In the end I believe there is a better chance of strengthening the industry as a whole through outlets like this.  Wal-Mart will expose thousands of people a day to a spectacular new comic book.  Hopefully it will help get more people into comic books, which will translate into more sales for me. 

I am sure that this will stir up trouble with many comic retailers but I hope that a number of them will see the potential here.  This industry is in trouble and needs whatever shot in the arm it can get.

DiBernardo added a poignant postscipt in a subsequent e-mail:

FYI - the reason I believe what I said is as follows:

On Halloween I gave out comic books at my house--300+ of them ranging from young children's comics to pre-teen.  I had 40+ children say (to their parents as they walked away), 'Hey, he's giving away magazines.'   At first I thought it was amusing that they did not know what a comic book was but after three or four I realized that this was the problem with the comic book industry.   Where comics were once available at every corner store, bookstore, supermarket and drug store now they are found minimally on poorly maintained spinner racks or a small portion of a mag stand.  The direct sales market has sucked the life out of newsstand sales.   BUT WE NEED NEWSSTAND SALES to keep this market alive.  There is no way specialty shops will ever have penetration that newsstands can. 

In the early 80s there was a fear (to specialty shop owners) that department stores would start carrying comic books.  Now it may just be what we need for our industry to stay alive.

And these words of wisdom are from Stan Tychinski of Collectible Dreams in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania (Collectible Dreams was an ICv2 Grow with Shojo Display Contest winner.  For pictures of the store and the story behind, see 'Third Place Winner -- Collectible Dreams'.)

Ok, here's my two cents on this...

I'm particularly disappointed that Marvel has reprinted these books and not informed the retailers that this would happen. It kind of shows a lack of respect for us as a group, and seems underhanded and sneaky. If Jemas had come out and said 'Hey, this is what we're doing', I could accept it- after all, Marvel is a business, Wal-Mart is a huge retailer, Marvel wants to make money. But to tell me I can't get a reprint of a book I need to build my business such as the recent Origin, then give that option to another retailer is unfair. I realize that Wal-Mart spends much more than I do- but does that make it right?  What if the new policy at Marvel became comics retailers that buy X amount of Marvel product could get reprints but smaller retailers that buy lesser quantities wouldn't qualify? I find that scary, and Marvel needs to rethink how they are treating the guys that support them every week. At least be upfront about how you're doing business.

That said, all righteous indignation aside, we need to consider this: the Ultimate #1s HAVE been reprinted, both in collected editions, trade paperback, and magazine size editions. These titles are readily available, and I have copies of all three types currently available at COVER price in my shop. If we are looking to expand the comic book readership beyond our doors, than Marvel marketing these books in Mainstream America through the biggest retail outlet is a GOOD thing. Can anyone not say that one of the reasons for declining readership is the lack of newsstand/outside presence? How many of us got started reading comics at the corner drugstore spinner rack, the bagged set of '3 comics for $.59', reading comics at the barbershop? And I hear no one, myself included, complaining about Walden Books selling trade paperbacks or manga books, or Archie digests at the checkout of the supermarket. Now of course, if those outlets had copies I couldn't get, or had them days or weeks before I did or at prices way below our dealer costs (which does happen with specialty toys and action figures, McFarlane Toys in particular), then the story might be different.

If this move can generate new readers who will be looking for comics, then it's a good idea. And I wouldn't be concerned about a massive comics presentation at Wal-marts across America taking our customers- -anyone who deals in trading cards knows that Wal-Mart goes in and out of this area with no real consistency. Therefore, it becomes MY job to advertise MY business, to make new readers aware that there is MORE out there than just Ultimate Spider-man, and get them into MY store.

Marvel's biggest concern should be now to make available TO ALL OUTLETS ALL MARVEL PRODUCT on a continuing basis to keep people coming back. A good example is the Heroes book- I just sold copies to a customer who saw it on MTV, called the 1-800-number, found my shop and came in for it. Had never been in a comics shop, looked around, found out that Kevin Smith has comics- he was a fan of the movies- and ended up buying 15 bucks worth of KS merchandise, and ordered a shirt from the Previews book! And because Marvel reprinted Heroes, I had that item to get him in. Now don't ask how many people [to whom] I've said, 'No, sorry, Origin is gone.' Not near as many as [those to whom] I've said 'Here's GI Joe #1-it's the 2nd print.'