Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by retailer Steve Bennett of Mary Alice Wilson's Dark Star Books in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week Bennett talks about how he handles ordering new superheros from Marvel and DC.

The subject this time concerns something we Comic Book Guys rarely talk about, even amongst ourselves; ordering Marvel and DC comics (ordering from Image, Dark Horse and everyone else is a topic that's best left to another column).

At Dark Star for the main titles we use a process combining statistics (a title's past sales history), all available information (knowing what's currently going on in the title and what'll happen over the next couple of months) and an instinct developed over years of doing the ordering (call this the gut check).  It's like playing blackjack (or The Price Is Right); the object being to get as close as possible to the magic X number of comics you're likely to sell without going over.  Because in comic book ordering there's definitely a penalty for going under; peeved file customers and frustrated 'casual' readers looking for the new issue of Uncanny X-Men.

In this equation we take the number needed for our pull file customers, then add the copies we think we'll be able to sell over two weeks (because, while it's certainly possible we'll be able to see one of this Wednesday's comics a month from now, it's not very likely) for the shelves.  Of course for titles like mini-series and one-shots you have to rely on past experience and guesswork.  Luckily for Dark Star, sales on these stay fairly consistent; a $5.95 bookshelf BATMAN one-shot or X-MEN mini-series will almost always sell the exact same X number, regardless of the month, the subject matter of the comic or its creators.

But when it comes to ordering an entirely new super-hero title (or even revivals of old ones) from the big two I'll happily admit it's pretty much a crapshoot.  The truth is while super-hero comics (duh) continue to dominate the direct sales market it's extremely hard selling a new Marvel/DC super-hero series to a super-hero fan.  While part of this undoubtedly has to do with just how hard it is to create something even vaguely original in the genre that will appeal to a large (enough) audience, I once again humbly suggest the problem lies with the numbers.

200,000 odd readers can only support so many super-hero titles and when Marvel or DC  decide to release yet another they're basically asking retailers to buy them in hopes of selling them to people who are buying plenty of them already.  But instead of accepting the obvious (no matter how fervent, a fan can only buy so many comics) and admitting the super-hero market just might be saturated, Marvel/DC keep churning out more titles.  Which invariably crash and burn, usually in a little over a year; leaving retailers with piles of unsold and unsellable comics.

Regardless whether they were good, bad or indifferent, our bottom line would have been much better off if we hadn't bought any copies of such recently cancelled titles as Alpha Flight, Bloodhound, Monolith, or Doom Patrol in the first place.

And of course, we didn't have too.  But we forgot a little saying we have that goes 'Who Would Miss This Comic If We Didn't Order It?'

Dark Star likes to think of itself as a full service comic shop, and while we don't mind taking a chance on new titles, we have limited resources and shelf space so even if we were so inclined we couldn't possibly order all of the comics available to us.  So while we take chances, we also make choices because it's not just a matter of ordering the right comics, it's not ordering the wrong ones; and that goes for not just the so called independent publishers.

Oh, sometimes your customers will surprise you; a lot are Internet savvy and will know about an upcoming comic right down to its release date (when we decided not to carry the latest Weapon-X mini-series boy did we hear about it).  But generally we've found nobody noticed (or cared) when we didn't carry Wraithborn or Marvel Megamorphs.  Of course, this kind of attitude from a retailer could create a self fulfilling prophecy that would kill new titles before they got the chance to prove themselves on the stands.

Which would certainly be a shame but it's hardly my problem; or my job.  My job is to sell comics, and if you want us to sell your comics, first you have to sell me on them.

I'll been telling independent publishers and self-publishers for years; posters are nice, postcards are economical and effective, but if you really have faith in your comic and want us to carry it, send us a copy.  If it's good, we'll give it a try.

Now in the bad old days this wouldn't have been financially feasible but in the wonderful world of the future that we live in for effectively nothing you could send every retailer in North America an e-issue of your comic. 

And that's exactly what Marvel and DC should be doing; every time they launch a new title.