks and dings.

There will also be some limited edition and signed editions TBD, along with special surprises.

For example:

•         Signed and numbered, limited edition copies of Clive Barker’s Thief of Always (hardcover) only $10!

•         Limited edition Zombies vs. Robots Bertie statue regularly priced at $350 will be reduced to $250.

(All prices are in effect day of sale only and are not applicable online.)

Giveaways with every purchase.

Cash or major credit cards accepted; no checks.
 

A few weeks ago, I discussed the usefulness of active, available archives for webcomics. Archives provide huge amounts of free content to draw in new readers; and they prevent continuity lockout by providing a way to easily go back and refresh your memory of previous events. With print comics, especially before the advent of everything getting collected in trade paperbacks, there really wasn’t a way to avoid that — which is a lot of why Silver Age stories needed to be as self-contained as they were.

Nowadays, people who are flush with cash can always go buy a TPB collection of stories they missed or forgot. Who the heck is this character in the latest issue of Ultimate Spider-Man? The editor’s note says he first appeared back in Ultimate X-Men #17. All it takes is one trip to Amazon.com, several days for delivery, and then reading time, and I’ll be caught up enough to understand what’s going on in the comic currently in my lap.

Of course, those of us with rent bills to pay have to make do with the lower-cost option: The internet. There are lots of choices to catch up on, say, DC Comics continuity: The DC Wikia, the Justice League Library, Heroes Wiki, and heck, even granddaddy Wikipedia itself.

But you know where you can’t go to figure out what happened in that recent issue of Batgirl you missed, or that Green Lantern plot point from 1988 that recently cropped up? DCComics.com.

Now, don’t get me wrong: If you want to see artwork previews, or check the list of everything that’s in print, or get a short graphic bio of most of the characters, DCComics.com is the place to go. But say you haven’t been following Trinity and want to catch up. If you go to the forum and ask for the best place to do so, they’ll point you to Wikipedia.

Of course, Marvel’s website already has their own version of the wiki and it’s pretty nifty, too.

So here’s my suggestion to DC: You need a wiki. You’ve got an army of fans just aching to show how much they know about the characters and storylines, as evidenced by the other wikis that crop up everywhere. You need accessible utilities that’ll help build a bigger audience, especially among younger people, who don’t have the continuity knowledge to get into most recent titles. You need to drive traffic to your website as effective advertising for your products, and keep people at your website, rather than shunting them off to an outside source. And you’ll want all of this to be under your nominal control.

Here’s how you do it: Acquire the Wikia content (I don’t know the legal channels, but I’m sure you could find them). Hire a few of your most OCD fans (and a couple of the ComicMix contributors come to mind) as moderators. Set a few ground rules (no spoilers for this month’s books, no speculation, no flaming), and let the fans go from there. Link in the original stories, history of the DC and other online content you currently have, and have the last line of the wiki entry for each ongoing book or characters be a link to a preview of the next issue. Heck, if you set up creator/author/artist pages right, you can have an “subtle” way of linking fans of one book to things that they would also want to buy.

Also, everything that currently in print? There should be a “Buy It Now!” icon. Not a tiny, blend-in-to-the-background “Subscribe to your favorite comics” down at the bottom of the page. That’ll also be really easy to transition to digital pamphlets when the time comes and the color ebook readers are ready.

Just because classic print comics and “webcomics” as I define them are different animals, doesn’t mean they can’t take lessons from each other about what works in terms of monetizing web content.

(On the odd chance someone official reads this and goes ahead with this idea, I’d also love to see a Showcase volume of my dad’s work from the 70s and 80s, particularly ‘Mazing Man. Also, a pony.)