Dan Veltre of Dewey's Comic City in Madison, New Jersey provides his thoughts on DC's promotional materials (see "Andy Battaglia of Comics Etc. on DC Promotional Materials").

Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

It never ceases to amaze me what my fellow comic retailers will complain about.  If it's not one of the publishers doing us wrong, it's Diamond or UPS or someone else.  And now Andy Battaglia of Comics Etc. is finding fault with the promotional support from DC for their "Holding The Line..." campaign.

Andy, the extra posters were to give out to your customers.  We gave them out (and continue to give them out) to every customer who made a comic-related purchase.  Even if they didn't want it, it gave us an opportunity to make sure they knew that DC was pricing all their books at $2.99 (which is the price most customers seem comfortable at spending for a comic these days).  It the very least it gave us a chance to interact and crack a joke with the customer.

And the shelf talkers that Andy threw out were intended to be use behind the books (if you rack like I do) or under the books (if you rack on flat shelves). You were not supposed to use them to "cover them on the racks."  Shelf takers are great tools and provide a level of immediacy to the promotion that a postcard or window poster doesn't.  Keep them coming publishers.

I fully support publishers providing us with this type of material.  The postcards from Marvel and DC are great, the (apparently monthly) Marvel Sampler giveaway comic is fantastic, and the checklists and occasional ash cans are all excellent.  I find them better than a window poster because it allows me to engage customers in conversation, talk up the promotion in a casual manner, and provide a little something extra for the customer to walk away with.  I continually impress upon my employees the importance of handing out these materials and insist they do so.

So please, Marvel and DC and all publishers -- continue to provide us with such material.  

And while you're at it, a nice counter dump now and again to spotlight major events and crossover wouldn't hurt either.

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