At today's Marvel press conference, Marvel President Bill Jemas told ICv2 that the first, sold-out printing of the Heroes tribute/benefit book was 100,000 copies. That number represented a major overprinting of orders, which were lower than what would normally be expected because the book was solicited on a Previews Update weekly listing rather than in the monthly Previews catalog. Thanks to an outstanding Marvel public relations effort (including a home run appearance on the Today Show by Joe Quesada and Adam Kubert) and to the quality of the book itself, the first printing sold out in a day in spite of the size of the overprint (see 'Heroes Sells Out').
The second printing of 150,000 books will be identical to the first printing with the exception of a 'second printing' notation in the indicia. A total sale of 250,000 copies (and another printing will be done if there's enough demand) would make Heroes the top-selling comic in October by a factor of two (see 'Top 300 Comics -- October').
When asked what he would say to retailers who reportedly have been marking up the Heroes book because of the high demand, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada said, 'Stop it! Or at least if you are marking it up, please, we assume that the extra money goes to the appropriate charities.' Thanks to donations of goods and services from the creators, Marvel, Ronald's Printing, and Diamond Comic Distributors, the entire $3 per copy wholesale price is going to September 11 charities. Retailers are similarly encouraged to donate their profits as well.
