But honestly, it didn't take me more than 1 visit to the store to figure out they were separated by publisher.

This isn't the confusing part. It's having to remember who the damn publisher is in the first place. (Which isn't ever necessary in any other kind of bookstore.)

This isn't the confusing part. It's having to remember who the damn publisher is in the first place. (Which isn't ever necessary in any other kind of bookstore.)

Right, but if you think of Publisher as the comic world version of Genre, which it largely is (and my store separates the titles for kids into their own sub-section), then it makes a lot more sense. I often have a hard time finding things in my regular bookstores when I'm not sure which genre section something's going to be shelved in, and it usually takes me longer to track it down there than it does for me to find where the indie comics are kept, and then find the title.

I get why they're separated by publisher, but ultimately I think there's no downside to arranging them alphabetically.

Whereas there's an obvious downside to displaying them sorted by publisher.

there's an obvious downside to displaying them sorted by publisher.

Depends. With "events" like Marvel's Secret Wars (or is it Secret Invasion? Secret something, in any case) or, let's say, DC's Yet Another Crisis, the storyline crosses over into a lot of different titles, some of which might not be -- hell, probably aren't -- on a reader's pull list.

The publisher wants to get people to buy all the crossover titles. And many readers want to buy all the crossover titles, so they can make sense of what's going on. But if you don't *know* that (for instance) Yet Another Crisis is running through Batman, Teen Titans, Superman, and Secret Six, and your only pull out of those 4 titles is Superman, then you'd have to walk up and down the long-ass alphabetically arranged wall of comics from all publishers until you (hopefully) saw whatever splash banner DC came up with to put on covers to promote Yet Another Crisis.

Now, even if comics are arranged by publisher, if you still only have Superman in your pull list, you have to scan all the covers to find the crossovers for Yet Another Crisis, but it's still a lot fewer covers to scan than if you were looking at every single cover from every single publisher.

I realize that my example is more favorable to the publisher than the reader, b/c the publisher *wants* the reader to buy as many titles as they can be conned into buying. But I still maintain my position that a lot of readers want to read all (or most) of the titles in a crossover event, and it's in a publisher's -- and the comic store's -- best interest to make that as easy as possible. It's a win-win-win.

With "events" like Marvel's Secret Wars (or is it Secret Invasion? Secret something, in any case) or, let's say, DC's Yet Another Crisis, the storyline crosses over into a lot of different titles, some of which might not be -- hell, probably aren't -- on a reader's pull list.

Right, so you do a special display like my comic book store did for 52. Or whatever the event of the month is. It's not that difficult to set up the store to cater to both hardcore DC and Marvel fans, and casual interest comic fans being drawn in by a Farscape comic or something that got featured on NPR.

Right, so you do a special display like my comic book store did for 52.

How big is your store? I don't think I've ever gone there, despite all my trips to SF (for which I'm sadly overdue). My store is teeny. There's no way they could make a special display for crossover events, especially when DC and Marvel are both doing one at the same time.

I think it's safe to say that if you have a pull list, you'll be familiar enough with the universe you're reading in and the store you're shopping in to find the titles you want.

How big is your store? I don't think I've ever gone there, despite all my trips to SF (for which I'm sadly overdue).

It's huge. It's the one over in Berkeley that's insanely well stocked.

I still contend that people that are going to buy crossover books are going to be able to find them.

I think it's safe to say that if you have a pull list, you'll be familiar enough with the universe you're reading in and the store you're shopping in to find the titles you want.

I still contend that people that are going to buy crossover books are going to be able to find them.

Honestly? I read only the Bat titles. (And Blue Beetle. Who is awesome.) I have no idea what goes on in the Superman or Wonder Woman titles. So if something crosses over into them, I wouldn't know, other than the fact that they're shelved near(ish) the Bat titles, so I can see the big banner announcing Yet Another Crisis You Should Buy This Title.

That's only my experience. Maybe other people who have pull lists *do* have comprehensive knowledge of what goes on in their publisher-of-choice's universe. I don't know.

I don't have a pull list because I'm a comics geek elite, or anything; my store is so small that they don't order a lot of comics each week, and they often run out. Having a pull list means I don't have to be at the store at noon on Wednesday to make sure that I get the titles I read. That's all it means. I don't have a CLUE what's happening in the Superman titles, and if they even cross over into Final Crisis.

But maybe I'm an anomaly. I don't think so, though.