Trick or Read! Halloween Comics at Flying Colors!

Trick or Read!
Free Comics at Flying Colors!

Sat Oct 29 thru HALLOWEEN
Mon Oct 31.

OPEN 11AM-6PM daily.

Flying Colors 34th anniversary

34 years is 12418 days.
Today is the 34th anniversary of the opening of Flying Colors Comics in Concord CA.

All new enterprises start with the wide-eyed hope of something good, viable and sustainable.

The truth is this:
* 20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open.
* 45% fail during the first five years.
* 65% during the first 10 years.
* Only 25% of new businesses make it 15 years or more.

Flying Colors Comics has beaten those odds with our secret formula:

* Service first... profits in time.
* Be good to others and they'll be good to you.
* Add in our frankly fantastic Flying Colors Retailing Brigade!
* Represent comics as amazing entertainment first, last and always!


* Make the shop a fun & welcoming place for long-time fans and curious new readers.
* Build the business on gratitude. Even when things are a challenge, we're grateful to learn from the experiences to make not only our shop better, but to hopefully make us better, too.

After 34 years, I've got at least 12418 different ways to say "thank you" but I'll try to keep it short.

Thank you to an elite group of 59 awesome people on staff here since 1988. You are my  Flying Colors Retailing Brigade!  

Thank you to our
FlyCo Angels. You know who you are and I'm deeply grateful for you.


For all those who have helped us by buying cool stuff here or spreading the good word about Flying Colors to your friends and families, you are the FlyCo Faithful... and I thank you!

To all of you---

and to my family and friends---
Libby and I send you love and peace and heaping tons of gratitude!

Joe "FlyCoJoe" Field

Coolest place in town...

It's always better to be cool than to be hot!

Visit Flying Colors... the coolest shop in Concord, Contra Costa County...and the Cosmos!

Open daily 11AM-6PM.

Open Labor Day weekend

Flying Colors will have regular hours this holiday weekend.
We hope you'll visit us soon!

Stockton, Comics & National Radio Day

 

Today is National Radio Day. My professional days in radio at KJOY-AM in Stockton CA are definitely a fond part of my history.

Before the long story, though, let's talk about the awesome t-shirt I'm wearing in the photo here. It's a gift from the good folks at Visit Stockton. It debuted last week at StocktonCon. I was happy to get mine this week.

So what does the cool new tshirt have to do with this being National Radio Day? Read on for the long story!

I worked at KJOY from 1978-1988. While I was supposed to be just an advertising sales executive, I dabbled in other facets of the radio station operations. I wrote a ton of commercials, helped with some comedy bits, gave my opinions to the music director and spearheaded some station promotions. I even did traffic reports from a helicopter once!

During my years in radio, I was also a regular customer at Al's Comic Shop on Pacific Avenue in Stockton. The shop opened in the late '70s and is still going to this day. (Stop in when you visit Stockton and tell them I sent you.)

In the fall of 1985, as the 25th anniversary of the Marvel Age of Comics was approaching, I came up with a little scheme to combine my job at KJOY with my deep comics' fandom. I thought it would be cool if Marvel Comics would recognize Stockton as the "birthplace of the Fantastic Four"... and even better if it meant some good publicity for KJOY, for comics and for Stockton.

It was stated in the first issue of Fantastic Four in 1961 that the FF were from a place called Central City (later amended to "Central City, California"). Marvel characters were based in other real cities-- New York, Chicago, San Francisco... even Palos Verdes, fer cryin' out loud! Since there is no real "Central City CA" I wanted Stockton, the most central city in California, to be officially recognized as the birthplace of the FF.

So I talked with Al and Mike at Al's Comic Shop, asked them if I could post a petition in their shop. They agreed and helped to round up the hundreds of signatures we got on that petition. Once that happened, I took the signatures to a Stockton City Council meeting and asked the city to get behind the drive. After some silly mumbling questions from local politicians clearly embarrassed that I was asking them to get behind a comic book idea, they agreed and issued a resolution asking Marvel to recognize Stockton as the FF's home.

When that happened, it hit the Associated Press and United Press International newswires... and the fun really started. I did scores of interviews and the petition drive was covered all over the country. But the one with the most impact was the report from Charles "Chuck" Hillinger, a very well respected features reporter for the Los Angeles Times. As part of his report, he called Stan Lee to get a response. Stan said "Marvel is in the business of saving universes on a daily basis. This is the least we can do for good ol' Stockton."

And so it went. In February 1986, Stan Lee visited Stockton to deliver Marvel's proclamation declaring Stockton as the "Official Birthplace of Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four." The 25th anniversary issue of Fantastic Four was released months later.

Shortly after that, Stan Lee called me to ask if I would consider doing freelance public relations' work for the release of his wife's first novel. I did this while still working at KJOY, but the allure and fun of comics would mean I'd soon be looking to make a professional career move away from radio and into comics. (Although I first tried to combine comics and radio again by creating and writing a short radio feature about comics and pop culture. After close to 20 rejection letters from radio syndicates, that little dream died.)

I then did some freelance advertising and promotion work for a group of Bay Area retailers starting an event that would become known as WonderCon. I loved hanging with those guys, talking comics and trying to produce the friendliest big convention ever. That led to the decision to leave radio and open a comic book store. And in fairly short order, I also became one of the managing general partners at WonderCon.

My shop, Flying Colors Comics & Other Cool Stuff, is still going strong 34 years later, due to the kind support of so many FlyCo Faithful in and around Concord and all over Northern California.

And even though I live in Concord these days I still have a very fond spot in my heart for Stockton. It's a cool little city I can recommend visiting for a "fantastic" time.

Thank you, Visit Stockton, for the cool tshirt...and for the opportunity to share this story on National Radio Day.

Peace 'n Comics!
Joe "FlyCoJoe" Field
#NationalRadioDay

San Francisco Giants: There's a New Superhero in Town!

Sunday August 14 at Oracle Park in San Francisco, the Giants are hosting HEROES & COMICS DAY. It's the final event of a weekend celebrating the 10 year reunion of the 2012 World Series Champs.

The first 15,000 fans in attendance Sunday will get a FREE comic book with a story featuring players from the 2012 World Series winning team and the debut of a brand new Giants superhero. Published by 10 Ton Press, featuring interior art by Brandon McKinney, story by John Hageman, cover art by Arthur Adams and edited by yours truly, FlyCoJoe! 

Who or what is the new Giants' Superhero?
Find out in GIANTS UNITE: Heroes By the Bay!

Now, let's look back on bits of the Giants long and fun history in comics!
Peanuts comic strip creator Charles "Sparky" Schulz was a big Giants fan, especially in the early years after the team moved to San Francisco when Schulz lived in the Santa Rosa area.

And he was as bummed as every Giants fan when the San Francisco team lost to the New York Yankees in the 1962 World Series...

Willie Mays is the greatest ballplayer ever! The Say Hey Kid has been celebrated in comics going back to his rookie season of 1951 when the Giants made it to the World Series courtesy of Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard Round the World" pennant winning home run against the Brooklyn Dodgers. 

In 1954, Willie Mays came back from two years service in the military during the Korean conflict...and what a comeback it was! Not only did Willie win the MVP Award that year, the New York Giants also won the World Series in a four game sweep over the Cleveland Indians. The Amazing Willie Mays comic book from Famous Funnies is just one indication of what a huge star Willie Mays was!

Over the years, the San Francisco Giants have been featured in other comics, including one by DC Comics in 2001 (shown below on the right), as well as a Willie Mays unauthorized biography comic in the '90s.

Back in the '70s, the Giants logo was on the cover of an issue of Harvey Comics' Casper, a promotional comic from KTVU Channel 2 (the Giants TV station at the time) and Straw Hat Pizza. I'm sure in other part of the country and for other National League teams, local TV stations and advertisers were featured.

A few months after the Giants won the 2010 World Series, Marvel Comics and WonderCon teamed up for a special variant cover of X-Men #536 featuring the X-Men in black & orange with the WS trophy. Very cool!

More about Heroes & Comics Day!
The event got its start on August 7 2013 when the Giants invited the late great Stan Lee to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. That was also the day Stan Lee did a fantastic event at Flying Colors prior to going to the ballpark. 

Now here we are in 2022... and the San Francisco Giants have led the way with their HEROES & COMICS Day, celebrated every season. It's a great event bringing together baseball fans and comics/pop culture fanatics. Some will even show up to the game in costume as their favorite comics characters.

The new Giants superhero will debut in the full-length comic book FREE to the first 15,000 fans attending the Sunday August 14 game vs the Pittsburgh Pirates. Game time is 1:10, with the special VIP Triples Alley event hosted by the ever awesome Amy Gutierrez starting at  10:35AM.

In the production of this comic book, at one point we thought we'd have an extra page to fill, so I invited my long time friend (and long ago FlyCo Faithful) artist Jeff Johnson (Marvel's Wonder Man, CrossGEN's Way of the Rat, among many other credits)  to do a special pin up page commemorating the

last out of the 2012 World Series.

I thought it would be a very cool way to finish the comic book, but it got squeezed out at the last minute. I'm happy to share the pencil/ink piece with you here. (Print it out at large size and then color it in with your fave shades of orange and black!)

Bottom line, I'd love to see you at the Giants game Sunday August 14 for HEROES & COMICS DAY. 

I'll close this out by sharing the awesome Brandon McKinney's pencil art for a couple of the pages in GIANTS UNITE: Heroes By the Bay!

Go, Giants! And Go, Team Comics!
Peace, Comics and SF Giants Baseball!

Joe "FlyCoJoe" Field

San Francisco Giants Heroes & Comics Day Sun Aug 14

Happy to announce my involvement in helping the San Francisco Giants celebrate Heroes & Comics Day at Oracle Park on Sunday August 14. 

Be among the first 15,000 at the game that day to get your GIANTS UNITE: Heroes By The Bay comic book!

The fantastic cover shown here is by the great Arthur Adams. The beautiful interior art is by Brandon McKinney who along with Mel Smith designed thew new Giants' superhero! The story, by John Hageman, features lots of cool inside stuff for both comics fans and Giants fans.

The comic is published by 10 Ton Press with more excellent work by ink artist Chris Marrinan and colorist Jesse Heagy. Nominally, I'm the editor of this cool project, but the credit really goes to the full creative team.

There's a special Triples Alley VIP event on Sunday August 14...VIP event ticket holders will also get a bobblehead of the new SF Giants' hero debuting in GIANTS UNITE!

I've been a baseball fan even longer than I've been a comics' fan (that's a *very* long time!), so the fact the Giants trusted me to get this project off the ground feels very special.

Get your tickets and more info here:

https://www.mlb.com/giants/tickets/specials/heroes 

 Peace, Comics 'n' Baseball!

Joe "FlyCoJoe" Field

Comics & Games Retailer columns

A number of times over the years, I've been asked by different people to write a book about my experiences inside and outside of the comics world. Doubtful that will ever happen.

I did write columns in industry trade publications, starting in the mid 1980s with the late and missed fan-oriented Comics Buyer's Guide newspaper, then in retailer-focused trade magazines in the '90s and early 2000s with Comic Book Business for a year or so and then with Comics & Games Retailer for eight years or so.

Maybe because it's summer rerun season, I've decided to share several of the columns I wrote all those years ago.

For those interested in looking back to cheer me on where I was right and looking away to ignore where I was wrong, please hit these links:

1) From early 1998, with a thought about how comics retailers choose to position our shops, read
"Aesop vs Barnum."

2) From the summer of 1999...be prepared. This one gets heavy.
"Freedom vs Responsibility"

3) From the fall of 1999, columnists were asked to gaze into the future and look to
"The Strange World Beyond 2000."

4) Not a column! Here's the May 2001 text of my speech inducting Stan Lee into the Cartoon Art Museum's Hall of Fame!

5) Probably the one that made the most difference in the comics biz... my column spinning the original idea for Free Comic Book Day. Here's
"The Power of Free." 

6) One of my columns about the Zen of Retailing:
"Look, Listen and Learn"

7) Lessons learned from my Dad resonate in the comics world:
"Retailer: Son of Hero"

8) My Fortress of Solitude was a Pool Hall:
"A Tale of Two Hang-Outs"

As always, I'm ready to accept any comments and feedback.
Maybe, just maybe, there will be a time when I can do some long-form writing and please the literally dozens of people who might be interested in reading more of my stuff.
Thanks for reading!

Joe "FlyCoJoe" Field

Important Travel Advisory!

 

Liam Sharp signing event Wed Jul 6 at 11AM

Join us at
Flying Colors Comics
Wednesday July 6 from 11AM-1PM for the world debut signing event for

Liam Sharp's STARHENGE #1 from Image Comics!

LIAM SHARP (artist of Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Brave & Bold, more) will be here to sign copies and talk about his new time-spanning series, STARHENGE!

At Flying Colors, we're totally excited to bring you the world debut signing for this new series!

What's it about?

A future Merlin travels to 5th-century Britain to prevent monstrous time-traveling killer robots from robbing the universe of magic, while Amber Weaver's lively present-day narrative reveals how she becomes drawn into this war across time! The Once & Future King meets The Terminator in 30 enthralling story pages, launching this original epic inspired by the Arthurian sagas!