Before Comic-Con@Home began, Scoop caught up with some dealers who usually set up at the convention, including Ted VanLiew of Superworld Comics. VanLiew discussed his company’s sale during the virtual Comic-Con, what changes he’d like to see at the show, and what he anticipates in the future of comics.

Scoop: Since you normally set up at Comic-Con, are you creating any special events or sales in lieu of the live event? If so, what are your plans?
Ted VanLiew (TV): Yes, we are. Comic-Con actually reached out to us for the virtual Comic-Con. We are doing a sale on our website that’s coinciding with that, but it goes beyond it. We normally do a sale at this time anyway, so with Comic-Con it just gives us another outlet to reach out to a larger number of people. That’s really great.

Scoop: What’s in the sale?
TV: Every book on the website – we don’t exempt anything. So, it’s great, it’s 10% off up to as high as 50% off.

Scoop: What do you expect to see at next year’s Comic-Con since the live convention was cancelled this year?
TV: I think people will be doubly excited. [laughs] I don’t think it’ll be all that different, but I do think people will be fired up because people are really missing being able to go to conventions. There really aren’t any. Once it all starts up again, it’s going to be quite something.

Scoop: What changes would you like to see in Comic-Con?
TV: I would like to see more availability for passes for comic people. That’s where it all originated. They’ve been moving away from that into show biz, pop culture, and gaming. Part of the problem that we experience is that the comic people have so much difficulty getting tickets to the show that they can’t plan. It’s such a big event, you have to have a lot of lead time to plan, get your hotel, your flight, talk your significant other into letting you go. [laughs] Basically, I would like to see more tickets available for the comic people. That would be good for us and we would not be losing comic dealers each year like we’re doing now.

One other change I would love to see is for the original art dealers to be moved back near us, the comic dealers, and move the gamers to the other side where the art dealers are now. Having the art dealers across the hall from us is foolish because we’re related and we can help each other. It’s unfortunate. Those are the two major things, for me personally.

Scoop: COVID-19 has had a significant impact on all aspects of our industry. How has it impacted your company?
TV: Well, everybody has been impacted one way or another. We are more fortunate than most because we already had a significant online presence with our website and we do some eBay and we do a lot of advertising online. The shows that we do annually, I would say, make up about half of our income. So that was a significant hit. Besides the idea of meeting people, the face to face repartee aspect cannot be replaced online. But, on the other hand, we’ve come up with strategies to amp up our presence online to get people to notice us. It’s been working. We’ve been doing very steady business. One other problem for us with COVID problems is the travel aspect. When someone contacts us with a large comic collection, for example, and they’re in Oregon, I can’t fly to go look at it and make a deal like I normally do. That’s a big problem because there’s a lot of stuff that’s been totally put on hold in limbo. God knows how long that’s going to be. So, that’s frustrating. But we’re working around it. I’ve been doing a lot of deals online, contacting people, sending pictures of books, and extrapolating from that. It’s hardly ideal, but it’s working out okay.

Scoop: As someone who works in the comics and collecting industry, what do you anticipate seeing in the market in the near future and long-term?
TV: I think there will be an after effect. Even when, say, there is a vaccine and people start to have more confidence to get out and about, they’re still going to be cautious. There’s still going to be trepidation in the backs of people’s minds at large gatherings, like a convention. I do think that’s going to have a reverberation for a while until people fully regain their confidence to go out without worrying. I think as a result, the online aspect will continue to grow. That’s really the biggest thing. It’s hard to predict really. The main thing is the online aspect will grow and it will take a while for people to have full confidence to congregate. That’s probably the biggest change.