Launched in 2003 by a Hollywood movie producer and an actor/director and part-time comics dealer, Earth-2 is a Los Angeles comics retailer that prides itself on attracting hardcore comics fans, but also welcoming kids, women and lapsed comics fans more interested in books than the latest superhero periodical.
Ask owners Carr D'Angelo and Jud Meyers to describe Earth2 and you'll get the bookstore answer. "We're a specialty bookstore," D'Angelo said quickly. Meyers chimed in, "We're a comic book specialty store specializing in graphic novels."
D'Angelo is a former Hollywood studio executive (he produced two Rob Schneider comedies) and an independent film producer as well as being a serious comics fan. "Movies take a lot of work and a long time to produce," said D'Angelo "and I wanted something that could give a more immediate sense of accomplishment." He was also dissatisfied with his local comics shops: "Lack of selection. I had to go to different stores to get things. Plus I wanted trade paperbacks. I didn't care if it was an old story." Meyers is an actor, director and writer who began dealing comics online through eBay in 2000 to help support himself. "Comics stores were going out of business, and I went online to sell," said Meyers. "But the community was missing. I needed to service people rather than just ship books to a name and address."
The focal point of their comics community these days is Earth2, a 900-square-foot store (with another 300 square feet of office space and storage) in the Sherman Oaks area. D'Angelo says that books represent "40% to 45%" of their inventory, and they're growing. The store offers more than 300 periodical comics. Sales have grown 30% a year since they launched in 2003 and D'Angelo says current sales are "double our first year."
Merchandise—action figures, prints, statues, T-shirts, toys, posters and other pop culture collectibles—is a big part of the inventory mix. The store has a Web site offering online buying and original content. There are columns by Scott Tipton (Comics 101), IDW publisher Chris Ryall and others. Online sale are about 10% of Earth2's annual revenues, but D'Angelo says that will likely grow during the holiday season.
The store is well organized, filled with sunlight and located on busy Ventura Boulevard. Book collections are in the front of the store and serials toward the rear, and each area is marked with signs and shelf-talkers recommending titles. The store uses nonstandard comics shelves that allow for more face out display. The floor is divided into sections for new releases, kids comics, alternative and indie comics and "modern classics" where discerning readers can find acclaimed book collections like Watchmen, Maus and Love & Rockets. "The backlist" said Meyers, "is consistent sellers that people recognize. Everybody hasn't read Maus."
Both owners constantly return to the importance of graphic novels and trade book collections. "We put graphic novels on our signage, on our business cards, everywhere. We emphasize the novel part," said Meyers. Movies lead to books sales, Meyers said. "If someone likes horror or indie films, I can point them to books by IDW or Fantagraphics. The Spider-Man movie? Now I've got 10 books I can sell. I can't give a customer Spider-Man #541.
Books, D'Angelo said, outsell comics "and they're more profitable. The more we sell of the comics serial, the more we'll sell of the trade collection." Like most comics shops, the store uses Diamond as a supplier, but also Cold Cut and book wholesalers like Baker & Taylor and Ingram. While D'Angelo and Meyers lament that direct market stores are often at a disadvantage, "because so much of what we sell is nonreturnable," they also point out that DC allows them to order some titles—52 and many superhero trade book collections—on a consignment basis. They offer praise to Marvel for making Civil War a national media event and for moving into "nonsuperhero books, like Criminal, that will sell big as book collections."
Meyers estimates that 20% to 30% of Earth2's customers are female, "high for our industry. Women are our fastest growing customer base," pointing out repeatedly that women want books. And while Earth2 does attract the hardcore superhero fan, Meyers emphasized that it's also a family store with a comic book or graphic novel for every taste.
The kids sections offers "paperbacks and digests, not just periodical comics," said Meyers. "It's the manga idea. We're training them to segue to adult reading and multiple volumes series." Both owners are aggressive about attracting new comics readers who aren't always interested in a lot of backstory and continuity. "New customers don't want random issues of comics," says D'Angelo. "They want a book."
Meyers likes to call Earth-2 a "couples store," noting how men often drag reluctant girlfriends and wives to the store only to notice the women browsing the indie book collections. The women, says Meyers, gravitate to graphic novel collections like Y the Last Man, Blankets, Box Office Poison, Summer Blonde and Strangers in Paradise, while the men are off checking out Civil War and 52. "And the women will spend more money than the men," said Meyers. He joked, "Blankets has done more for superhero comics than anything else."
While the store's main business continues to be mainstream superhero comics, they have done well with horror titles like Walking Dead as well as books like Fun Home, Mom's Cancer and Demo. Current hot sellers include Pride of Baghdad, Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, How to Make Money Like a Porn Star; the National Book Award nominee American Born Chinese is also selling well.
Manga is problematic, said Meyers. "There's so much of it, and we don't have the room or the product knowledge." But the store has a modest shelf of manga titles and offers what its neighborhood customers will buy, books such as Samurai Executioner, Lone Wolf & Cub, Old Boy, Dragon Head and Lady Snowblood. "We can sell classic manga, but our customers don't seem to want the relationship stuff," said Meyers.
"There's not a day that goes by," said Meyers, "when someone doesn't walk into the store, pick up a graphic novel and say, 'Boy, comics have really changed.' " Both owners stressed that Earth2 is not just "a comic book delivery system" for hardcore fans. D'Angelo describes the store as "a fun and entertaining place to come and get good book recommendations. This is why trade paperbacks and the backlist is so important to comics now."
Meyers agreed: "Graphic novels have reached a place where they're a real pop culture entity. There are always going to be comics stores, but what kind of stores will they be? We wanted to have a different kind of store."
