Lone Star Focuses on Customers & Comics

by Judith Rosen, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 5/8/2007

Ask Chris Powell, general manager and COO of Lone Star Comics, an eight-store chain of comics shops in North Texas, about his job, and he'll tell you it's "managing relationships." For Powell, that means a list of customer-related tasks: weekly Tuesday night e-mails alerting 60,000 customers about new comics, a presence in local schools and libraries and an employee dress code to make sure Lone Star's staff dresses in family-friendly attire.

The latter might make Lone Star seem a bit stodgy, but it hasn't hurt sales. Lone Star boasts of having "the world's largest selection of single-issue comics," or a quarter-million individual comics. Lone Star stores also have extensive graphic novel selections, games, toys and collectibles and the chain also has a strong online presence. The two-year-old 3,000-sq.-ft. flagship store in Dallas even has an art gallery, and Powell is considering adding art to its inventory in the near future.

In many respects, Lone Star resembles a multistore independent bookshop. All the buying is done centrally through a home office; there are three vans to distribute the inventory among the stores, and there's a heavy emphasis on events. Events can range from participation in 24-hour Comic Book Day—which drew 50 people last fall who each completed a 24-page comic book in 24 hours—to sponsoring comics authors at local libraries and mounting a library display in the stores.

"I like events, because they make the store that extra fun experience," said Powell. The stores also have frequent signings with comic book authors and illustrators, especially those with local connections, such as the artists who publish with Viper Comics in Dallas.

For Free Comics Day, Lone Star works with junior high and high school libraries to get young people into the stores. The school that brings in the most students wins $500 in graphic novels for its library. But Lone Star uses free comics as a promotional tool all year long, sponsoring midnight film premieres and giving away comics at the local movie theaters.

To keep the stores feeling fresh, Powell rearranges the inventory once a week and tries to offer new displays, like introducing readers to new graphic novels. "I personally love graphic novels, and we're still seeing double-digit growth [in graphic novel sales]," said Powell. Other strong sellers include action figures as well as science fiction and fantasy titles, which remain profitable, said Powell, but no longer show as much growth potential.

Periodical comics remain at the core of Lone Star's business, accounting for 50% of the sales in its brick-and-mortar locations and nearly 100% of mail-order sales. One of Lone Star's warehouses was custom-built specifically to hold comics back stock. An additional warehouse stores noncomics product, and three annex buildings, which include the corporate offices and carry overflow inventory.

The mail-order business, which Buddy Saunders launched to establish Lone Star Comics in 1966, and subsequently sold, could once again prove to be the company's greatest asset. Beginning in 1977 with Saunders's first brick and mortar store in Dallas, he built a network of eight stores. In 1985, he sold his mail-order operation, by that time one of the largest in the country, to Mile High Comics in Denver. Then in 1998 with the rise of the Internet, Lone Star developed a Web presence at mycomicshop.com.

The company's sophisticated Web site enables it to maintain an extensive list of back issues which it often purchases from customers online. "We buy a truckload of comics every day," said Powell. "We took the just-in-time inventory system in our stores and applied it to our Web site. People can see exactly what [price] they're going to get for their comics."

Nowadays, said Powell, "The Web site experiences greater growth than the stores." And he anticipates that in 2007 Web sales will outpace store sales for the first time. In part, that's because Lone Star captures so much business from abroad on its site. Customers in Europe and Asia account for roughly 25% of the Web site's sales.

But Powell is emphatic that Lone Star stores give the customers what they want—whether it's buying a single issue over the Web; finding a graphic novel or having an inviting family atmosphere. "We want [the store] to be fun. People shop in family groups. It's not a place where a grandma will see someone with purple hair and a Mohawk."

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