We're on hiatus.

Exfanding Your Horizons is pleased to announce its very first extended hiatus!

...I guess sounding excited about it doesn't change the fact that we're going to stop posting here for a while.

As previously discussed, things have changed a great deal for us over the last several months. What was once a two-man blogging team gradually became a one-man blogging team; what was once our blog has gradually become my blog. Initially, I was holding down the fort for a few weeks until my blogging buddy Alex returned in October or November.

Happy New Year, incidentally.

Though it's a tough decision for us, Alex and I have agreed that it's time to bring this boat ashore, at least for a month or two or five. We've kept up with this blog since 2008, posting every day of the week (except possibly Sunday, our self-imposed day off) for the majority of that time. Nobody maintains that level of dedication for some random side project.

Exfanding has been our home for the last four years. We haven't always looked or sounded like the most professional blog on the planet, but I doubt your home has always looked presentable enough for company from around the world at all hours of the day. We've been honing our writing craft. We've thrown up some truly pitiful filler posts just to keep us in the habit of writing every day. I've been teaching myself enough HTML to tweak and tinker with the blog's layout from time to time (calling in my wife on occasion).

It's the coolest thing in the world that other people want to read what we've written, but that's not why we write. Exfanding is for us, first and foremost, and it always has been—sharing what we do with the global community just makes it better.

That's why it's time to say farewell, if only for a time. Exfanding isn't the same when it's me writing for us.

I've still got a couple of in-progress posts that'll take a while to finish, and I know there's at least one more guest post on the way. At the very least, we'll be returning for a few days whenever those are all ready—but when we return, I mean we will return. I'm volunteering Alex to write the next post you'll read here. In the meantime, we've got a lot in the archives, and our Month in Review posts might help highlight things that even longtime readers might have missed.

As of the end of this post, Exfanding is officially on indefinite hiatus. However, that doesn't mean that we, the writers, are just going to poof out of existence. I've got a personal website now that serves as a hub to all my other Internet activities, and I'm continuing to blog (and blather about Mega Man) over there:

http://nathanielhoover.weebly.com

Look for updates from Alex on his Comic Art Fans page, as well as on the website for his book, Sarah Faire and the House at the End of the World:

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=30149

http://sarahfaire.com/

We'll still be checking in on Exfanding to respond to new comments, maybe clean up the archives a little bit, and perform whatever technical and administrative tasks we see fit, so it's not really goodbye.

But...um...until next time...goodbye.

Uh Oh

So, yeah. Um.

I'm writing this on a Friday evening with the distinct possibility that a major hurricane is going to rip directly through Exfanding HQ. I'm trying to stock up on a couple days' worth of posts, just in case what I think will happen actually does happen.

So let's just say this. If you don't hear from us for a couple of days, please don't be mad. And most importantly, please don't go anywhere.

We'll be back as soon as we possibly can. We promise.

If you happen to be in the path of the storm as well, please be smart, stay safe, and we'll all plan to regroup right here once everything's back to normal. Okay? Okay, good.


We'll see you soon, Exfanders.

Weekend Doings (Or, There is No Try)

I'm writing this post up late Friday afternoon (evening, really), and while I crawl to the finish line of the race that has been this past week, I figured I'd mention a few things that I'm looking forward to attempting to do this weekend.

I say "attempting" because, you see, I am a bad geek. I still haven't seen Thor, and despite the fact that I really don't love the whole movie theater experience, I do want to see this flick in theaters.

I didn't go the first week, mostly because I wasn't anywhere near a movie theater, but also because I typically avoid opening nights like the plague.

But there's an X-Men movie that opens tonight, and I'm willing to bet the theater will be pretty crowded. So I'm not going to do that. Oh. Also, I'm still at work, and I plan to be here for quite some time.

So there's that whole problem.

I'm thinking about seeing Thor on Saturday (today, in your fancy future time), but I hear there's supposed to be some kind of apocalypse, though there's a bit of confusion as to what will cause said apocalypse.

Either way, maybe I'll just stay home and read.

Ah. But in order to be able to stay home and read, I need to actually be home. And I won't be, because I'll be out in a mall (hmmm...maybe I should learn something from George Romero), shopping for new clothes for an upcoming (and insanely expensive) trip.

And that should take up most of my day, as I also have to bomb into the office for some overtime reading/editing/teeth gnashing.

So that leaves Sunday. But I have a philosophy about Sundays, you see, and I have a thing about not doing anything on Sundays, other than lie down and watch things move on a screen in my living room.

Preferably baseball.

So Sunday's out, too.

Luckily, I have (half of a) blog, and I can live vicariously through all of our readers. Or the ones who comment on this (ridiculous excuse for a) post. So, please. Comment away, and tell me why you're (way) cooler than me.

And enjoy your apocalypse.

We'll be back tomorrow (or will we?) with more nonsense.

(Also, I totally spelled "apocalypse" right every time in this post without using the spell check. So at least I have that going for me.)

Your (Pretty Much) Weekly Borders Update

It's been about a week since we last checked in on the tale of pity and woe that is Borders Books, so here's an update. As of yesterday, it's been announced that 28 additional Borders Super Stores will be closing by late May.

I mentioned earlier that this would likely be the case, and I'm sure there will be yet another round of store closings before the end of the fiscal year.

You can check out the latest list of store closings right here. This list hits close to home, literally, for me, as now every Borders in my home state will be out of business by the end of May, including the store in my hometown.

Back in the 90s, that store bought out another chain store to move into a giant retail location right in the center of town. In doing so, it effectively killed off the wonderful little independent bookshop that lived for many years in the same shopping plaza, down in the corner.

Come June, there won't be any bookstores in the plaza.

In fact, all that will be left in my hometown is a Barnes & Noble in the mall, and a library that's hurting for money.

Sure, the Barnes & Noble will be fine for most people, but it's sad to me that so many kids today are growing up without the presence of books.

When I was growing up, I was literally surrounded by bookstores. There were two (and, at one point, three) in the mall alone. There was the aforementioned and wonderful independent shop in the center of town. And there was Borders.

Now we're down to a single store.

Which is wrong, on many levels. I know digital is being heralded as the new king, but from what I've seen, at least, that's not yet the case.

At one of the other soon-to-close Borders stores in my area, I took advantage of their closing sale. I bought a couple of nice hardcovers for 50% off. But that's not the important thing.

When I went to the counter, I saw people.

People buying lots and lots of books.

I started talking to the soon-to-be-unemployed cashier. "Ya know," I said. "These prices--with all the discounts--are pretty much the exact same thing as when I use my Rewards card."

She sighed, nodded in agreement, and smiled. "Tell me about it. Even before this location officially announced its closing, I had people coming in spending $300. If people just did this in the last couple of years, we wouldn't have a problem."

So true.

From what I've seen, it's impossible--IMPOSSIBLE--to argue that people don't want books. Real, actual, physical copies of books.

They just don't want to pay full price for them.

It's time for the publishers to wake up to this. Instead of the publishers waiting around and studying trends to see how the landscape will change, it's time for the publishers to change the landscape.

Lower your costs. Lower your prices. And never stop making books.

So, Twitter

Yep. We're on Twitter. And, yep, we have, as of this writing, 6 followers. Actually, it's now 7. I just got an email. We have 7 followers. On Twitter.

So we're not Neil Gaiman, what do you want from us?

But we all have goals, and one of mine (since Nathaniel has all but sworn off Twitter forever, despite the fact that he's never used it) is to up that follower count. Yes, I know I sound like a cult leader. And yes, I know you all get more than enough of me here on the blog.

But I'm trying to up the profile, if you will, of this blog, and I think Twitter is a good way to do so. Of course, I'll need to actually learn what the heck I'm doing on Twitter first, but I'm a believer in doing, and failing, as opposed to not doing, and thus not failing.

So I'm planning to (continue) failing in this Twitter attempt thing for as long as it'll take to...um...keep failing, I guess. But I have to admit, I think I might keep on failing for a while, because this whole Twitter thing is a lot of fun.

I'm kind of figuring things out as I go, and I'm sure I've managed to annoy several people that I admire and respect. But them's the breaks, I guess, so I plan to keep Tweeting away. Until someone tells me to stop.

(And, no, Nathaniel, it doesn't count if you tell me to stop.)

So I'll keep Tweeting. And, hopefully, someone will start listening.

In the meantime, happy Saturday, everyone!

Hear That? It's the Other Shoe Dropping

So, it's now all but official that the Borders chain of bookstores will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and that upwards of 250 retail locations in the United States will close their doors in the coming weeks and months.

According to several sources, and most notably in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, the bookseller has given up on its efforts to refinance and to secure loans from outside companies.

From all reports, it seems like the retail giant was in too deep, and their debts were staggering. There was a brief period of hope, as GE recently became interested in keeping Borders afloat, but that fell through, and now the Michgan-based company has no place left to turn.

While filing for bankruptcy doesn't always mean The End of All Things (Marvel Comics did it back in the 90s), in this case...it pretty much means The End of All Things.

And while it will be bad for me--both personally (I love bookstores!) and professionally (I am still in this wacky publishing industry, you know)--this announcement means a lot more bad news for a lot of people.

First and foremost, thousands of jobs are going to be cut as a result of this, and a lot of good people will be left looking for work in this exceedingly difficult job market.

I've always said that working is retail is one of the toughest things to do, and working at a big bookstore is certainly at the top of that Tough Things to Do list. Especially at the big stores, where questions like, "What do you think my dad will like?" are heard on an almost daily basis.

Additionally, the publishing industry itself will be affected by this, obviously, as Borders has been responsible for a large percentage of overall book sales.

Amazon and Barnes & Noble have seen stock prices jump in reaction to this week's reports, but let's be realistic here when it comes to B&N. Brick-and-mortar book stores are in trouble. Lots of it. And Amazon is the main reason why.

Now, clearly, Barnes & Noble has been much, much more savvy in terms of their anticipation of digital product and their attempts at creating an online alternative to Amazon with their Web store. They've obviously done a better job than anyone else in their efforts to maintain the relevancy of a shop.

Still, I wouldn't be surprised if we're having a very similar discussion about them in a couple of years. Publishing in general is a scary place to be, but at least publishers can rely on digital press to keep their books going.

For publishers, content rules.

For retail stores? Paper rules.

I hate to think that the bookstore--the bookstore, for goodness sakes!--will go the way of the five and dime, or Saturday morning cartoons, and become this nostalgic thing from our childhoods.

Because that's just too depressing to think about.

More Borders Woes Update (And It's Not a Happy One)

By now, most people have heard that the bookseller giant Borders is in some financial trouble.

And we've been hearing something similar for the past three or four years. Still, there are plenty of Borders stores all over the country, and the chance of one being within half an hour of wherever you're reading this from is pretty high.

For the most part, while it's less likely these days that Borders will carry a title that strays off the mainstream road, their stores have managed to remain fairly well-stocked these past few years, despite all of their troubles.

And, for various reasons, they were particularly well-stocked in the comic book/graphic novel department.

Well, all that's about to change, as Diamond Book Distributors--the major distribution game in the comics industry--has suspended shipments to Borders stores in light of the bookseller's decision to suspend payments to their vendors.

Can't really blame Diamond, can you?

Several publishers have also stopped selling their product to Borders, and news broke that the retail giant will close a Tennessee-based warehouse this summer, eliminating 310 jobs in the process.

Obviously, this is sad, bad news. It's bad for the folks at Borders, it's bad for the publishers, and it's bad for anyone who enjoys going to a bookstore and wandering.

Let's face it--when Borders moved in just over a decade ago, they (along with Barnes & Noble) essentially became the only game in town. The retail behemoths pushed small shops out of business as customers found the whole, coffee-shop-in-a-bookstore thing to be revelatory.

But now, when Borders needs to do the thing--you know, sell books--that those small shops did so well for all those years...they can't. And why is that? Because, by and large, Borders has always been more interested in having a nice coffee shop, or selling CDs and DVDs, or stocking a wide selection of paper products that no one buys.

Books were always secondary. They were the front.

And now, Borders needs to figure out--in the worst book selling climate in history--how to sell books. And from the looks of things, it seems like they'll need a miracle to get out of their current situation.

But Borders has been resilient, if nothing else. And they've managed to survive, despite the countless tolls of the their death-knell. Here's hoping they can keep surviving. Here's hoping they go to all of those book shop owners who were forced out of business a decade ago and ask them for advice.

Because, after all these years, it's about time Borders figures out just how in the heck to sell books.

Time to Jump Ship?

I just finished playing The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, and after my experience trying to complete Final Fantasy II's Bestiary, I didn't waste any time scurrying to the final dungeon after it became available, though there were still at least two hours worth of sidequests to complete (if not more). The prospect of spending most of my sidequest time in dull transit to/from the interesting place I wanted to be wasn't so thrilling. I may have finally learned my lesson. I actually jumped ship, and I don't feel bad about it.

This, however, concerns me:

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/megamanuniverse/news.html?sid=6269366&mode=previews

It's the future of Mega Man, and it's starting to look like I might need to jump ship on my favorite video game franchise. That's one of the worst fanboy feelings there is--needing to abandon your favorite fandom because it's going places you don't want to go.

Hi, Star Trek.

Perhaps "abandon" is too strong a word. I'll still go see the next Star Trek movie. I'll continue to watch this whole Mega Man Universe thing develop; after all, its way too soon to be jumping to any conclusions, let alone jumping ship. But I like satisfying conclusions, and if this is going even remotely the way I'm expecting it to, my two all-time favorite fandoms will have ended on a disappointing note before transitioning into something too different for me to want to follow.

In the meantime, I'm cautiously awaiting Metroid: Other M, which I've deliberately read next to nothing about. All I know is that it's looking a little too cinematic for a Metroid game, and I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with the gameplay.

Then, in the back of my mind, I'm anticipating the next Tales of Monkey Island game, mostly because the ending of Telltale Games' episodic series left the fandom in a weird place that may or may not be resolved to anyone's satisfaction.

There's that new Predators movie out in theaters. I like the Alien films way better than the Predator ones, but because they're in the same continuity, it's kind of my responsibility as a fan to see this latest installment, though the gore-fest that was Alien vs. Predator: Requiem and the new trailer don't give my faint heart much enthusiasm to go.

Dungeons & Dragons left the rules for version 3.5 in the dust and has been pressing on with 4th edition for some time now. I have no plans of ever owning a 4e rulebook, and I've even stopped looking at the new D&D Miniatures that are being released.

I haven't watched much of the last two seasons yet, but Stargate: SG-1 underwent some significant cast changes over the years, and the little bit I saw of the later episodes just didn't hold my interest the way the rest of the series had. I can't speak for Stargate: Atlantis beyond the first season, but from what I've heard and seen of Stargate Universe, this latest spinoff isn't shaping up to be anything I'm interested in, should I ever manage to catch up with everything else. Fingers crossed that the Universe suffix doesn't so drastically affect Mega Man.

I don't even know where Star Wars is anymore. I saw that CG Clone Wars movie and caught the last half of a TV episode in the same style, but I got irrevocably lost after it went beyond the movies.

I'd rather not dwell on the past, but I'm a creature of habit, and I know myself well. It's going to be tough keeping up with any geeky thing I really like if these trends continue, and if my predictions have any merit whatsoever. I'm running out of favorite fandoms that are still going, and still going in directions I can and want to follow.

Man, it's a good thing I don't keep up with new comics, or else I might be complaining about Batman or Siege or whichever one it is that people have objected to. Though, at least with comics, there's a greater chance that someone else will pick up your favorite character/series long after it's gone somewhere unpleasant.

On the bright side, if everything I love goes sour, it'll save me lots of money throughout the rest of my life.

Cutting Back

I'm starting to notice a couple of disturbing trends in the comic book industry, and I'm not just talking about things I see in the comics shops this time. These trends are becoming more and more apparent every time I enter a chain bookstore, and after talking to a buddy in a different state this morning who said the same thing, I'm Officially Worried.

We're being pushed out of places like Borders and Barnes & Noble, relegated to the back of the store on a shrinking and rarely updated shelf. I've spoken about this before, but today I want to look at it from a different perspective.

I've come to the conclusion that, first and foremost among the problems in comics right now is the ever-growing amount of reprinted material being produced by the various publishers. What's disturbing about this particular trend, though, is the ever-shrinking amount of reprinted material that's actually available for sale.

In comics shops, bookstores, and even online in some cases, collected editions are becoming harder and harder to find--especially if you miss a book's "street" date.

From every publisher, we are being deluged with a constant onslaught of hardcovers and paperbacks and Deluxe Editions and Absolutes and omnibus(...um...omnibuses...omnibusi...omnibu?), and there is no sign of that stopping any time soon.
Which in and of itself isn't necessarily a bad thing. But take into consideration the fact that many comics shops are cutting back on the amount of trades they're ordering, and then I think we have a bit of a new problem.

For the first time ever in the comics industry, reprinted material is readily available from publishers. Unlike the 1980s and 90s and the early 2000s when collected editions were mostly unheard-of except for the most extreme cases, we as fans can now count on every publisher to reprint their single issues.

And I'm talking everyone here--from Marvel and DC right on down the line to smaller houses such as Devil's Due and NBM.
And that's great! Especially with so many comics-related films and TV shows out there, the chances of a new customer strolling into a shop have never been higher.

So when that new customer walks into your LCS and asks for Batman: The Long Halloween because he heard it helped inspire the recent films, acquiring that trade might just be the first step in getting that person on board the comics bandwagon.

Conversely, if that LCS doesn't have the trade...well.

Chances are that potential customer is going to do one of three things. First, he might just forget about it and never come back. Second, he might try local bookstores or online sellers like Amazon, see that their prices are lower than the books in the comics shop, and never come back. Or, thirdly, and rarely, he might decide to special order the trade through Diamond, right there in the store.

And then proceed to wait two weeks for a book he'll pay full cover price for.

I say two weeks with the assumption that there's no holiday in between and taking for granted that the LCS will receive all of its orders from Diamond precisely when they're told they will. Which, as any comics fan knows all to well, might not happen.

In the case of a book that's as high profile as Long Halloween, I'd bet that 75% of comics shops will have a copy in stock on that day. But how about some of the recent Iron Man trades and hardcovers written by Matt Fraction? Or maybe the huge amount of Deadpool-related books currently flooding the market?

If my LCS is anything at all like yours, there's a good chance the store will only have one or two copies of recent trades available on the day the book comes out. Taking that a step further, my LCS has a fairly new policy that they will not order any new hardcover collection unless a customer asks for it specifically.

And why is that? Well, as they say in politics--it's the economy, stupid.

Hardcovers are obviously more expensive than the softcovers, and the fact that they ship months in advance of the cheaper softcover is annoying and, frankly, a turnoff for many customers. Surely, if a customer wants a hardcover the day it ships, he or she can special order the book from Diamond.

The problem with that is, the Diamond Previews catalogue costs $5 and you'll need to order the book three months in advance. And on the retailer's side of the coin, I know from talking to several store owners that, just because a customer orders a book, that doesn't mean he'll actually purchase the book once it ships.

Personally, when I was working full-time and knew that the money would always be there, I would buy Previews and order in advance. Now, though? I'd never order something (even if I really want it), just because who knows what the financial situation will be like in three months? I'd never stick my LCS with a book I ordered but can't pay for.

Still, stuff like that happens all the time.

So, let's say a shop gets three special orders for a hardcover of the latest Thor series from Marvel. If I'm that store owner, I'd be wary of ordering more than one or two copies for display because there's a chance that one or more of the customers who special ordered the books won't actually buy the books.

Again, in the case of my LCS, they don't order any for display because they've been burned (and burdened) with extra copies in the past. And at between $20 and $35 a pop, who could blame them?

Nathaniel and I have been to pretty much every comics shop in our area, and I've noticed a drastic change in ordering policy for collections at each one. One copy for the store, maybe two, tops. Even if the trade is somewhat popular.

As mentioned above, I spoke with a buddy who is currently living in another state, and he said he's been having a heck of a time finding the Marvel Essentials black-and-white reprints at his local shops. And the bookstores by him don't carry anything new, either.

So it's not like this is a totally isolated incident.

And it's getting pretty frustrating for me, because I no longer pre-order books and I can't get to my LCS on Wednesday before 3:00. So the chances of a copy of a popular book still being around by the time I arrive is slim.
And like I said, good luck trying to find something at Borders in the following weeks, because they, too, are cutting back on the amount of comics they order. In the stores by me, it's at an alarming rate.

So, to recap (and hopefully wrap things up). We have much more reprinted material shipping every week from every single publisher, but somehow, these books are harder to find than collections of only a year or two ago were.

My question to you all is, have you noticed the same thing in your neck of the woods? Or am I going insane here all by myself? Usually, with me, it's the latter, but I think this one time it might actually be the former...