October 10-13 2009 was the annual retailer summit for comic shop store owners. Held in different cities each year(this year Baltimore hosted), the summit is usually filled with fun, info and lots of shop owners compaining. This year was no different, except that is was really fun, really informative and less complaints!

Baltimore is a lovely city and a wonderful vacation stop, especially if you like history and seafood. It was nice to be in temps lower than the 90's for a change, but I do miss the dry desert heat and the fun that is Vegas.

This year lots of great news awaited retailers, including better incentives for ordering bigger and lots of spiffy upcoming comic news (Deadpool Corps, Blackest Night January and even a peak at the wearer of the Iron Man armor--and it ain't Stark OR Osborne). The vendors made sure to pimp out the new product coming up in the year and tried to get more shops to carry gaming (never gonna happen, sorry. Or you are welcome, depending on your view of gaming).

The best result for MaximuM Comics was that we strengthened relationships between vendors, distributor and shop owners. This is invaluable when trying to stay afloat in a volatile market. I met two young owners in particular from Orlando's A Comic Shop (Jason and Aaron) that were a revelation. So much energy and great ideas, we will definitely be swiping a few ideas. Tate (and his dad Tony) from Tate's Comics rock--very nice, very helpful, very fun. I hung mostly with Ralph and Kate from Vegas' own Alternate Reality and they made the whole trip worth it! On a personal note, you couldn't ask for better friends/competitors than Ralph&Kate. Thanks guys for making it Ralph and Kate plus Jay.

Thanks to my partner Blake for not going--jerk! Actually, he is so gassy that a night in a hotel without farts is a welcome blessing! Ha!

In all, I can't wait to share all the hotness I gleaned form this event!!