Merchandising 101

[actually posted on 4/22/14] Still playing catch up and still a week behind on comics. I have a pretty cool idea for how to get caught up this week, that I think many of you are going to enjoy. More on that when it’s actually a thing. I’ve also got a pretty sweet guest comic lined up for while I’m away at Calgary Expo.

CALGARY FANCY BASTARDS!

Calgary Expo 2014

I will be at Calgary Expo as part of Cyanide & Happiness in booth 622. It’ll be me and Rob Denbleyker doing stick figure dick sketches, and I’ll also have some HE prints and shirts.

RE: This comic
David’s a real person, and one of my best friends. I am also a real person. Comic Joel is a fictionalized version of myself. Comic David is a HYPER-fictionalized version of David IRL. I hate explaining jokes, but I thought it was necessary to explain this distinction to prevent anyone else from thinking I am being rude, or cruel to my actual real life friend.

Speaking of selling things related to comics TO people, AT places, a reader asked me for some business advice and I posted my answers to her questions here on my Tumblr.

STORE UPDATE!
Some of the shirts in the HE Store on are MAJORLY on sale, because they aren’t going to be printed again. Some are down to the last few sizes. Get ’em while you can! There are also some great PRINTS and POSTERS in the store. Your walls cry out for them.

Apparently they found an extra box of Lil’ Wils hiding in the warehouse, so there’s maybe 50 or 60 of these little dudes left between now and the heat death of The Universe.

The first ever HijiNKS HANGOUT was fun! My guests were be David Willis and Angela Melick and you can view the archived stream HERE. If you miss the HE Podcast, the HijiNKS HANGOUT is probably a thing that will make you happy. Tweet your discussion topics, questions and drawing challenges for the next one to #HijiNKSHangout.

Screen Shot 2014-04-21 at 5.12.57 AM

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9 Comments

  1. I've had to set up merch systems before. You want the third pile to be the heads of the designers, but that is just a dream.

  2. The two jokes that come immediately to mind:
    Joel seems to have a case of piles.
    and
    There…are…Three…Piles!

  3. As a regular Artists Alley vendor, I got a sympathetic laugh out of this. Those crates are fantastically easy to store and wonderful once they're assembled, but they are a beast to put together and take apart.

    Though I think Joel is mistaken, anyway. People in dealer's hall are so used to looking down at the tables and the faces of the people sitting behind them that I think half the time they don't even *notice* things at eye level, because you just never raise your eyes.

    • 6 years of con exhibiting has taught be there's no right way to do it. If I have something eye catching I put it up high, so the people at my table dont block it for the people walking by. There are other shows where everyone knows to keep their eyes down (because the majority of vendors have everything on the table) and being the one guy with a vertical display makes them ignore you. It's best to bring something like those metal crates, or some shelving and rearrange things as you get a feeling for the show. Modular displays are best because they give you options. At calgary we had all of our shirts displayed under the banner, but they weren't selling well. On day 3 we clipped them to a bungie chord and hung then from the back drop and we sold out.

      Binder clips, safety pins, zip ties, bungie chords and wire shelves are INCREDIBLY versatile tools.

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