Comic Book Resources

and once again the publisher and I’m completely convinced the distributor also find a way to screw over the retail market in order to make some big splash… It’s not like Diamond doesn’t already undership to most of the smaller comic shops all the time as it is, who knows how many copies of this stores will get if they don’t intentionally over order. And of course no one is going to over order a book that in all real ways hasn’t even been solicited.

So, this summer we have…

“Reborn” from Marvel.
“Fallen Angel: Reborn” from IDW.
“Flash: Rebirth” and “Batman Reborn” from DC.

That’s a lot of born-again super-heroes.

Hmm. Another “Dog bites Man” story. YYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWNNNNN.

However, Ed Brubaker’s Captain America series is one of the best series out there. “Incognito” is even better though

Here’s the thing though: heroes coming back from the dead stories are nowhere near as mainstream media crazy as heroes dying stories. Compare Superman #75 to Adventures of Superman #500. It’s just not the same. Hopefully Marvel has another ace up their sleeve for this one.

I don’t know about aces, but Marvel certainly has a Bendis shaped ass up their sleeves.

I’m sorry, but Hibbs’ complaint doesn’t hold water with me. Yes, Marvel isn’t soliciting the plot of the book, but they’re doing just about every single thing they can to tell people it’s going to be in high demand. This isn’t the Obama variant fiasco, this isn’t Marvel withholding plot (and potential sales) data from their upcoming books, this is Marvel admitting that the book will be huge, they made a deal with mainstream media, and they can’t give away any info.

Now if mainstream media is making non-disclosure deals with Marvel, I’d say that’s pretty good indication that the book is gonna be in high demand, right?

Look, I know that the direct market is a tough environment, and I know that the Big Two and Diamond don’t do retailers a lot of favors, but Hibbs’ position comes across as an entitled rant and doesn’t make any business sense. At least I’ll be able to get my copy of Reborn #1 off the rack down the street on July 15.

On one hand, I can understand Hibbs’ frustration. After propping up the industry for the past 20 years, instead of getting a “thank you,” they get “thanks but no thanks.”The small independent retailer is really the one that suffers here. Marvel’s doing everything it can to ensure its profits. And consumers will get the issue if they want it. But if the local retailer doesn’t have it in stock when the consumer wants it, he’ll just go to eBay or Mile High or Amazon or any one of a dozen online retailers. It really isn’t fair to put retailers in this position.

On the other hand…

Fans know basic content of a particular issue weeks, months, or even YEARS before it comes out. If Marvel comes right out and says, “Hey, Steve Rogers comes back from the dead in issue 50!” three months before the issue arrives, the media and fan excitement peaks THREE MONTHS before the issue arrives. And that’s not good for anybody: Marvel, the mainstream media, the retailers or the fans.

At least with the first option, 3 out of 4 interested parties are satisfied.

I guess what I’m saying is that I sort of wish we could go back to the days when Previews wasn’t available to consumers, and publishers could go into greater detail in a story so the retailers would be properly prepared to order appropriately.

Yeah it does sound like a bunch of sour grapes. It is very obvious that this will be a ‘hot series’ and we all know this- readers, consumers, fans, retailers…everyone. So people- retailers and fans- should order the book accordingly. Plus in case they haven’t Marvel is saying they are planning a huge overprint and I would assume second and third printings if needed. So I am not sure what the true problem is other than we don’t know exactly everything yet.

To me that is a great way to build up the excitement for it.

“Now if mainstream media is making non-disclosure deals with Marvel, I’d say that’s pretty good indication that the book is gonna be in high demand, right?”

No, all that means is that they have at least one tame journalist that is excited by the story. It certainly doesn’t follow that either 1) the general public will follow along, or 2) that OTHER media outlets will follow along. Those things MIGHT happen, but, again, they might not. I’m fairly certain I can spin at least a half-dozen scenarios that would seem “newsworthy” to some in the media, but that wouldn’t result in any additional civilian interest in purchasing said item.

Further, just because they have a story being written, and being embargoed, does NOT mean that the story will actually RUN — even Marvel has admitted this…

I will observe that Marvel often thinks certain books are going to be bigger hits than they end up being — I still have PLENTY of copies of ULTIMATUM #1 left on my racks, sitting there lonely and forlorn…

-B

I tend to agree with Brian more often than not, but I disagree here. It’s fairly rare for Marvel to do what they’re doing here, ie blind solicit a non-crossover related book, and they’ve fairly heavily indicated that this book has something to do with the return of Captain America without actually coming out and directly stating it.
Yes, Ultimatum might not have been the blockbuster that Marvel trumpeted it as, but anyone who was looking at the sales on the rest of the Ultimate line would have seen that as the hyperbole it was.
There is an unfortunate element to the timing here though, which is the recession. Retailers are being way more cautious than usual, simply because they can’t afford to hold stock that they aren’t sure about. Sadly, it would be impossible to let retailers alone know the content, as it’d be online within minutes. It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.
Let’s just hope that Marvel overprint in large enough numbers, because I’m certain that initial orders aren’t going to meet demand…

Brian –

Marvel’s in the business of sales, just like you are – it’s their job to convince you that Ultimatum is gonna be a hot seller, isn’t it? Me, I’d be looking at the sharp decline in Ultimates 3 sales to give me an idea of where to book my Ultimatum orders, but that’s an example and not my main issue here.

The main point is this – you’re in a business. You’re running a business that relies on forecasting demand 3 months in advance. I’m sorry, it isn’t rocket science – plenty of businesses, both small and large, rely on building forecasts years in advance.

Marvel’s done plenty of things over the years that abuse the retailer relationship. I get it. I completely agree, and I’ve seen it time and time again over the years. In this case, however, they’re doing the best job they can at providing you with enough data points to make an order based on fairly reliable estimates.

Now if I’m a retailer, do I order Civil War #1 numbers or Cap #25 orders? Hell no. Empirical data is showing me that this year, unit sales are down and media-driven stunts are softening. But between the creative team, the media opportunity and the implications of content, I know I’m in a much better position ordering more copies of Reborn #1 than I am with ordering Dark Avengers or Daredevil or Batman or etc., etc.

From a business intelligence standpoint, shouting from the rooftops that you aren’t ordering *any* copies of this book just means that every single other shop in town should bump their orders 25%. I know I would!

The problem is that too many retailers are fanboys. If they were professionals, Marvel could let them in on the secret. Too many of them would just go and blab it though, ruining everything. Retailers have no one to blame but themselves.

Ash said:

“Yes, Marvel isn’t soliciting the plot of the book, but they’re doing just about every single thing they can to tell people it’s going to be in high demand.”

But Marvel has withheld plot details before while saying what a big seller the book will be, only to see the book crash and burn. Retailers get burned either way they got. They either can’t guess the right number to order, thus pissing off potential customers, or they guess too many, and get stuck with the extra copies. A lose-lose situation.

Ash also said:

“…shouting from the rooftops that you aren’t ordering *any* copies of this book…”

Ash, nobody said that. Way to throw up a straw man.

Ian said:

“The problem is that too many retailers are fanboys. If they were professionals, Marvel could let them in on the secret. Too many of them would just go and blab it though, ruining everything. Retailers have no one to blame but themselves.”

Yeah, damn them retailers. They should all go out of business, the worthless ^%$#@.

Alan:

1) Help me out here, because I’m racking my brain to come up with an example in the modern era where Marvel withheld plot-based solicit info and a book crashed and burned, sticking retailers with a bunch of non-returnable copies. I’d be happy to concede the point if there’s a good example or two.

2) Check out the link to the Comix Experience blog. Brian states that he’s ordering zero copies of Reborn #1 for the shelf. If I’m running a comic book store in the Bay Area and I see that one of the biggest shops in the area isn’t ordering a sure bet, I’d be a fool not to double down (well, okay, I said 25%, but I’m just speaking illustratively at this point).

Alan:

Additionally, you miss the point of my conceit. Hundreds of thousands of businesses are run on a forecasting model that’s a lot less forgiving than the direct market – I don’t see what more people need to make an informed decision on their ordering process than the info Marvel’s provided. Am I supposed to believe that the second example below is that much more informative than the first?

REBORN #1
COVER BY: Bryan Hitch
WRITER: Ed Brubaker
PENCILS: Bryan Hitch
INKS: Jackson Guice
THE STORY:
Solicit to be revealed soon.

REBORN #1
COVER BY: Bryan Hitch
WRITER: Ed Brubaker
PENCILS: Bryan Hitch
INKS: Jackson Guice
THE STORY:
Not a hoax! Not a stunt! The beginning of the return of one of Marvel’s most beloved heroes. Don’t miss it!!

In that case, why would anyone order Walking Dead? Half their solicits just read like “This month…things get worse!!!”

Mr. Hibbs:
The difference between this and Ultimatum is that Ed Brubaker is a good writer and Hitch can be a good artist. Guice is a very underrated inker, too.

In response to Ash’s “racking his brain to come up with an example in the modern era where Marvel withheld plot-based solicit info and a book crashed and burned, sticking retailers with a bunch of non-returnable copies,” I would suggest Civil War: Fallen Son – Iron Man by Jeph Loeb & John Cassady. It was solicited in the March 2007 Previews and on June 26, 2007, Marvel sent us a notice that this was going to be big and that something major was going to happen. That afternoon, I (foolishly) doubled my order, thinking (hoping) that maybe Iron Man/Tony Stark would be killed . I received a Marvel First Look copy the next day on June 27 and found that nothing happened; Cap is supposedly buried at Arlington but not. That’s the major event? The news coverage came out the day before the book shipped so if there had been any interest from non-comic collectors (the lemmings), they couldn’t get the book that day and forgot about it by the next day. 130 unsold copies.

Ash’s comments strike me as someone who thinks it’s just so easy to run a comic shop but doesn’t really understand anything. So many times, I’ve had customers tell me, “You should order heavily on such-and-such because it’ll be popular/a great seller/so-and-so is writing/drawing it, etc.” and they’re inevitably wrong.

I’m only writing this now because I happen to be working on the May Order Form and am staring at the Marvel solicitation for “Reborn #1″ and haven’t a clue as to how much to order. I’ve been at this for 17 years and gratefully have one of the more successful comic stores in the country (based on quantity ordered from Diamond) but I’m at a loss. Is this the return of Steve Rogers? Is this another red herring? I’m looking online for any clues & came across this site which didn’t help me but proved to me once again that there are no shortages of Monday Morning Quarterbacks.

We order by inventory figures compiled over years of sales. We do not even know what we are ordering for. Problem is Marvel is run by a bunch of over aged fanboys that do not have a clue what retailers have to go through with the crap they are pushing down our throats. I want to just order 1 copy to say screw you, but that would be stupid. So I will guess just like many of the new Marvel series popping up these days. I’m still too blown away that they are doing a second Halo series after that took years to get 4 issue out.