Hits and Misses will feature comic retailers sharing what’s working in their shop as well as the roadblocks they’ve been running into.
Hello Comics had a banner 2025 and there’s been little sign of slowing down, according to husband-and-wife owners Dave Murray and Kate DeNeveu. The open to 2026 has been equally strong at both its stores in Charlottesville, Virginia, with each thriving even if they take different paths in getting there, as its uptown location’s biggest product lines are back issues, new comics, and graphic novels & manga while the downtown one is evenly split between collectibles/posters and graphic novels & manga.
Neither location reflects the original goals for Hello Comics, to the degree that when the shop first opened in 2013, the name was something different altogether in Telegraph Art & Comics. The plan was to focus on limited-edition, screen-printed posters drawn by comic artists, with the secondary product being those creators’ comics. DeNeveu and Murray quickly learned that while Charlottesville was eager to support the print business, the city was even more excited about the comics they sold.
“Our gallery shows were a ton of fun, but the books we sold alongside our prints ended up being where the demand was, so we pivoted towards comics,” Murray said. “We were an art gallery that sold comics, and now we’re a comic shop that sometimes does art shows.”
They’re much more of a pure comic shop these days, which is why they needed a name that better represented the store. That’s when Hello Comics was born, and this change wasn’t just a shift in the store’s name but its intent, as they now see themselves focusing on the joy of comics and the community of their customers rather than just the art.
Regardless of the shop’s name or goals, Hello Comics is driven by passion, and they’ve found great success by bringing that love of the medium to the city of Charlottesville. But as a pair of comics retail neophytes who were totally new to the space when they opened, Murray and DeNeveu have learned a lot about what it really takes to succeed along the way.
Hit: Keeping Things Fresh
As fans of the medium, the Hello Comics team is always excited about getting key comics into the store, but they’re even more thrilled when these high-end items leave with a customer. That’s why Hello Comics built out a program called Fresh Friday that was designed to highlight newly arrived back issues in a manageable way for collectors, one that stimulates both awareness and excitement.
“Every Friday at 11 a.m., we put out all the new-to-us comics in a special section of the shop branded with large Fresh Friday signs and a signature blue color scheme,” DeNeveu said. “New keys are highlighted in the glass cases, lower priced back issues are in short boxes, and newly acquired graphic novels, manga, and toys are displayed together on special shelves.”
Fresh Friday doesn’t just mean the team sets up the inventory and lets customers discover what’s there. It’s a significant promotional focus, with some of the shop’s most anticipated social media posts being Thursday night reveals of the items that will be up for sale the next day. That’s helped spread word of mouth, with comic fans from around the state discovering Hello Comics thanks to this weekly event.
The hope was that Fresh Friday would speed up the process of paying for the collections the shop acquires and break regulars of the habit of only coming in on Wednesday when new comics arrive. It has helped immensely with both, as Hello Comics typically has a line before they open on Fridays now.
“Instead of one big day a week, we now have two,” DeNeveu said. “It’s been great for cash flow.”
Miss: Avoiding the Back Issue Market
While Fresh Friday is a success for Hello Comics, it was a long journey getting there, as back issues were not an emphasis for the store early on.
“We avoided buying and selling vintage and used books for the longest time,” Murray said. “There was already a shop in town that did this, so we wrote it off.”
It was more than that, though, as the couple wanted to avoid reinforcing some of the stereotypes of used bookstores and comic shops. Whether that’s the smell of old paper or the unkempt nature of some back issue displays, the team didn’t want to deal with that in their shop. That changed when DeNeveu came across something that helped them better appreciate the merits of back issues.
“One day Kate read an article by Chuck Rozanski that extolled the virtues of vintage, and one line really stuck with us: ‘If you’re not buying and selling vintage, then you’re just a retail storefront for the Diamond catalog,’” Murray said.
After reading that, and after the other shop in their town closed its doors, Hello Comics embraced the secondary market, but they did so in their own way. Some of that comes down to pricing, as their goal is to quickly move product while still making a profit, with many keys leaving the shop within hours of entering it. But they also wanted to combat those stereotypes, which is why two steadfast rules for the shop are that every back issue, including dollar comics, gets a new bag and board, and along with a rigorous weekly cleaning schedule, they ensure that collections they buy never bring a musty smell along with them.
Hello Comics has made it work for them, turning a miss into an eventual hit, but the team knows they left money on the table by not finding a way to engage with the secondary market sooner.
Hit: Trusting the Team
It was just DeNeveu and Murray when Hello Comics first opened, and they managed it well, at least until the business started to grow. That’s when they started hiring people, including Anna and Kerrie, the managers of Hello Comics’ two locations. But even as they brought on staff, the shop’s owners found delegating to be a challenge.
“Dave and I were struggling to hand over a lot of the decision-making to them, particularly product mix,” DeNeveu said. “Once we finally let go of the reins and really started trusting them, things improved dramatically.”
A good example of that came when their two managers were sent to Toy Fair, the trade show for the toy industry, in 2025, with the goal to connect with new statue and toy vendors. They delivered and did so in ways DeNeveu and Murray never would have themselves.
“They knocked it out of the park. Kerrie was adamant we should stock a line of imported housewares and craft kits. It was not something that would have occurred to me at all,” DeNeveu said. “But Kerrie was right on the money. Our downtown shop has been breaking sales records by insane margins ever since.”
While Murray admits that this could almost be considered a miss given the number of times that they didn’t act on employee recommendations, the key is they learned to trust their staff, something they believe all comic shops should do.
“It’s important to hire people smarter than you,” Murray said. “But you have to trust them and give them a seat at the table.”
That’s led to increased success for Hello Comics, but maybe of equal importance, it’s allowed DeNeveu and Murray shift more attention to their lives outside the comic shop.
“It’s been a relief in the last few years as our family has grown, knowing that our people are an incredible team who value our community and our customers,” DeNeveu said.
Miss: Understanding the Market
Hello Comics was, in many ways, originally built on a miss, even if it was fueled by the passion of the shop’s owners.
“Our original business plan was about what we wanted, not about what our town wanted,” DeNeveu said. “We completely ignored the demographics of Charlottesville and opened a business that was not suited to a medium-sized town in Central Virginia.”
The plan for the store was to host a monthly gallery show with new art by some of their favorite artists, and the main products they sold were limited-run, screen-printed posters of the art that was produced for the show. It worked at times, but they quickly realized that their model was unsustainable for the market they were in.
“We were trying to brute force our way into Charlottesville’s hearts rather than listening to what Charlottesville wanted,’ Murray said. “Business is a two-way street, and you have to be mindful of what your community wants, and they will support you in turn. They liked us okay as a comic art-focused gallery, but they loved us as an art-loving comic shop.”
While they eventually adjusted, it was an error that eventually had to be rectified. But they now know the importance of understanding their market, something that’s top of mind as they consider turning Hello Comics into something more.
“We want to expand someday into other cities, and I am seriously considering taking some actual business classes just so I can learn how to strategically analyze potential sites,” DeNeveu said.
Miss: Not Seeing the Signs
Opening a new business will always be a learning experience, regardless of who you are. Even then, the Hello Comics team was surprised by some of the basics they just didn’t understand, like, for example, external signage. What you have on your sign can be essential for driving foot traffic in the store, and their first try didn’t do enough on that front.
“People only have a moment to parse what your sign means and what you offer when they’re driving by your shop,” Murray said. “In our first location, we had a very nice sign with our Telegraph Comics & Art logo on it, and no one had any idea what we were or what we offered when they walked past our side street.”
“People thought we were a stationery store or that we sold art supplies or offered telegram services,” DeNeveu added. “It’s hard enough running a store when people know what you sell. It’s impossible when they don’t.”
Everything changed when a new business opened nearby, as its simple approach to signage revealed what they needed to do.
“One day, a pie place opened across the street from us, and they put up a very bold, very simple, very legible sign that read Pie & Coffee,” Murray said. “As soon as we saw that, we knew we had made a mistake. We have since striven to make every sign as clear and direct as possible.”
Murray isn’t kidding about that, either, as an early decision at their second location was to install a lighted sign with three-foot tall letters that simply said “Comic Books” for all to see.
“That will be the best $7,000 we ever spent,” he said.
Hit: Turning Comics Cons into ComicsPROs
Both DeNeveu and Murray were completely new to comics retail when they opened their shop, and their inexperience was something they felt acutely early on.
“We were so unprepared and ignorant when we started our business,” DeNeveu said.
While they were passionate about the work, there were basics they lacked that limited their opportunities without them even realizing it.
“We were limping along as a comic shop trying to figure out how to manage pulls on a Google spreadsheet,” DeNeveu said. “We didn’t have a point-of-sale system.”
A conversation with Jared Smith, a retailer from Big Planet Comics in the greater Washington D.C. area, changed everything, as he suggested they join ComicsPRO, a trade organization for comic shop owners like themselves.
“Joining ComicsPRO was what really kicked off our journey into becoming a properly run shop,” DeNeveu said.
Hello Comics joined in 2019, but it was attending their first annual meeting for the organization that made them realize what they had been doing right and doing wrong, and it helped them foster connections with other retailers they continue to learn from and with publishers that help them better position their comics. What they’ve picked up at ComicsPRO changed everything for them, from the direction of Hello Comics to what they know about comics retail.
“The scope of what we thought comics retail entailed and what makes a good shop has expanded considerably over the last thirteen years, and especially the last six,” Murray said.
Now, it’s worth noting that DeNeveu currently serves on ComicsPRO’s board as its Recording Secretary and Director of Operations, so it’s to be expected that Hello Comics would be a proponent of it. But even before she was on the board, the team recognized the value of ComicsPRO, and the importance of what they do behind the scenes in support of the direct market.
“I cannot emphasize enough how much this organization is quietly working all year long, not just for the conference, but to advocate for every comic shop owner out there,” DeNeveu said. “I cannot recommend ComicsPRO enough.”
Click Gallery below for full-size images of Hello Comics!
Source: ICv2
