Jim and Crystal Brown of Midwest Comics & Games in Quincy, Illinois saw the news on Dark Horse's efforts to keep Hellboy books in stock (see 'Dark Horse Struggles To Fill Hellboy Demand') and Alan Elliotts comments on the topic (see 'Alan Elliott of Queen City Bookstore on Hellboy Stock-Outs') and had this response:

On the flip side of that argument, you can't really fault Dark Horse for not printing up tons of TPBs nor Diamond for not ordering those same large quantities.  In today's market many a publisher and/or retailer has gone out of business by stocking too much inventory.  I don't think anyone knew exactly how well the Hellboy movie would perform so I can completely understand those two companies not taking a huge financial risk and stocking too much Hellboy inventory.  We ordered two copies of each trade just to have them in stock (they are good stories after all) and we sold out of all copies as a direct result of the movie.  So far no reorders have made it our way, but I know that I will be able to get rid of those I have ordered when they do come in (they were special orders) and good word of mouth plus the 25-cent issue means that I will be able to sell even more of them later on.  And that is exactly the way it should be.