Corbit Wilkins of Captain Comics, Inc. in Boise, ID saw John Riley's comments about the limited availability of Captain America #25 (see 'Sharpening the Sword--Captain America Died') and thinks Marvel should have better informed retailers and beefed up supply on this title:

Hello!  I just wanted someone from Marvel to read this!  Captain America #25 -- You had it in your hands and blew it.  I can understand that you want to keep the secret, and have a strong media buzz on release day.  But without knowing what was planned, I couldn't order accordingly.  And because of that, we sold out of Captain America in about two hours.  Now all the potential customers who heard the news on CNN, our local paper, or on the radio and came into our store had to be turned away.  Thanks, Marvel. 

We tried to reorder the book an hour before we even opened the store, and it was already sold out and placed on back-order  (I even tried Bulldog--but it wasn't on his site either).  All you had to do was believe in your story--your own product--and come up with any number of plans to help support the book.  Perhaps an overprinting to fill demand.  Perhaps a 50% overship.  Perhaps a phone call or e-mail to retailers a week before the book shipped to see if we wanted to increase the orders.  But no.  All we got was an 'Access Denied' stamp over the solicitation in Decembers Previews.  Absolutely nothing to help us to determine our orders -- or any reason to think the book would sell any differently from the previous month.

Now I suppose you'll come up with a rush for a 2nd printing -- with a new cover (same gimmick for the 100th time over the last 12 months) that when made available will be too late to take advantage of the excitement and potential new customers.

Thanks again, Marvel.

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