Comments on: ‘There hasn’t been any excitement like this … since they killed Superman’

By: zod

zod — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:56:05 +0000

scavenger…

publicity? a single comic got publicity. once the customer was out the door, he/she didn’t give a rat’s ass about any other comic book in the store.

my lcs got next to no extra traffic due to the fact that the few copies they got in sold immediately. phone calls only. anyone tha did come in walked out as soon as they were told it had sold out. wouldn’t even buy the non-obama cover of ams #583.

it’s speculative garbage stunts like this that helped put marvel into chapter 11 in the first place. perhaps making an effort at good stories combined with good art, instead of cheap sales-spiking stunts like this, would keep the industry progressing somewhat.

By: Roger Ackerman

Roger Ackerman — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:34:49 +0000

I called every comic shop on Long Island and none of the stores here had a single Obama variant for sale at any price! I was told Fourth World Comics got hundres of copis, but when I called them before they opened on Wednesday morning, they told me they were not available for sale at all! The other comics shops told me Diamond swiped all their copies and put them on ebay back on January 9th! I think it’s true, too, because if you look on ebay, they had hundreds of copies selling on Jan. 9th before it was even announced in the newspapers! I guess that’s the thanks the comic shops get for dealing with Diamond all these years. That’s what happens when you’re dealing with a monopoly, I guess.

By: RogueFan

RogueFan — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:24:06 +0000

This is beyond ridiculous!! I work for a comic store in SF, and we were completely frustrated with all this BS. Marvel never told the retailers that they were going to pull this media stunt to get more sheep to buy the comic. That plus the all the hoops they put you through to order the variant cover meant that our store wasn’t able to get the Obama cover. It forced us to look like a party pooper when people would call or come by to see if we had the comic. I thought the age of comics being purchased for “investments” was over.

Oh, and I have to say MAJOR Jeers to Alakazam Comics for putting on their creators signing then charging THIRTY DOLLARS for a comic that should have only cost $3.99. If I’m ever in Irvine and decide to check out their comic shops, I’ll be sure to avoid Alakazam at all costs. The only way I’d be cool with them jacking up the price is if a large part of the profits were for charity.

By: Scavenger

Scavenger — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:14:55 +0000

The way I see it, comics got some publicity, LCS got some traffic and attention, a number of them sold the variant cover for some real money, so they got a cash infusion during a typically dead month.

I see 0 problems with this.

By: Trey

Trey — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:27:10 +0000

That 5 page story was written for 2nd graders. Yes we can’t!

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:24:26 +0000

The actual story was stupid as hell. Yet this shit is selling like pancakes because of the speculation that this will one day be worth a lot.

Welcome back, the 90′s, we have missed you.

By: Alan Coil

Alan Coil — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:46:08 +0000

My LCS was sold out as of 1:00 pm Tuesday. They ordered 2nd printings, took a list of names for those, and (pre-)sold out of those by 5:00 pm Wednesday.

In total, they sold 3 times as many as normal, which, multiplied times the usual 70,000 copies nationwide, would suggest that 210,000 copies will be sold. I would think that 300,000 would be a minimum level, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the total of all printings would reach 500,000. I fully expect a fourth or even fifth prining.

By: zod

zod — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:43:55 +0000

idiocy. our lcs barely had any copies because of this last-minute rubbish stunt marvel has pulled. all copies pre-sold the day before it was released.

nice sales spike there, marvel. your flagship character’s title is dying a slow, monotonous death, so you throw a varaint soon-to-be-president cover in and a piece of trash story at the end of the issue, which as noted, is a carbon copy of something another publisher did just a few weeks back. should make your amazing spider-man sales look awesome… for a week.

classy.

By: Nick Marino

Nick Marino — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:17:19 +0000

i was at Atomic Comics in Phoenix (Paradise Valley location) by noon, and they were already sold out. And for the hour I was there, people kept coming in the store and pre-ordering the second printing when they found the first one was out. And the phone rang every minutes with a question about the book. All this, and no one seemed to notice that a certain icon bit the- well, no spoilers, but a few of you know what I mean.

By: Chris Robinson

Chris Robinson — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:10:18 +0000

“Rob! Liefeld has Obama in the cover of Youngblood #8 and nobody has shown it in the news.”

The story from SM #583 was already used in Savage Dragon- the Impostor impersonates President Bush instead of The Chameleon impersonating President-elect Obama.

And to be fair, after Obama showed up on the cover of Savage Dragon last fall and now on Spider-man (and inside), an appearance in Youngblood is a bit late to stir up any excitement.

By: Mal

Mal — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 04:32:35 +0000

So many shops missed out on this one.
It was a late solicitation from Marvel with an email that included a paragraph half way down the page mentioning last chance to increase orders being dropped in their inboxes on the 17th of December, right in the middle of silly season shopping! No wonder so many comic shop owners missed it.

By: toiu87

toiu87 — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:48:24 +0000

i was the second to last person to be able to purchase this at the comic store in my city. sold out in 10 minutes.
love it.

By: G.

G. — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:41:02 +0000

The beguiling sold out of both editions:
http://www.beguiling.com/2009/01/and-were-sold-out-no-more-obama-comics.html

By: JK Parkin

JK Parkin — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:36:42 +0000

“Rob! Liefeld has Obama in the cover of Youngblood #8 and nobody has shown it in the news.”

It’s on the front page of CBR right now.

By: Scavenger

Scavenger — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:32:50 +0000

Damn Marvel for putting out a stunt comic everyone wants! They’re just buying in to the mass delusion that liberals want…or something like that….

JR: Who’s “they” that doesn’t allow for non-super heroes? Marvel’s doing well with the Steven King stuff. DC’s Vertigo line has strong sellers in the tpb market.

By: Caanan

Caanan — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:14:00 +0000

I was at the Beguiling in Toronto at noon, where there were tons left, but they were limiting them to one per customer. They had WAY more copies of the variant than the normal cover. I hear, across town, the Silver Snail had a line out the door. This isn’t even in the US! ;o)

By: Kelson

Kelson — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:30:46 +0000

No lines at my store, but I got there about an hour and a half after opening. They had a sign on the door saying they were sold out.

By: DNMRULES

DNMRULES — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:16:18 +0000

Rob! Liefeld has Obama in the cover of Youngblood #8 and nobody has shown it in the news.

By: JR

JR — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:09:18 +0000

@Liam:
No. Comics will stay a dwindling industry unless they allow mainstream success for non-superhero books (Hint: More people buy collected editions then the singles), til then…no.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:08:39 +0000

I think the short-notice of this meant a lot of comic shops missed out on an opportunity to better promote their stores. I was kind of surprised that Midtown, who is normally good about this sort of thing, didn’t have some kind of takeaway bag insert encouraging first-time visitors to return.

http://nosleep-nyc.blogspot.com/2009/01/crowds-line-up-for-spidey-obama-team-up.html