I have talked a lot about the awesomeness of my hometown Denton, TX here and here. But now I have yet another line to add to the “Denton, TX is Awesome List.” We have an official—official as in government recognized—Doctor Who Day.
I got the chance to talk to the guy behind Doctor Who Day, Tim Stoltzfus, owner of More Fun Comics and Games, the lovely little comic book shop off the historic Denton square.
So tell me about how this all came together? I heard Jake Ekiss say he had a week to come up with the cover.
This started about a year and a half ago when Titan Comics acquired the publishing rights to Doctor Who comics. It’s become a trend for publishers to offer unique covers to individual stores as long as a certain print run is met. I contacted Titan at the time and threw out the idea of a Denton-centric cover to them when they announced their first comics based on the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, but heard nothing back. When they announced comics based on the Twelfth Doctor, I again contacted them and they were interested, but had convincing to do at the BBC, and unfortunately, nothing happened in time for the comic.
Last October, Titan started offering out the Ninth Doctor comic, and I again contacted them with my idea. I heard nothing until a Saturday morning in January when they e-mailed me and said, “I think we can make this work, do you still have an artist?” At which point, I chased down Jake Ekiss to see if he was able to fit it into his schedule. He said he would make it happen, and we were off to the races. It was a small two week window of art production and approval, and then the deal was done. I had to sit on it for a little while as Titan was lining up the exact release date and the final cover image with logo.
Was the turnout what you expected it to be?
Turnout was FAR beyond anything I ever imagined. The print runs for a comic like this isn’t small. I expected to have copies around for a year at least. Instead, we sold out in the first week, which still amazes me. The Doctor Who Day event came about as much because of a matter of fan momentum as anything else. When I announced the cover, I got a couple e-mails from people wanting to come out to celebrate. I talked to nearby businesses about joining in, and they were excited. At that point, the event grew into a monster of its own, and I was simply trying to make sure that all the different parts fit well together. That said, the line on Saturday was not what I expected at all. Fortunately, the vibe was so good that it all worked out. People were simply enjoying being fans together, and that made everything go pretty smoothly.
Do you think this kind of thing is growing in Denton?
People in Denton clearly love getting together and celebrating being part of Denton, and every time someone puts an event together that allows them to do that, the demand grows for more events. It’s a pretty wonderful thing about our community that I don’t see slowing down any time soon.
Will you at least let me give me a hint of some of the cool events coming up for the shop?
We just announced Free Comic Book Night at Oak Street Draft House on April 30th, which will be a special event where we will be giving out comics and pint glasses, as well as previewing the free comics that will be available on Free Comic Book Day on May 2nd. We’re also sponsoring the Twilight Tunes concert on April 30th on the Square where we will have a special selection of all ages comics for people to look at that night before Free Comic Book Day.
Oh, and Free Comic Book Day is coming May 2nd, did I mention that? That is always a huge event and we have some surprises coming for that event, too. Beyond that, we’re looking at the calendar for the summer right now and concocting ideas, so keep your eyes open!
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