www.graphicnovelclub.com is the place, and this is the August 2015 update. There will be links here you can't follow if you're not a member, just saying. And at least one that you probably should follow! See it under the cut!

Hello Awesome Comix Experience Book Club member!

Ah, our first month has come and gone – I hope you all enjoyed ILYA’s “Room For Love”! I see a few pick-up customers have still not picked up their copy. You should have also received a phone call. Your copy is safe and sound for whenever you are ready for it.

Now things begin to really kick into high gear, so here is your August news!

STATUS UPDATES

We’re growing at just the pace that I have been hoping, and at midnight on 7/31 we had 235 paid members – that means we have just ninety-nine more to go to reach our goal of 334. It is only a double digit number now, woo! Please feel free to tell your friends and neighbors!

Hand in hand with the membership increase, comes a fresh wage increase for the staff. As of their next paycheck, no one will be making less than $13.75, a full $1.50 over SF’s current Minimum Wage of $12.25. That’s entirely on you, so thank you one and all.

Again, I remind you that after we achieve our membership goal, every 25 members over and above that we gain will yield a 25 cents per hour raise for every staff member as well. I take zero profit from the book club! There is no limit on this, and my most fervent hope is we can drive the club membership high enough to have the awesome Comix Experience staff be the highest paid comic store employees in the world!

The Kid’s Club has hit 40 members, if you’re curious about that – tell your friends about that one as well (http://www.graphicnovelclub.com/kids.html.html). It makes an excellent gift.

BITS ABOUT BILLING

Just a reminder that we bill on the FIRST of the month each month. So, if you joined on August 2 or later, your first billing won’t come until Sep 1, and your first book will be the SEPTEMBER book.

As is typical, a few credit cards didn’t successfully charge (usually because expiration date changed), so please keep an eye on your email – I sent you a personal note as well as whatever was automatically generated by the payment company. The next billing attempt for delinquent cards will be on 8/4, then there will be a final attempt just a few days after that after which your subscription will be cancelled.

OUR FIRST MEETING, AND OUR COMMUNITY!

As I sure hope you all knew, we had ILYA in person from England to launch “Room For Love” last month – he was generous enough to do a workshop on comics creation in the back room of the store that seemed like it went over very well. We are discussing doing more “professional” workshops in the future.

We had our first Book Club meeting as well, and we liked the results well enough to make it public to any viewer and it can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrz4v_KwyIE It is about 1:45:00 long, and you can feel free to share that link to your friends if you think it might encourage them to join the club. Future meetings should be relatively similar (though not always with creator live and in-person) – but we will be keeping most future meetings private and not available to the public.

YOU CAN JOIN IN when we have the meeting – you just need to have a Google+ account we can invite. You do not need to have a @gmail address in order to have a Google+ account. Join G+ at https://plus.google.com. Unless you tell me otherwise, we are directing all invitations to events and such to the address that this mail is coming to.

We are using G+ rather than Facebook because of their video meeting tools and integration with YouTube, etc. – you’ll be able to ask questions from anywhere in the world as our meeting is going on, and we think that’s pretty neat.

We also have a G+ closed and private Community which is located at https://plus.google.com/communities/114465333092610147099 -- this is a place where we can discuss the book each month. There is a very excellent thread going right now on “Room For Love”, and the value of the community goes up with every person who participates. If you can not access that group, please let me know and I will provide what meager support I can to get you going.

ANNOUNCING OUR AUGUST CHOICES

“Room For Love” was somber and sober and a hothouse personal drama, so for August we’re going almost exactly 180 degrees in the opposite direction with something a little bit irreverent and silly and packed full of superheroes: “The Unbeatable Squirrel-Girl v1: Squirrel Power” by Ryan North and Erica Henderson, set squarely in the Marvel Universe.

To reassure you (?), our plan is to only very very rarely feature super-hero comics (certainly less than once a year), but “The Unbeatable Squirrel-Girl” is both fun and funny, and those are pretty rare combinations for the genre, and while this is a “Marvel” comic, it has the sensibility very different then the kinds of things you’ll see in the Marvel movies or TV shows yet being absolutely true to the psychological heart of Marvel Comics. We think you’re really going to…. Go Nuts for it! (ow)

Now, we know that there are a few of you that are already buying “The Unbeatable Squirrel-Girl” as a serialized comic and might not want this collected edition, so we’ll make it a free swap with any of our runner-ups listed below. Just send an email with the title “AUGUST SWAP” to brian@comixexperience.com with what you’d like as your alternate, before August 15, and we’ll get you taken care of.

“The Unbeatable Squirrel-Girl” is currently scheduled to arrive to us on August 19^th, so you should expect to receive your copy the week of August 24^th. We will be having our August Book meeting on (wait for it) Wednesday September 2^nd at 8 PM PST. Author Ryan North will be appearing via video call to answer your questions about the book. I am hoping that Erica Henderson will also appear on the call, but I don’t have final confirmation of that as of yet. That meeting will be live-streamed at https://plus.google.com/events/cbtu5opo2u5f9qadvc4b64r8hkc

All members of the club will receive a copy of “The Unbeatable Squirrel-Girl v1: Squirrel Power”, but if you’re not an Adult club member, and would like to purchase a copy, or if you would like additional copies, please order below!

http://mkt.com/comix-experience/unbeatable-squirrel-girl-v-squirrel-power-aug

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Ooh, our August pick for the Kid’s Club is an amazing one! The incomparable Craig Thompson brings us “Space Dumplins”

Family is the most important thing in the whole galaxy for Violet Marlocke, so when her father goes missing while on a hazardous job, she can't just sit around and do nothing. Violet throws caution to the stars and sets out with a group of misfit friends on a quest to find him. But space is vast and dangerous, and she soon discovers that her dad is in big, BIG trouble. With her father's life on the line, nothing is going to stop Violet from trying to rescue him and keep her family together in this incredible adventure from a truly master cartoonist.

We are hoping to have author Craig Thompson LIVE and IN PERSON on a weekend in September (“Space Dumplins” ships 8/26) for the kids, and then to stay after and do a signing for the adults, so hopefully look out for an announcement very soon.

All members of the KIDS club will receive a copy of “Space Dumplins”, but if you’re not a Kids Club member, and would like to purchase a copy, or if you would like additional copies, please order below!

http://mkt.com/comix-experience/space-dumplins-by-craig-thompson-aug

THE RUNNER UPS

In picking the best graphic novel of each month, we create a pool of nominees (most months we have between four and eight options), then the entire staff votes on what wins by a ranked point system. While we can only have one winner each month to send out, we thought it might be useful to you to hear what our alternates were – we really really like these books too!. These were our runner-ups for August 2015!

“Bowery Boys: Our Fathers” by Corey Levine, Ian Bertram, and Brent McKee

When his father is framed for murder, immigrant Nikolaus McGovern rallies a motley crew of street youths in a rip-roaring coming-of-age adventure based on the period history of antebellum New York City! Against a backdrop of rampant political corruption, vicious street gangs, nascent labor reform, and ardent xenophobia, can Niko and his friends triumph in a life-or-death battle against their oppressors—or will they succumb to the engines of socioeconomic progress?

This is a truly beautiful book, and a lush period piece.

http://mkt.com/comix-experience/bowery-boys-our-fathers-aug

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“The Lion of Rora” by Christos & Ruth Gage and Jackie Lewis

In the tradition of Braveheart and 300 comes The Lion of Rora - the true story of Joshua Janavel, farmer-turned-freedom fighter, who Napoleon called history's greatest military tactician. Janavel and his fellow Waldensians battled to save their people from tyranny and persecution, the first case in European history in which subjects of a ruler rebelled to defend their religious freedom. Their fight inspired the Protestant Reformation and, in turn, the American Revolution.

One of the best things that comics do for me is to show me places and people and history and bring it alive in drama that keeps me compelled but also vividly in a character’s head – I know more life in the 1600s in Italy than I did before, and I truly admire Janavel and the Waldensians. Really great historical fiction!

http://mkt.com/comix-experience/lion-of-rora-aug

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“Nanjing: The Burning City” by Ethan Young

After the bombs fell and shook the walls of Nanjing, the Imperial Japanese Army entered and seized the Chinese capital. Through the dust of the demolished buildings, screams echo off the rubble. Two abandoned Chinese soldiers are trapped and desperately outnumbered inside the walled city. What they'll encounter will haunt them. But in the face of horror, they'll learn that resistance and bravery cannot be destroyed by the enemy.

This is a heart-wrenching tale of war, loss, and defiance, and a very somber piece of historical fiction.

http://mkt.com/comix-experience/nanjing-the-burning-city-aug

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“The Surface v1” By Ales Kot and Langdon Foss

What if everything you ever imagined could come true? Welcome to Africa, 2034. The West and the East are moving in and three hackers are searching Tanzania for the place that can change the world: the Surface. When they discover it, love, imagination, and survival go on a collision course as things change beyond their wildest dreams! Welcome to the universe of a mind-bending, action SF epic.

http://mkt.com/comix-experience/surface-aug

CROSS-PROMOTION IS FUN!

Hey, this has nothing whatsoever (yet) to do with the book club, but I thought readers like you might be interested to know we have Author Chuck Palahniuk coming to sign copies of FIGHT CLUB 2 #1-4 on Saturday August 29^th starting at 11 AM and going all day long! He is an incredibly awesome guy that tells some crazy stories, and we could not be more excited! We’ll have some more information on that up at www.comixexperience.com/chuck.html in a few days.

Thanks again for all of your support, please email me at brian@comixexperience.com with ANY questions, comments, thoughts, pleas, dreams, or visions!

-B

Brian Hibbs

Head Cheese, Comix Experience

Announcing the Kids' Graphic Novel Of The Month Club! www.graphicnovelclub.com/kids

Comics are going through an incredible renaissance at the moment, with more astonishing tales being produced than the average person could possibly hope to keep up on. One of the most explosive areas of growth is comics aimed at kids!

Kids love comics - our 26 years of running a comic book store can attest to that. But parents usually don’t know how or where to start. Parents want books that they can trust, so they usually fall back upon the same few characters and licenses that they see in other media, not knowing or having the time to figure out which are the truly special and thoughtful books with a passionate creative vision. And that's understandable! How can you have time to stay up on children’s literature when you barely have time to stay current with your own likes?

That’s where Comix Experience comes in – we eat, live and breathe comics, and while we’re mostly adults, we’re all kids at heart. Similar to our just-announced Graphic Novel of the Month Club, we're introducing the Kids' Graphic Novel of the Month Club to help put the best comics for kids in your child's hand every month. Plus, the Kids' Graphic Novel of the Month Club will have an 11-year-old on our advisory board – Ben, son of Comix Experience owner Brian Hibbs!

Beginning July 2015 we’ll send your favorite kid an amazing, compelling self-contained graphic novel every month that’s going to light their mind up and leave them wanting more! This pick will be a newly released book that month, so you don’t have to worry about them already having it. And each pick will be suitable for a typical 8-13 year old.

But wait, there’s more!

In addition to a great graphic novel they’ll also get:

● Access to a monthly live-streamed book club meeting where kids from all over the country will be able to discuss the graphic novel they’ve just read.

● Whenever possible, we’ll have the writer and artist of the book involved in the video meeting, there to answer your kid’s questions. And when we have the authors actually in-store, we’ll have a special club-only mixer for your kids to meet.

● We will start an invite-only and moderated message group where kids can write their own reviews of the books we send, and talk about it amongst themselves. Every kid who writes 10 reviews will earn a free book!

● We’ll also offer cool swag for the book, like posters and bookmarks, whenever available!

The whole thing is just $15 a month, the average price of a kid’s graphic novel. If you are local in San Francisco you may pick the book up, otherwise we can ship it for a nominal charge. Ways to Join the Club

Kids' Club membership is available on a month-to-month basis. You can sign up today by clicking the buttons below or by calling either of our stores:

● Comix Experience on Divisadero St. at (415) 863-9258

● Comix Experience Outpost on Ocean Ave. at (415) 239-2669 Club FAQs

Q. When does the club start?

A. We’ll start shipping book as of July 2015.

Q. What books will I get?

A. Some months we might send you a more expensive book, perhaps a nice hardcover, while some months it may be something less expensive – but every month you’ll get an accessible, compelling, and fun piece of original graphic fiction aimed at an 8-13 year old audience. We will seldom pick stories based on movies or television shows, except when the book is truly exceptional. The value of the book should average out over the course of a year to the price of the membership.

We plan a mixture of genres and styles – sometimes it will be adventure fiction, sometimes it will be non-fiction or history, sometimes it will even be slice-of-life – but always chosen for the sensibilities of your kids.

Q. What if I don’t live in the Bay Area – can I still join?

A. Yes, absolutely! We’ll just have to add $6 a month for shipping and handling for sturdy packaging in a domestic US priority mail. We can offer this outside of the United States, but the shipping costs are pretty horrible (more than the cost of the club, sadly).

Q. What if I can’t make it to a meeting or I live out of town?

A. We will also record all club meetings so if you’re out of town your kid can still watch.

Q. My child is really sensitive; will this be right for them?

A. You’re the best judge of what your kid can handle, but we’re aiming at an “average” 8-13 year old. We will sometimes choose work that is more slightly more serious in nature, but we’re vetting every choice with our in-house eleven year-old who has a pretty gentle personality.

Q. Is this for boys or girls?

A. We find that most kids are looking for compelling stories, regardless of the gender of the protagonist. Having said that, we’re going to aim for as even of a mix as we can possibly manage over the course of a year, dependent on the books that are actually released.

Q. Why are you doing this?

A. We have a Graphic Novel Club aimed at adults, and a teacher who joined wrote us asking if our choices could be freely shared with her students. We had to admit that 100% of the choices would not be sharable, but that made us think that putting together a package aimed directly at the kids made a whole lot of sense! Teachers: Always the smartest ones in the room!

Q. What if my kid hates the book?

A. You can cancel the monthly plan at any time, and if you’re dissatisfied with any of our choices just return the book, and we’ll give you a full refund.

Q. Can I give this as a gift?

A. Yes! In fact that’s our main intent with this – introducing the joys of comics to kids you know all around the country.

Q. What if I wanted a bulk subscription for my school or organization?

A. We can accommodate you! Please contact Brian Hibbs directly at brian@comixexperience.com to discuss bulk subscriptions.