Calum Johnston of Strange Adventures Comic Bookshops in Halifax, Nova Scotia is concerned about the publisher practice of premiering new comics at San Diego before they reach retailers. 

 

I'm sure some of you guys are on the CBIA and may have read the discussion about debuting books at SDCC and how it affects many retailers. Certainly bringing along new books to the con will continue and should continue. I just feel an effort should be made to get those same books into the hands of the retailers the week before or the week of the con. Several of my customers came back telling me about and showing me the spiffy new books they picked up at the show that I have preordered through distributors, but have yet to receive.

 

I know there will always be some circumstances where a book shows up too late to get to the distributor till the week after the con, etc. This will happen. This year, however, there seems to be an awful lot of books that were at the con, but weren't made available to the direct market until after the convention concluded.