John Miller of Lost Realms in Boca Raton, Florida saw our coverage of Marvel's new Ultimate Spider-Man hardcover exclusive for Barnes and Noble (see 'Barnes & Noble To Publish Ultimate Spider-Man'), and sent us this comment:

I was shocked but not surprised to see the news about the Ultimate Spider-Man hardcover Marvel made for Barnes & Noble.  All for an agreement they made because of B&N's support of trade paper backs.  Their support?  Their support!!!  I guess the thousand plus trades I have in stock don't show my support, or that of every other comic shop.  One more way Marvel is killing the comic store.

Don't get me wrong -- I know Marvel loves us, we buy their comics every month (with no return policy, unlike Wal-Mart stores or bookstores ).  We buy them if they are late (Ultimates) or we never get them (anything by Kevin Smith ).  And don't forget the months that they ship two books a month, doubling our invoices and giving us less shelf time to sell through.  I especially loved it when they publish books every week such as New Mutants and X-treme X-Men, and my customers who come in once a month miss out on some books.

I just hope I'm not the only one who feels this way.