My comic shop guy keeps telling new readers to start with the movies first
I was at Heroes Haven in Portland on Saturday and watched the owner tell two teenagers to just watch the MCU movies before touching any comics, which seems backwards to me since the movies cut whole storylines. I get that he's trying to keep it easy for them but they walked out with zero books in their hands. Am I wrong for thinking shops should hand new readers a single issue first instead of a Disney Plus login?
Two teens walking out with zero books is a sale problem, not a comics problem. My local shop in Austin did the same thing for years and the owner finally ran the numbers: new readers who grabbed a $5 first issue came back about 40 percent of the time, movie watchers almost never did. Handing someone a login costs him nothing but it also earns him nothing, and those kids were already standing in the store ready to spend. A single issue is cheap, it's right there on the shelf, and worst case they're out five bucks instead of two hours of homework they didn't ask for.