Bernie 'Burn' Sterner of Hermkes Roman-Boutique (Comic and Fantasy Bookstore) in Wurzburg, Germany saw Rich (Dreamland) Biedrzycki's comments on the scale of the Harry Potter phenomenon (see 'Rich Biedrzycki of Dreamland on Harry Potter') and issued this rejoinder:
I would like to comment: Rich Biedrzycki of Dreamland on Harry Potter 'Disgusted' (from June 25, 2003).
It's been three years since Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire came out. How many X-Books have you sold in these three years? How much money did they bring for the industry on a regular basis for a very long time? With four X-Books (Uncanny, New X-Men, X-Treme, Ultimate X-Men) out every month with a print run of around 100,000 copies, 18 issues per year, with a price of $2.25 I think we are talking about a total of around 50 million bucks that the regular X-Titles alone brought back for the industry. And I didn't take the trade paperbacks into calculation, because I have no idea how many copies were sold in three years, but I am sure it is a lot. Just look at the Ultimate X-Men TPBs, they are steady sellers throughout the year. Customers don't crowd in front of your store, but they are there every week eagerly awaiting their new books. So Spider-Man or X-Men have the same good concept as something like Harry Potter and they have been good for forty or more years. Potter-Hype is just once every three years. And look what a series like Harry Potter did for the whole fantasy genre and the acceptance of themes like that among all people and thus opening chances to get new readers into the whole comic and fantasy business. And people who come to our store to buy Harry Potter, come back and buy the other good books we recommend. 
