Heroes -- Marvel's tribute/benefit book for September 11th charities -- sold out its first printing at the distributor level on Wednesday, October 17th, the day it was released.  20,000 copies were ordered from Diamond Comic Distributors between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., wiping out the overprint.  Contrary to its standard policy, Marvel has pledged to reprint the book to fulfill demand (see 'It's Not a Marvel Event'). 

 

In addition to a great collection of art pieces and the ability to contribute to this laudable cause, sales were driven by a fantastic public relations job done by Marvel, culminating in an appearance on the Today Show Wednesday morning by Marvel EIC Joe Quesada and artist Adam Kubert.  While the piece aired in the third hour, the lowest rated third of the show, there were several very positive aspects to this appearance.  Interviewer Al Roker seemed genuinely interested in and supportive of the project.  This positive stance started with the intro, in which Roker quoted the cover blurb -- 'the world's greatest comic artists salute the world's greatest heroes.'

 

During the interview, several art pieces were shown and discussed and Quesada and Kubert did a great job both of putting the art in the context of real world events and of the creative environment.  And when Roker threw the softball, Quesada hit it out of the park.  Roker asked him what he hoped people took away from the book, and Quesada responded that he hoped that people took away 'the feelings that each artist was trying to express,' implicitly elevating the work of comic artists to those of artists in other realms.  Then Quesada administered the coup de grace: 'For the longest time, comics have been fighting the stereotype that they're strictly for kids, and we have comics for all age ranges.  This artwork proves that we can communicate to all age levels.' 

 

Believe it or not, the interview ended with an even more positive finale.  Roker made a point of letting Quesada explain that the book was available only in comic shops, not on the newsstand, and the comic shop locator number was shown on the screen and recited by Quesada.  It is hard to imagine a more effective segment; only a better time slot could have improved the results.  It's not surprising that reorders began flying immediately and that the book sold out.

 

The Washington Post also did a major piece on Wednesday, titled 'Powerless Superheroes Pay Tribute to True Heroes,' making the point that many of Marvel's characters 'live' in New York City and talking at length about the different ways in which artists used those fictional heroes to pay tribute to real ones.  The Post article also talked about the upcoming issue of Amazing Spider-Man by novelist and TV writer J. Michael Straczynski, which will tackle the September 11th events with a narrative. 

 

Other media outlets that have covered Heroes include Newsweek, New York Newsday, The New York Post, The Philadelphia Daily News, The Boston Herald, The Detroit Free Press, The San Antonio Express-News, The Kansas City Star, the Dallas Morning News, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, National Public Radio, Reuters TV, Access Hollywood, and USA Today. 

 

We encourage retailers to prominently display this book both in windows and in-store, and to donate the retailer portion of the cover price to the appropriate charities as all other participants, from creators to Marvel to the printer to Diamond have done.  And wait for another book to mark up because there's high demand.  This positive press could be soured by a few news stories about retailers price-gouging.  There will be more copies to sell soon, and the few dollars that could be made would not come anywhere near paying for the tremendous loss of good will and positive associations for the comic industry that could result.  We've got a winner here -- let's keep it going.