Chris Walsh of Friendly Frank's B-Bop Comics in Overland Park, Kansas issues a mea culpa to Ilan Strasser of Fat Moose Comics in regard to his questioning the accuracy of Ilan's DC price increase comments (see "Chris Walsh of Friendly Frank'€™s B-Bop on DC Price Hikes"):

Mr. Strasser, you obviously had information I did not regarding the October DC solicitations.  The online release of those solicits on Monday, 7/19, was nothing short of a nightmare for comic retailers everywhere.  DC will release 107 books in October, which break down thusly:

-- 56 @ $2.99
-- 30 @ $3.99
-- 10@ $4.99
-- 2 @ $5.99
-- 8 96-page reprint collections @ $7.99 each.
-- And Fables #100 is $9.99! (100 pages)

So, suddenly DC is at the Marvel unit output level.  And while not quite up to Marvel's 70% level of $3.99 releases, a huge jump has occurred from the 30th percentile to 47.6% of DC's line being $3.99 or higher come October (To be precise, 28% is $3.99 and 19.6% is $4.99 or higher).

Even acknowledging that Justice League of America will likely return to $3.99 after #50 and that Fables will likely still be $2.99 come issue #101, there is little to celebrate here.

Speaking for myself, hopefully the DC Comics Presents reprint books are a one-time thing.  If they aren't, is it as easy as ordering sub only on these books, or will most retailers have to put in the extra work to create a new ordering paradigm for books such as this?

At any rate, I think the November DC orders are going to have a majority of retailers either holding their breath or tightening their belts or both.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.