A New Chapter for Comic Moon

A Comic Moon business update

You might have noticed that Comic Moon has been rather quiet for a while. In fact, quiet would probably be an understatement. For those who have followed us previously, we thought it was about time we explained where we’ve been, what we’ve been doing, and, perhaps more importantly, what comes next.

Firstly, the hiatus wasn’t entirely planned. Following a string of personal bereavements, I made the decision to take some time away from the business. Sometimes life has a habit of putting things into perspective, and the comics, understandably, had to take a back seat.

When the time came to consider reopening, there was quite a lot to think about. Did we want another traditional comic shop? A warehouse? A showroom? Or something completely different?

We’ve spent much of the past year asking ourselves these questions, and somewhere along the way, our ambitions for Comic Moon became rather larger than they had been before. So, rather than simply reopening the doors and carrying on where we left off, we decided to restructure the business and give it a proper foundation.

Comic Moon HQ

Comic Moon has now relocated to Eccleshall in Staffordshire, where we’ve established a new office. We even have a vending machine. It’s all a girl could dream of...

We looked at various premises, from retail units to warehouses, but ultimately decided that what we needed first was a properly functioning office. Somewhere we could organise our stock, manage customer orders, develop our subscriptions, work with publishers and generally make sure the business operates as it should. Having ran physical retail shops through the covid era, its certain taught me that to have a sustainable business theses days you certainly cannot rely on footfall across the high street, no matter how much we loved seeing you all day to day, its simply too risky in this climate.

So our HQ might not sound as exciting as opening a comic shop, but it’s an important step. There’s not much point having shelves full of wonderful comics if you can’t get them into people’s hands efficiently.

Our focus initially will be on our online store, with a considerably expanded range of comics, books, vintage publications and all manner of other interesting things.

That doesn’t mean we’ve abandoned physical retail. Quite the opposite, actually. We’re planning to unveil our first Comic Moon showroom in 2027, giving customers somewhere to browse, discover and, hopefully, spend far longer than they originally intended.

We’ve also been working behind the scenes on future events in association with Wow Events, with some interesting plans for Staffordshire and beyond.

So, although we’ve been quiet publicly, there’s been rather a lot going on.

One thing we’ve become increasingly certain about is that Comic Moon shouldn’t exist simply to sell the same comics as everyone else. Of course, we’ll continue to stock Marvel, DC, Image and the other familiar publishers. They’re an important part of the industry, and we enjoy them as much as anyone.

But we have a particular affection for British comics, both old and new, and we believe there’s an enormous amount of work to be done in bringing them to a wider audience.

Britain has an extraordinary history of comic publishing. From the great children’s weeklies and adventure papers to the underground publications, science fiction comics, humour titles and independent artists working today, there’s a remarkable amount of material that deserves to be read, remembered and rediscovered.

That means working directly with smaller publishers, introducing readers to comics they might otherwise never encounter, and helping promote British comics internationally. It also means looking backwards as well as forwards, celebrating our publishing history while supporting people creating new work.

Through our developing publishing arm, Grazing Press, we’re also exploring ways of working with artists, writers and independent creators to produce new printed material of our own.

We’re under no illusions that any of this will happen overnight. But we’re building towards something that we hope will be rather special for the British comic industry.

The future of comics

It’s difficult to talk about the future of publishing without mentioning artificial intelligence.

We’re living through a peculiar period in which an extraordinary amount of artwork, writing and general content can be produced at the press of a button. Some of it is impressive, much of it is forgettable, and increasingly it’s becoming difficult to tell where one piece of digital content ends and another begins.

I suspect that, as AI-generated material becomes more commonplace, we’ll see a growing appreciation for the things it cannot replicate quite so easily: the physical object, the imperfections of hand-drawn artwork, the smell of old paper, the peculiar charm of something made by somebody who spent hours getting it just right.

In some ways, I think we’re already seeing the beginnings of a counter-culture to all this. We’re rather fond of things you can actually hold.

A comic isn’t simply a collection of images on a screen. It’s something you can lend to a friend, discover in a second-hand bookshop, find in your parents’ attic or stumble across thirty years after it was printed. Sometimes the advertisements, the letters pages and even the quality of the paper are as fascinating as the stories themselves.

And while technology will undoubtedly continue changing the industry, we don’t think the physical comic is anywhere near finished. In fact, we think it might become more important.

Reading and collecting

This brings me to something else we’ve thought about quite a lot.

The modern comic industry has become increasingly dominated by collecting, speculation, variant covers and graded comics.

Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with collecting. We’re collectors ourselves, and we understand the appeal of owning something unusual, rare or historically important. The graded comics industry has created a successful market, and plenty of people have made a living from it.

But I do have a few reservations about what it’s done for comics as a reading culture.

For a start, sealing a comic in plastic effectively removes its original purpose. You’re no longer buying something to read. You’re buying something to display, speculate on or perhaps sell at a later date. And that’s fine, if that’s what you enjoy.

But personally, I find the inside of a comic considerably more interesting than the outside. A cover, however beautifully illustrated, is ultimately an invitation to discover what’s inside. Once a comic is permanently sealed away, that invitation becomes rather pointless. I also worry about what increasing speculation does to accessibility. When certain comics become financial assets, prices rise, and the opportunity for an ordinary reader, particularly a young one, to discover and enjoy them becomes more difficult.

We may well stock graded comics ourselves in the future, I cannot rule it out. We’re a business, after all, and there is clearly a market for them. But I don’t want them to become the defining feature of Comic Moon.

I’d much rather somebody bought a £3 comic, read it to pieces and fell in love with the medium than spent £300 on something they were frightened to open. And if we can sustain that approach we will. I think thats why we incorporated our pricing structure for the comics on the website. After a comic has been released for over three months, we take it off the front line, you can no longer subscribe to it and we reprice it, because its not new anymore. I think this is a fair approach because in the vast majority of cases, this will mean comics will go down in price, not up. We will also certainly we watching out for scalpers. Not here thank you. If we notice something is being targeted in such a way, we will limit the amounts purchasable.

There’s room for both, of course. I just think the balance has shifted a little too far in one direction and one of our other priorities has to be encouraging younger readers. I grew up surrounded by comics and books, and I still remember particular stories, illustrations and characters from my childhood. Some of those experiences have stayed with me for decades.

Which brings me to a rather simple thought.

For the price of a takeaway coffee, you can buy a child a book that might become a core memory. Very few coffees manage that. Although I have no doubt there are perhaps cases…

I don’t think we should underestimate the importance of parents reading with their children. It’s not simply about literacy, although that’s obviously important. It’s about imagination, conversation, spending time together and developing an interest that might last a lifetime. And comics are a wonderful way of doing it.

Not every child wants to begin with a novel, and not every child finds reading easy. Comics provide another route into stories, combining words, pictures, humour and adventure in ways that can be enormously engaging.

We’re currently developing a children’s subscription designed around this idea. Rather than simply posting out a random bundle of comics each month, we’d like to encourage parents and children to discover stories together, develop regular reading habits and perhaps even make reading part of the bedtime routine.

We also have plans involving schools, educational organisations and creative activities for children who might want to try making comics themselves. If we can introduce even a relatively small number of children to a lifelong love of reading, I think that’s something worth doing.

Retail and publishing plans

We’re also rethinking the way we approach subscriptions, independent publishing and the general experience of buying comics.

We want customers to discover things they didn’t necessarily know they wanted.

That might mean a forgotten British weekly from fifty years ago, a new independent comic from a publisher they’ve never heard of, a carefully chosen graphic novel or a little surprise included with their usual order.

We’re looking at ways of making subscriptions feel more personal, giving customers a chance to tell us what they enjoy while still allowing us to introduce something unexpected.

We have a substantial archive of older comics and publications, and we’re keen to put that to good use rather than simply leaving everything sitting in boxes. Ultimately, we’d like Comic Moon to become somewhere that celebrates the entire culture of comics and illustrated publishing, rather than just the latest releases.

And importantly, we want it to be a sustainable business. Enthusiasm is wonderful, but enthusiasm doesn’t pay the electricity bill. If we want to support independent creators, introduce new products and help the industry grow, we need to build something that works commercially as well.

Which leads rather neatly to the people who will be doing much of that work.

Meet the Comic Moon team

Penny

Penny will be overseeing much of the day-to-day running of Comic Moon, including customer enquiries, subscriptions, stock management, orders and general office operations. There’s a fair amount to keep track of, and she’ll be helping us make sure everything runs smoothly as the business grows.

Penny is relatively new to the comic industry, which I actually consider something of an advantage considering half of the time i’m distracted by my own nostalgia when going through the stock. She’s not without her own talents creatively though, and has a fantastic eye for art and what makes for a good comic book.

One of the peculiarities of working in an industry built around people’s hobbies is that enthusiasm can occasionally get in the way of good business decisions. Sometimes it’s useful to have somebody who doesn’t automatically assume that a particular comic is wonderful simply because it features a character they’ve loved since childhood.

Penny brings a fresh pair of eyes, a practical approach and, perhaps most importantly, the ability to look at things from a customer’s perspective rather than solely a collector’s.

James

I’ve been involved in the comic industry for around a decade, including previously running comic shops and working on comic-related events with the Wow Comix. Myself, Wayne and John navigated some difficult years through covid with our shops. What was a very successful venture became too problematic as the effect on the British high street worsened. Despite closing down the physical shops we still keep a close working relationship and are still very proud of what we were able to achieve over those years with the shops. Wow Events and Publishing continues, and you will likely see it all advertised right here on Comic Moon.

Like many people who end up working in this rather peculiar business, I grew up reading comics, and somewhere along the line an enjoyable interest became something rather more consuming. My interests have always extended beyond superheroes. I’ve a particular affection for British comics, hand-drawn illustration, old books, newspapers and the history of printing in general. I find the development of print culture fascinating, from the artwork and production methods to the social history contained within them.

With Comic Moon, I’m particularly interested in developing relationships with publishers and creators, expanding our range of British material and finding ways to introduce our own comics and publications to readers both here and overseas.

I suppose the simplest way of explaining my ambitions is that I don’t particularly want to run just another comic shop. I’d like Comic Moon to become something a little different. A place that sells comics, certainly, but also a business that helps publish them, promotes their history, introduces new readers, supports artists and contributes something worthwhile to an industry that’s given me a great deal of enjoyment over the years.

Whether we manage all of that remains to be seen. But we’re certainly going to give it a go.

There are also a couple of other team members who are currently joining up with us soon and then we are also looking for more people to come onboard. Check out the jobs section on the website for more.

Thank you

To everyone who supported Comic Moon previously, thank you for your patience, particularly during our prolonged absence.

We’re excited to be returning, and while there are still plenty of things to organise, we’re looking forward to sharing what we’ve been working on. We’ll have more news about the website, subscriptions, publishing projects, events and our plans for 2027 over the coming months. There’s a lot still to do, and we’re going to make a few mistakes along the way. That’s probably inevitable.

But we have some big ambitions, a new home, a growing team and rather more comics than is probably sensible. Lets go.