Jay Bardyla of Happy Harbor Comics in Edmonton, Alberta saw the news that Marvel's Civil War books were going to be delayed (see 'Civil War Delays Rile Retailers) and feels it's a sign of disrespect:

 

Well, Civil War has been delayed and is anyone actually surprised?  Over the past several years both Marvel and DC have shown a tremendous amount of disrespect to comic buyers and sellers by lacking the vision to properly prepare a product for the market.

 

While a delay in sales may slightly effect Marvel's numbers for the quarter, smaller retailers will feel the sting immediately by not having top tier books to generate income for them.  Marvel, as part of a larger corporation, can get by without a month of Amazing Spider-Man sales.

 

This disrespect, which will go unnoticed by execs at the companies, is just part of the downward spiral of the industry that suffers not only from inconsistency but also from inflated costs due to exclusivity contracts and an inability to understand how to create single issue comics.  They need to sit back and examine how to properly run a business and practice their customer relation skills, something Marvel's Joe Quesada sorely lacks.

 

In the meantime, we will continue to push and promote smaller, independent titles and companies.  Better not to have all of your eggs in one basket.

 

The opinions expressed in this Talk Back article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.