The Comics Rack

Is DC Pulling a "Marvel"?

   Not a lot of releases this month and it seems that all the comic publishers are slowing just a bit, possibly because of the Christmas holidays, since we all know that most business stops in the month of December. There is one odd trend, however, that I've noticed of late and I think it bears a bit of discussion here.
   While thumbing through Previews in preparation of this column (and next month's as well), I've noticed that DC is beginning to make advance solicitations for their product. What is an advance solicitation? Well, it simply means that DC (or any other publisher) will list books in the Previews for the month of March that won't appear until April. This has happened before in the past, but never for more than a single item at a time (usually high ticket), or for figures or sculptures. As shown in the latest Previews, however, we find that there are some Archives that are up for advance solicitation and in the Previews for next month, they are soliciting one item a full TWO months in advance. While on the surface this may not seem to be much of a problem, I find this trend a bit disturbing and it could have major repercussions down the road.
   Most comic shops run on a budget that influences their ordering. Some have a set dollar amount that they will spend each month and this dollar amount is often based on the total amount of product that they are ordering in a given month, regardless of when that product is going to ship. This means that when DC (or anyone else) makes an advance solicitation on their product, the retailer will often cut back on other product in order to make their budget work out. Often, the product that gets the axe is borderline at best: a small press title, a book collection, but often items that might just might attract a non-comics customer and get them into the store, where, assumedly, they could become a customer.
   You see, the order that a store places with the distributor is considered binding. Heck, I remember some friends of mine who ran a two store operation and were in a hurry to get their order together for the distributor. In the midst of writing the order, they made a slight error in their zeros and ordered 2000 copies of a title instead of 200. The distributor held them to the order. But we aren't talking about mistakes here, we are talking about DC tying up retail dollars for months at a time, rather than relying on the standard two month window. It's bad for the retailer to have a long return on their money and, in the long run, it is bad for DC, since it is their slower moving titles that just might be the ones to get cut when things get tight.
   Now, I may be a bit paranoid, but this trend on the part of DC just seems a bit off to me. Back when Marvel was attempting to take over the world, they would regularly solicit books and then ship the books one to two months late (whether they did this through ineptitude, or in order to tie up retail dollars, and stifle the competition, is still a subject of debate). Could this be the DC version of that same scenario, since the comic publishers never seem to learn from the past (see Learn From The Past, Why Don'tcha?)? I mean, isn't it possible that DC got its scheduling mangled over the Christmas holidays? That they are having to advance solicit some titles in order to get back on track? Maybe this is all a simple "woopsie!"? Could it be that I am making a big deal out of nothing?
   I sure hope so, but after all the stupidity I've seen comic companies pull over the years, I kind of doubt it...