The majority of Bodega's comics sales "come directly through our website to individual customers, and through our sales guy Tony Shenton who puts us into the super-hip indie-friendly comics shops. Stores can get our books through Diamond as well. We do pretty well through Amazon, too, but that's more sporadic. We do well enough at the shows." However, Chang is sympathetic to ComicsPRO's recent missive chastising publishers for debuting books at conventions. "'Cause it's a valid point that everyone seemed to know about except for me, and I can see how it could take a bite out of a retailer's profit, and everything kinda hinges on them and them having our support. When friends ask where to get Bodega books, I say ask your local store to order them, 'cause even though I'd make more money immediately per book from direct orders, it's always better for everyone involved that customers look in the stores first. That's where all the numbers come from. But at this point Bodega is so small, and I'm only organized enough to put ‘releasing books at shows and stores simultaneously' on the long list of things I should do at some point further down the line, along with ‘get the print run in with more than a day before the show.'"
Bodega Distribution is a small-but-growing labor of love for Chang, as he has "a full-time day job, doing photography pre-press stuff for magazines and ad campaigns. I work at the Bodega office in the evenings, and on weekends. We also have a part-time employee, Pete [Hallsworth] and a rotating cast of interns working on the books. It's still kinda a new thing so duties haven't been completely settled yet, but I feel like I run things up front and deal with whatever needs to be done immediately, Pete handles the mess and insanity that I create, and the intern puts together the books under my supervision." 
Bodega has gone on to publish the second Daybreak volume and Service Industry by T. Edward Bak. This year, Chang plans to release further works from his small stable of artists: Neverland, by David Kiersh; the final volume of Daybreak; Mourning Star #2; and "maybe on top of that there'll be one more book for 2008, but I don't see how I'll have time for any more than four this year." He humorously observed that, "if I had to put together ‘howdoyoudecidewhattopublish' formula, it'd probably involve how well I'm able to sell their self-published mini's through the site and at the shows, how long they've been self-publishing or drawing comics, and from meeting them in person. But I amend that with the fact that none of Bodega's publications really happened exactly that way." If Bodega continues to thrive, Chang hopes to one day, perhaps, open a storefront. In the meantime, he asks that "if you're an aspiring cartoonist and you hand me a mini at a show, please please no more dirty looks if I don't read it in front of you. I'll read it later, maybe that night or maybe even the second you walk away from the table, I just can't stand looking at work while you're looking at me, it's too unsettling."Kristy Valenti currently works for The Comics Journal and Fantagraphics Books, Inc.
Uncharted Territory is © Kristy Valenti, 2008
