Kendall Swafford of Up Up & Away! in Cincinnati, Ohio responds once again to the numerous criticisms lodged towards his original comments over DC Sales Reps (see "Talk the Talk, Walk the Walk--Random Thoughts").

Thanks again to all who have taken up the cause to save Pat O'Connell.  While Mike Clark thinks I should shut up and get to work, Mimi Cruz at least got my point, even if she had a completely different experience than I.  Mimi, I'm thrilled Pat was able to come to your rescue regarding Superman #700.  As I apparently can't state enough, Pat's a good guy, and it comes as no surprise that he went above and beyond when you needed him to.

Mike, I'm doing plenty to prepare for Superman's arrival in Cincinnati.  I'm not looking for DC to do my job for me.  But when editorial content has such a narrow focus as to influence sales in a specific market, someone at the publisher level should have been doing something to help up leverage that.  At the very least, I should have found out about it from DC, with enough lead time to prepare.  That's really all I've been trying to say.  Suggesting that this support could have come from my sales rep, my weekly "point man," was not a personal attack on my sales rep.  If it is indeed the function of the sales department to help me sell more, then it's not a crazy notion to hear Pat O'Connell say, "Hey Kendall, turns out Cincinnati has been added to the list of cities Superman is visiting, you might want to be prepared for that."  Or maybe "Here's the number for our publicity department, give them a call, and maybe they can assist you in promoting the book."  I'm NOT say Pat dropped the ball, I'm saying DC should have been on top of this.

Typically, DC does such an amazing job of helping comic retailers, in ways big and small.  I haven't said that enough.  DC has our backs 99% of the time, which makes this lack of support even more glaring.  It's a pretty unique thing to have Superman touring specific cities across the U.S., I hope if he comes to your town, you'll be able to take advantage of it.

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