{"id":1794,"date":"2008-06-20T17:05:16","date_gmt":"2008-06-20T21:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/comics212.net\/2008\/06\/20\/dirty-pool-is-marvel-trying-to-flood-dc-off-the-racks\/"},"modified":"2009-01-01T23:25:24","modified_gmt":"2009-01-02T03:25:24","slug":"dirty-pool-is-marvel-trying-to-flood-dc-off-the-racks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comics212.net\/?p=1794","title":{"rendered":"Dirty Pool: Is Marvel trying to flood DC off the racks?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retailers reading over their invoices for comics and graphic novels shipping next week will be shocked to discover that Marvel Comics is shipping about 34 titles next week<\/strong>, to only about 17 titles from DC Comics<\/strong>. It’s a rare thing for Marvel to ship that many titles in a week (this week, for example, they only shipped about 17 or so), but to double the output of their closest competitor? That’s very rare indeed… Until you stop to consider that one of DC’s titles shipping next week is the next installment in their summer crossover Final Crisis<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

So the question is, would Marvel release 34 superhero books on the same day just to try and bleed fans’ wallets dry on the week where DC tries to make a big push with their flagship book? Well, considering nearly every one of Marvel’s top sellers is dropping this week, I’m going to go ahead and guess here: Oh yeah, that’s exactly what they’re doing. Either that or it’s the sort of hideous oversight that betrays gross incompetence. But it was probably deliberate.<\/p>\n

In addition to numerous Marvel comics scheduled to arrive in the month of June that were seemingly pushed from their original on-sale date to this week (including both Bendis Avengers<\/em> books, both X-Men<\/em> books, Brubaker’s Captain America<\/em> & Daredevil<\/em>, Millar’s Fantastic Four<\/em> & Marvel 1985<\/em><\/strong>, and Ellis’ last Thunderbolts<\/em><\/strong>) this week also includes three of Marvel’s largest lateness-plagued titles: Hulk #4<\/em>, Ultimates 3 #4<\/em><\/strong>, and even the final issue of Joss Whedon’s Runaways<\/em><\/strong> all drop next Wednesday. Plus another 20 comics<\/strong>. The complete list is below the cut at the end of this post.<\/p>\n

About a month ago a bunch of retail ire was raised regarding these seeming ‘flood weeks’ of new product and assurances were made that this situation was being looked at, but it appears that no one is going to be happy with the solution. Retailers heavily invested in the superhero market are particularly vulnerable here, as their invoice for this week’s product is likely to be 2-4 times higher than last week’s invoice, and it is unlikely that their incomes will also be twice-to-four-times what they normally are; this is the sort of cash-flow crunch that can put a retailer right out of business.<\/p>\n

In the end, it’s going to be comic book retailers that bear the fiscal brunt of these sort of shipping shenanigans. Most comics retailers have to pay for their books up front with increasingly smaller numbers of retailers getting 7, 14, 21, or 30 day payment terms. Marvel (and DC) are already paid, as will be Diamond comics. Customers can choose to buy their comics over the next week or two or three, however long it takes them to catch their budget up to their purchases. It’s comics retailers who end up sitting on these books the longest, waiting the longest to make the return on their investments, and as many retailers are chronically underfunded to begin with, this is a very serious issue<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This weekend is comic retailer Rory Root’s memorial in San Francisco and unfortunately many of the brighter and better-spoken retailers in the industry will be away from their computers, mourning a friend. I wish I could be there, but I can’t… but I do imagine that when everyone makes it back to their computers later this week the discussion on this subject will be quite lively.<\/p>\n

Until then, please go ahead and have your say in the comments. I’m certainly not unbiased when it comes to Marvel, and maybe I’m completely off base here. But when I looked at my invoice and saw that, by quantity, I’m getting more 3 times as many Marvel comics next week as this week, I figured it was worth a post here…<\/p>\n

– Christopher
\nFull list of Marvel and DC floppies shipping next week under the cut.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Marvel Comics Floppies shipping June 25th<\/strong>
\n34 line items (32 new comics, 1 new printing, 1 variant.)
\nAPR082328 ANGEL REVELATIONS #2 (OF 5) 3.99
\nMAR082167 AVENGERS FAIRY TALES #3 (OF 4) 2.99
\nAPR082297 AVENGERS INITIATIVE #14 SI 2.99
\nMAR082172 BLACK PANTHER #37 2.99
\nAPR082263 CAPTAIN AMERICA #39 2.99
\nAPR082264 DAREDEVIL #108 2.99
\nAPR082267 FANTASTIC FOUR #558 2.99
\nFEB082223 HULK #4 2.99
\nAPR082265 IMMORTAL IRON FIST #16 2.99
\nAPR082276 MARVEL 1985 #2 (OF 6) 3.99
\nAPR082277 MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR #37 2.99
\nAPR082287 MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS #10 3.99
\nAPR082241 MARVEL ILLUSTRATED MOBY DICK #5 (OF 6) 2.99
\nAPR082295 MIGHTY AVENGERS #15 SI 2.99
\nAPR082302 MS MARVEL #28 SI 2.99
\nAPR082285 MYTHOS CAPTAIN AMERICA (RES) 3.99
\nAPR082296 NEW AVENGERS #42 SI 2.99
\nAPR082289 NEW WARRIORS #13 2.99
\nAPR082286 POWER PACK DAY ONE #4 (OF 4) 2.99
\nDEC072217 RUNAWAYS #30 2.99
\nAPR082299 SECRET INVASION RUNAWAYS YOUNG AVENGERS #1 (OF 3) 2.99
\nAPR082306 SHE-HULK 2 #30 2.99
\nAPR088083 SOLEIL SKY DOLL #1 (OF 3) 2ND PTG VAR (MR) 5.99
\nAPR082308 THOR AGES OF THUNDER REIGN OF BLOOD 3.99
\nAPR082312 THUNDERBOLTS #121 2.99
\nAPR082248 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #123 2.99
\nJAN082127 ULTIMATES 3 #4 (OF 5) 2.99
\nJAN088333 ULTIMATES 3 #4 (OF 5) FINCH VAR (PP #809) 2.99
\nAPR082314 UNCANNY X-MEN #499 DWS 2.99
\nAPR082324 WOLVERINE FIRST CLASS #4 2.99
\nAPR082325 WOLVERINE ORIGINS #26 2.99
\nAPR082323 X-MEN FIRST CLASS VOL 2 #13 2.99
\nAPR082315 X-MEN LEGACY #213 DWS 2.99
\nAPR082311 YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS #6 (OF 6) 2.99
\nDC Comics Floppies Shipping June 25th
\n<\/strong>19 line items (17 titles, 2 variants)<\/p>\n

APR080190 BATMAN GOTHAM AFTER MIDNITE #2 (OF 12) 2.99
\nAPR080248 CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #46 2.25
\nMAR080223 CROSSING MIDNIGHT #19 (MR) 2.99
\nAPR080205 DC UNIVERSE SPECIAL REIGN IN HELL 80 PAGE GIANT 4.99
\nAPR080166 FINAL CRISIS #2 (OF 7) 3.99
\nAPR080210 GREEN LANTERN #32 2.99
\nAPR080177 HUNTRESS YEAR ONE #4 (OF 6) 2.99
\nMAR080231 JACK OF FABLES #23 (MR) 2.99
\nAPR080213 JSA CLASSIFIED #39 2.99
\nAPR080266 MADAME XANADU #1 (MR) 2.99
\nAPR080267 MADAME XANADU #1 VAR ED (MR) 2.99
\nAPR080257 NUMBER OF THE BEAST #6 (OF 8) 2.99
\nAPR080260 PROGRAMME #12 (OF 12) 2.99
\nAPR080259 SECRET HISTORY THE AUTHORITY HAWKSMOOR #4 (OF 6) 2.99
\nAPR080182 SUPERMAN #677 2.99
\nAPR080183 SUPERMAN #677 VAR ED 2.99
\nAPR080262 SUPERNATURAL RISING SON #3 (OF 6) 2.99
\nAPR080170 TEEN TITANS #60 2.99
\nAPR080165 TRINITY #4 2.99<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Retailers reading over their invoices for comics and graphic novels shipping next week will be shocked to discover that Marvel Comics is shipping about 34 titles next week, to only about 17 titles from DC Comics. It’s a rare thing for Marvel to ship that many titles in a week (this week, for example, they … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Dirty Pool: Is Marvel trying to flood DC off the racks?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-comics-retailing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comics212.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comics212.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comics212.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comics212.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comics212.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/comics212.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2140,"href":"https:\/\/comics212.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1794\/revisions\/2140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comics212.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comics212.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comics212.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}