Sara Grey of Mira Mesa Comic Gallery in San Diego, California saw our article on some of the upcoming marketing support for Free Comic Book Day (see 'Free Comic Book Day Gains Marketing Support') and had this comment:

Why oh why can't companies advertise 'heavy muscle' and 'large advertising campaigns' BEFORE the retailers order their books?

This has happened multiple times over the last decade, and for reasons which escape me, most large companies start their big advertising push long after we the hapless retailer have already sent in our order forms.

An advertising push for FCBD is very important.  I'm not going to knock that.  But what I cannot understand is why companies with the time invested in their line of work (I hesitate to use the word 'experience' in this case, since it's patently obvious that experience would change the outcome) continually screw up retailers like this.

Had we known that Marvel would run a kids-friendly ad for a large number of intended recipients, you could bet that many stores would have ordered more freely this year.

Obviously, this year's FCBD event has had a lot of us in a tizzy.  It's timing, books being pulled out, scheduled movie tie-ins being moved... All of those things added up to me ordering 'conservatively' this year as opposed to what I ordered last year.  Compound this with the new announcement of advertising, and it makes ME, the retailer, feel like a moron for doing something that for all intents and purposes TWO WEEKS AGO seemed like a great idea.

Thanks Marvel.  Yet again...