Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by retailer Steve Bennett of Mary Alice Wilson's Dark Star Comics in
Late comics are on every retailer's mind these days, but for every big fish like Civil War that gives us big headaches there can be dozens of little fish doing the same. Case in point: last week Doc Frankenstein #5 finally arrived at Dark Star. But except for me, nobody cared.
From time to time I've had respondents to this column actually challenge my love of comics, which is hilarious (to me, anyway) seeing how much I want to like comics, how I'm always anticipating something new, unexpected and really, really good. That's something you actually look forward to reading and can't wait to recommend; something strikingly original and wholly realized; the next big thing that comes out of nowhere and beats industry expectations through sheer talent and bravura storytelling. I'm talking about the next Bone, something which doesn't just sell month in and out but sells and sells, everything from the trade collections to frequent reorders of the original issues. Of course they don't come along very often and for every Mouse Guard we can get dozens of Zoom Suits.
But in November 2004 I believe we got one with Doc Frankenstein #1 from Burlyman Comics. Created by Geoff Darrow and Steve Skroce, and written by the Wachowski Brothers and drawn by co-creator Skroce, it had me from the nosebleed high concept (a centuries old Frankenstein Monster crossed with Doc Savage fighting the forces of rightwing repression) and the actual article was that much better. Like you, I can read everything for free but I actually buy Doc Frankenstein; that's how much I liked it.
Now of course you don't personally have to like the comics you sell, but it sure helps. It certainly helped me when it came to recommending it to everyone on our staff and our customers; one look and quite a few were hooked and soon we couldn't keep the first three issues in stock, even at the higher than average $3.50 price point. But issues started shipping later and later, customer interest began to atrophy and the theoretically bimonthly title only managed to produce an anemic five issues in roughly a year and a half.
So now I'm the only one with a 'hold' on Doc Frankenstein and can't help but think this state of affairs could have been avoided, and not by getting Sal Buscema to do a fill in issue. While it won't make the writer write or the artist draw any faster, better communication between the publisher, Diamond and the stores could have soothed some frayed nerves. Because while there'll always be customers who won't wait around for extremely late comics, no matter how good they are, a lot can be mollified if someone can explain just why the comic is late.
I mean, a smart guess for the delay in production of Doc Frankenstein is the Wachowski Brothers being bogged down in production of the movie V for Vendetta, but I don't know that. We just got silence, not even a curt 'you'll get it when we get it' from Burlyman. Personally, I'm more than willing to wait for something that good, but even worse than having your former readers angry is having customers simply forget about your title. That's one of the downsides of always looking forward to the next big thing; every Wednesday, hot or cold, the comics just keep coming and it's easy to forget about last year's new hot title if it's not around to remind us (ask every pop music sensation who took a 'take a year off' only to find their fans had moved on when they returned).
Communication may not be the magic bullet I'm making it out to be, but at least it would look like someone was making an effort. And with that little extra effort from creators and publishers, a negative might be turned into something a little less negative; like, talk to the comic news Websites and Wizard about why it's late and suddenly you have a burst of free publicity that would remind both retailers and readers you're still around.
But Doc Frankenstein is ancient history. Now I'm wondering where the new issue of Dork is...
This week's Best Customer award goes to the man in his mid-sixties who came in and asked if we had any comics by Stan Lee. It seems he'd been watching Who Wants To Be a Superhero without being aware the man co-created so many Marvel Comics. Second place went to the man in his seventies who not only fondly remembered reading Batman back in the 40s, when faced with the existence of a third Robin proved he knew the secret identities of the first two.
