Ron Catapano of Comics Plus in Mount Holly, New Jersey saw the news that Marvel is reprinting X-23 #1 (see 'X-23 #1 Goes Back to Press') and seized the opportunity to make a number of suggestions to both of the Big Two:

 

Everyone thinks they can run things better than those that are running things, well so do I:

 

Marvel

First you do no reprints or overprints, now you do overprint 'some' books -- but it's rare enough that nobody can predict or count on an overprint, so it doesn't do anyone any good.

 

Let's look at an example of the small amount of reprints you've started doing: X-23 #1.

 

X-23 #1 and #2 were offered in the same month.  Issue #1 sold quickly at the retail level and (as a retailer) I would have immediately increased my order for the rest of the series but no more copies of #1 were available -- which limits the sales for further issues.

 

Now, a 2nd print of #1 is being offered.  Usually, this would be a good thing, but since this information wasn't offered until after it was too late to increase orders for issue #2, retailers are left in the same situation of limited sales.

 

Marvel could have fixed this situation by letting retailers know before the cutoff date for issue #2 that issue #1 was to be reprinted or by extending the cutoff date for issue #2.  Neither was done.

 

The way you conduct business limits a retailer's ability to sell your product.  Since you don't want to overprint/reprint on any regular basis and since you regularly publish the TPB for a mini-series within a week or so of the final issue, I recommend offering the TPB and the series for order at the same time.  This offers greater flexibility for selling your books while limiting the retailers' risk and doesn't affect your bottom line.  Dark Horse did this with a Star Wars mini-series a few years ago and it worked well.

 

TPB recommendation:

Keep the Thanos TPB's in print and do a TPB for Ruins, a two issue mini-series from several years ago.

 

DC

While DC does a better job than the competition with meeting demand on the books you publish, there is still room for improvement. Space Ghost (mini-series) #1 and #2 are unavailable and Justice League Classified (new series) #1 is also unavailable.  A minor complaint I know, but still...

 

TPB complaint:

You are really dropping the ball with a number of TPBs.  You passed on doing an Emperor Joker TPB (it's not too late) but came out with They Saved Luthor's Brain.  The lack of a Legion Lost TPB has become a moot point after five years.  The remainder of HERO should be put out in TPB.  Will books like Space Ghost or Adam Strange be collected in a timely fashion?

 

There are a number of classic series that deserve reprinting, like Mike Grell's Warlord or the rest of Giffen's Justice League.  Why not try either printing these to order or trying a different format. Marvel just showed the viability of putting books on disk with their Spider-Man collection.  DC could do the same with a collection of series that might never be collected otherwise.

 

DC is starting to be like the FOX network... stop canceling good series like Fallen Angel, HERO, Wildcats, and Bloodhound!  These are not bad series, you just haven't figured out how to sell them.  Bloodhound has bad overall numbers yet I now have 20 to 25 regular readers for this book just in my one small store because it's a good book that I can sell.  These are better sales than a lot of books on the shelf and not a single person that I've gotten to try it has stopped reading it; in fact a number of my customers have gotten their friends to read the book.
 
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