Information

[Airea]

So I just started work at a comic shop and I need a little help.

I'm very well versed in DC but my woking knowledge of Marvel and third party companies isn't what it should be. I was brought on is part to increase comic sales and information would help.

Thanks in advance.

[JoshL]

What do you want to know? Working in a shop is the best way to learn (unless your library is pretty cool). Definitely, read as much as you can while you are there!

Marvel-wise, my favorite thing these days is Squirrel Girl and would recommend to almost anyone (though the point is a bit obscure; she's not as powerful as most, she beats all the top-tier villains because she's a Silver Age character living today). Brushing up on the basics of X-Men is always a good thing, and marvel.wikia.com can give you rundowns on characters.

Dark Horse was the king of the licensed comics; their Aliens vs. Predator books are classic, and currently the Buffy books are solid. But lots of other original properties are great too, and Hellboy is pretty well known thanks to the movies.

Another current favorite is Archaia; Mouse Guard is brilliant and worth recommending to anyone who likes fantasy. They're owned by Boom these days who also do a lot of other fun stuff.

Fantagraphics put out the old school "underground comix" style books, if you're looking for some old school cred. Slave Labor Graphics was the look of the 90s punk/goth scene (Jhonen Vasquez, Evan Dorkin). Cerebus the Aardvark was a 30-year epic and while Dave Sim is a sexist bastard, his work is notable and it's a hell of an achievement. Related note, Alan Moore is tough to take and belligerent at best, but brilliant and worked hard to protect creator's rights for everyone.

You know DC, do you also know Vertigo? If not, I'd highly recommend checking out what they've done. Sandman is a classic for dark fantasy, and Transmetropolitan for cyberpunk. Certainly more mature than the main DC lines.

That should get you some basics, and some others around here are way more versed than I, so feel free to ask specific questions! And, again, read everything you can!

[BiblioRook]

Marvel-wise, my favorite thing these days is Squirrel Girl and would recommend to almost anyone (though the point is a bit obscure; she's not as powerful as most, she beats all the top-tier villains because she's a Silver Age character living today). Brushing up on the basics of X-Men is always a good thing, and marvel.wikia.com can give you rundowns on characters.

Second this as a fan, but as much as I would like to say otherwise she's still probably what you would consider rather niche. Granted I never really looked at the numbers but I would actually be really rather surprised if she was much of a hit with general readers.
I almost don't want to say it because it sounds obvious and overexposed, but honestly as far as Marvel goes you really probably couldn't go wrong with Deadpool, and as it happens at the moment he has almost as many as half a dozen separate series (and that's just counting what's going on currently).

X-Men are in an iffy situation right now comic wise. Not to get into that whole thing, short short is Marvel currently is trying to fade them out and replace them with Inhumans. How successful they will do that I really can't say.

Honestly the best advise for Marvel stuff is, again, the most obvious. Fallow the movies. That is, the Marvel Studio movies. The other ones to a somewhat lesser degree I guess but they seem to be more hit and miss then the 'main' movies go. Not only is Marvel kind of putting all their eggs in one basket with wherever the MCU is going but the movies will garner interest and when the movies come out people will probably want those comics.

[Cheesegear]

I was brought on is part to increase comic sales and information would help.

The girl hired in my local shop was hired for basically the same reason. Her 'training' involved reading pretty much everything on both the main/eye-level shelves for Marvel and DC, and then after that she could read anything she that caught her fancy. Turns out my local comic store isn't that busy.

Then, after having read everything on the main shelves, she formed her own opinions about all the top selling books, and could recommend them to other people - or not - depending on what they liked. Then, 'as a girl' (her words, not mine), her opinion could be used to recommend other books 'to other girls'. Since the store owner is usually at a loss when it comes to selling books to girls/women 'cause he has no idea what they want.

[Kitten Champion]

Honestly the best advise for Marvel stuff is, again, the most obvious. Fallow the movies. That is, the Marvel Studio movies. The other ones to a somewhat lesser degree I guess but they seem to be more hit and miss then the 'main' movies go. Not only is Marvel kind of putting all their eggs in one basket with wherever the MCU is going but the movies will garner interest and when the movies come out people will probably want those comics.

Eh, but movies are biannual events and rarely resemble the comics at all. You might have to have some broad awareness that people are going to be asking where they can get into Doctor Strange or Black Panther and the like, which isn't terribly hard.

Really though, there's too much stuff to cover with any clarity on a forum thread. I would say, for Marvel at least, read the major events main comics - Secret Wars and Civil War II are the big ones - to get a broad idea of what the universe is at right now, and deal with the rest through the wikis and skimming through the recurring number ones. Also good to get a taste of the more prolific writers. Someone who likes Jeff Lemire on one of his Marvel books like Extraordinary X-Men might like Sweet Tooth or Essex County despite being less marketed independent works - or vice versa for that matter - for instance. Having that kind of bibliography in your mind wouldn't hurt, as there's a lot of writers/artists crisscrossing between indy comics and the big two now.

[t209]

X-Men are in an iffy situation right now comic wise. Not to get into that whole thing, short short is Marvel currently is trying to fade them out and replace them with Inhumans. How successful they will do that I really can't say..

Well, let's say that Inhumans are basically how Games Workshop introduced Tau.
- Caste system and Eugenics
- Being a "new thing" by respective companies
- And being less "conventional" morality
Except Tau are much more likable and more benevolent than any entities in the universe, which by contrast, Inhumans are basically grown-up Teen Titans Go with white-washing to their icky part (namely slave caste, sterilization, people who ran away from their oppressive society, and possibly turning into modern art, unlike Mutants) and forcing* the "lucky" ones into their ranks. Sure they have the Beast working on Tau-wannabe's sterilizing gas but they decided to ignore that in marketing. Not to mention that gas can be contained if they ask Spiderman to make a giant bag, T'Challa if he has time, or even Kamala Khan to turn into giant bag. But I think inbreeding might damage their thinking ability.
* Subjective since people like Kamala join them and no one complained them.
Then again a bit ballistic. But I would rather see them being treated like WH40k's Space Marine chapters (the quirks, the high mortality for just induction, and being separated but united stuff; AND BOTHERING TO DO HEROICS INSTEAD OF MORE WHITEWASHING) than mutant replacements.

[Airea]

I am sadly aware of the X-Men/Inhuman thing. What marvel readers we seem to have (far more DC ones) seem to have formed a fairly united opinion that the inhumans can fall off a cliff onto sharp pointy rocks (to paraphrase). I don't think it's working, here anyway.

X-men we're selling. Inhumans just sit there.

[t209]

I am sadly aware of the X-Men/Inhuman thing. What marvel readers we seem to have (far more DC ones) seem to have formed a fairly united opinion that the inhumans can fall off a cliff onto sharp pointy rocks (to paraphrase). I don't think it's working, here anyway.

X-men we're selling. Inhumans just sit there.

Well, another contrast to Tau, they are decent selling products and being closest to decent being also helped.
Unfortunately not enough MCU heathens haven't read it to be fooled by Inhumans' "benevolence", or white-washed retcons. Except for some who claimed about how other characters stockpile weapons, already freeing their slaves, or not practicing not-Tau system anymore.