Doing the board is always interesting for me. Not only am I slowly (line by line) figuring out what is coming out the next week, but I find myself shaking my head at some things. Here is what I mean:
One of the big news items to come out of SDCC is that there are going to be a lot of new titles by big creators coming from Image Comics. I can only assume that this is a big part of Robert Kirkman’s Creator Owned initiative. Now I think there have been a lot of great things coming from Image lately. I have no reason to believe that any of these won’t be great. My fear is lateness.
Because these are Creator owned side project that don’t really pay the bills for the creators, they tend to get done whenever they get done. My poster boy for this is Infinite Vacation. This was “Hot New Writer” Nick Spenser’s big Creator Owned book. He pushed it hard and I ordered big and helped push it. Here’s how it shipped:
1. Scheduled for 1/12/11 Shipped 1/12/11
2. Scheduled for 2/23/11 Shipped 4/12/11
3. Scheduled for 3/23/11 Shipped 11/1/11
4. Scheduled for 4/27/11 Shipped 3/21/12
5. Scheduled for 5/8/11 Shipped ???
What brought this to mind was this line on my invoice:
OCT110545 Graveyard of Empires #4 (RES)
Now (RES) mean that this was a resolicit, ie, it missed its original date, was canceled and was reoffered in Previews (like what should happen with Infinite Vacation #5, now that it’s a year late rather than using our orders placed in March 2011). I originally ordered this in July 2011 and then again in October. It was supposed to ship in December, but is now shipping the last week of July. This is not good. Will the people who bought it originally still want it? Will they even remember that they bought it? Sadly, the risk is on me. I know how many copies of the last one I sold, and I have to order based on that. But, how much attrition will there be? No one can answer that. That’s what makes late books suck.
Now I don’t mean to harp on Image. It’s just that they get the high profile guys and projects. Americas Got Powers #3 by Jonathan Ross and Bryan Hitch was supposed to ship 5/30 when I ordered it in March. Not hugely late, but 2 extra months gives people time to forget. I honestly think that a lot of DC’s success with the New52 was the sticking to the strict schedule. It is starting to falter (books not shipping on their expected weeks) but they aren’t slipping to the next month yet.
Just perusing the rest of the invoice, I am seeing these books that are arriving late:
Dark Shadows #6 (Due March)
Haunt #25 (Due April)
Hawken #5 (Due March)
Nazi Zombies #3 (Due March)
Marvel offers a different problem in this regard. By double shipping, the books seem to always be new. This makes the late books (from other companies) seem even later. “I’ve gotten 4 X-Force’s since the last issue of XXX.”
But it also leads to this. Captain America #14 shipped last week. We are getting #15 next week. But we are also getting Cap & Iron Man and Winter Soldier. These 3 books really shouldn’t all ship on the same week. The chances are that many people are getting 2 or all three of these books since 2/3 are starring Captain America and 2/3 are written by great Captain America writer Ed Brubaker. Why ship all their books the same week?
Both Marvel & DC have a problem when they are doing hardcover collections first, before coming out with the paperback. Next week DC is shipping Green Arrow TP Vol 1 Into the Woods. With all of the New52 trades currently shipping, one would assume that it is the first book in the current Green Arrow run. But it is the prior series (post-Brightest Day). This seems really really late to me.
Marvel has the same problem. In the current Previews I am ordering 6 Fear Itself related trades which aren’t scheduled to ship until October. The boat has sailed on Fear Itself and I don’t see these really selling at all. But I have been wrong. I am still ordering Brightest Day trades every week.
These are just some of the things I think of while I am standing there writing the “Coming Next Week” board. Maybe it’s the fumes from the markers.
