The Comics Rack

You Want Me To Buy What?

Lately I've been seeing an increasing trend among publishers to list a reprint title, a price, a page count, maybe a list of artists and writers and then no listing of what the actual contents may be. Exactly what good this type of solicitation is supposed to do is questionable, since all it tells me is that a book is upcoming. Is it material I would want? I dunno. Will it fill in holes in my collection, or simply duplicate what is already there? I dunno! Is it classic material that I may want to re-read? Again, I dunno!

Of all the comic companies, I must admit that only Marvel, so far, seems to have their act together and I never have a question as to what is going to be in any reprint volume on their schedule. Of the rest, however, I often have no clue as to what is going on and get the feeling that the companies hope I will buy their book simply on the grounds that they have deigned to make it available: a problem that becomes even greater when the second volume of a reprint series gets solicited before the first one has hit the stores (Dark Horse take note!).

Expecting retailers and readers to order blind is flat out ridiculous, especially considering that the window for orders has increased to 3 or even 4 months in some cases. With the price of the lower priced reprints settling in at around $15-$20, that's a lot of dough to lay out on a "maybe". Retailers can't afford to order product blindly and I, as a consumer, don't want to commit to something I may not want or need. So, publishers take note: don't expect decent orders when you don't tell us what the product is!