Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics & Games of Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week Bennett muses on various kinds of mistakes, confessing his own fallibility even as he takes Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson to task, notes that Mark Millar has reversed his opinion on the effect of "digital day and date" on comic sales, and finally calls out Marvel over its upoming "Original Sin" event.

Two weeks ago (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--A Good Comic Is a Good Comic") I wrote about the address that Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson gave at ComicsPRO.  Specifically his comment that licensed comics would "never be the real thing," which I found a bit odd since titles like My Little Pony, Adventure Time and Regular Show have all certainly sold like the "real thing" at Super-Fly Comics & Games.  But then, we are the kind of direct sales comic book shop where Strawberry Shortcake has outsold Wolverine (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--Strawberry Shortcake Vs. Wolverine").  Now make no mistake, I really don’t "get" why these kind of comics are suddenly so popular among trendy twenty-somethings, and sometimes I wish we sold more copies of other kinds of comics.  But I don’t have to do "get" something to profit from it.

Which brings me to something else Stephenson said at the same event which made even less sense; "we don’t want people buying comics in Target or Wal-Marts or as a giveaway with a toy."

I know I can’t speak for everyone, but twenty years in retail has taught me the hard way that a direct sales comic book shop will always remain a destination location.  If we want the market to grow and breed new readers, the comics have to go where the people are, and I want people to be able to buy comics absolutely everywhere because I believe when they can, it’s ultimately good for comics and for retailers’ bottom lines.

And speaking of giveaway comics I was intrigued by the announcement of a new series of DC Comics would be appearing in General MIlls cereal boxes (see "Comics In Cereal Return").  Partially because these days licensed comics seem to the only way I can read a version of the DC characters I can fully tolerate (full disclosure; I try to at least keep current with all of the "big event" series but I just barely made it through Forever Evil #5), and partially because the comics are (and there’s no other way to put it) "serialized."  You can get an issue of Justice League in a box of Honey Nut Cheerios, but to finish it you have to go to the Big G Cereal Heroes website, which strikes me as kind of a genius idea.  Now imagine if kids had to do something like that to get a bonus Free Comic Book Day comic.

Every month I go through a new issue of Diamond’s Previews looking for something new, exciting, or unexpected, and I must confess as the years pass by it becomes harder and harder to find that something I’ve never seen before.  Then due to a scheduling problem I missed my window of opportunity to get to Super-Fly Comics & Games the week the new Previews shipped and ended having to delay gratification for an entire month.  This how I ended up reading two Previews back-to-back for the first time and, sadly, the only thing in either month’s catalog that fully caught my attention was the solicitation for Archie #656 featuring the first (major) appearance by Harper, Veronica’s handi-capable cousin, whose chief accessory is (in the words of the solicitation) "the most fashion forward wheelchair ever seen!"  OK, I’ve never seen this before.

As anyone who has ever read these things must know I am very often wrong.  My mistakes range from the simple misspellings to fact check failures to just firmly held opinions that I found weren’t quite so firm once seen in print.  Surprisingly there’s something wonderfully freeing about accepting your screw-ups head on, not to mention being so wrong so often makes the few times that I’m actually right all that more sweet.  Like last year when, convinced digital downloads would hurt direct sales shops, writer Mark Millar placed an injunction against day and date digital releases of all his "Millarworld" comics.  Which is why I wasn’t able to read Jupiter’s Legacy #1 the week it came out (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--'Jupiter’s Legacy' Revisited").  I was convinced digital downloads would create more new readers than it would leach current customers from direct sales shops.
 
I knew that I was right and Millar was wrong but never for a moment believed that I would ever get anything resembling validation, especially from Millar himself.  Then a couple of weeks ago I saw a piece titled "Why I Was Wrong about Digital" by Mark Millar that appeared on the Comic Book Resources website.  You should go read it for yourself by I’d be remiss if I didn’t include his opening statement which pretty much sums up my own feelings about getting it wrong.  "There’s nothing I enjoy less than being wrong.  Actually, scratch that.  There’s nothing I hate more than being wrong.  But sometimes you just are."

And, finally, if you haven’t already seen them, check out these Replica Watcher Eyes, i.e. bouncy balls with an eye graphic and a Marvel logo, an item that Marvel will be using to promote their upcoming Original Sin (a.k.a. "Let’s Kill The Watcher") event in May.  Your results may vary but I find this to be both in fantastically bad taste and so not cool.

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