Cosmic Treadmill Presents… Comix Tawk, Episode 9: “Brian Hibbs’ 10-Point Plan”

This episode of Comix Tawk was a request from several of our Patrons… and, might seem just a little bit “dated” to revisit a year and change later… but, I believe there’s still plenty of good conversation here.


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The inspiration for this episode was a speech given by the long-time owner of Comix Experience in San Francisco, and prolific writer and commenter of the things going on in the industry, Brian Hibbs.  At the 2019 ComicsPRO Meeting, he would outline a 10-Point Plan which he felt would keep the retail side of comics healthy… and perhaps even extend the life of comics retail into the future.

It’s a very common sense approach to the retail side of things… which is sadly, often overlooked by the distribution and publishing end.  It’s almost as though the industry itself (excluding retail) takes for granted that there will just always be stores to carry their halfhearted wares.

Now, why did we cover this on the show?  Well, like I said, it was a request… multiple Patrons actually requested we comment on this, because… so much of what Mr. Hibbs says here, are the things we’ve discussed on earlier episodes of Comix Tawk.  Only difference between him and us is… he’s legit, and we’re mostly talking out our asses!

Hibbs’ 10-Points have been covered plenty of places, and I’d wager some of the folks reading this are already familiar with them… but, even if that’s the case, I hope you’ll give us a listen anyway!  This was a very fun episode to put together, and allowed us to put our own personal spins/anecdotes on each of the points.

In case you aren’t familiar with Hibbs’ 10-Points… here they are (at their most basic):

1. Stop Mixing SKU’s
2. Sales Charts with a “penetration index” – # of accounts purchasing specific SKU’s
3. Abandon “meets or exceeds” thinking
4. Tie variant SKU’s to native base sales (1 variant per 20k sales)
5. Tie variants to percentage of publisher’s line (25%)
6. Shipping information in a box-by-box format, and review discounts and shipping
7. FOC locked no later than noon Fridays, including all aft and information otherwise 100% returnable
8. Every comic should be listed in PREVIEWS, not available only at FOC.
9. Data Summit to determine where and when to assign “Series Codes”
10. First three issues of every new series to be fully returnable from all publishers (including one-shots and mini-series)