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Bad Idea Expands its Idea of Stores to 50 on Launch

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Bad Idea seems to have a very good idea going for them. Announced at ComicsPRO, the upstart comic publisher is expanding its first wave of participating retailers from the initial 20 to 50 stores. It begins with ENIAC #1 from Matt Kindt and Doug Braithwaite in May 2020.

Bad Idea has also announced at ComicsPRO that they’ll be opening registration to every participating ComicsPRO member, who will be able to enroll on-site to become a Bad Idea Destination Store beginning today during the company’s conference roundtable sessions. Additionally, all participating Bad Idea Destination Store retailer accounts will also be offered a 60% discount and free shipping on all orders.

In order to qualify for participation, each Bad Idea Destination Store must agree to a stringent set of rules and criteria that include:

  • prominent in-store placement for Bad Idea comics
  • some truly galling and gauche promotional displays
  • and strictly enforced “limit one per customer,” street date, pre-order, pricing, and minimum/maximum order and allocation policies for all Bad Idea releases.

Failure to comply with the spirit and/or letter of the rules will result in removal from the program and a well-deserved shaming from your friends, family members, and professional colleagues.

In the event that Bad Idea’s list of approved wave one applicants exceeds 50 stores, retailers may be assigned to the next available wave of admissions. Bad Idea will be working overtime to service each and every one of its trusted retail partners and regularly admitting new stores to the program on a rolling basis. 

That means that each time a new retailer comes on board as a Bad Idea Destination Store anywhere in the world, they’ll be able to access every prior BAD IDEA release in very limited quantities, so, that way the store can start at the beginning.

Non-ComicPRO retailers who wish to participate can continue to email Bad Idea’s customer service team at hello@badideacorp.com. 

Bad Idea will be kicking things off on May 6th, 2020 with the historic debut of ENIAC #1 –  the monumental, 40-page first issue of Bad Idea’s prestige-format premiere from New York Times best-selling writer Matt Kindt, artistic powerhouse Doug Braithwaite, colorist Diego Rodriguez, and Harvey Award-nominated cover artist Lewis LaRosa.

Eniac #1

ENIAC Kicks Off Bad Idea on May 6, 2020

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On May 6th, the arrival of Bad Idea begins with the debut in ENIAC #1 – the oversized, 40-page first issue of 2020’s brain-swelling new series from New York Times best-selling writer Matt Kindt, artistic powerhouse Doug Braithwaite, colorist Diego Rodriguez, and cover artist Lewis LaRosa. The series is a prestige-format limited series.

At the height of World War II, the world’s most ingenious minds began a race to create a super-weapon capable of ending the war with the push of a button. One of those projects gave us the atom bomb…and another produced the world’s first supercomputer: ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer)– an immeasurably complex mathematical model that targeted the Axis war machine by calculating missile trajectories and troop deployments.

Everybody knows that. It’s real-life American history.

Or so we were told.

On August 6th, 1945, the United States dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima.

Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki… Only President Truman wasn’t the one who gave order.

It was ENIAC.

In the Allies’ determination to end the war, they had accidentally created the world’s first autonomous machine intelligence…which had quickly deduced that one bomb wouldn’t be enough.

But ENIAC’s real plan was only just beginning…

Now, 75 years later, an encrypted countdown has just been detected in Earth’s satellite network and mankind only has three days left before ENIAC launches every weapon in the planet’s nuclear arsenal simultaneously. With few options and even less time, the Secretary of Defense has just given two covert operatives the most important mission in human history: kill ENIAC.

The series launches Bad Idea, the comic publisher with a limited release of series in a limited amount of stores. The comics will feature no variants, will not be released digitally, and won’t be collected into trade paperbacks, hardcovers, or bookshelf formats.

The comics will come in a pristinely designed, prestige-format package featuring deluxe matte-laminate cardstock covers, heavy-duty interior paperstock, and lots of pictures with little words on the inside – all for the standard $3.99 cover price.

The publisher will launch in 20 participating stores and slowly expand into about 50 by the end of the year.

ENIAC #1

Sometimes It Takes A Bad Idea For The Future To Be Bright…

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If you missed the news, the new comic book company Bad Idea released the first press release identifying how they intend to release their comics. I’ll put a link to the Graphic Policy article here that’ll give you more detail if you haven’t read it, but effectively what we’re looking at is a company who intend to ignore the current distribution method in comics, so Diamond, and instead self-distribute to twenty hand-picked stores (with intention to increase that to fifty by the end of the year). There will be no digital comics, there will be no trade paperbacks. There will also be no variant covers, with each comic being limited to one per customer.

This news has been met with anger, disappointment, optimism, excitement and every other reaction you’re thinking right now that’s going to come from comic fans shocked that they probably won’t be able to get the comics at their regular stop with some stating that it’s a bad idea to go this route. I’ll admit to being disappointed by the news in the press release until I read this interview on Multiveristy Comics with Dinesh Shamdasani, Warren Simons and Hunter Gorinson. The three are all former Valiant employees who were forced out or left after the investment firm DMG purchased the company. After the quality of the Valiant books under their watch, I was intrigued and excited by what they may have up their sleeves with Bad Idea

The above interview with the three reminded me of one of the most exciting things in comics – the hunt for a certain issue. It isn’t a coincidence that I have been slowly building various runs of comics without using online retailers; because hunting in bins has an appeal for me that I can’t quantify.

  • The cover to Megalith

Dinesh hinted during the interview that the comics will be available online, though perhaps not officially, and he danced around the sad truth that people pirate comics and unfortunately that is a reality these days. It shouldn’t be, but that’s a rant for another day.

By selecting just twenty shops (to start) to sell their comics, Bad Idea is encouraging those of us (yes us, because I know damn well I’ll be one of them) to find ways to get the issues. The list of shops won’t be a secret, which implies the shops must be willing to ship the comics to those outside of reasonable driving distance, which will, in turn, drive the business of certain shops. If Bad Idea becomes a phenomenon then this could, in turn, drive people into comic shops that otherwise wouldn’t step into our world.

I understand the anger and disappointment people are feeling, though. I understand that you want to be able to order these books as you would your normal pull list. But being free of Diamond’s rigid distribution system means the creative teams are free to tell a story in 27 pages or 33. It means they can be late if the book isn’t ready without rushing out a subpar issue that won’t satisfy the fans. It means more money in the pockets of the people putting out the books.

By circumventing the traditional methods of distribution Bad Idea has gotten themselves a lot of people talking about a company who has barely revealed a full page of comics. They’re a company with some of the very best writers and artists who have been given the freedom to create what I’m sure will be some of the best comics we’ll ever read. You may or may not agree – but I have faith in Dinesh Shamdasani, Warren Simons, Hunter Gorinson and the amazing talent that they have accrued around them. I will find a way to get these books because I have faith in the people putting them out, and I want to support them – and at the very least the fact I have to work to get them is strangely exciting for me.

If you just want to read the books, you’ll find a way. But if you want to be a part of what could be the next step in comics… it may just take a Bad Idea for the future to be bright in comics.

Also posted on Ramblings Of A Comics Fan

Bad Idea Has Some Very Interesting Ideas for the Comic Industry

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Yesterday, the new comic publisher Bad Idea was announced and teased. Today, we have more details on what to expect.

Debuting in May 2020, the publisher will release one or two single issues per month in a “pristinely designed, prestige-format package” for $3.99. There will be no variants and the issues will not be released digitally, collected into trade paperbacks, hardcovers, or other “bookshelf formats.” That means there will only be single-issue comics.

But, there’s a catch! The comics won’t be available everywhere. Instead, Bad Idea will self-distribute the series to an initial 20 comic book shop who will qualify based on “a unique system of criteria” that includes extra promotional commitments and a “strictly enforced ‘limit one per customer'” policy for Bad Idea comics, among other stipulations. More retailers will be admitted throughout the year to eventually bring that number up to around 50 stores by the end of 2020.

Megalith

The first series will be ENIAC by Matt Kindt and Doug Braithwaite. Other projects are coming from Marguerite Bennett, Mae Catt, Joshua Dysart, Tomas Giorello, Eric Heisserer, Jody Houser, Lewis LaRosa, Jeff Lemire, Peter Milligan, Adam Pollina, Robert Venditti, Zeb Wells, and more. In the announcement, Megalith was also teased with a cover by Lewis LaRosa. Projects have been worked on for the past year in “secret.”

First issues will usually be oversized with page counts exceeding the standard 22 pages or feature “hidden features” and other surprises not mentioned in public.

The goal is to get people into comic shops making each release an event.

Bad Idea is the brainchild of the five team members that rebuilt Valiant and developed the forthcoming Bloodshot feature film. Dinesh Shamdasani and Warren Simons will share the roles of Co-CEO & Co-Chief Creative Officer, Hunter Gorinson will serve as Publisher, Joshua Johns will serve as Director of Marketing, and Atom Freeman has returned as a Sales Consultant.

A Bad Idea is Coming to Comics

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Bad Idea teaser

It’s been teased for a while but it has been officially announced that Valiant Entertainment veterans Dinesh Shamdasani, Warren Simons, and Hunter Gorinson are returning to comics in 2020. The three have kicked off a new publishing company, Bad Idea.

The announcement today included the above teaser image featuring artwork from several of Bad Idea’s projects.

Announced creators featured in the teaser and working with the publisher include Doug Braithwaite, Tomas Giorello, Lewis LaRosa, and Adam Pollina.

More details are coming soon.