Tales Of Preference?

I wonder if there will be any behind the scenes griping by online direct market retailers about how heavily David Gabriel, Marvel's Senior VP of Sale & Circulation, pimped TalesOfWonder.com (to the exclusion of all others) in his Publisher's Weekly interview regarding the DM exclusive STEPHEN KING'S THE STAND: CAPTAIN TRIPS hardcover:

For those folks who don’t have a store near them, they’ll be able to easily locate an online retailer such as Talesofwonder.com and order the book online.

...

Talesofwonder.com is our strongest online retailer for collected editions and their reach has grown enormously over the past two years.

...

TalesofWonder.com stepped up to become our MVP, and the folks over at Diamond Comics have also issued statements about what a boon for the comics industry applauding all the efforts that have gone into making this a huge success.

...

I have to emphasize again here that the book will be offered through the direct market, through the Comic Shop Locator where you can find a local comics retailer, through TalesofWonder.com, and other various online retailers.

Is there some kind of business deal (other than level of sales) that is involved with becoming an online MVP that gets such preferential treatment? Is there an opt-in that requires a retailer to give back some of their discount on this title in order to be prominently featured in Marvel's discussion of online retail availability? If I'm a DM retailer that does pretty brisk online business, I know I'd have wanted to be included in that conversation and it would have been worth taking a bit of a financial risk, if necessary. I'm curious as to whether there will be a more complete listing of online retailers made available somewhere on the Marvel website closer to the release date, though.

Of course, I'm, also, dumbfounded as to how TalesOfWonder.com can be at the head of the pack when there are direct market retailers that offer better pricing. For instance, I've attached two screen cap images to compare the same product (SHAZAM: Monster Society of Evil Deluxe HC) at TalesOfWonder.com and InStockTrades.com.



I guess it boils down to getting the word out. Or maybe one of you readers can relate an experience with TalesOfWonder.com that leads you to spend more money to order from them rather than moving to a competitor?

Ultimate Comics Walk-Up Sales For Nov 12th, 2008

From Lee Newman of Ultimate Comics, the list of top-selling books at one of their locations in North Carolina for what was released on 11/12/08. Pull lists are not included, as this is meant to capture what is being bought off the shelf.

1. Amazing Spider-Man #577
2. The Stand: Captain Trips #3
3. Batman: Cacophony #1
4. Action Comics #871
5. Nightwing #150
6. Wolverine #69
7. Detective Comics #850
8. BPRD: The Warning #5
9. Green Lantern Corps #30
10. Dark Tower: Treachery #3

Commentary:

It was a light week and rain on Friday and Saturday hurt our sales a bit. The new store is on one of those "main street" type strips next to Duke Campus. It is not a mall or a shopping center with a major draw so the weather can have adverse effects on foot traffic into the store. That is what happens when a large group of your clientele is vehicleless and the rest thinks it will be too hard to park... although when the weather is bad Ninth St suddenly becomes an easy place to park.

1. Stupid Spider-Man all over the place. As mentioned in the comments last week, yes the creative team does play a part in this, but natural attrition has not happened since New Ways to Die ended. Seems like a lot of the One More Day haters may have just liked what the end result was after all.

3. Little disappointing. The art is hurting this one big time, I am hearing a lot of gripes in the stores.

4. New Krypton is a success!!! Action is in the top ten.

3. Yeah, that's what happens when you're so desperate to make a splash that you let Kevin Smith have his neighborhood pal (Walt Flanagan) draw the mini-series. Saw that coming from the moment the project was announced. I'm not trying to dump on Flanagan completely, but if he's not close friends with Smith, he doesn't get a gig with DC Comics, let alone a crack at one of the "trinity". It is not a good sign for the health of a publisher and the quality of their product when they're flailing blindly to try to get back in the win column.

4. I'd be interested to see if the New Krypton tide really lifts all boats. Action Comics is the easy sell, with Johns & Frank. Robinson's first arc on Superman was shaky and Sterling Gates is still largely an unknown quantity on Supergirl.

5. Nightwing "goes out" with a bang.

6. Is this still the Millar/McNiven run? I really meant to pick their run up, but missed the 3rd issue, I think, and never went back. I'll probably snag the trade.

Your thoughts? And, as always, if any retailer wants to be added to the column, leave a comment or drop me a line.

Ultimate Comics Walk-Up Sales For Oct 8th, 2008

From Lee Newman of Ultimate Comics, the list of top-selling books at one of their locations in North Carolina for what was released on 10/8/08. Pull lists are not included, as this is meant to capture what is being bought off the shelf.

1. Presidential Material: Barack Obama
2. The Stand: Captain Trips #2
3. Secret Invasion: Inhumans #3
4. Ender's Game #1
5. X-Men Original Sin #1
6. Deadpool #3
7. Presidential Material: John McCain
8. Dark Tower: Treachery #2
9. Final Crisis: Revelations #3
10. Trinity #19

Presidential Materials - Being in a college town really helps come election time. The best selling items that this new location (9th Street, Durham) has ever had are the Obama by Ross Tee Shirt and the Obama comic book.

The Stand - Stephen King sells all kinds of books everywhere.

Inhumans - Fluke? Don't know, like last week's House of M: Civil War, this is a book that was not as popular as it was this week. I haven't read it yet, maybe something important happened.

Ender's Game - Good old Orson Scott Card, even when he removes North Carolina from the comic, it still sells really well. I was not old enough to realize the Ender's Game phenomenon when it happened last time... It will be interesting to see if it's success is a regional or countrywide thing.

X-Men Original Sins - Crossover appeal, plus a decent issue of Wolverine Origins not featuring Deadpool leading into it made this one sell really well.

Deadpool - A steady behemoth. This one sells more each time it comes out and has the most beautiful legs.

If Lee hadn't explained the college connection, my jaw would have absolutely hit the floor to see those Presidential Material books so high on the charts.

Happy to see that Deadpool's audience is building. Not surprised that an X-Men event is selling well, but can't comment on it until I read some of it.

The Stand doing so well has to be a bittersweet success for Marvel, with King moving his comic book adaptations to another publisher soon.

Hate to see the homophobe scoring a hit, but Ender's Game was a really good sci-fi novel.

Fourthman Reviews: The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home

By Lee Newman

The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home #1
Published by Marvel
Written by Peter David w/ Stephen King and Robin Furth
Art by Jae Lee
Colors by Richard Isanove

I remember reading The Gunslinger for the first time. It is one of those novels that left an impression on me. I read it again every few years. Part of this is that I think along with The Shining and The Stand, it is Stephen King’s best work and unlike those tomes a reread is not a monumental undertaking. The promise of those three books keeps me returning to his work. I’ve yet to read anything even half as good as those three books, but there is always hope. Unfortunately, for every Needful Things, he puts out four or five books of the caliber of The Dark Half or From a Buick Eight. I have yet to finish The Dark Tower. After reading The Gunslinger, I usually give The Drawing of the Three another go, excited that this time I will get more than a third through it before I stop. That has yet to happen.

I am only reviewing this book at the request of a friend. Saturday, I attempted to read the first volume of the comic series on a road trip. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. Good conversation is hard to come by and a two hour ride with your daughter, her friend, the friend’s parents, and your minister can provide interesting diversions to plowing through a Stephen King adaptation. I finished it Sunday evening and decided I should catch up on some other books and let it stew before I picked up the next chapter. This was probably a good thing. If for no other reason it gave some separation between the two and also allowed the complexity of the story to seep in. There were parts of The Gunslinger Born that were confusing. Some of this had to do with the similarity between Lee’s designs for the various characters. Some of this had to do with the fact that it is one of those epic fantasies. I have always had a hard time wrapping my head around that stuff. Outside of Lord of the Rings, I have never really fully grasped a fantasy story; I guess it is a limitation on my imagination.

"Ultimate Comics, we have more comics then your shop has!"

That confusion aside, it was a worthwhile endeavor. The muddiness of the story midway through makes complaints I heard about the book during its initial release understandable. However, as I said it is a complex story and by its end, it was worth the time. The Long Road Home literally picks up from the very last page. The Ka-Tet is on the run. Roland is crushed. In fact, other than a major event happening to Roland, the status quo does not change at all in this book. Much of it harkens back to the journey of the Hobbits and Gollum in Lord of the Rings. I guess Tolkien would be proud that his book would still be influential all these years later.

Really, I guess it is unfair to say that it borrows (but it does) as the epic journey is such a large theme in literature and there are some interesting aspects here. The turn of Sheemie following the villains was a big part of the end of the first series, but to see it in all its Tolkien grandeur here brings him down to Sméagol’s level. This is an interesting turn for the former servant and should lead to good character development. In fact, other then what happens to Roland, Sheemie has the most interesting plot development when he enters the Dogan. It is this fine plot twist with cliffhanger and only those two things that leaves me waiting for the next issue. They are the saving grace to an otherwise fairly decompressed and boring story.

Jae Lee is uniquely suited for this book. Fortunately, many of the similar characters from the first run are dead or not present in this comic. This makes it a little easier to follow as I can differentiate the characters. Whether or not this is true a month from now when issue two comes out, who knows. The art is fine here; the problem is the coloring saps every bit of emotion and life from the book. Really after 300+ pages it is all beginning to look the same. There was plenty of gore to divert my attention the first time around, but nothing here other than a ravine towards the end. Lee’s lack of backgrounds and Isanove’s relentless coloring of the same desert sky into the background is getting boring. The darkness may even be contributing to the muddiness that I feel creeps into every issue thus far. It is a visually arresting book, but after 8 issues, enough is enough, give me something other than style.

I have a feeling that this volume like the last will read better as a collected whole. This isn’t a bad thing, but one wonders why Marvel would not just bet the farm and release them as quarterly or annually Graphic Novels.