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From Challengers Comics + Conversation in Chicago, this is CONTEST OF CHALLENGERS, a comics industry business podcast about the businees of running a comic book shop.
Hosted by Challengers' owners Patrick Brower and W. Dal Bush.
1845 N Western Ave | Chicago, IL 60647 | 773.278.0155
ChallengersComics.com
Will Eisner "Spirit of Comics" Retailer Award Recipient 

Dec 31, 2018

Diamond Comic Distributors catches Patrick’s ire one last time for the year.
Some customers only see what they want to see.
Some stores got next week’s book’s last Monday. We still don’t have them.
Specifically nerdy Christmas gifts we received.
With almost nothing new on the shelves the week of...


Dec 24, 2018

It’s a Christmas episode! Just by the fact that it’s recorded in late December. Also, Santa has a cameo, and so does Stan Lee.
Another long-running comic shop is calling it quits.
Santa came to hang out and spread some Holiday Cheer this Wednesday, and he made a video to remind subscribers to pick up their comics....


Dec 17, 2018

Why, as a small, retail business, would you not offer gift cards?
Once again, our Peoples Gas account was swiped by a condo resident in our building.
The Record Store in Howell, NJ, is going out on their own terms.
Oh, Border Town... (This segment is what this episode’s title refers to).
“TKO does things a little...


Dec 10, 2018

I dunno, how do YOU swipe credit cards thru the card reader?
An update to a prior subscriber story, and Patrick’s 2 favorite ways to overreact.
Sending comics to prison. For inmates; not to punish the comics themselves.
Our lateral back issue filing cabinets are now fully functional.
The Avengers Endgame trailer is...


Dec 3, 2018

400 episodes of this? Damn.
We “acquired” 2 new back issue cabinets. After days of work, they’re not what we expected.
November was not a great sales month and it ended on a really bad week. Construction + snow = a less than $100 day (for the first time in many years).
Patrick’s car need over $1900 of work done...