The Ottawa Citizen sums up things nicely with this headline: “Comic book sales rise with Captain America’s demise.” Rhyming, and to the point.
As we reported yesterday, many readers and retailers — and likely more than a few speculators — came up short on copies of Captain America #25 after the death of the Sentinel of Liberty was widely reported by mainstream media outlets, including CNN, The New York Times, Reuters and Variety.
Many retailers limited purchases of the issue to one per customer, while others instituted sign-up lists. Even Toronto’s The Beguiling, which had “plenty of copies” on Wednesday, ended up restricting purchases on Thursday and then selling out before closing.
“Even retailers that ordered heavily were selling out quickly, and some weren’t happy about it,” ICv2.com writes this morning. “Others felt the increased publicity and traffic would pay off in the long run, even if they couldn’t give some customers what they wanted this week.”
Diamond announced yesterday that a “massive overprint” of Captain America #25 is scheduled to arrive at its Memphis, Tenn., hub this evening. Retailers who convert their backorders to direct-ship reorders will be able to receive additional copies next week. Otherwise, they’ll be waiting until March 21.
Some retailers have criticized Marvel for not keeping them better informed about plans for the issue, so they would have known to order appropriately.
“Marvel handled this poorly,” Ed Sherman of San Diego’s Rising Sun Creations writes at ICv2.com. “They made us retailers (with the exception of the retailers who had inside information) look like morons! They cost us sales and hurt customers. Let me be the first to call for the resignation of Joe Quesada. This was a huge blunder for Marvel and the industry as a whole. Heads need to roll for this one starting with the editor-in-chief!”
However, Garner Loudermilk, sales and marketing associate for Yamato Toys, sees things differently.
“… [I]f comic store owners didn’t see this coming, then they have lost touch with their product and their customer base,” Loudermilk writes at ICv2.com. “Don’t blame Marvel or Quesada, because you misjudged the market, the buck stops with you, PERIOD! Quesada obviously did an excellent job, on his part, making a story that everyone wanted. Where it went wrong is store owners failing to capitalize on it. Don’t blame the industry, blame yourself. You knew it was selling, you read three months ago in Previews when it said someone was going to die. If you failed to order up on it and are losing out on sales, it’s your fault.”
As reported by Newsarama, David Gabriel, Marvel’s senior vice president of sales, contacted retailers yesterday via Diamond Daily: “While Marvel regrets having to withhold any solicitation information from retailers, we had no choice. The media would never have picked up the story unless it was an absolute secret … so we had no choice. Instead, we made sure to have the healthiest overprint ready to fill reorders for as long as possible.”
Oh, and on the eBay front? There are now 2,068 auctions for Captain America #25.
Update: Newsarama talks with Marvel’s David Gabriel
Update 2: Marvel goes back to press for a second printing
March 9th, 2007 at 10:23 am
The fact that CapAm #25 was going to be a huge issue was well-known before the FOC point. Marvel warned retailers repeatedly that they’d want to order extra on this book. (I thought that CIVIL WAR numbers might be a good idea, maybe a little less.)
Retailers didn’t order extra.
Retailers ask for Joe Quesada’s head for, er, not telling them that it was going to be a big issue despite Marvel’s repeated assertion that this would be a big issue.
Yeah, I see the logic there.
March 9th, 2007 at 10:57 am
Augie - Are you seriously blaming retailers for not beleiving the Quimby Hype machine? Give me a break! Half of what comes out of Quesada and Miller’s mouths is complete fabrication or total B.S. When you cry wolf as often as Marvel has, you can’t be surprised when retailers start questioning whether promises that Captain America #25 will “break the internet in half” are true or not.
March 9th, 2007 at 11:12 am
They’re arguing about fueling the speculative market again? Isn’t that the same problem that put the comics market where it is today? Next you’ll be hearing about retailer compaining that Marvel didn’t have multiple covers with foil embossed logos and streamers and fireworks with each issue.
March 9th, 2007 at 11:20 am
Kevin, then what was Marvel supposed to have done? I’ll admit, they have a history of overhyping, but they handled this issue as well as they could–fair warning and an overprint because they knew retailers would be cautious.
If Marvel had solicited the issue as the death of Cap, they would have gotten even more crap.
March 9th, 2007 at 11:22 am
Augie-
So if someone that has burned you in the past tells you, “No, trust me! You really need to do this. I promise it won’t be like last time.” You would listen to them? Let alone put your hard earned money behind them?
Ordering comics shouldn’t be as much of a gambling game as it is.
March 9th, 2007 at 11:28 am
>what was Marvel supposed to have done?
Someone on another blog pointed out that they could have put their money where their mouth was and made the issue returnable.
March 9th, 2007 at 11:30 am
Honestly, I think creating an artificial shortage of copies on the stands only fueled the hype for the issue more, making it have a larger impact on the public consciousness–meaning a better potential for people to care about Captain America when the film and associated licensing arrives, which are where Marvel will make the real money. The comics are just promotion/R&D for them, remember.
March 9th, 2007 at 11:36 am
Augie -
1. If we bumped up orders on everything Marvel hyped, we’d have to add an extra wing to the back room for all the unsold stock.
2. The primary reason Captain America #25 sold as well as it did was the same reason Superman #75 sold so well - last-second real-world news reporting on the event. That’s a factor no one can control or predict…Marvel could have sent out all the press releases in the world plugging this “death,” but had there been, say, a new revelation in the Anna Nicole Smith case that same day, the silly comic book story would have been bumped.
So while we did order some extra copies of this issue, there’s no way we were going to order lots more on the assumption that, two months after we place the order, media coverage was going to drive the general public to the store seeking that issue. You just can’t predict or depend on that.
March 9th, 2007 at 11:39 am
Augie…you’re just dead wrong here. Marvel said order more…and retailers DID order more. They didn’t, however, order “this will be reported in major news publications” numbers.
Niels: simple…they say, “this issue will be the subject of major news media coverage, akin to Civil War #2″. THAT tells the retailers that they don’t just need to have a copy for a large majority of their spandex-buying customers, but they need to have an overflow supply for walk-ins they will get based on news coverage. Dan Buckley revealed that the news coverage was ultra-calculated: he said they couldn’t tell the retailers that Cap was dying because the NY Daily News coverage was predicated on them having the exclusive first dibs on the info.
I do think that the retailer calling for Joe’s head is overreacting and/or premature. I think the decision on what was told to retailers on this went above his head and…as disappointing as the results were…heads don’t need to roll. If a different administration was in at Marvel, you might not have had Civil War or the massive media attention on several developments. What needs to happen is that Marvel (and other publishers) need to learn from this and maybe take more of a risk by actually overshipping instead of just overprinting (as the overprint is a tad useless when those walk-ins aren’t likely to come back NEXT WEDNESDAY).
March 9th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Derek - The hype won’t sell movie tickets for a movie that isn’t even cast yet. The hype won’t help sell Cap books when the book wasn’t there for the walk-ins. It won’t sell people on Cap as a property when most of the enthused never got to read the issue to realize it can be an entertaining franchise for an adult.
March 9th, 2007 at 11:43 am
Mike Sterling wins!
March 9th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Mr Yamato Toys needs to spend more time in the Quality Control division and less time yapping about the comic market. (They’re famous for beautifully fragile toys)
March 9th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
anyone else laugh at ed sherman’s quote?
JR
March 9th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Yeah…asking for Joe Q. to be fired…overreaction to a hilarious degree…
March 9th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
I read somewhere that DC told retailers what was going to happen in Superman 75 and asked them to keep it on the qt, which they did. Retailers were then able to order accordingly. Wouldn’t this have worked here?
March 9th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
I really respect how Marvel has handled this situation. While I’m not a retailer, I feel like there was plenty of warning that this was going to be a huge issue. The editors said it, Millar said it, and Brubaker said it. If anything, I trust the hype when it comes from Brubaker. I read Cap in trades normally, but I’ve known for weeks that I was going to buy issue 25, because it was going to be an important epilogue to Civil War. I knew nothing retailers didn’t…
March 9th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Ah, ya. Who searches ebay for comic issues using the # symbol? Put in Captain America 25 and you get 2002 auctions not 65.
March 9th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Larkin - As I recall, Superman #75 was explicitly marketed as “the Death of Superman” to retailers and customers. It wasn’t a secret!
Kenny - Wow, you knew there was going to be extensive last-second real-world media coverage driving sales on this issue, above and beyond what retailers reasonably expected this issue to sell based on their own knowledge and observation of sales history and regular consumer demand at their stores?
And you say you’re not a retailer? I never would have guessed.
March 9th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
As I said in one of the earlier threads on here, there is a difference between “this is an important issue” and “this will be on CNN.” Those are two very different ordering levels. Augie, you say that retailers were warned to order extra, but there was no call, email, notification or anything to the effect of “there will be big media coverage of this.” I get weekly emails from Marvel, and I didn’t see it. If I have a Marvel sales rep (I wouldn’t know, no one from Marvel has ever called my store in the 3 years I’ve worked here), he/she didn’t call. When the MOAC project came out, I got a call from my DC rep strongly urging me to up my orders, as it would be a major book. I did, and it helped out tremendously. From what I’m reading on here and on ICv2, a *lot* of retailers didn’t get the memo about this one. It does seem that some retailers may have been in the loop. Perhaps the larger accounts, or those with Marvel personel or staff shopping there, got an informal tip-off, who knows. All told, this situation sucks, and I resent the finger getting pointed at the reatilers for being too stupid to know that this was going to be huge. Marvel has cried wolf on so much stuff lately it’s almost impossible to figure out what is fact and what is showy banter played out on Newsarama for “the fans.” The shuck and jive persona is more important than getting real information to retailers, apparently.
March 9th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
I’m with Augie! Y’all shoulda ordered EVERYTHING that Marvel ever releases in overabundance from now on! Did you not read Civil War?!
THE NEW WARRIORS ACCIDENTALLY KILLED PEOPLE!!!
SPIDER-MAN TOOK HIS MASK OFF!!!
THOR CAME BACK AS A CLONE!!!
BILL FOSTER DIED!!!
SUE AND NAMOR HAD REBOUND-SEX!!!
PUNISHER SHOT CRIMINALS DEAD!!!
THE TERRORISTS ALMOST WON!!!
As far as I am concerned, not buying Marvel comics is the same as not breathing. And you don’t under-order on breathing, now do ya!?
You ask me, that Captain America Autospy issue should be broadcast on all News Networks with commentary from Wolf Blitzer himself!
March 9th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Marvel have a history of hyping to readers.
But to retailers, they keep it low key. The last time they suggested retailers had ordered too few in this fashion, it was Civil War 2 and the unmasking of Spider-Man.
They were tight then as well.
March 9th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
I’m sorry, Rich, did you mean “tight” as in “retailers didn’t want to order far more what they could reasonably expect to sell in order to accommodate the large amount of walk-in sales generated by last-minute media coverage that couldn’t be predicted or depended upon?”
March 9th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
Sorry, Rich…do you forget that the last project that Gabriel instructed retailers on BEFORE Civil War #2 was PLANET HULK? Just be fair…they’ve warned on stuff that DID need extra ordering but DIDN’T set the world on fire quite the same way.
Even then, you’re talking about a track record of TWO times from Gabriel…which is NOT enough to get a great feel for how much you should take it to the bank when dealing with REAL money. Again…had they made it even partially returnable…had they overshipped to retailers (instead of an overprint that likely will miss more than half of the walk-ins who WON’T walk back in)…had they simply said that the issue will get media coverage…we’d be in a whole different place.
On another note, Mr. Melrose left out a less flashy but substantial bit of info from Mr. Sherman’s comments: the issue was sold out on the Diamond website on SUNDAY. That indicates that SOMEONE had the tipoff on this…whether it was from a leak or the stupid occasional event of direct Marvel mail subscribers getting their issues as early as Saturday.
Not in Mr. Sherman’s post, but also interesting, is how Wizard managed to know early enough to already have copies CGC-graded and for sale on Wednesday morning (as I address on my blog).
March 9th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Kenny said:
“While I’m not a retailer, I feel like there was plenty of warning that this was going to be a huge issue. The editors said it, Millar said it”
—–
Yeah, but Marvel and Millar also said that readers could gt the full story of Civil War in the main series and without the crossovers.
They also said Civil War would be good.
March 9th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
Kevin Huxford posted:
“On another note, Mr. Melrose left out a less flashy but substantial bit of info from Mr. Sherman’s comments: the issue was sold out on the Diamond website on SUNDAY. That indicates that SOMEONE had the tipoff on this…whether it was from a leak or the stupid occasional event of direct Marvel mail subscribers getting their issues as early as Saturday.”
—–
Okay. This seems to indicate that some dealers might have been tipped off beforehand. Also that Wizard might have known the contents beforehand.
I now agree with Ed Sherman. It’s time for a change.
March 10th, 2007 at 12:08 am
So did Hawkeye returning in House of M break the internet in half?
March 10th, 2007 at 1:45 am
Kevin,
Typo for “right”.
As for “retailers didn’t want to order far more what they could reasonably expect to sell in order to accommodate the large amount of walk-in sales generated by last-minute media coverage that couldn’t be predicted or depended upon?”
Marvel overprinted huge. See Monday’s LITG for figures. And Marvel told retailers to up orders in a way they hadn’t before, aside from Civil War 2. Which had the same impact.
As for the last minute coverage, it’s almost like you didn’t read LITG a few weeks ago.
March 10th, 2007 at 1:48 am
Alan,
Retailers were openly told by Marvel a few weeks before that they hadn’t ordered enough and were told they should increase orders. A number did, some by two or three times, some by six to seven times. All retailers were tipped off. Some acted on the tip, some didn’t.
March 10th, 2007 at 3:17 am
Rich - Luckily for those folks who ordered seven times their initial orders that things worked out for them. If that media coverage (and by “media coverage” I mean “mainstream news outlets watched by the general non-comic reading public,” not “comic book news websites”) never materialized, which very easily could have happened, that’d be an awful lot of extra Captain America #25s they’d be sitting on. And those retailers would be steamed at Marvel, and rightfully so, for talking them into upping those orders.
The point I’m trying to get across is that publishers can hype their products all they want, retailers still have to base their orders on facts: cycle sheets, demand from their customer base, solicitation info, etc. They can’t base it on “ooh, this issue’s gonna be big, you’d better order plenty!” (Ask people who had stores in the early to mid-’90s how that kind of ordering worked out for them.) And, to repeat this point yet again, they can’t base orders on the possibility that real-world coverage will drive non-fans into stores to buy comics.
If what you say is true, then some people took the risk of upping their orders way beyond what they would normally sell…and it worked out for them…this time. But it could very easily have not worked out, and the comic book marketplace is fragile enough as it is without retailers risking hundreds, or thousands, of dollars on an item that may or may not sell, based just on rumors and the publisher’s say-so.
March 10th, 2007 at 3:21 am
As for the last minute coverage, it’s almost like you didn’t read LITG a few weeks ago.
So, retailers should base their orders on an unconfirmed rumor in a sleazy gossip column?
March 10th, 2007 at 3:55 am
Mikester/Dorian axis vs. the LITG axis! Who should I root for?
March 10th, 2007 at 5:45 am
Crucially, Marvel occassionally has to burn the retailers by either overhyping or underhyping an issue. Otherwise the conditioning deteriorates.
March 10th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
Yeah, don’t you read LITG? If you had, you would know to order Ion in HUGE numbers because Kyle Rayner is the big villain behind Identity Crisis.
March 10th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Hey, on a different note, how well did CIVIL WAR: THE RETURN go over?
March 10th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
The Return, according to Paul O’Brien’s report on The Beat, sold in excess of 150K.
March 10th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
“The Return, according to Paul O’Brien’s report on The Beat, sold in excess of 150K.”
Yeah, but did it get high bids like Captain America #25 did?
March 10th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
It was more important to Marvel to have an exclusive “news” deal with a newspaper than it was to let the retailers have proper information about the issue.
Marvel hates retailers. Marvel wishes retailers would just go away and leave Marvel alone.
March 10th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
We are all ignorant in Marvel’s view. Wait a few years and pick it up when Cap returns.
What really struck me was how many customers were stating that they just had lost interest in Marvel and this was the final gimmick to convince them that Marvel hated them.
Break the internet, maybe the new thung should be break the need to collect every monthly of Marvel Comics.
Rest in Peace Cap, until you return.
March 10th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Rich, I understand your pride and faith in your column, but it in no way should be used as a guide for ordering by retailers. It in no way should be a substitute for Marvel sharing info more directly with their retailers.
And honestly…given Marvel’s overall track record and David Gabriel’s very small track record when it comes to hyping…a company who is selling something simply telling me I’m not ordering enough of it without giving me ANY kind of real indicator or evidence to back that up? I rather not realize my full sales potential by being cautious than lose real money by potentially drinking the Kool Aid.
March 11th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
i still got plenty of copys left
March 11th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
“The Return, according to Paul O’Brien’s report on The Beat, sold in excess of 150K.”
How many news outlets carried the return of Captain Marvel as a leading story? Or at all, for that matter? How many stores saw a stampede of new people looking for the issue?
Exactly.
March 12th, 2007 at 8:02 am
The death of Superman was handled much better by DC and the hype was unaffected by forewarning reatilers. There are several reasons reatilers are upset about this. Joe Q has always looked down on reatilers. He repeatedly said that the future of specialty comic retail stores was not the future. These are stores that kept him in business before the movie deals. He repeatedly talks about internet comics as the way of the future. What kind of a feeling for the editor Marvel does this nuture. Hey, buy my books ,but I could give 2 *%@*?!’s about your livelihood. The warnings someone will die should have told us to increase our orders? What’s my guarantee you didn’t kill Bucky again? Also why not tell your distributor that you have a massive overprint the day of release instead of creating the chaos of speculators trying to get their hands on a $4 book for $10-50 !!!That Weds, Diamond Distributors had no idea that there was an overprint available and told retailers all the copies were already in play creating a scramble. Prospective new readers come in, can’t get the issue and walk straight back out. More than likely they won’t be back.
March 12th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Joe Quesada should be given a raise. Stop whining, he allowed something to happen in the comics industry that hasn’t been able to be pulled off in years upon years. He surprised us. What’s the point of seeing a movie, if the trailer shows the entire plot to resolution. Kudos to Joey Q and everyone at Marvel for keeping the lid on this.
March 16th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Retailer here. Some of you guys just don’t get it. I’m telling you, If I had a dollar for every time Marvel said, over the years, that some no-account issue was going to be huge, I could buy a condo on the French Riviera.
Successful retailers have to develop a certain numbness to Marvel hypes and pump-ups, or they’d be out of business with warehouses full of unsellable overordered books.
Store buyers need more specific advance warning for an issue like this, the kind of advance warning that retailers did have with the Death of Superman (and I was a retailer back then, too).
And yes, Joe Quesada’s disdain for direct market retailers does still leave a bad taste in our mouths, and to say I am skeptical of anything he says to us is a major understatement.