Dark Horse VP-Business Development Michael Martens saw Ilan Strasser's comments on comic retailers and manga (see 'Ilan Strasser of Fat Moose on Manga Competition') and had this response on behalf of Dark Horse:

I wanted to respond to Ilan  Strasser's recent Talk Back.  Whereas there always exists a possibility that a shipping snafu will occur, all Dark Horse manga titles go on-sale in the direct market 2 to 3 weeks before they do in the chain book stores.  The reason for this is that chain store orders must be sent to a distribution center to be broken out into individual store orders.  There has to be a significant volume to make drop-shipping direct to stores cost effective and we don't release enough titles per week for it to make sense.

There are a number of Dark Horse manga titles that have done better in the direct market than the bookstores, Lone Wolf & Cub being the best example.  We are beginning to see evidence sales of the new Samurai Executioner series also will skew towards the direct market.

Another area where a comic shop may have an advantage is with monthly releases.  Having vast experience with monthly titles, direct market shops can order tight and reorder quickly which is much harder for the chains.