Robert Scott of Comickaze in San Diego, California (and the moderator of the extremely useful CBIA comic retailer forum on Delphi) had a strong reaction to last week's Marvel press conference on The Call of Duty: The Brotherhood #1 and related topics (see 'Marvel COO Jemas Makes Nice with Retailers'). He feels that Marvel's policies hurt its own sales, and to make his point, he deconstructed ICv2's report (excerpts he included in his comments are in italics, below) and interspersed it with his own comments:

I can't understand this logic.

First let me ask why, if as Quesada implies, he knew the book was under ordered, then why did Marvel proceed to under print it? Would it not have made sense to have books available to meet the demand he uncannily recognized. In my not so humble opinion, any retailer who ordered even one copy of The Brotherhood beyond subscriber orders actually showed more confidence in this project than did Quesada and Jemas who are only willing to print what retailers have guaranteed to buy and not one copy more.

As to why it may have been 'under ordered', maybe retailers were more than a little put off with huge unsold quantities of Moment of Silence (which were sold to retaliers at cost, $3 +shipping) and were unwilling to take a bath on another unproven project that had nowhere near the support of Heroes or MoS. Not to mention Marvel's chest thumping over the money they raised via Heroes and MoS without nary a mention that this money came mainly from the retailers who ordered the book and not Marvel proper. How much of a write-off does Marvel get from this massive retailer effort and why wasn't any of that considered when considering how to launch The Call of Duty with maximum support?

Let's be brutally honest. Marvel is only interested in Marvel and yes-men that will nod assent at their extremely short-sighted business practices. As the founder of The Comic Book Industry Alliance and a member of other Publisher's Retailer Representative Programs, I know many, if not most, of the top comic retailers in the U.S. and Marvel has actively denounced their opinions and removed them from the rotation of conference calls because they did not agree with Marvel Policy. In other words, when Marvel wants our opinion, they'll give it to us. That is why retailers feel that it is Marvel vs the Retailer.

'...Jemas noted that Marvel had announced that it was creating a media blitz for The Brotherhood #1 over a month ago -- in plenty of time for retailers to up their orders (see 'Marvel's New Reality Series')--and the publisher had demonstrated its faith in the project by printing Brotherhood preview inserts in over a million-and-a-half comics.'

Hmmm... well considering that there are over 6 million copies of Ultimate Spider-Man #1 in print and the title sells well under 100k monthly (or less than 2% conversion) even with the Spider-Man movie related hysteria, perhaps retailers felt that the now post 9-11 marketing numbed consumer would show similar resistance to a book which only exists to capitalize on their emotions and sense of patriotism. Orders also may have reflected the (lack of) excitement retailers were seeing about this project at the time initial orders were due (two months prior to shipping) and since it is impossible to re-order most Marvel comics and it is unknown which Marvel comics may get the MMMH treatment, the first 2 issues of most Marvel comics are likely to suffer in this way. Anecdotally I sold out of Howard the Duck #1 & 2 and now have at least 10-15 of issues #3-5 that will likely never sell (without price reduction) because many people won't buy an ongoing story when they can't get part #1 & 2, so despite attempting to expand the reader base for this series, Marvel has capped my sales by not allowing me to introduce the series to new customers and has also saddled me with unsaleable product.

Publicity barrages are their job. Anyone who creates a consumer item is charged with the responsibility of creating a demand for it, so forgive us for not giving Q & J an ovation for beginning to do their jobs. If they really want to do somehing proactive let them over-ship #1's and 2's or at least overprint them for re-orders to allow Retailers to acurately gauge response and do so quickly. Why insist that retailers be kept in the dark and and punished by scaring them into over-ordering with the prospect of potentially popular product being unavailable for re-order?

And if they really wanted to take an industry leading position, they could offer a proactive program that would reward retailers with free overships on the next two issues of any titles where a current order exceeds the previous month by a predetermined %. This rewards retailers who are increasing their Marvel purchases as well as helping them find the upper end of demand for each title quickly at a very minor cost to Marvel. Since Marvel does not offer any co-op advertising funding this would be a fantastic way to allow retailers to promote the Marvel line with minimal investment and use profits from the free copies that are sold to further grow sales. Since free copies are only earned with an increase in orders, Marvel would always make money on this offer and logically increase the odds of growing future sales as well.

Here the under-appreciation falls squarely on the shoulders of Quesada and his inability to ship both Smith's and Bendis' Daredevil runs according to it's solicited schedule. Late books, fill-in artists and story arcs upset readers and sent them away in droves. Many of those readers have yet to come to forgive and start reading the title again. Conversely, retailers who didn't reduce orders based on the erroneous belief that Smith and Bendis fans would wait for these MIA books, ate copy upon copy.

This may be the first Jemas comment I've ever applauded. If only he'd had the foresight to do this with Origin #1 (and #2). I hope that this actually comes true.