SELF INFLICTED PAGE

Villain-nado 2

Goodbye Goodwill!

Since last weeks posting regarding the 3D covers on DC’s Villains month the playing field changed drastically for all involved.

That potentially includes you,read on...

DC announced that because of extra time involved in printing the 3D cover that they had to unfortunately (regrettably) set the print runs on the

comics In ADVANCE of the actual orders from retailers.

As a consequence of this DC have allocated all of the 3D covers by, and I quote:

“Because of the time needed to create the 3-D motion covers, we were forced to set September print runs much further in advance than we normally would,” said Dan DiDio, DC Entertainment Co-Publisher. “As we got close to the FOC dates, even though we were very aggressive with our sales forecasts for the 3-D editions, it was clear that orders for these issues were going to be greater than the quantities we had printed. Once we saw from the first 3-D edition FOCs that we were oversold on initial orders, we decided to institute a system across the entire 3-D line that was in accord with previous retailers' ordering patterns to minimize the impact of fringe speculators."

“It’s very exciting to see how much interest there is in these 3-D covers, which are latest in a long line of innovations from DCE, like the fold-out poster in SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #1 or the die-cut covers from the Death of the Family issues," said Jim Lee, DC Entertainment Co-Publisher. "Our goal every September has been to create great, new ways to draw attention to our entire DC universe line and the reaction to Villains month capped by the launch of our first universe event 'Forever Evil' has been just incredible."

The allocations will range from approximately 50% to nearly 100% on different titles. The allocations are based on an average of your orders of each Villains Month titles’ base title over the past few months.

Now in fairness to DC at the time of solicitation DC warned that titles may be allocated.

Here is the allocation applied to Dave’s Comics on the first week of September.
Subsequent allocations that effect shipping weeks September 11th, 18th & 25th
will be posted as soon as we have confirmation from our blameless friends at Diamond.

 

ACTION COMICS #23.1  CYBORG SUPERMAN	89%
BATMAN #23. 1 JOKER	95%
BATMAN AND ROBIN #23.1 TWO FACE	73%
BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #23.1 VENTRILOQUIST	51%
DETECTIVE COMICS #23.1 POISON IVY	85%
EARTH 2 #15.1 DESAAD	78%
FLASH #23.1 GRODD	70%
GREEN ARROW #23.1 COUNT VERTIGO	79%
GREEN LANTERN #23.1 RELIC	49%
JUSTICE LEAGUE #23.1 DARKSEID	100%
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #23.1 CREEPER	96%
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #7.1 DEADSHOT	51%
SUPERMAN #23.1 BIZARRO	81%

Now first of all if you have a standing order with us you will be getting the 3D version of the comic not the second printing 2D version.

3D covers that will not be on the shelves on the 4^th September are as follows:

 

BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #23.1 VENTRILOQUIST

GREEN LANTERN #23.1 RELIC

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #7.1 DEADSHOT

These titles will be available in 2D 2nd Print versions. I know how rubbish is that! There is no way this promotion can be seen as any thing but a fiasco because no one's talking about the comic that hasn't got a non incentive 3D cover, the title that these satellite titles are supposed to be supporting  Forever Evil #1 I've got a little list... Just a few points on where DC may have gone wrong. (I've excluded all the elephants in the room such as:  Why a Villains month when they historically under perform? Why suspend your monthly books, the bread and butter titles that perform consistently, disrupting story momentum and creative team continuity? Why increase price across the entire line? Why the 'point' numbering that is meaningless to the loyal and confusing to the casual? Why give READERS a really good reason NOT to buy any books in September risking them abandoning titles all together?) 1  Knowing in advance that product may be allocated was the time to rethink the promotion from the ground up. That’s really it in a nut shell. Part of buying comics in a physical form is that you enjoy the ritual of bagging boarding boxing and TAKE PLEASURE FROM AN UNBROKEN RUN OF SEQUENTIALLY NUMBERED comics. DC use incentive covers each and every month that require retailers reaching a certain order threshold to qualify. Why was this not the case with THIS promotion? Now we have a situation where even the allocation process itself is on an account to account basis. What is rare in Dave’s Comics may not be the same in Gosh or Page 45 or A Place in Space. 1.1  The one book that needs the promotion of a gimmick to sway the casual fan was ‘Forever Evil #1’. Marvel got it so right with the foil cover on' Age of Ultron #1' that enhancement was a deal maker for a lot of customers. Do you know how many copies of ‘Forever Evil #1’ 3D editions are shipping to your local retailer? 1 copy per account world wide. 1.2  If you refuse to supply the retailer with the initial order you have fraudulently tied up purchasing funds for the month.  We could have allocated funds else where and to OTHER PUBLISHERS. 1.3  Without the product that the publisher has promoted actually hitting the shelves in September DC runs the risk of dissipating all the goodwill of its loyal readers that has been built up over decades.   In turn with the failure of supplying the retailer the publisher is forcing the empty handed customer with 4 options: Buy the comic as a dreaded 2nd Print  that does not have the advertised enhancement. Buy the comic digitally. Buy the comic elsewhere. Don't buy the comic anywhere.  Thank you DC for giving customers so many reasons not to shop with us. 1.4  This promotion has been built around the gimmick of the covers.  I have to presume that DC were hoping that they would bait the ‘Collector’ and by stealth convert them into a reader with the strong editorial material sandwiched between the artificially floating Joker or whoever.  Well good luck with collecting all the covers off of the shelves in stores in the UK! 1.5  Not offering the 2D covers initially. This could have potentially solved the problem,with the 3D print run still set in place the $2.99 price point may have swayed retailers in purchasing a combination of the two editions. 1.6  Getting it wrong 2 months later!  Not giving the bad blood time to dry DC have decided to turn the Batman Year Zero series within the series into an EVENT.  All books involved leap to the $3.99 price point. Guess who won't be ordering heavy on those gems... 1.7  NOT SAYING SORRY TO EVERY RETAILER IN PERSON. Because we will be saying that to an awful lot of people on Wednesday the 4th of September.  Pick the phone up  Send an email (That isn't a self congratulating press release)  Tweet me  Send me a gif  but  please make me feel like  I matter and that my lovely loyal  customers  matter. Your lovely  loyal customers DC

I think we all know who the Villain is.

I could do without all this melodrama  I've got a shop to run. xxx