Rembert Parker of Reader Copies in
The latest info on Free Comic Book Day arrived in Previews today, and when things slowed down I had time to look at the offerings from the various comic companies. Marvel is again offering us a new comic, this time featuring the X-Men. It remains to be seen if it takes place after some special event that occurs next December, but it at least features a storyline that appears contemporaneous with other X-books that will be coming out this summer.
DC meanwhile, is once again offering us a comic that's of little use to us--a reprint of All Star Superman #1. While it may be a good comic, I'm pretty sure our store isn't alone in not having issues #2 and #3 to sell to customers who have never read the first one (Diamond doesn't have anything prior to issue #7), and I'm even more sure that most 'new' visitors to the store will have no interest at all in buying a $20 hardcover to read the entire story that starts with that issue (and we all know how much comic customers hate to skip from issue #1 to issue #7). When we already see resistance to a $3 comic, offering a vastly more expensive trade paperback or hardcover for unavailable issues doesn't work well at all.
What we need is a comic to give away that will lead people back to the current comics coming out from the publishers. Marvel appears to be on target and DC again appears to be missing the point of putting a comic book into the hands of potential new customers. We have to have something similar to sell them if and when they come back to the store. If DC is going to go into the distant past for a comic to avoid spending money creating a new comic, the least they can do is reprint the follow-up issues so we have a ghost of a chance to sell something. (I haven't noticed an offer of second prints for any All Star Superman issues.)
Better yet, wouldn't it be nice if they supplied us with some sort of summary comic that would bring people up to speed on 52/Countdown leading into Final Crisis instead of a reprint of a two-year old comic book that's still collecting dust on our shelves?
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.